The role of human resources in a modern organization has evolved beyond the former limited constraints of personnel departments. Once upon a time the role of this department was seen as hiring and firing along with the keeping of personnel records. Today the human resources management (HRM) department can play an import role in helping an organization achieve its strategy goals. .
The development of HRM departments into more than a lower functional department can be traced back to the development of the human relations school of management, and the experiments of Mayo known as the Hawthorne studies. This theorized that the relationship between employer and employee, and between employees would impact on both the quality and productivity of the workplace. It showed that any environmental changes, could, in the short term improve work rates but that the strongest overriding factor was the different group dynamics and social interactions between the two groups. Although there were many flaws with these studies there was a clear and valid message that in terms of employee performance there was an important role-played by the relationship between employer and employee (Baron, 1997). Where employees were paid additional attention or felt valued, their productivity rates increased (Baron, 1997).
The role of the modern HRM department is base on this simple proposition, that productivity can be increased when employees feel valued. This basis has also been extended with theories such as Maslow, and his hierarchy of needs, Hertzberg hygiene factors and the X and Y theories of McGregor (Huczyniski and Buchanan, 1996). All of these extended the human relations school of management thought and places a more employee centric role on the HRM departments. .
The increased need for efficiency and the maximization of resources in the commercial world has increased the focus on the way employees are seen as resources and the way that productivity can be increased.
