When speaking about the improvements to HRM, this is not to say that this branch of management is now all a bed of roses and that no abuses on human beings at their workplace do not take place.

In Malta, unfortunately, we hear of the island becoming a mass production island where cheap labour thrives and where people from all continents enter in hoards, both legally and illegally, to find virgin soil to earn a decent living both for them and their next of kin. We also hear of stories of modern-day slavery and human trafficking where humans treat other humans as mere objects.

 

What is HRM?

Despite the abuses, where moral ethics and values are present, HRM is not a mere sweetly coated buzzword, but it is the very foundation on which the structure of any organisation is based.

HRM has been defined as "the strategic and coherent (systematic) approach to the management of an organisations most valued assets - the people working here who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of its objectives" (Armstrong 2006).

Another definition of the subject is that "HRM is the planning, organising, directing and controlling of the procurement, development, compensation, integration, maintenance and reproduction of human resources to the end that individual, organisational and societal objectives are accomplished" (Flippo 1980)

 

Development of HRM

The development of HRM passed through different historical phases. It started from a point, went through several refining stages before its present form, which could still change with time.

As humans change, the discipline of HRM will as well undergo such metamorphosis to suit the prevailing demands and conditions dictated by the wider social, economic, environmental, legal, political and technological factors.

Organisations do not operate in a vacuum and there are some environmental influences on the policies, processes and programmes of the HR function:

1.                  Technological innovation

2.                  Economic factors

3.                  Employees' organisations (labour unions)

4.                  Changing demand of employers

5.                  Legal factors

6.                   

The stages of HRM's evolution may be listed as follows:

Ø    The Craft Stage

Ø    Industrial Era

Ø    Scientific Management Era

Ø    Paternalistic Era

Ø    Industrial Psychology Era

Ø    Human Relations Era

Ø    Human Resource Management

 

Types of organisations in Malta

HRM takes place within organisations. In Malta, we have different types of organisations. There are legal requirements which each organisation has to abide with. The following are some of the main types of organisations in Malta.

Ø    A single-member company is a basic company where the person is the owner, director and shareholder

Ø    There are private companies that do not issue shares to the public and are owned by a minimum of one to 50 shareholders. Companies can go from private to public as in the case of Facebook.

Ø    Every HR manager uses the PE number (Permission to employ number) on its adverts. This is required by law. You can only advert jobs through Jobsplus and firms cannot advert without quoting the PE number.

Ø    HRM operates within an environment and there are for instance, legal factors that must be observed such as the legal hours that employees must work, the COLA wage increases, parental leave and other family-friendly policies that the government may legislate from time to time. Other factors in the environment are technology, the economy, unions and the changing demands of employees.

Ø    Secondment is also an important factor because employees can migrate from a government department to say a voluntary organisation or a union and keep the salary of the government employment.

Ø    The Public Service includes the government departments which employ civil servants.

Ø    The Public Sector is much wider as it includes parastatal/government entities such as MCAST, University of Malta, Malta Communications Authority, MFSA and the Malta Business Registry, to mention a few. It also includes companies where the government has a shareholding.

Ø    Parastatal entities such as the MFSA and Malta Business Registry, the Gaming Authority and Jobsplus are owned by the government but not managed by the government. For example, with regard to the University of Malta, the government approves half of the Senate. There are also private-public partnerships.

Ø    Whereas in the public service, it is the permanent secretary who signs the approval of documentation on behalf of the minister, this does not apply to parastatal organisations. Parastatal entities run on the lines of a company to offer a service to the public but not to make a profit.

Ø    There are organisations which are known as NGOs (Non-Governmental Agencies and Foundations - a Foundation is usually owned by a person or family where such persons dedicate large sums of money for charity purposes. These NGOs are registered with the Registrar of VOs (voluntary organisations). For instance, the Community Chest Fund is owned by the Office of the President.

Ø    The private Sector is that part of the national economy that is not under direct state control.

 

The development and importance of Performance Management (PM)

Performance Management has been described as a continuous process of identifying, measuring and developing the performance of individuals and teams and aligning performance with the strategic goals of the organisation.

 

PM contains two major components:

1.         It's a continuous process

2.         Alignment with strategic goals

 

As far back as World War I, WD Scott was credited with coming up with performance appraisal. Formal Performance Appraisal systems were well established by the mid-1950s, with personality-based systems being widely used.

• McGregor (1957) illustrated the unease surrounding the use of personality-based ratings and advocated a more participative approach and performance-based approach, including an element of self-appraisal. This process looked forward to what the individual might be able to achieve in the future, more than it looked backward (that is, the "personality" that they had inherited).

In the 1960s, the influence of the management by objectives movement meant that performance appraisal developed a greater emphasis on goal-setting and the assessment of performance-related abilities.

• In the 1970s, appraisal practices became more open to scrutiny and, as a result, a number of legal cases were brought. One outcome of this was an increase in research into rating scales and their use.
• Through the 1980s and 1990s, the concept of performance management came into vogue, and this, according to Williams (1998), provided a more holistic approach to generating motivation, improving performance and managing human resources.

Briscoe and Hall (1999) propose that employee development is underpinned by a set of "meta-competencies" including qualities such as accurate self-awareness, feedback seeking, openness to a range of ideas and concepts, and so on. Other factors such as communication and teamwork skills, stress and conflict reduction, handling of emotion and conscientiousness are now often seen as important concepts to be measured and managed through performance appraisal and management processes.

• More recent developments, including the reduced hierarchical nature of many organisations, have led to the increased use of multi-source, multi-rater feedback methods, more commonly known as 360-degree feedback. The kinds of changes that have overtaken organisations have affected the nature of work itself and the continuing rate of change means that the definition of what a job is, and what good performance is, are less stable concepts.

 

In writing this feature I am indebted to Ryan Mercieca, lecturer in Human Resources Management at Life Long learning, Malta