Human resource management’s roots can be traced back to the time of the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century. With the development of the welfare tradition a chain of voluntary initiatives to improve employee’s conditions took place. Before this time very few large organisations existed but the factory system developed with the invention of new technology. The work environment was very adverse and employees including young children worked very long hours for very little pay. The employees had very few, if any, rights. (Gunnigle, 2006). In 1878 legislation was passed to regulate the hours of work for children and women by having a 60 hour week. (Kaizenlog, 2006)
At the beginning of the 19th Century some employers started showing a
This was the next influence on how people were managed. Taylor introduced Scientific Management development and he and his colleagues were the first group to examine the work progression scientifically. Taylor’s philosophy focused on the conviction that getting the employees to work as hard as they could was not always the best way to get things done. Taylor believed that there was only one best way to approach every job and to find the best way Taylor explored and dissected the job and broke it down into individual components. This is called job specialisation. He believed that people could be trained to become expert at one particular component of the job. Taylor’s influences can be seen in some fast-food restaurants where the practice of serving a consumer consists of a number of job skills. (Reidy,
These were the people whom managers should seek to hire where possible. As a result, choosing the right person for the right job was a further vital part of workplace effectiveness. Human resource management today still benefits from some of the tools developed during this time. These include job analysis, methods of selection and methods of training. (Knowledge, n.d.) (Reidy, 2011)
Behavioural Science Movement was a developed body of knowledge including policies related to selection, training, industrial relations and payment systems. The main theorists include Elton Mayo, Fritz Roethlisberger and William Dickenson. They conducted the Hawthorne studies in the 1920’s with the workers at the Hawthorne plant of the Western Electric Company in Chicago. Studies showed that employee conduct and performance was influenced by motivation and needs as well as by working conditions and payment practices. (Gunnigle,