The Description Of Human Resources Management

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

The purpose of this research paper is to analyze the description of human resources management objectives and development. The objective of this study is to examine the problems encountered during the application of human resources management system and to explain how to resolve them with an example.

INTRODUCTION

While the most important thing until the 19th century was land for people and societies, it was replaced by capital and factories in 19th and 20th centuries. Therefore, necessary importance was not given to the people and the studies regarding them were solely having some very basic registries. Today, however, in accordance with the goal of the organization it is tried to take maximum efficiency from human resources, to meet the requirements and to develop them continuously in vocational terms. In another words, it is acknowledged that the studies about human like personnel recruitment for businesses and institutions, their training, increasing their working performance, arranging the salaries, regulating the employer-employee relationship, improving the working conditions and the health of the workers must be handled in a holistic manner. If not, the institutions would not be able to achieve their goals.

If we believe that the basic wealth of the institutions, businesses, and societies is made out of human resources, and the success of the organization is based on human, then we should attach more importance to the "human" notion and the studies on planning and management than the management of other resources. Because for material wealth it is human being who will make efficient use of the sources, as well as assuring peace and positive relationship in the working place. So, without providing personal development for the people from the lowest till the highest position, organizing the required training and keeping the motivation high, the quality of the institution and the organization cannot be developed and disorder, inefficiency and restlessness would dominate that place. If the employees are complaining that their managers do not understand them, give importance to their opinions and ideas, fulfill their wishes, care for them, and if the management, also, thinks that the employees are not working efficiently, retarding the work and grumbles about their inefficiency, then it is quite obvious that the human resources in that institution or business are not managed well.

On the other hand, there are some institutions and businesses that invest in human, have human resources unit within their organization, and today HRM is becoming a significant working area. The main task of this unit providing qualified person to the organization, improve the skills and abilities of the present personnel, generating them motivation, and improving and sustaining the working conditions. However, this work requires some certain law and management knowledge, as well as experience in sociology and human psychology.

The objective of this study is to examine the problems encountered during the application of human resources management system and to explain how to resolve them with an example.

DEFINITION OBJECTIVE AND DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES

The definition of Human Resources Management

In general, the concept of human resources stands for the human, which is one of the most fundamental sources used for producing goods and services in the businesses today. This term encompasses the workforce within the organization, as well as the workforce which is out of the business and which can be used as a potential (Kaynak ve Diğerleri, İnsan  Kaynakları  Yönetimi, İ.Ü.  İşletme  Fakültesi Yayını, Yayın No: 276, İstanbul, 1998, s.16.).

Organization, is a structure formed to produce goods and services by members. In order to enact the design and to fulfill the objectives –the fundamental reasons of the organization- the physical and mental participation of the human variety is required. So as to produce within the organization, there is need for other production factors besides human. Bringing these related factors together and arranging them to create a harmonized integral structure, namely creating a system, is again possible with the existence of the human. On the other side, they are also people themselves who consume the outcomes of the production of this organization. Being created by people, the organizations are used to fulfill the requirements of the people. Thus, the reason for the organization is human; while it is the motive of the organization since the human wants to satisfy its necessities, it is also the medium of the organization both as entrepreneur and manager, and as physical and mental labour (Öznur, 1998:2).

It is acknowledged that the importance of the human input in a business has a quite different position and value. The human resource cannot be replaced with one another resource. Because human supplies, plans, organize, manages all the resources, works and, thus, dominates all of the inputs (Sabuncuoğlu, 2005:2). The human resources management (HRM) concept, which has been used since 1980’s, has a different meaning and fact from the classic personnel management. With the human resources concept, the person working in an establishment became as valuable resource as the capital and technology -actually even more. Thus, just as technology to which all kinds of investments are made, and profit and efficiency from which the capital is not denied, to human resources, as well, that much investment must be done and all kinds of efforts must be shown to improve it. And this approach, forms the basis of the HRM (Uğur, 2003:27).

Some definitions for human resources management that can be encountered:

"Human resources management, is the whole of the studies and functions enabling the effective management of human resources in any organizational and environmental area, in a beneficial manner to the organization, individual and environment, abiding by the law" (Kaynak ve DiÄŸerleri, 1998: 16).

"Human resources management is finding and developing the most effective manpower for the organization, and all of the activities done to provide its sustainability" (Daft,1994: 396).

In other words, whole activities providing and coordinating the human resources of an organization forms the HRM. HRM focuses on human, handles the worker relations in a managerial structure, developing policies in accordance with institutional culture and functions as a key role with this aspect.

"Rather unusual and completely new approaches and principles, human resources management is a strategical approach handling the worker management, understanding how the relationship between all workers is in the institution and trying to define how they should be" (Fındıkçı,2000;14)

"Human resources management is the theory, principle, system and activities regarding the effective and efficient use of human factor, enabling to reach the individual and organizational objectives" (Acar, 2000: 17).

"Human resources management is a strategic approach to supply, develop and motivate people -the key resource of the organization- and to gain their liability." (Bingöl, 1997: 3)

"Human resources management is a function arising with the registry, training, development, motivation and supply of manpower in the organizations" (De Cenzo  ve  Robbins, 1996: 8).

"Human resources management enables the recruitment of the personnel working in directory or operational steps, their placement, training and putting into effect all support activities to increase the efficiency continuously"(SabuncuoÄŸlu, 2005: 4).

"Human resources management is a management system intending to increase and improve the happiness of the people working in the businesses, and to bring to the top level the efficiency and effectiveness of the businesses reducing -even converting them to the same- the difference of objectives between the workers and the business" (UÄŸur, 2003: 28).

Within this context, human resources management HRM can be defined as the managerial overall activities functioning to convert the qualifications of the human resources with other material production resources to efficiency and work satisfaction in terms of worker's objectives- dealing with a systematic approach. From the point of the business, there are some inputs called 5M and it is widely acknowledged that human input has a quite special position and value when compared with others. The human resource -one of these inputs- can never be replaced with one another source. Because people provides-supplies all other resources, plans, organizes, manages them, work and therefore dominates all other inputs. Unless there is the manpower in a company, the rest would only be stone, soil and steel. It is the human, who stimulates that stone and steel, establishes the company, administrates, manages, produces goods and services and consumes at the end (SabuncuoÄŸlu, 2005: 2). These inputs, called 5M, are demonstrated in Table-1:

One another approach is 3D principle. According to SabuncuoÄŸlu, if people are desired to work efficiently and effectively in a business, or if optimum output is desired to be obtained from human resources, then 3D principle must be made use of. In case of fulfilling the 'corrects' expressed schematically in Figure-1, the maximum efficiency will be obtained from a person (SabuncuoÄŸlu, 2005: 3).

The Objectives of the Human Resources Management

In general, the objective of the human resources management (HRM) is increasing the creative participation of the workers to the organization with a sense of moral and social responsibility. The other objectives of the human resources shall be listed as follows (Bingöl, 1998: 115-116):

Social Objective

Social objective stands for reducing the negative effects of pressure and requests coming from the society to the organization, and having a sense of moral and social responsibility satisfying the needs of the society

Organizational Objective

It is acknowledging that the human resources management exists to contribute to the organizational effectiveness. In this context, it can be expressed that the human resources unit is auxiliary to fulfill the organizational objective.

Functional Objective

It is the objective to maintain the contribution of the human resources unit conforming to the necessities of the organization. Functional objective bears a great importance since there is a risk of wasting the sources when it is more or less complex than the necessities of the organization.

Personal Objective

Helping the workers to fulfill their personal objectives. Maintaining the employment of the workers; and if desire to motivate them, then their personal necessities must be satisfied. If not, the performance and satisfaction of the worker may decrease or the workers may leave the organization.

The Development of Human Resources Management

Although human resources management has been acknowledged as a functional specialty area and application area for approximately last 70 years, its roots goes far more back. The most significant reason for having such an old doctrine is the existence of human groups organizing to fulfill the common objectives all through the history. It is possible to relist them in systematic developmental phases: industrial revolution, developments in the industrial psychology, development in the functions of human resources and behavioral science (Bingöl, 1998: 9-15). The Industrial Revolution beginning with the invention of the "Steam Machine" of James Watt caused to a huge increase in production, goods and capital, and besides, business and trade have accelerated.

This development also improved the situation of the business entrepreneurs. Despite the positive developments in production and trade, the situation of the workers got worse; the pressure of unemployment began harming the security of work and income. Proletariat was shaped out with this change and this group began to their intense struggle with capitalist class to improve their situation within a historical period. For that matter it can be concluded that proletariat movement -organized in wide masses- was a result of the industrial revolution. Then it is observed that this movement prevailing from factory to factory, at the end jumped from one country to another. At these times, since the business managers with insufficient training were putting less attention to "human relations" and "personnel management", they could not understand the organization of the workers and they opposed it quite fiercely. At the end, the government had to intervene the relationship between employee and employer; and getting closer to the 20th century, labour bargaining and striking rights were given to the workers.

One another development in HRM is "Scientific Management Concept". According to the approach based on efficient use of human resources and productivity principle -which is leaded by Taylor-, performing the high productivity level in human factor is possible only by increasing the monetary rewards, training and appropriate personnel selection. The personal management side of the human resources management began to develop as a specialization area at the beginning of the 20th century. Without a doubt, the studies in scientific management movement and in industrial psychology contributed immensely in its development. The wealth movement of 1800’s attracted the attention of the public to the harsh conditions that many workers and their families had to pass through. This movement also made some employers pay attention to the economic wealth of their employees. However, the benefits obtained from the functions of the human resources were accepted more in the following years, the volume of the human resources programs increased. Beginning solely from making registries and employment functions, the programs encompassed all aspects and areas of HRM. One another development in human resources management is the movement of human relationship. Especially following 1930’s, the required importance started to be attached to the human relationship. With the cooperation of USA National Research Council and Massachusetts Technology Institution in 1923, some experiments have been conducted in Chicago Hawthorne establishment of Western Electric Company regarding the effects of physical working conditions on productivity. As a result of these experiments, it has been deduced that there are some other factors affecting the productivity besides working conditions. The experiments conducted with the leadership of Mayo and their results led to a conflict with the assumptions of Taylor, and it proved clearly that people may stay under the effect of the social relationship that they live in putting forth the significance of the humane characteristic of a person.

As an extension of human relationship to some extend, behavioral science is actually social and biological units on human behavior study in basic. Apart from the mid 1950’s, the studies of Argyris, Maslow, McGregor and Herzber emphasizing the humane side of the worker bringing his/her potential and talent, and developing him or herself when an opportunity is given. Especially the idea pointing out that when the organization cannot fully take advantage from the qualifications of the worker, and that when the administration trusts in and give responsibility to the worker, this worker would have a higher motivation, liability and productivity according to the Y Theory of McGregor, has reinforced the concept revealing the human factor as a value for the organization (Bingöl, 1998: 9-15).

THE ORGANIZATION OF THE HUMAN RESOURCES DEPARTMENT IN BUSINESSES

The organization of human resources department varies in big and small businesses. Every business has its organizational structure depending on factors such as the value given to the function of personnel, number of personnel working there, educational level and etc. In such an organization, the basic principle is to define the first works to be done. For example, some sub-departments can be founded such as recruitment management to find and select worker, training management to conduct the training, remuneration management to regulate the monetary issues of the workers, and industrial relations management to manage the collective bargaining and trade-union relations. These units sometimes can be formed separately and sometimes combining in various forms. In Figure-2 there is a model of organization matching with the example (Cenzo; Robbins, 1996: 19).

These schema may be used in a different way in another company. For instance some other management like manpower planning management, personnel affairs or personnel affairs management, pyschotechnics or carrier planning management can be added depending on the need.

If there is no organization in holding level, a coordinator can be designated to the department responsible from all human resources in the company. In case of such coordinator, units that will be created in the center will be working mainly on specialization, for instance creating law consultancy, planning consultancy and databank.

One another model in human resources organization is being organized according to the customers. If the company is organized based on the country or region, or customer, then the human resources department shall be designed according to the country and region. In such a case, human resources units might be created in the centers functioning in other regions and these shall have continuous and regular relationship with the human resources department in the central office, and shall take decisions. The human resources organization schema within a huge industrial institute like a holding can be observed in Figure-3.(Carrell; Elbert; Hatfield, 1995: 22

When we a look at the two organization schema, we can clearly see that the bigger gets the business, the wider gets the organization, and thus, the organizational structure becomes more complex. It can be observed that as the organization gets wider, sub-departments of the HRM gets wider depending on the functions, and the unit begins to have a more institutional identity.

The Importance of the Human Resources for Establishments

Regarding the concept of personnel management -which has great significance for businesses- has changed immensely especially in developed countries since 1975. The main reason behind these changes is the increase in information, technology, competency and environmental factors. Human resources concept was first proposed in 1950's. Today, in western countries and in Turkey there are classes called "Human Resources Management" and platforms are formed. (Finnigan, 1997: 35)

And not only in western countries, has the nation of personnel management also begun to be replaced by the notion of human resources management (HRM) in the businesses in Turkey. It is an unavoidable must for the businesses to give the required importance to the human resources, which is the sole condition to survive, develop and get bigger. The businesses should shift from personnel management notion to the HRM notion. Human resources management considers manpower as an investment element while personnel management regards it as a cost element. Human resources management develops policies on human resources and conducts the studies within the frame of a pre-prepared program to solve the problems about human resources. The personnel management does not even pay attention to such situation. Personnel management notion uses the anterior data; while following the sound registries and archiving studies HRM has an attitude caring for future. HRM deals with activities such as strategically planning, economic and market planning, investment and equipment planning etc. Personnel management does not deal with such areas. Human resources management does not separate sub-functions like recruiting, remuneration, training, organizational planning and carrier management. All these functions are accepted as a dynamic system within a whole. HRM notion has a major role -besides personnel technique and applications- in defining the workers' relationship with the establishment and their function in the strategic management of the business, and imposing this issue at the top management level. Human resources management gathering employer-employee relations and personnel management branches -which are about the management of the workers in a business- under same roof, aims at turning them to human resources strategy targeting at the works at all levels.

HRM does not only serve for the solution of the problems informed by the "line" management, but also has an active role in defining the problems in advance, determining the priorities and creating the policies. While the personnel management rather functions as a mediator between workers and top management, HRM is in charge of regulating the relationship between top management and workers. It is observed in HRM notion where the workers are a capital which is invested in and whose advantages must be thought of. And also there is a behavioral aspect which is within the scope of HRM and which comes along with activities and applications to raise an awareness on human value. While fulfilling the responsibilities, HRM takes the external environment into consideration too. Open system view is the basis. It does not only depend to the establishment while solving problems. Personnel management, on the other hand, tries to solve the problems within a narrow scope in the structure of the establishment. As a summary for the explanations regarding human resources management: the significance of HRM increased with the existence of competency in the world, rapid evolution in the technology, the consumers' more standing out than producers, diffusion of liberal production system, arouse of new working areas, the difficulty in finding the employee qualified and talented enough which is required by the new working areas and new techniques, increase in the training and cultural level of the people, increase in the need for trained manpower. Today the functions regarding the personnel management are not only limited with the routine works like preparing the payrolls, checking the continuity and having the registries. Conducting the studies on worker satisfaction, training and improving the worker, assure their participation in the management, carrier planning, planning strategically human resources, creating a company culture in the business and contributing to the liability to the company are among the tasks of the human resources department.

The Importance of Human Resources Management in Industrial Relations

Apart from the mid 1970's, the solutions searched and developed against the crisis that was going on were to be solutions for profitability -for the nature of the capitalism. So, as much as producing, it was important to find market for the product and then be able to compete in that market, which meant low costs and obtaining some certain quality. In another words, consuming was as important as producing. Therefore, besides low costs, it is significant to be able to meet the request of the consumers and satisfy them to hold in the market. Without a doubt that such a situation requires more intense participation of the workers in the production procedure. It takes its place in approaches as "flexibility", "effectiveness", "human resources", "total quality", "quality circle" and "total quality management" (Kaynak, 1996: 33-37).

In 1980's and 1990's, while the general management notions in organizational and management theory areas, and Taylorism philosophy were being criticized, more stress was put on developing human resources and giving more importance for the training to have a higher performance in the organization. As a result of the developments in the management area, a management philosophy called "total quality management" was tried to be created as a requirement of postfordist production system. In the total quality management notion -which is deemed as a management philosophy targeting at raising the quality in the organizations-, it is stated that the objective is to raise the quality and efficiency of the goods and services in accordance with the request and expectation of the customers. Quality management is defined as quality development in organizations, conducting quality planning and quality control studies, creating quality standards, giving importance to higher management quality issue, and assuring all workers to participate in quality development studies. In this new management philosophy, it is expressed that in order to raise the quality and the efficiency, areas like the satisfaction of the workers, motivation and rewarding, performance assessment and use of measuring methods, eliminating the errors and mistakes in the organization, putting stress on team work, taking advantage of successful organization experiences, making strategic planning etc. are examined. As long as having such developments, it is claimed that HRM would have significant effects on industrial relations; it is indicated that with this new approach the traditional industrial relations would highlight the notions like motivation, recruitment, training, competence and quality -from which it stayed away before. Varying from the traditional industrial relations, it is stated that there is no interest difference between workers and managers in HRM (kaynak, 1996: 33-37).

According to one another opinion, traditional industrial relation anticipates a system where the employer and the employee are both a party and where there is a collective bargaining order while new industrial relation management cutouts the trade-unions or establishes indirect relation with workers putting the importance of the trade union in second place. The main objective of these indirect relations is having the manpower contribute to the production procedure in a more efficient, more participatory and more flexible manner with some methods like quality circle and domestic labor market. It has been maintained that the change that goes on for the last few years brings new searches and structural changes in industrial relations up with the effect of intensifying competition.

This change is evaluated as follows:

The change in the role and efficiency of the industrial relations institutions

The increase in the significance of the individual inversely proportioned with the decrease in the significance of the institutions

Introduction to the restructuring procedure in traditional industrial relations system.

It is impossible that these developments do not affect the industrial relations system and the actors of this system, which is a sub-system of social, economic and political systems. This situation pushes the trade union to new searches; at least causes them to develop new policies on not being affected negatively more. Non-standard employment, sub-employment applications, change in the work power structure, negative attitude of the employers to the unionization complicates the unionization and increase the number of the members, while it usually leads to a loss of member -despite few exceptions. However, in some countries where there are similar developments, trade-unions do not have immense member loss while in some others there are tremendous losses. This situation is a consequence of many factors from economy policies to legal framework that they follow, from the ideology dominating the trade-unions to manifestation against trade-union and campaigns. Today, there are serious changes in the level of collective bargaining, which is one of the fundamental activities of the trade unions. It is observed that collective bargaining shifts from collectivism to decentralization. Collective bargaining in work place and business level has begun to gain importance. Besides the level, the content of the collective bargaining has been changing. The need for flexibility has led to give a way to the provisions aiming at increasing the competence power of the business besides the provisions regulating the collective bargaining rights of the workers. Excluding the trade union, the direct communication of the employer with the employee, rise in the salaries parallel with the rise in profits and efficiency pushes the workers to have an individual contract instead of collective bargaining. (Kaynak, 1996: 33-37)

SHIFT FROM PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT TO HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT

The development of human resources management (HRM) with today's understanding and the shift from personnel management to HRM were only possible after passing through some phases a in long period. At the beginning the personnel management was only deemed as registration activity on workers; it was nothing more than a tool assisting in accounts registry like personnel wage, benefits, insurance deduction etc, and assessment of the payment deduction from days-off, the number of the days with report, absence and lateness etc, and other areas significant for other payments. The understanding here is deeming the workers as a cost. However, the contemporary understanding does not see the human resource as a cost element. The human factor is the most dynamic resource for the total adaptation of the organization to the developing and changing universal conditions. With this philosophy, HRM has a more holistic and systematic approach to the human (Yüksel, 1997: 9). As well as the obligation of the companies to increase their competence power in the market, the changes in the social expectations regarding workers' right influenced the raise of human resources management, varying from personnel management. Personnel management today is seen as a narrow scaled approach dealing with selection and placement, performance assessment, work analysis, wage researches or putting stress on conflict resolution methods and techniques. On the other hand, HRM has an attitude studying the employers' relation with the business and its role in strategic management of the business, besides the personnel technique and applications notion, and having a priority in making the top management adopt the importance of the issue. Namely, HRM is not dealing only with the routine works of the personnel management but also with the dynamic and creative applications in the management of the workers (Baysal, 1993: 73-74). In order to push the limits of other production factors in competitor circles, there is a need for the full use of human resource potential, take advantage of creative intelligence and skills of the person in the work. In such a case, the organization will become versatile, variable, complex and will develop a culture or a holistic approach to understand, interpret, develop and manage various human behaviors. It is seen that human resources concept contains this understanding. Thus, the activity area of personnel has broadened within the organization. While performing its own tasks, human resources management is also in charge of offering consultancy and developing the other departments of the organization. In addition, the development in the organization concept contributed in the creation of HRM idea (Palmer, 1996: 9). The success obtained by Japanese companies and some American companies with more efficient HRM policies and applications in areas like liability to the business, productivity and quality demonstrated that how insufficient the human resources is used in the businesses. Areas like organizational behavior and development, personnel management and employer-employee relations are the branches where the workers have their place in the businesses; however, personnel management notion deals with them independent from one another (Baysal, 1993: 75). Actually, the main interest point of the two disciplines is the humane side of the business. Both handles the human, trying to solve the problems regarding the workers in the businesses. However, HRM seems to be a discipline which is more developed, more adapted to the requirements of its time. Besides, HRM has more say in business management field comparing to personnel management. Human resources management in many ways refuses the traditional applications and regards the human as an important resource of the business. In that sense, the human resources means a huge change and flexibility. One another characteristic of human resources management is that it is more individualist when comparing with the personnel management which do not deny the collective work relations.

Working Areas of Personnel Management

At the beginning the personnel management was considered as an activity of keeping registries on workers, and it was nothing more than keeping records on personnel wages, benefits, insurance deductions, permissions, the number of days with report, absence and lateness to the work etc. Afterwards, it has been observed that personnel management developed and got wider.

The functions that can be mentioned as operational support activities in personnel department are:

Personnel selection

Forming a registration file

Preparing payrolls

Advance payments and bonuses

Annual leaves

Patient and visit papers

Monitoring the personnel attendance

Workers' health and occupational safety

Relations with SGK (Social Security Institution) and Ä°ÅŸ-Kur (Turkish Employment Organization)

Relations with regional working management

In-service trainings

Monitoring personnel turnover

Retirement, seniority and payment in lieu of notice

Service organization

Shift organization

Food organization

Postal customs formalities (SabuncuoÄŸlu, 2005: 9)

Working Areas of Human Resources Management

Personnel management began to lose its functional domination in the mid 1980. The main approach variation developed under the human resources management, is based on associating the roles of human resources managers with other hierarchal managers, and creating a common responsibility area. As a result of the developments in human resources management, the last situation can be summarized as follows (SabuncuoÄŸlu, 2005:10):

In order to avoid from the wearing out of the information, training and development is provided.

Human centered functions like human relations, industrial relation, workers' satisfaction, carrier plans, performance assessment, recruitment and adjustment programs are being fulfilled.

A synthesis of personnel management, industrial relations and behavior science is implemented.

Institutional culture is tried to be implemented.

A coordination in workers relationship is tried to be provided.

The reunion of the workers for the common motives is provided.

Organizational objectives and individual objectives are scrutinized together.

Motivation level of the human resources is maintained high and is made ready for organizational change.

Information flow is made through communication channels.

It is aimed that the workers reach the optimum performance level.

Suitable training opportunities are prepared to prepare the "know-how person" to whom there would be great need in the future organizations.

As a consequence, it can be expressed that HRM is a structure containing personnel management; however, there is a significant difference: HRM puts more stress on investment in human -which is its main working area-, investment in the future of the organization and development of the institutions

characterıstıcs of human resources management

HRM tries to avoid from the wear-out of the information of the individuals with the rapid change, development and increase of information, and provide the individual development of the workers.HRM includes the human centered functions like the management of human factor -the most important element of the work-, human relations, personnel management, industrial management, the satisfaction and motivation of the workers, carrier plans, performance assessment, recruitment, adjustment programs, training and development studies. The objective of the HRM is to have the institution reach its objectives successfully.HRM is not only a technical work limited with the function, regulating the relationship between workers and institution and state -just like personnel management-, but also contributing to the management of the organization as much as to the institutional functions like accounts, marketing, production etc.

HRM tries to develop the liability among the workers within the organizational circle, and to place the institutional culture.

HRM is a human centered discipline which appeared in 1980 with its philosophy, technical specifications and applications, and brought a new vision to work relations.

It is quite difficult to define HRM concretizing it.

HRM deals with tensions, conflicts and expectations appearing among workers as a result of the work division in the institution.

HRM tries to examine the human relations in a institutional circle not separately but entirely.

HRM has two main tasks: first one is responding to the need of the individual and contributing to his/her professional improvement; the second is making best use of the human resources in accordance with the objectives of the organization.

Crises, national and international politic and economic problems, decrease in some basic resources have accelerated the development of HRM.

HRM provides the organizational change.

HRM uses communication as a motivating element within the organization.

It enables the share of the institutional culture -created with time-, and liability to the institution.

HRM is the follower of the expectations and rights of the human resource both in and out of the institution.

HRM aims that all workers reach to their optimum performance level.

HRM conducts studies for realizing the social transformation in personal and institutional level, which is defined as information society, post-modern society, globalization, communication society and etc. Because the core of the transformation is "human" and its transformation.

The source of the power in the hierarchal structure of the contemporary businesses has changed. The management based on authority, management positions, tasks and roles have become controversial. Specialization, team work and mutual cooperation are in priority. The contemporary person works more with knowledge. Thus, the fundamental characteristic demanded from the workers of the future organization structure will be "know-how person". HRM prepares a suitable environment to place human resource to create knowledge in organizations. While doing so, it attaches more importance to human with "knowledge is the production of human" idea in mind, and takes human -not knowledge- as the main basis (Fındıkçı, 2000: 18-21)

the dıfferences between personnel management and human resources management

Although the personnel management in Human Resources Management are similar in some respects, there are fundamental differences indeed. The main differences between these two applications can be seen in Table-2 (Aydın, 2004):

If we summarize the difference of perspective between personnel management and HRM -in terms of time and planning- personnel management is short-termed, reactive, randomized and applying to marginal solutions while HRM is pre-prepared with holistic strategy plans. Psychological contract is based on obeying the order in the first one, while in the second the liability to the company is the basis. The control systems are external in the first, while its within the person itself in the second. Regarding the relationship with the workers, a pluralistic with little confidence is dominant in the personnel management. HRM, on the other hand, has a singular and individual system with high confidence. As an assessment criteria, reducing the cost as much as possible is the main objective while the second one takes having maximum profit as a basis (Baysal, 1993: 77-78).

MAIN PRINCIPLES IN THE HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT

Some main principles which guide human resources policy are as follows (SabuncuoÄŸlu, 2005: 19-22.):

Effectiveness principle

The effectiveness principle aims at benefiting from the physical and intellectual power of workers at maximum level and keeping the obtained effective working pace persistent

Humanist Behavior Principle

The real secret of the achievement of an enterprise is to follow economic purposes together with social and humanist purposes. An enterprise must meet the requirements of its workers, inform them and allow them to use their initiatives besides considering its economic purposes in order to be effective. An enterprise must first of all know the expectations of its workers very well. The generally accepted 6 items which motivate employees are as follows:

Increasing life quality

Providing security

Improving the relations between persons and increasing institutional commitment

Helping the individual to know himself

Bring administrative power

Creating independent working environment

Equality principle

An enterprise must have an objective attitude in compliance with equality principle starting from employment process until removal of employees without any language, race, gender, thought, belief and religion discrimination between the employees. Equality of opportunity must be provided especially in employment and promotion issues and other criteria other than the employee's skills, knowledge, personality and talents must not be taken into consideration.

Assurance principle

An employee wants to be sure that he/she will not lose his/her work, status and other related rights as long as he/she does not make an important mistake. One cannot expect an efficient service from an employee who is constantly afraid of losing his/her job. For this reason, the enterprise must prepare a work environment in confidence far from any suspect for its employees and allow them to trust in their futures in economic and social terms.

Clarity principle

It can be said that the success of human resources policy largely depends on the clarity principle. Support and contribution of all employees in establishing the policy to be followed as much as implementing it can be provided by adopting the clarity principle. This principle is implemented by written and verbal explanations. Newspapers, magazines, posters, booklets for newcomers, announcements can be used and meetings can be organized with this purpose.

Privacy principle

At first sight, it may seem controversial that privacy principle is implemented while clarity principle is generally adopted and suggested in modern business management. However privacy principle must be implemented in accounting and personnel issues with the condition of limiting them to some subjects. Particularly registration files of employees, private data and assessments about them and their disciplinary penalties must be kept confidential.

We can say that today's enterprises which can provide all the principles of human resources management (HRM) mentioned above can be one step ahead of their rivals, use human resources well and take necessary basic steps to be institutional. Similarly, we can say that these enterprises give confidence and feeling of belongingness to employees. Therefore they provide the basic factors which increase an employee's commitment to the enterprise.

These principles were adopted as a result of some experiences gained within a period of time and implemented today. However we are in a constantly changing and developing era. For this reason, new principles can be added on them or some principles which lost their importance can leave their places to new ones. Lastly, it mustn't be forgotten that theses principles' order of importance can change from country to country and each country can have its own principles according to its culture.

HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT FUNCTIONS and ACTIVITIES

Human Resources Planning

Human resources planning (HRP) involves all the preparatory works concerning the examination and restructuring of the labor force inside the institution in order to use it efficiently and in accordance with the developments happening inside and outside of the institution. In other words, HRP aims at establishing strategies and making necessary implementations for providing, bringing up and improving the labor force which can respond to social and commercial developments in the changing political, economic and academic field (Fındıkçı, 2000: 128).

In addition, HRP is considered among the main factors which affect efficiency for enterprises and therefore profitability. This planning process does not only play a cost-reducing role by saving from the number of personnel. It also makes the production process efficient by enabling the selection and employment of workers who are convenient for the work (Kaynak, 1996: 83)

Definition, purpose and scope of human resources planning

The first and the most important condition of success in HRP is the regular and conscious determination of necessary and sufficient employee requirement and how to benefit from them. Human resource planning (HRP) comes into play in this process. We can define HRP as the prediction of personnel requirement in an organization and cascading the activities necessary for meeting this need (SabuncuoÄŸlu, 2005: 32-33).

HRP must undertake the following functions for an organization:

Increasing the efficiency of human resources,

Making the coherence between personnel activities and organizational purposes efficient,

Providing economy in new personnel employment,

Enabling the human resources management information system to feed personnel activities and other organizational units

Helping the coordination of other HRP activities such as finding and selecting new workers and career planning.

The purposes in human resources planning are as follows:

Educate and improve the workers

Filling the empty positions

Finding and employing new workers

Accommodating with fast changing conditions in the society

Accommodating with technological innovations and market conditions

Acting in accordance with legal regulations and changes

Types of personnel requirement

Enterprises can need personnel in order to meet the personnel requirement which may appear suddenly or in some periods due to ordinary or exceptional reasons. Types of personnel requirement are as follows (Kaynak, 1996: 84-92):

REAL PERSONNEL REQUIREMENT

Real personnel requirement is the need for labor force that actually carries out the work necessary for attaining the enterprise's economic objectives.

SUBSTITUTE PERSONNEL REQUIREMENT

Substitute personnel means the personnel required for carrying out the work without any delay in case of inevitable absences due to personal excuses such as illness, accident, holiday etc.

ADDITIONAL PERSONNEL REQUIREMENT

Additional personnel requirement appears when the personnel quit the job or the employer dismisses the employer. The point which must be paid particular attention while determining the additional personnel requirement is the employee turnover. Employee turnover is the number obtained by finding the ratio of total employee entrance and exit to average personnel number and multiplying it by 100. Additional personnel requirement can be determined digitally as shown below. An enterprise has to calculate firstly the employee turnover rate in order to determine the additional personnel requirement. It is generally calculated with the rates based on two values.

The method of calculating the employee turnover based on employee exists is called " Bretschneider Formula". It is formulated as shown below:

Employee Turnover Rate = % Exits

Average number of labor force

The formula which is based on entrances is not very interesting and widely used. It is formulated as shown below:

Labor force turnover rate = % Entrances

Average number of labor force

These formulations show us the mobility according to entrances and exits in an enterprise in a certain period of time.

The high employee turnover rate in an enterprise is generally interpreted as the presence of some inconsistencies in the personnel policy that the enterprise followed. However this rate can be interpreted differently according to the structure, business field, and number of employee and the size of enterprise.

High employee turnover rate causes some problems for the enterprise. Some of these problems are as follows (SabuncuoÄŸlu, 2005:46):

It is not easy and it is a waste of time to find a new personnel

The expenses while searching for a new employee causes economic loss

A certain period is necessary for the new employee to get used to the work

High employee turnover can increase occupational accidents

High employee turnover can negatively affect the product quality.

The calculation method based on entrances does not attract the attentions very much. The reason for that can be briefly explained as follows:

An ordinary enterprise is a growing enterprise and there must be more entrances than exits. In this case, the employee turnover rate will be higher. Accordingly, we can conclude that:

If there are more entrances than exits in an enterprise in some period, it will be considered that this enterprise is growing (a labor intensive growing). In this case, employee turnover rate is calculated on the basis of exits.

If the exits are more than entrances and it is not foreseen to make an entrance-exit balance, the enterprise will be considered as getting smaller and employee turnover rate will be calculated on the basis of entrances.

In conclusion, the number of additional personnel requirement will be obtained by multiplying the calculated employee turnover rate with real number of employee.

Additional personnel requirement = employee turnover rate * real number of employee.