The Industrial Revolution: The Evolution Of HRM

1.1 Introduction

The term ‘human resource management’ was being used by Peter Drucker in early1950s without any special meaning, and usually another word for ‘personnel management. Human resource management (HRM) is concerned with the ‘people’ dimension in management. Every organisation is made of people, acquiring their services, developing their skills, motivating them to higher levels of performance, and ensuring that they continue to make their commitment to the organisations. The terms "human resource management" has been replaced by the term "personnel management" as a description of the processes involved in managing people in organizations. Hence we can say that (HRM) is more than Personnel Management, and it includes employing people,

The evolution of HRM started along with Industrial revolution which brought revolutionary changes in the field of production and marketing. Thereafter, other factors have contributed for the evolution of HRM. Such factors include growth of labour class, growing demands of employees and need of cordial relations with employer and employees. In short, the present human resource management has emerged through many stages. New trends were introduced in HRM due to various events. Evolution of modern HRM is lengthy story. Stages in the evolution of HRM are briefly explained below:

1. The Industrial Revolution: Industrial revolution created favourable background for HRM. Large scale production, use of power in the production activities, use of labour in production, use of power in the production activity and the introduction of factory system in manufacturing are the broad features of industrial revolution. Due to this revolution, the place of production was shifted to factory premises. Many workers were employed for large scale production. Industrial workers were treated badly and denied far wages satisfactory and working conditions. They were exploited by employers. The need of personnel management was not accepted and workers were not given protection through suitable

Scientific Management: F.W. Taylor introduced the concept of scientific management in the industrial field. It brought revolutionary changes in the field of production management. In addition, scientific management introduced far reaching changes in the field of human resource management. Scientific management is one favourable factor for the introduction of new trends in HRM.

4. Industrial Psychology: The evolution of HRM is partly due to new developments in the field of industrial psychology. Industrial psychologists suggested the significance of matching of employee’s skills with job. It provided new techniques in certain areas selection of suitable candidates, training of employees, job analysis, performance appraisal, employee motivation and morale and so on. In brief, new developments

5. Human Relations Movement: Hawthorne experiments and follow research focussed attention on the attitudes and feelings of employees and their influence on the productivity. The role of informal groups in industry was highlighted. The human relations movement considered organisation as a social