Hard HRM Vs Soft HRM
There is no 1 single way of implementing Human Resource Management. This underlying concept allows HRM to be viewed as a particular style of managment which can be measured & defined or even compared against an ideal model bringing us to the Hard & Soft approach of HRM.
The Hard approach to HRM emphasizes on an employee as a “commodity” or a “resource” -being as much a resource as is land,capital etc. & only to be treated better incase of a short supply or incase of playing a central role in achieving the organization’s goals. Methods of implementation can vary depending on a calculative & quantitative approach in a rational manner.Thus its a way of regarding people as human capital whose development returns more gains.
The Soft approach to HRM emphasises on an employee being “resourceful” (as against being just a “resource” ) & a major source of competitive advantage by use of human relations- which involves enhancing performance by using motivation, communication & leadership to increase loyalty & commitment. The soft ‘model’ considers increased satisfaction as the only way to go about in the management as against the various calculated methods that can be used in the hard ‘model’
Comments (10)
Thanks for the brief of soft and hard HRM. i am doing my dissertaion on soft and hard hrm but wondering whether soft and hard HRM could be identified through performance appraisals and how? could you comment on this?
Hi Lisa
Interesting question!
Yes performance appraisals can be used to identify soft & hard HRM.
The aim of a performance appraisal in any organization is to help plan a skilled & efficient workforce which meets organizational objectives. So while some may adopt a softer, more developmental approach others would like to stress the controlling aspect depending on what has to be achieved through the process of an appraisal be it – giving feedback on past performance, allocating financial or other rewards, promoting learning, encouraging rapport between hierarchies in the organization etc.
There are different methods of conducting an appraisal and accordingly identifying whether a hard or soft approach should be used. Here are some ways and what they allow-
• Tell and Sell: This approach involves a manager judging an employees performance and stating where improvement needs to happen. It may be effective with inexperienced employees while not being too well received by more seasoned employees who have the capacity to judge their own experience. Such an approach would only be helpful to identify hard HRM as it involves measuring performance against organizational standards then telling employees how they have done
• Tell and Listen: This approach also involves an appraiser judging an employees performance against organizational standards and stating where improvement needs to happen but involves a say by the appraisee which may allow explanations or evidence to be offered thereby influencing the result. So even though its essentially a way of identifying hard HRM, little elements of ‘softness’ maybe present within the limits that the appraiser allows the appraisee. Example: Whether to attend a training course or receive on-the-job training could be an employee’s decision
• Problem Solving or Non-directive Interviewing: This approach of performance appraisal is one which completely helps identification of soft HRM mainly because the emphasis is on how the growth and development of an employee can help align him/her with organizational objectives. The appraiser’s role is to elicit self-reflection in an appraisee, rather than pass his own judgement, and help identify strengths & development needs and how they can be met so that the employee’s contribution to the business increases. It is focused on future development.
All the Best for your Dissertation!
Karishma Daswani
brilliant thanks Karishma! also, do you think there are any contradictions with appraisals in reality, ie. training, especially when the appraisers seem “soft” during the discussion, but does this soft approach happen in reality when implementing actions proposed from the appraisal itself?
There could a possibility of a gap between reality (ie. a policy or whatever is put down on paper) and rhetoric incase of a performance appraisal, due to various reasons like-
•Time constraint: If line managers feel conducting performance appraisals just adds to the existing workload they would put their professional duties before what is considered an administrative task
•Lack of professional training pertaining specifically to conducting fair appraisals & importance of performance appraisal
•Personal like or dislike towards an employee or manipulation of results for self benefit
•What an employee may consider exceptional work could be very routine according to a manager
Training needs may be met in practice if felt necessary by the appraiser and how much of a say an appraisee has in it, making it either a soft approach or a hard one, is dependent on how the appraisal is carried out ( Tell & Sell, Tell & Listen, Non Directive Interviewing; as answered above)
thanks, i was wondering how employement relatiosnhip (ER) enables us to predict the gap between soft rhetoric and hard reality hrm? do you have an opinion of this?
My opinion on employee relations with regard to hard & soft HRM is that more than being a tool to predict the gap between the two, it is a means of merging the 2 approaches as usually it is difficult for an organization to adopt an either completely soft or completely hard approach to HRM. ER helps enable this in the following ways-
•Employee Oriented Communication Mechanisms : These help imbibe a sense of involvement in the organization leading to more commitment to one’s job rather than there being a compliance to maintain particular standards performance
•Flexi-working: This is implemented by means of an individual contact with every employee
•Gradual decline of Trade Unions & emphasis on employee partnership has helped emphasize the importance given to employee cooperation in decision making & asserting the management’s importance in taking care of its workforce, thereby tending employee loyalty towards the management
•Job Enlargement and Job Enrichment are 2 common methods to allow helpful changes in quality of work life, again by individually keeping the needs of employees in mind
•Change management becomes easier with ER as a tool, as there is good involvement of the task force,hence an understanding between the workers & automatic co-operation
•Agreed procedures help channel dissatisfaction leading to greater stability. Again due to employee involvement
Hope this helps!
Several researchers have suggested that many if not most organisations in practice
exhibit a mixture of both “hard” and “soft” approaches to HRM at the same time. Why
might this be the case?
Hi Business_Student
Apparently most organizations do use the hard & soft approaches to HRM at the same time. This being because neither models represent complete reality. Dealing with different people, at times a hard approach works & sometimes a soft approach works. Infact dealing with the same person also, at times a hard approach works & otherwise does a soft one.
Though it has never been proved that a committed worker is more productive than a tightly controlled one, it is always clear to the management & the people that HR strategy is always in line & second to business strategy as attaining organizational goals is priority. How people strategy is developed to reinforce the business strategy could a mix of the hard & soft approaches. Recent models & Balanced Scorecard have to a certain extent been able to establish the link between employee satisfaction & results in the value chain but again in lieu of organization goals.
Hence, HRM is essentially a mix of ‘resource’ & ‘resourceful’
Hey! Hope I get a reply ASAP to this!
Firstly, I want to know in elaboration about how training and development operate according to the soft and hard model, ie. training little in hard and development more in soft. And also, why?
Also how do recruitment and selection work according to these 2 different models? Which model do you think is more effective?
HRM VS Personnel – are there any similarities? What is the present day perspective about them? Advantages/Disadvantages of each if any.
Phew! Just these few points away from a great essay
hello, was wondering to know the realtion of soft model HRD with Investors in people? thanx please reply