The Harvard framework of Human Resource Management

The other founding fathers of HRM were the Harvard School of Beer et al (1984) who developed what Boxall (1992) calls the ‘Harvard framework’. This framework is based on the belief that the problems of historical personnel management can only be solved:

when general managers develop a viewpoint of how they wish to see employees involved in and developed by the enterprise, and of what HRM policies and practices may achieve those goals. Without either a central philosophy or a strategic vision – which can be provided only by general managers – HRM is likely to remain a set of independent activities, each guided by its own practice tradition.

Beer and his colleagues believed that ‘Today, many pressures are demanding a broader, more comprehensive and more strategic perspective with regard to the orga- nization’s human resources.’ These pressures have created a need for: ‘Alonger-term perspective in managing people and consideration of people as potential assets rather than merely a variable cost.’ They were the first to underline the HRM tenet that it belongs to line managers. They also stated that: ‘Human resource management involves all management decisions and action that affect the nature of the relation- ship between the organization and its employees – its human resources.’

The Harvard school suggested that HRM had two characteristic features:

1) line managers accept more responsibility for ensuring the alignment of competitive strategy and personnel policies;
2) personnel has the mission of setting policies that govern how personnel activities are developed and implemented in ways that make them more mutually reinforcing.

According to Boxall (1992) the advantages of this model are that it:

• incorporates recognition of a range of stakeholder interests; 
• recognizes the importance of ‘trade-offs’, either explicitly or implicitly, between the interests of owners and those of employees as well as between various interest groups; 
• widens the context of HRM to include ‘employee influence’, the organization of work and the associated question of supervisory style;
• acknowledges a broad range of contextual influences on management’s choice of strategy, suggesting a meshing of both product-market and socio-cultural logics; 
• emphasizes strategic choice – it is not driven by situational or environmental determinism.

The Harvard model has exerted considerable influence over the theory and practice of HRM, particularly in its emphasis on the fact that HRM is the concern of manage- ment in general rather than the personnel function in particular.

Models of Human Resource Management (HRM)

The matching model of HRM

One of the first explicit statements of the HRM concept was made by the Michigan School (Fombrun et al, 1984). They held that HR systems and the organization structure should be managed in a way that is congruent with organizational strategy (hence the name ‘matching model’). They further explained that there is a human resource cycle , which consists of four generic processes or functions that are performed in all organizations. These are:

1. selection – matching available human resources to jobs;
2. appraisal – performance management;
3. rewards – ‘the reward system is one of the most under-utilized and mishandled managerial tools for driving organizational performance’; it must reward short as well as long-term achievements, bearing in mind that ‘business must perform in the present to succeed in the future’;
4. development – developing high quality employees.

Human resource management (HRM)

The terms ‘human resource management’ (HRM) and ‘human resources’ (HR) have largely replaced the term ‘personnel management’ as a description of the processes involved in managing people in organizations. The concept of HRM underpins all the activities described in this book, and the aim of this topics is to provide a framework for what follows by defining the concepts of HRM and an HR system, describing the various models of HRM and discussing its aims and characteristics. The topics continues with a review of reservations about HRM and the relationship between HRM and personnel management and concludes with a discussion of the impact HRM can make on organizational performance.

Definition of Human Resource Management (HRM)

Human resource management is defined as a strategic and coherent approach to the management of an organization’s most valued assets – the people working there who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of its objectives. Storey (1989) believes that HRM can be regarded as a ‘set of interrelated policies with an ideological and philosophical underpinning’. He suggests four aspects that constitute the meaningful version of HRM:

1. a particular constellation of beliefs and assumptions;
2. a strategic thrust informing decisions about people management;
3. the central involvement of line managers; and
4. reliance upon a set of ‘levers’ to shape the employment relationship.


Be continued ------

Managing people Perspective of Human Resource Management

This part underpins the rest of the Handbook. It deals with the approaches and philosophies that affect how people are managed in organizations, the roles of the HR function and its members, and the special considerations that affect international people management. The term ‘people management’ embraces the two related concepts of human resource management (HRM) and human capital management (HCM), which are defined and explained in the first two chapters. These have virtually replaced the term ‘personnel management’, although the philosophies and practices of personnel management still provide the foundations for the philosophy and practices of HRM and HCM.

Relationship between aspects of people management are given below -

People management

The policies and practices which govern how people are managed and developed in organizations.

Human resource management
‘A strategic and coherent approach to the management of an organization’s most valued assets – the people working there who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of its objectives.’

Human capital management

‘An approach to obtaining, analysing and reporting on data which informs the direction of value-adding people management strategic investment and operational decisions at corporate level and at the level of front line management.’

Personnel management
‘Personnel management is concerned with obtaining, organizing and motivating the human resources required by the enterprise.’


(Armstrong, 1977)