Human Resources and Team Management

Labour or 'human' inputs into an organisation are clearly not equivalent to inputs of gas, electricity or raw materials. So how do we (and how should) we manage people at work? Human resource management can be defined as the managerial utilization of the efforts, knowledge, capabilities and committed behaviours that people contribute to an authoritatively co-ordinated human enterprise as part of an employment exchange to carry out work tasks in a way that enables the enterprise to continue into the future (Watson, 2017). This employment exchange can be in the form of a full-time contract, or some other temporary contractual arrangement, or even still some form of (sometimes, 'bogus') self-employment. To achieve sufficient productive co-operation between people involved in completing work tasks, appropriate relationships have to be established between employers and employees, and constructive bargains over efforts and rewards struck. Some management approaches treat people simply as resources that are a cost to be managed and minimised in the most efficient way, without regard for the impact on individual wellbeing or company (or planetary) sustainability. Others follow high commitment models, which emphasize employee development, and sustainable business practices. A range of hybrid approaches exists in-between. We will see in different company example that there are important variations of managerial strategy and approaches with regard to employees - shaped by both internal and external factors - which we will explore and analyse throughout this module.