Human Resource Management is that part of management that happens to everyone, all the time. Nobody can escape HRM. We are all human resources and, therefore, it should not be a surprise that HRM has become very much a reflection of us – we find in HRM our own conceptions of ourselves, of work and of life in the 21st Century. The aim of this module is to understand how HRM is done and why we manage people in the ways we do.
The module introduces and analyses HRM as a complex part of management today in all organisations. OWT.223 examines aspects of employability, of performativity, performance management and of work motivations as key ingredients for the management of people in contemporary corporations, large or small, private or public. For you and your employability, it will be essential to understand what is going on in HRM and how this is done. You will have to be able to grasp the fundamental question of work: what is worth doing in the context of contemporary work? What is asked of you, and how do you have answer in return?
Also, it is essential to remember that every manager is always a human resource manager: they have to know how to recruit, how to communicate decisions and how to understand people and their motivation to work, how to think about individuals and teams, and about all the psychological and social aspects of work. No effective and respectable manager or executive can be a poor manager of people.