ASOK05078U Human Resource Management

Since the mid-20th century, the importance of the individual has been increasingly emphasised within sociology. This has also been the case within related and interdisciplinary founded disciplines such as management theories. The appearance of a more knowledge-based production and the subsequent growing need for optimising the management of human resources are important reasons for the strong interest for HRM in today’s working life. During the last decades, the administration and the supervision of employees have become increasingly important in terms of HRM in private as well as public enterprises. It has increasingly been recognised that employees have to be considered not only as labour, but also as ’living people’ who possess a manifold of skills and resources which must be utilised optimally both to the benefit of the enterprise as well as to the benefit of the individual employee.

The concept of HRM has its theoretical and practical roots in the Anglo-Saxon world. Considered in a comparative perspective, however, the implementation of HRM concepts in Denmark are characterised by a certain time lag and the use of HRM strategies are relatively low. Among other things, this is caused by the specific structure of Danish industry, characterised by mainly small and medium size companies, but also due to the relatively low priority of HRM in Danish enterprises until only recently. Furthermore, in the aftermath of the sweeping public sector reform during the last decades, the increasing use of HRM-strategies in public administration plays an important role as regards the implementation of HRM concepts in Denmark.

Main issues within the HRM analysis of enterprises are, for instance, the question of recruitment and access possibilities, qualification levels and transaction costs, job design and promotion rules, career options and engagement, management development and evaluation systems, but also further training and employee participation. Furthermore, comparisons of various cultures are important when it comes to the issue of the so-called international HRM, focusing on how national business systems differ in terms of institutional configurations. This is important for multinational companies in the first place, but it is also relevant when considering whether different national management strategies are characterised by convergence or divergence. Finally, the institutional embeddedness of enterprises is an important issue, for instance, regarding changes in the relationship between the labour market parties due to an increased implementation of HRM concepts at enterprise level.