Reference no: EM133411392

Read the extract from 'Managing people in a social context' (Martin, 2009) and reflect on the question below.

Organisations have existed in some form or another since the dawn of collective endeavour in human society. From the earliest days of family and tribal life, the activities of people have had to be directed and channelled in order to increase their chances of survival. Over the centuries human society has changed as knowledge and resources have grown; and human needs, power relationships and culture have evolved. Organisations have also changed over the years as they have adapted to the emerging technologies, relative costs of labour and other resources, markets for products and services, and the prevailing view of work and its role in human life. With even a cursory study of the history of management and organisations, it soon becomes clear that many of the modern management practices have their origins many hundreds - if not thousands - of years ago. For example, it was the Ancient Egyptians who developed centralisation and decentralisation as ways of dealing with organisational complexity around 2000 years BC. The assembly line approach to manufacturing was used for the construction of ships by the Venetians around 1300 AD.

Over the years the approach to managing people has changed in line with all of the other changes in society and organisations. Personnel management has its direct origins in the nineteenth century as a consequence of recognition by managers and owners of the need to offset the worst aspects of the exploitation of workers that had emerged during the Industrial Revolution. The trade unions were also emerging as a potent force representing workers' rights at about the same time. This could be described as the welfare period in personnel management. Subsequently the emphasis changed and more focus was placed on staffing, training and work organisation - particularly during the First and Second World Wars when, as well as other changes that were taking place, women were first drafted into many jobs traditionally done by men. Since then many other changes such as rising education levels, higher standards of living, attitudes to work, legislation, globalisation and technology have forced organisations to become more sophisticated in the use of people at work; and so personnel management has transformed itself into HRM in order to meet the needs of modern organisations.

How has HRM become a dominant perspective in organisations?