Components and Scope of HRM

Components of HRM 

According to DeCenzo and Robbins HRM is a process consisting of four functions -acquisition, development, motivation and maintenance. These components are related with acquiring people, training and developing them, activating them and retaining them in the organization. 

1.Acquisition: It is the first component of HRM. The acquisition function begins with human resource planning. Relative to HR requirements, managers need to known where they are going and how they are going to get there. This includes the estimating of demand  and supplies of manpower. Acquisition component also includes the recruitment (both internal and external), selection, placement and socialization of employees. This component affects development, motivation and maintenance functions of HRM. Again, it is also affected by those three components. 

2. Development function: It is the second component of HRM. This component is  composed of three major elements/dimensions. They are :

• The first is employee training: This element emphasizes skills development and the changing of attitudes among workers.
• The second is management development: Its primary focus is with acquiring knowledge and the enhancement of manager's conceptual abilities.
• The third is career development: Its focus is towards continued affects to match long-term individual and organizational needs. It affects and is affected by other three components. 

3.Motivational function: This function is also called utilization function of HRM. As people are acquired and trained the next duty of managers are to motivate or utilize the existing human resources. The motivation function begins with the recognition that individuals are unique and different. They require different motivational technique. The function/component of HRM contains important elements like job design, performance evaluations, rewards, job evaluation, compensation and benefits, discipline and so on. Productivity of organization is directly dependent upon this component. It attempts to stimulate performance.

4.Maintenance function: It is the final component/function of HRM.  The maintenance function is concerned with providing proper working conditions (both physical and psychological). These conditions create positive employee attitude which is necessary in order to maintain their commitment to the organization. This functions again affects and being affected by rest components of HRM. Maintenance function ensures keeping productive employees in the organization for long time. Its major elements are safety and health, employee or labour relations, etc.

Conclusion: Over the years, many changes have occurred within the horizon of four functions of HRM. The simple function of personnel management (i.e. recruitment to retirement-R2R ) has become a complicated process. The process is composed of finding, developing  and retaining the best-qualified person for the job. But this development did not occur overnight. It is the result of many changes in management thought, society and workers themselves. 

Scope/Areas of HRM

Every field of study has its own scope/area. It is not an easy task to define scope or areas of HRM. All major activities in the working life of an employee-recruitment to retirement (R2R) come under the preview (scope) of HRM. In recent years there have been relative agreements among HRM specialists as to what constitutes the field of HRM. The model that provided the focus was developed by the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) . In its study, ASTD identified NINE HR areas: 

1. Training and development: Training is given to the non-officer level employees and development programs are designed to managerial level staff. Its objective is to bring efficiency and effectiveness in the organization.

2. Organization development (OD): It is the second area of HRM. The objectives of  OD are improvement in interpersonal competency; a changing value system; development  of inter and intra group understanding team work; proper management of conflict; and development of an organic system, etc.

3. Job /Organizational design: Job design refers to the defining and structuring the jobs. Organization design refers to the process of coordinating structural element in the most effective manner.

4. HR planning : It is one of the most important areas of HRM. It is focused towards determining the organizations major HR needs, strategies and policies. 

5. Selection and staffing: It is concerned towards acquiring the best available candidate and placing him/her to the suitable post. 

6. Personal research and information system: It is concerned with identifying and designing a information package that provides management with increasing capacity to record, store, use, and communicate information to users.

7. Compensation /Benefits: This areas of HRM belongs to utilization/ motivation component. Its focus is towards establishing fairness and consistency in rewards given to employees. 

8. Employee assistance : It is offered by employers to the employees. It generally covers personal/ individual problem like alcoholism, drug addict, gambling , stress or even family conflicts. They can be helped through counseling and /or treatment.

9. Union/Labour relations: It is designed to safeguard the interest of labour and management, avoid industrial conflict, raise productivity, etc. 

These nine areas have been termed spokes of the wheel in that each areas impacts on the human resource outputs : quality of work life, productivity, and readiness for change. Figure 1.3 is a representation of this model , and the focus of each spoke.