Reference no: EM133643102
Chapter 6 explores the human resource frame's origin, focus, and content. The chapter covers several areas:
The frame's fundamental premise (people's skills, insights, ideas, energy, and commitment are an organization's most critical resource).
It's core assumptions.
Its central elements (human needs and capacities and the fit between people and organization).
The changing employment contracts.
The authors point out that needs are hard to define, difficult to measure, and still a source of contention among social scientists. Still, the concept of human needs helps us understand the primary conditions people require to survive and develop. The authors see needs as based on genetic predispositions shaped and molded by environmental interaction. Reviewing theories of motivation, Bolman and Deal note that there is a range of views about what people need to bring to work, but individuals have multiple needs beyond pay. Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs, Douglas McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y, and Chris Argyris's theory of personality-organization fit are explored as classic foundations of the human resource perspective.
In discussing the changing employment contract, the authors examine the shifting relationship between individuals and organizations. Rapid change and global competition create dilemmas for organizations. Pressures for flexibility push organizations to downsize, outsource, and use part-time employees, but at the risk of sacrificing the knowledge, skills, and loyalty critical to high performance. The chapter discusses two different responses to this dilemma: lean and mean (downsizing, outsourcing, and so on) and investing in people (building loyalty and skill).
1. Identify the core assumptions of the human resource perspective and summarize its history.
2. Explain why people's needs are important in the human resource perspective and how needs relate to the fit between organizations and individuals.
3. Discuss the nature and significance of the changing employment contract.
4. Contrast the two basic strategies for managing employees in today's organizations: the "lean and mean" approach and investing in people.