Personnel Management - Meaning and Functions
PM is a responsibility of those who manage people as well as being a description of the work of those who are employed as specialists. PM is that part of Management which is concerned with people at work and their relationship within an enterprise.
PM applies not only to industries and commercial organization but to all fields of employment.
PM is more so a traditional form of management, where manager was the person who organized, delegated and divided the work. Management applied the principles for getting things done universally regardless of the type of organization and situation involved.
PM has a limited scope and inverted orientation.
The norms, laws and strategies of functioning were designed by the management, the fountain head of the company and the task of the Personnel managers includes the activity of hiring new employees and to maintain personnel records, and to supervise the labour as an important tool whose behavior could be manipulated for the benefit of the organization and replaced when worn out.
PM practice was indeed a monotonous monitoring by the managers, of the work done by the employees in the interest of the organization with negotiation, division of labour , indirect and downward communication and functioning under clear rules norms and customs of the organization.
But later researches show that there may be few instances where certain principles are used in all circumstances otherwise different treatment is required in different cases after analyzing the various situational variables carefully as the behavioral situations are much more complicated now a days. And this was how HRM, Human
Resource Management came into existence. Intellectuals identified that man at work is the asset of any organization and is dynamic in thought process as well as functioning, thus his individual identity should be retained. And this brought an end to the PM approach that had a universal outlook in dealing with employees.
Historically it is believed, that PM preceded HRM.
Functions of Personnel Department
The primary responsibility of the department in any organisation include the designing of organisation’s human resource policies.
1. The laying down of the guidelines for the manner in which the organisation will acquire, retain, deploy, develop and where necessary, dismiss employees.
2. Personnel management specialists also represent employees’ interests from time to time in order to protect them from arbitrary treatment by line managers.
3. In protecting the interests of the employees, they (personnel managers) ensure their (employees) lawful employment rights upheld.
