LITERATURE REVIEW - Solutions to improve human resource management at the Power Transmission Co

2.1 THE CONCEPT OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Before analyzing and proposing solutions to improve the human resource management, it is necessary that we agree on the concept of human resource management.

According to Flippo, “Personnel management is to plan, organize, direct and control and examine the procurement, development, compensation, integration, maintenance of human resource in order to achieve the organization’s goals.”

Moreover, the University of Personnel Management suggests, “Human resource management is the responsibility of all managers and the responsibilities described in the job description for those who are hired as professionals. It is a part of the management related to humans at work and their relationships within the enterprise.”

With the viewpoint of Torrington and Hall, “human resource management is a series of activities which firstly enable working people and their employing organizations to agree about the objectives and the nature of their working relationship.Secondly, it ensures that the agreement is fulfilled.”

Thus, human resource management focuses on recruiting, developing, rewarding and directing staffs to achieve the organization’s goals. By that stage, human is only considered as the input element of the production and trading process, without an important role in the enterprise and their benefits are not properly paid attention for. Human resource officers usually perform the functions of the human resource management and it has not established the close relationship between the enterprise’s business strategy and the human resource policies and procedures in the enterprise.

When mentioning Human Resource Management, French and Dessler focused on the elements of scope and contents being performed. According to French, “Human resource management is the philosophy, policies, procedures, and practices related to the management of people within the organization.”

In general, there are three different viewpoints on the relationship between personnel management and human resource management on the world:

- According to the first viewpoint, human resource management is simply used to replace the former concept of personnel management. This viewpoint emphasizes on the scope and object of human management in enterprises. No matter what it is called, that is personnel management or human resource management, the human management in an organization, enterprise in the modern world is no longer solely the staff administrative management style as before. Personnel management has been called by a new name for it has improved itself to fit the new business environment. Representatives of this school include W. French, Dessler G, etc. This viewpoint is not consistent with the actual

demands because it has not been able to clarify the two goals of human resource management¹and the pivotal role of human factors in organizations. It is not necessary to change the name of personnel management if it is only emphasized on the scope and subject of research.

- According to the second viewpoint, human resource management is completely different from personnel management. Human resource management features new viewpoints, new philosophies and sets out a new method and new approach for management. This viewpoint emphasizes the importance of human resources in organizations and emphasizes the new management methods through the coordination of administrative functions for human and those for the strategic management of the enterprise.In addition, it emphasizes the necessity of fully using the human resources of the organization in the best way. The University of Michigan, Harvard School of Business Administration, University of Stuttgart, researchers as Staehle, Pierper. Guest, Walton, Carrel, Elbert, Hafield, Blyton, Turbull, M. Foot, C. Hook, Mabey and Graeme, etc. are the typical representatives of this school. In the developed countries, both leaders and employees have high qualifications and employees have high living standards and demands, have industrial style, good discipline, high self-consciousness, etc. there will be conditions to implement human resource management in this way. In addition, in the world from the 1990s onwards, when the top competitive advantageof enterprises has been associated with the quality of management and quality of human resources, enterprises have had to adopt new viewpoints, new methods in human management to improve competitiveness.

- The third viewpoint suggests that human resource management is not a revolution, but the next stage of development, the expansion or improvement of personnel management. This school includes Legge, Cherrington, Torrington and Hall, Wayne, Noe, etc. This viewpoint is considered as neutral in terms of nature compared to the two viewpoints above. It emphasizes the role of human factors in an enterprise and stresses the need to improve the human management without strict requirements or operating conditions in a highly professional level, which is suitable for the requirements and conditions of the developing countries.

Particularly, in countries of which economies have been transformed from centrally planned economies to ones of market mechanism, the difference between personnel management and human resource management is very large and it has specific nature.

During the period of centrally planned economies, not all personnel policies at the state-run units depended on production natures, technical level of technology, labor, etc. The works related to recruitment, training, appointment, salary payment, rewarding, discipline, retirement, etc. are enacted by the State and are implemented as social policies at the macro level. Therefore, the human resource management approach in these countries requires enterprises to have rights to human resource management, new viewpoints and

philosophies, and entirely new methods. The basic differences between personnel management and human resource management in developing countries or those who have transformed economies are shown in Table 1.1. Human resource management is both an indispensable requirement of economic reform and the next stage of development of human resource management. Thus, the concept of human resource management in the developing countries that have reformed economies must satisfy the basic requirements and content as follows:

1 Demonstrating progressive viewpoints on the rights of the laborers; emphasizing the combination of satisfaction of both the enterprise’s and employees’ objectives

2 Specifying the research scope and subject as human management in organizations 3 The enterprise’s strategies, policies for human management must serve the enterprise’s business strategies and policies.

4 Being able to demonstrate the key elements of human resource management, including the philosophies, policies and practical activities

5 Not requiring special conditions when applying 6 Being brief, simple, understandable

Thus, in a transformed economy like the one in Vietnam, where the level of technology and engineering is still at a low level, the economy has not been stable yet and the State’s policy is that development must be carried out by humans and for humans, Human resource management is a system of philosophies, policies and functional activities for procuring, training, developing and maintaining the humans in an organization to achieve optimal results for both the organization and employees.

2.2 THE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN VIETNAM

In Vietnam, during the centrally planned period, research and training in the field of human management in enterprises were carried out through the following subjects:

Scientific labor organization, labor norms and salary. Despite the great differences in development history and economy, the reality of human resource management of Vietnam during the centrally planned period was similar to that of the Eastern European countries, the Soviet Union and China. The basic components of human resource management such as recruitment mode, training and development, wage, promotion, labor relations, etc. are the general policies of the State. Almost they are not related to the operating practices in each specific enterprise. Lifelong employment regime and other social welfare policies (Houses of the State, public health, free education,etc.) has brought great social security for all citizens, especially the State’s civil servants. The implementation of these State policies is in line with the socialist principles. This means that every laborer has the right to work, has the right to have house. Training and development have been carried out as a natural

benefit of the employees, especially for the State’s civil servants to develop human resources for the society. They are not considered as personal investments. The waging system features the average nature and it replies on seniority.

The socialist form in personnel management indicates the superiority of the socialist regime compared to democratic capitalism, feudalism. In the first phase, it evoked the revolutionary enthusiasm and voluntariness for work for a bright socialist future within the laborers. Thus, labor productivity and industrial products increased. However, this form of personnel management has inflexibly existed for a long time while the economic and social environments have seen fundamental changes. Therefore, it loses the initial superiority and it has gradually become incapable of stimulating the laborers at work. This is one of the important reasons for poor labor productivity and business efficiency, State owned enterprises are increasingly becoming a burden for the State budget. In addition, the consequence arises when a low sense of discipline of many State’s civil servants in the final stage of the centrally planned period.

In the process of economic reform, the new elements of the market economy have been gradually replacing the former management principles and procedures. The State intervention in the activities of enterprises have been decreased, a new management method and a new environment for human management have been gradually formed in enterprises. Many major changes derived from economic demands have been implemented in human resource management. The transformation into the market economy in the reality of human resource management in Vietnam is the transition from the lifelong employment regime into labor contract regime. It changes from the form in which training and development are seen as employees’ natural benefit for the human resource development into the individual investment. In addition, it also changes from the system of average salary and seniority planned and paid by the State into the remuneration system being responsible by the enterprises. Moreover, it shifts from the State’s in-deep involvement in and strict inspection for business activities of enterprises into the enhancement of powers and responsibilities of directors and of enterprises’ autonomy. The differences in human resource management practices between State-owned enterprises and non-state ones have been reduced. State-owned enterprises and State’s civil servants have transformed themselves from a passivelyState-dependent state into a dynamic, active, self-reliable state.

The progress of human resource management is regarded as one of the important reasons that boost business activities toward more effectiveness.

However, the challenges for human resource management in enterprises in Vietnam are considerable, that involves in the effective way to manage human resource. Enterprises need to have human resource management system with new policies on recruitment, training, wage, rewarding and assessment that are suitable with the new requirements and the human resource management approach in the market economy.

2.3 THE MAIN CONTENTS AND FUNCTIONS OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Human resource management is related to all the issues of employees’ rights, obligations and responsibilities that aim at achieving high performance for both the organization and employees. In reality, these activities are diverse, plentiful and very different depending on the characteristics on organizational structure, technology, human resources, finance, development levels of the organizations. The basic content of human resource management includes the following activities: human resource planning, recruitment planning, staffappointment, training, rewarding, discipline, remuneration, etc.

Some authors have defined the functions of human resource management according to the specific activities such as Planning, job analysis, recruitment, training, employee evaluation, rewarding, discipline, remuneration, labor relations, etc. With this approach, there will be approximately 8-12 basic functions in the human resource management model. Representatives for this school include Carrell, Elbert, Hatfield, G. Dessler, French, A. Buckley, etc.

On the contrary, some other authors have classified human resource management activities into a number of basic functional groups. For example, according to J. J. Bratton and J. Gold, human resource management model features five following basic functions:

Staff appointment, rewarding, employee development, employee retention and public relations. Moreover, according to David De Cenzo and Stephen Robbins, human resource management model has four basic functions: Starting, developing, motivating and maintaining.

However, to help managers to have a logical overview and make it easy for them to identify the typical characteristics of the implementation style and method of the human resource management models, the main activities of human resource management can be categorized into three main functional groups:

- Group of functions for human resource procurement. This group of functions focuses on ensuring an adequate number of employees of appropriate qualities for the workof the enterprise. To be able to recruit the right personnel for the right position, firstly the enterprise must take into account the business plan and the actual use of its employees to identify which workare in needs of recruitment of more personnel. The performance of work analysis will show how many additional personnel the enterprise needs to recruit and how the requirements on qualification set for the candidates will be. The application of the recruitment skills (testing, interviews, etc.) will help the enterprise to select the best candidate for the job. Therefore, the functional group of recruitment often features activities such as forecasting and planninghuman resource, analyzing job, interviewing, testing, collecting, storing and processing the information on the enterprise’s human

resource.

- Group of functions for training - development. This group of functions emphasizes the improvement of the employees’ capacity. It ensures that the employees in the enterprise have the necessary professional skills, qualifications to well complete assigned tasks and facilitates employees’ maximum development on individual capacities.

Enterprises apply vocational and training programs for the new employees in order to determine the actual capacity of the employees and help them become familiar with the work of the enterprise. At the same time, enterprises also often set up training and retraining plans for employees whenever there is a change in demand in production and trading, or in technical procedures. The group of function for training and development often performs the activities: Career orientation; training; practical skills training for workers; fostering and raising skill qualification level and updating knowledge on management, technology for the managers and professional staffs.

- Group of functions for human resource maintenance. This group of functions focuses on maintaining and effectively using human resource in the enterprise. It consists of two smaller functions. They are the employee stimulation and motivation, and the maintenance and development of good labor relations in the enterprise. Among them, the functions of employee stimulation and motivationare related to policies and activities that encourage, motivate employees in the enterprise to work passionately, enthusiastically, responsibly and finish work with high quality. Apart from assigning employees highly challenging tasks, providing employees with the evaluation results by the leaders about their level of completionor the meaning of their task completion to the operation of the enterprises, high and fairly pay, being prompt in rewarding individual for their initiatives, technical innovation, production rationalization, contribution to increase business efficiency and reputation of the enterprise, etc. are effective measures to procure and retain the skilled workforce for the enterprise. Therefore, building and managing the salary scale system, establishing and applying policies for wages, promotion, discipline, bonuses, welfares, allowances, assessment on employees’ work performance are the most important activities of the functions of stimulation and motivation. In addition, to maintain the human resource, enterprises also establish good labor relations related to the activities to improve the work environment and relationships at work, for example,signing labor contracts, settlement of complaints, labor disputes, employee relations, improvement of the working environment, medical care, insurance and labor safety. A good settlement of labor relationships will not only help a enterprise create an atmosphere of collective psychology and the good traditional values, but also make employees satisfied with the job and attached themselves to the enterprise.

2.4 EXPERIENCE OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT OF SOME COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD

2.4.1 EXPERIENCE OF JAPAN

Japan is now the second most developed country, after the United States. Japan has a traditional and humane culture. Japanese society has distinct tradition and class, with the targeted emphasis on connection and development. Human resource management in the land of cherry blossoms traditionally has the following characteristics:

- The company is a big family, with work related to groups, friends, and many overlapping relationships.

- The employees and the company share the same fate due to the seniority regime and lifelong work.

- The country has long-term recruitment regime, may be lifelong. The employees are loyal and concerned about long-term benefits. They have dignity with high collective spirit. They are hardworking, positive, enthusiastic in their work, task-completion oriented, not working-hour oriented.

- Training is implemented in a large scale and involved in multi-skills. It emphasizes on quality and the relationship between training and use.

- Salary, bonus and stimulation are of average nature.Seniority still plays an important factor as a basis for promotion and advancement.

- Job descriptions, which have large scale with rich content, are vague.

- There is a big distinction between male and female employees in recruiting, training, advancement opportunities and salary.

- Decisions are made in groups; the employees like to participate in the work of management.

However, from the late 1970s to the present, especially in the 90s, the factors of culture, economy, society and technology of Japan saw fundamental changes. The opposition in life philosophy between the middle-aged and senior employees with the young one gradually formed in many companies. The Japanese youth today has received a part of Western lifestyle. They do not value loyalty to the company as before and do not appreciate the superiority of the lifelong employment regime. On the contrary, they want to uphold individual liberty factors, want to enjoy more, and emphasize on material values.

Consequently, human resource management in Japan has made adjustments. Seniority-based wage regime has been supplemented with the elements related to work quality system, promotion. These take into account the elements related to capability and actual work results, etc.

2.4.2 EXPERIENCE OF SINGAPORE

Singapore is a young nation in Asia (became an autonomous Government in 1959) that is Europeanized and fluent in English. According to statistics in 2007, the population of this country was about 4.6 million people (76.8% of which are Chinese, 13.9%

Malaysian, 7.9% of Indian, Pakistan and SriLankan; 1.4% of other ethnic groups).

Singapore’s human resource is diversified in race, culture and religion. The Government pays special attention to education and training, invests heavily in human resource development. Singapore has confirmed the national values that allow its citizens to retain the characteristics and cultural heritage.For example, the national interests are prioritized over the interests of the community. The society benefits are put above the individual benefits. Families are the fundamental nucleus of the society.Community support and respect for individuals.It has the unanimity, consensus, avoidance of conflict as well as racial and religious harmony. Leaders regularly remind people about the need to respect andsupport generously. The government is involved in all economic sectors of the country, directing, shaping the development of the economy, society and enterprise management.

在文檔中 Solutions to improve human resource management at the Power Transmission Company No. 4 (頁 11-19)