For long time people used the phrase "personnel management" to describe the strategies to make sure that the human resource is used to achieve the business objectives. It was very obvious that the human resource was treated the same way as any other resource the organization have. Taylorism or Command and Control are good examples for this approach. However, the socio-political environment, the changes in the business world and the one village concept forced organizations to seek competitive advantage in many ways. Competitive advantage through human resource was one of the best ways adopted by successful organizations. This was the reason behind the birth of the Human Resource Management at the end of the last century. Beardwell and Claydon defined the HRM as "a collection of policies used to organize work in the employment relationship and centers on management of work and the management of people who undertake this work" (Beardwell and Claydon, 2010). Also, HRM defined as "the function responsible for establishing integrated personnel policies to support organization strategy" (Buchanan and Huczynshi, 2010). This new approach helped organizations to develop policies which reinforce each other to contribute to the business strategy and create an organizational environment where employees are highly motivated and committed to attain the organizational goals.

The HRM is abroad approach with two theoretical themes which shape the two extremes, soft and hard HRM. The soft HRM is more of management through enhancing the commitment and quality of employees by enhancing their skills, motivation and involvement. On the other hand, hard HRM emphasizes the strategy that uses human resource to achieve the business objectives. Here, human resource has less attention and managed like any other resource the organization use. Theories about both soft and hard HRM were developed and adopted within the range of human resource orientation, from employee predictability to flexibility, creativity and innovation. Some of these theories and models are going to be discussed in this essay.