Human resource departments are key components in the people
management system of nearly every medium-to-large organization in
the industrial world. They provide a wide range of essential
services relating to employees, including recruitment,
compensation, benefits, training, and labor relations. A century
ago, however, before the concept of human resource management had
been invented, the supervision and care of employees at even the
largest companies were conducted without written policies or formal
planning, and often in harsh, arbitrary, and counterproductive
ways.
How did companies such as United States Steel manage a workforce
of 160,000 employees at dozens of plants without a specialized
personnel or industrial relations department? What led some of
these organizations to introduce human resources practices at the
end of the nineteenth century? How were the earliest personnel
departments structured and what were their responsibilities? And
how did the theory and implementation of human resources management
evolve, both within industry and as an academic field of research
and teaching?
In Managing the Human Factor, Bruce E. Kaufman chronicles the
origins and early development of human resource management (HRM) in
the United States from the 1870s, when the Labor Problem emerged as
the nation's primary domestic policy concern, to 1933 and the start
of the New Deal. Through new archival research, an extensive review
and synthesis of the historical and contemporary literatures, and
case studies illustrating best (and worst) practices during this
period, Kaufman identifies the fourteen ideas, events, and
movements that led to the creation of specialized HRM departments
in the late 1910s, as well as their further growth and development
into strategic business units in the welfare capitalism period of
the 1920s.
The research presented in this book not only uncovers many new
aspects of the early development of personnel and industrial
relations but also challenges central parts of the contemporary
interpretation of the concept and evolution of HRM. Rich with
insights on both the present and past of human resource management,
Managing the Human Factor will be widely regarded as the definitive
account of the early history of employee management in American
companies and a must-read for all those interested in the
indispensable function of managing people in organizations.
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