HRM Essays

HRM Essays | HR Projects

At Study Aids we are proud to offer a vast collection of HRM essay topics. Below you will find a great range of HRM essay titles for you to purchase. These HRM essays are here to help inspire you in creating your own Human Resource Management essay title.

Our sample HRM essays will prove helpful in formulating your own HRM essay topic. Our sample HRM essays are an ideal tool for any student struggling to start their own HRM essay. Human Resource Management is an essential part of any organisation and there are many components of HRM. By browsing our collection of HRM essay topics, you will get ideas for your HRM essay through the following HRM subjects:

Training and Development, HR in Practice, HR Theory, Employee Welfare, Staff Turnover, Recruitment, Performance Management, Appraisals, Motivation, Strategic HRM, Job Satisfaction, Culture, Staff Retention and Diversity.

Our sample essays and assignments are available for only £9.99 per copy, which represents outstanding value for money.

HRM Essays

Code
Title / Subject
mha0001
Analysis into UK Trade Unions: The Decline in Trade Unions Over The Last Twenty-Five Years is Due Primarily To Empowerment

For some twenty years now, it has been common to refer to a crisis of trade unionism. What the future holds for labour movements, or indeed, whether they even have a future, seems increasingly uncertain. For many trade unionists as well as academics, unions in most countries appear as victims of external forces outside their control, and often their own conservative inertia. This has certainly been the case in the United Kingdom

[2,200 words]
mha0002
Equal Opportunities Legislation

Equal opportunities legislation is in place to prevent employees and in some cases customers from being discriminated against because of their race, colour, nationality, ethnic origin, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, age or disability

[1,500 words]
mha0003
Discuss the Usefulness of Psychometric Assessment Tests

Evaluate the uses and limitations of psychometric assessment tests and questionnaires for organisational decision-making. Through Psychometric tests, one can attempt to achieve a measurement of the mind. Measuring the mind from an organisational perspective is potentially very rewarding. As, in theory, having measured someone’s mind we can find a job or task that best suits their mindset

[1,800 words]
mha0004
Analysis into the TUC

As competitive pressures mount in a globalised market, organizations increasingly turn to Human resource management to strengthen their competitive advantage. HRM uses organizational behaviour theories to promote understanding of how organizations work and to deal with the challenges of managing diverse workforces

[4,000 words]
mha0005
Principles of HRM: Are UK employees over protected in the Workplace? Individual employment rights are important in the Government s approach to competitiveness and the labour market

Fair treatment of individuals enhances commitment and competitiveness. Flexibility and adaptability – both crucial to competitiveness – need to be underpinned by basic minimum standards. The Government has introduced legislation for a national minimum wage below which pay should not fall. This will be a single hourly rate for all regions, sectors and sizes of company. Together with tax and benefit reforms, the minimum wage will help to promote incentives for individuals to find and make the most of jobs. It will ensure greater fairness at work and remove the worst exploitation. It will promote competitiveness by encouraging firms to compete on quality rather than simply on labour costs and price. The Low Pay Commission has consulted widely and its report will propose the rate at which the minimum wage should be set

[3,000 words]
mha0006
Principles of HRM: Are leaders born or made? The question whether leaders are born or made has been asked to a dreadful point by now

And the opinions about the answer to this question remain scattered. The only thing I may know for sure at this point is that leaders can emerge from all walks of life; from all cultures, backgrounds, and in all physical appearances. Leadership is not only determined by the character and capacities of the leader, but definitely also by the followers: if there are no followers, there is no leader. Some believe that leaders are made through different experiences in their lives, while others believe leaders are born with special hereditary traits; both sides have good cases to support themselves

[2,500 words]
mha0007
Principles of HRM: Barriers to Effective Human Resource Management

This report will attempt to find out the various barriers to effective Human Resource Management in competitive environment today. Starting from grass root level i.e. with a brief introduction and definition of HRM from different resources, this essay will explain all the barriers to effective HRM in detail as it goes through. Providing a comparison among various models and specially taking in to account the Kan, Crawford and Grant s article about the barriers to effective HRM, this essay establish a clear understanding of the topic

[4,500 words]
mha008
Organisational HRM: Challenges of Supervising a Diverse Workforce

Today’s workforce requires managers and supervisors to adapt, competently and constantly, to the needs of an increasingly diverse employee base. By being proactive and making informed choices, supervisors and managers can gain full productivity from all employee populations. The ability to manage within the framework of a diverse workplace today is rapidly becoming as much of a key success requirement as knowing how to manage projects. To be successful and truly reap the benefits of diverse functional backgrounds, perspectives, cultures, and languages, managers must be skilled in creating a productive, respectful, inclusive workplace where all employees can contribute to the business goals of the organization

[2,300 words]
mha009
Human Resource Management: Working Trends and Job Insecurity

Rigid forms of bureaucracy are under attack, workers are asked to behave nimbly, to be open to change on short notice, to take risks continually, to become ever less dependent on regulations and formal procedures. This increase in job insecurity has been most prominent since 1979. Before this the state was regarded as a ‘model employer’, where secure working referred to a ‘job for life’ and also included comparable wage rates, joint regulations, good pensions, holidays, sick pay and procedural fairness. It wasn’t until the Conservative party came into power that this image started to be undermined. Temporary employment was introduced as a consequence to a range of pressures facing the government (particularly the financial crisis). Hence insecure working became rife and so did people’s perception and recognition of this type of employment. New labour has failed to alter these specific Thatcher policies and so it can be argued whether or not the U.K is currently witnessing a widespread growth in employment insecurity

[3,800 words]
mha0010
Final Year Project: Recruitment & Selection

Today, in every organisation personnel planning as an activity is necessary. It is an important part of an organisation. Human Resource Planning is a vital ingredient for the success of the organisation in the long run. There are certain ways that are to be followed by every organisation, which ensures that it has right number and kind of people, at the right place and right time, so that organisation can achieve its planned objective. The objectives of Human Resource Department are Human Resource Planning, Recruitment and Selection, Training and Development, Career planning, Transfer and Promotion, Risk Management, Performance Appraisal and so on. Each objective needs special attention and proper planning and implementation. For every organisation it is important to have a right person on a right job. Recruitment and Selection plays a vital role in this situation. Shortage of skills and the use of new technology are putting considerable pressure on how employers go about Recruiting and Selecting staff. It is recommended to carry out a strategic analysis of Recruitment and Selection procedure

[15,000 words]
mha0011
Work stress is often perceived as a problem of the individual

Discuss. Due to the prevalence of work stress intrinsic in modern life, it is important to theorise where the roots of the problems arise and so suggest what possible actions to take. This essay attempts to firstly define what work stress is, as it is not merely an outcome as one may think. Secondly, an exploration at the individual level of analysis will illustrate the common and much theorised approach to stress, which focuses on personality and managing the individual. Critical analysis of this psychological perspective will suggest that while important, this is incomplete. The work stress phenomenon originates much deeper than the individual alone, from the surrounding relationships and structures in society. Therefore, the organisational roots of stress such as low investment in health and safety and role pressure will be explored. Again, going beyond the organisation, wider macro issues such as gender stereotypes, social and political factors suggest that work stress research and HRM should take a holistic approach to fully appreciate what is involved. Indeed, brief recommendations to those involved, such as HR managers and researchers will be made

[4,000 words]
mha0012
International HRM: Critically evaluate the significance of the European Union for workers in Europe

What has now settled in name as the European Union has throughout the decades of the 20th century been known as first, the European Economic Community, and then the European Community. ‘the European Union of today is a result of the process that began over half a century ago with the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community.’ This was formed by Belgium, France, Netherlands, Italy, Luxembourg and Germany with the idea that after a long and costly second world war, this would bring peace and prosperity for their present and the future. This was formed in 1952. Merely six years later much had changed. By 1958 the treaty of Rome was in force, the European Economic Union had been formed and as said in EU-upplysningen (2008) ‘virtually everyone in the member states was given the same opportunity to move between countries, which previously had only applied to those working in the coal and steel industry.’ This was the first impact of the EU on their workers. Furthermore, their next objective was to create a common market nowadays known and transformed as the single market, where there is free movement of people around Europe as well as less or no barriers to trade, meaning free movement of goods and services

[4,000 words]
mha0013
Performance Related Pay Schemes Have Largely Failed To Deliver a More Motivated Workforce: “Pay” is received as a reward for working hard, and performance related pay is a method of payment where an employee receives an increase in pay based entirely or partially on the regular and systematic assessment of individual performance known as performance appraisal

Performance appraisal may be defined as a structured formal interaction between an employee and supervisor, in which the work performance of the former is examined and discussed, with a view to identifying weaknesses and strengths as well as opportunities for improvement and skills development. Locke defines motivation as a sequence, which is initiated by some need; a choice is made concerning the effort to put into the work and a certain reward is obtained, which might lead to motivation or not

[1,600 words]
mha0014
To what extent and in what ways has Human Relations humanised the workplace? This HRM essay looks in particular at the historical background of human relations, the reasons for its development and its social impact on the workplace

It considers how far it has made the workplace more pleasant or suitable for people. It also considers ways in which the approach failed to make the workplace better, thereby making the approach ineffective. I am going to concentrate on the classical approach of scientific management and the human relations approach. The subsequent improvements upon the Human Relations approach with the aim of making the workplace more flexible, such as the Neo-Human Relations and Total Quality Management are also discussed briefly and brought together in the conclusion

[1,600 words]
mha0015
Critically assess the reliability of the various methods that could be used to gauge a candidate’s personality during the recruitment process

When screening potential employees it has become commonplace for companies and other organisations to use various, and in some cases quite advanced, methods of analysing applicant’s personalities’. Many of these methods are however quite controversial and in some cases their reliability, in other words their ability to return consistent results when carried out a number of times on the same person (repeat reliability), has been questioned. Which one of the plethora of research methods including interviews, questionnaires, observation, case studies, action research and laboratory and field experiments is used, depends on which situation the testing is carried out in, and what kind of results are needed. What is however essential, is that the chosen technique is suitable to the problem in hand

[1,500 words]
mha0016
Do Adult Learning Theories offer adequate explanatory or predictive foundations for HRD? Offer an analytical response to this question with reference to a case study of your choosing: Adult learning theories and theorists seek to establish education as a continuous and lifelong process

Similarly, in the context of human resource development (HRD) professional and personal development can never be exhaustive, but continues in a cyclical and continuous improvement pattern. Kolb describes this cycle as both iterative and interactive. Wilson goes on to suggest that adult learning can instruct the field of HRD to recognise both formal and informal learning and the development thereof. Through an analysis of adult learning theories I aim to demonstrate how the HRD practitioner can apply the models of adult and lifelong learning to enhance the evolution of individuals, organisations and nations. Furthermore, my exploration endeavours to demonstrate how adult learning theories and practice can act as explanatory and predictive foundations for HRD

[5,000 words]
mha0017
Are UK employees now over protected in the sphere of individual employment rights? Individual employment rights are important in the Government’s approach to competitiveness and the labour market

Fair treatment of individuals enhances commitment and competitiveness. Flexibility and adaptability – both crucial to competitiveness – need to be underpinned by basic minimum standards. The Government has introduced legislation for a national minimum wage below which pay should not fall. This will be a single hourly rate for all regions, sectors and sizes of company. Together with tax and benefit reforms, the minimum wage will help to promote incentives for individuals to find and make the most of jobs. It will ensure greater fairness at work and remove the worst exploitation. It will promote competitiveness by encouraging firms to compete on quality rather than simply on labour costs and price. The Low Pay Commission has consulted widely and its report will propose the rate at which the minimum wage should be set

[3,000 words]
mha0018
To what extent is HRM different from conventional personnel management? Is it the same phenomenon in a different name and modern version? To capture the theme of my essay, I will first distinguish between HRM and Personnel Management

Thereafter I will provide a general overview of management, interrogate the four dimensions of HRM, i.e., inception, development, motivation and maintenance. It is also my intention to delve into the peculiarities of personnel management, which has at some stage grown both as an academic discipline and as a field of application in work organizations. Whether the two disciplines are similar or different, that will be discussed just before the conclusion

[3,500 words]
mha0019
Distinguish between equal opportunities and the management of diversity

How is it possible to justify either in a commercial organisation? Discriminating in employment is unavoidable. Indeed discrimination is necessary when rejecting unsuitable applicants for a job. However in the past it was possible to discriminate against prospective employees due to non-skills based criteria but rather on physical characteristics of the person, which would have no influence on their ability to do a job. For example discriminating against a woman because she was not a man, or discriminating against a black man because he was not white. This type of discrimination is unfair and morally wrong. Unfair discrimination on the basis of gender, ethnic origin and disability is illegal in the UK due to the implementation of equal opportunities legislation. Indeed equal opportunities legislation is based on the principle of treating everyone equally, regardless of characteristics such as gender, ethnicity and disability, at least unless these can be shown to be relevant to the ability to do the job

[1,500 words]
mha0020
Equal Opportunities legislation is an unnecessary interference for business

Discuss. Equal opportunities legislation is in place to prevent employees and in some cases customers from being discriminated against because of their race, colour, nationality, ethnic origin, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, age or disability. According to the TUC, there are two forms of discrimination. Direct discrimination occurs when people are treated less favourably than others simply because of sex, colour, race, nationality or ethnic origin. An example would be a company refusing to employ a woman because she has children, but employing a man with children. Indirect discrimination is when a rule which is supposed to be applied equally, is in reality unfairly disadvantageous to one group of people. An example would be a company advertising a job saying that only people with English as their first language should apply. This indirectly discriminates against people who have enough English to do the job, but for whom English is their second language

[1,700 words]
mha0021
What motivates a successful employee? Motivation is an integral part of everyday life and is rarely acknowledged

There are one or more motivating factors behind every action and reaction experienced on a day-to-day basis. These are all very different in different situations; for example, those factors that motivate a mother to feed her child are different to those that motivate a student to sit an exam. The question this research will aim to answer is what factors motivate a successful employee? However before this question can be explored in depth there are certain other questions that must be addressed such as; what is a successful employee and how would this be measured? Is it even possible to measure such a thing? If no definition of a successful employee can be drawn, then it would be impossible to identify the motivating factors behind one

[2,400 words]
mha0022
To what extent and in what ways might the study of motivation assist management in maintaining and achieving a high level of performance from their employees? Motivation is essentially an area of psychology, which attempts to explain why people behave in a certain way

Delivering good performance at work has been shown to be a function of ability, experience, reward and above all, motivation. Given the importance of employees to an organisation, it is fundamental that managers understand the nature of motivation and recognise what leads some employees to apply only minimal effort to their work tasks while others expend much greater effort and consequently are much more productive. Human behaviour comprises of three components, reflexes, learned habits and the influencable. Managers must focus heavily on the influencable as this can be changed whereas reflexes and learned habits are something an individual will do on impulse and from experience

[2,000 words]
mha0023
Face to face interaction can be regarded as a dynamic process of perception, diagnosis and action engaged in by two or more people with varying degrees of competence - This essay is firstly going to examine the perceptual process and secondly the stages that employers may go through when recruiting and selecting a candidate

It will make reference to theory, and will relate the theory to practice with the provision of practical examples. It will also refer to relevant legislation and conclude with thoughts and suggestions on both the theory and the practice. Perception is the active psychological process in which stimuli are selected and organised into meaningful patterns

[3,000 words]
mha0024
Describe and discuss the various stages in the process of recruitment, as well as the main responsibilities of Human Resources Management in this regard

It is my intention to first define the term “recruitment”, give reasons for recruiting staff, mention types of recruitment and its techniques, give reasons as to why a vacancy might occur and the various stages of recruitment. The role of a human resources manager as it pertains to recruitment will be discussed just before the conclusion. It is widely accepted that recruitment is the only acceptable process of soliciting prospective employees in the world of work. Recruitment should, however, not be seen as a private sector peculiarity. It does not mean that an interested person has already been appointed in the vacancy, it only tries to find a number of suitable persons from which the final selection can be made

[2,800 words]
mha0025
The use of music enhances the working environment of the IT professional

Discuss this statement, illustrating your points with specific examples: Music has been shown in the past to help maintain a high level of worker productivity, which is what every employer and employee, endeavours to uphold. However, as past studies have generalized the findings regarding music in the workplace (a necessary procedure for scientific research), a clear understanding has not been realised as to whether music helps ALL employees to concentrate. A piece of music may be helping nine out of ten employees work, but that is to say that the other one employee is being distracted by the same music. According to a study published in 1994 in Communication Monographs, Employees have a wide range of musical tastes – one form of music that motivates and helps one worker to concentrate may have another worker tearing out clumps of hair by day’s end. Research has shown that music can reduce stress but only when the listener perceives it as relaxing. People make active choices regarding their music preferences and the music to which they listen. When these choices are taken away some become agitated

[1,500 words]
mha0026
Access the claim that the application of human resource management (HRM) polices signifies a radical and necessary departure from more traditional procedural approaches to managing people in work

In business today it is argued that the greatest competitive advantage is to be obtained from people rather than technology. Pfeffer (1999) contends that investment in technology is not enough because technology will soon be available to competitors, and the more advanced technology becomes the greater the need for skilled people will be.For over two decades the term Human Resource Management (HRM) has been used to describe people management practices and the need to utilise the human resource of any business.This essay will attempt to examine if this has altered and if so why. There seems to be no single definition of the term Human Resource Management that is accepted by all, as it is a concept that means different things to different people depending on how it is understood and applied, and what its objectives and aims are

[3,000 words]
mha0027
What are the motivating characteristics of work? Discuss with reference to well-known theories on work motivation

The word motivation comes from the Latin word “movere” which means, “to move”. Today, however, the word has taken on a whole new meaning and nowadays the word refers the forces either within or external to a person that arouse enthusiasm and persistence to pursue a certain course of action. If the level of motivation of the workforce could influence productivity it is clear that it was in the company’s best interest to have motivated employees. However, it was not until the negative side effects of Taylorism (absenteeism, sabotage, and unionisation) were becoming too blatant to just ignore, that management started to pay attention to the word motivation

[2,200 words]
mha0028
What is Human Resource Development? My initial thoughts when challenged by this question were so varied and almost contradictory that I decided to use this scope to approach the proposition from different perspectives

I intend to define human resource development (HRD) through an analysis of its practices and function within the organisation, rather than on a national scale, whilst also considering the role of the HRD practitioner. As I will demonstrate, my standpoint on the definition of HRD draws from many schools of thought and ultimately, I aim to present a more integrated point of view. The theoretical approaches that I perceive to be both stimulating and challenging in their definitions of HRD, include the ‘economic perspective,’ the ‘learning perspective’ and thirdly, the critical grand narrative of feminism. My aim is to challenge some of the absolute ‘truths’ as presented by these perspectives and thus, demonstrate a recognition of the extensive definitions and implications of HRD

[2,300 words]
mha0029
Competitive Advantage Through Diversity: HR Case Study of Tarmac

The report that follows is an analysis of the HRM perspective in view of a certain company; Tarmac. Tarmac, which is one of the largest names in the construction industry in UK, has a unique and extremely efficient model for excellence that puts high regard and utmost important to its HRM. Tarmac believes in Diversity; acceptance of employees from all backgrounds and personality traits and Inclusion, their appreciation and involvement in the company’s progress. Tarmac’s strategy of Diversity and Inclusion has helped it in achieving a great and sustainable competitive advantage against its counterparts. It has enabled itself by reflecting and translating these differences of the diverse workforce into the variety and diversity of clients that the company serves from all over the world. In a nutshell, the internal diversity better prepares the organizations to cope with and satisfy challenges raised by the external diversity. The report discusses theories such as Core competence, emotional intelligence and performance prism to elaborate on this concept of diversity and inclusion. The report also uses some references from various Journal articles and books, wherever the thoughts and concepts from other authors are presented. The overall report is the summary of the writer’s own judgment and analysis

[3,000 words]
mha0030
Employee Management

Managing employees has always been a superb experience for the executives and managers when they have the employees who understand their importance as a team player and have a professional approach towards their work and responsibilities. These are the unspoken rules for the employees and they understand their importance. In the early stages of their professional life, they were committed to work hard and contribute their due share for the success of the organization. But with the passage of time, this passion and enthusiasm about their work and responsibilities subsides. Employees think that there will no attraction and performance based benefits for them, so there is no need to work hard and waste their energy. So the employees look for some new destination where they get attracted remuneration packages and opportunities for a better future. On this ground the organization faces the employee turnover issues. There are also numerous other factors that contribute to employee unrest in an organization and need ample attention in order to eradicate them for achieving organizational goals. These issues will be discussed later in this essay

[1,500 words]