MBA - HRM

 

Soft HRM Concept for Effective Employee Performance

Introduction

Human Resource Management (HRM) is a crucial function for any organizations because organizational success is a dream without skilled and capable employees. HRM can be categorized into two aspects such as Hard HRM and Soft HRM (Prowse & Prowse, 2010). Hard HRM is associated with the basic HRM roles and Soft HRM aspects are advanced HRM roles. Hard HRM is task oriented and soft HRM is people-oriented (Cook, et al., 2016).

Figure 1 – Hard Vs. Soft HRM (Source: Tutor2u,2019)

Soft HRM

Soft HRM focuses on human aspect such as ensuring trust, employee development, effective relationships with employees etc. Soft HRM emphasizes individuals’ emotional aspect and inner desires. Soft HRM tend to treat people as the most vital resource in the organization to gain competitive advantage. Employees’ preferences and requirements are largely concerned by employers under the soft HRM. Continuous appreciation and feedback lead to reinforce employees towards better performance and achievements (Cregan, et al., 2021).

 

Key Features of Soft HRM

·         Maintaining a solid reciprocal communication

·         Work and responsibility delegation among employees to motivate and empower them.

·         Performance appraisal focuses on determining employees’ development needs.

·         Flat organization structure

·         Emphasizing democratic leadership (Prowse & Prowse, 2010).

Impact of Soft HRM on Employee Performance

Soft HRM is a crucial aspect for enhancing employee performance as organizations can address inner desires of employees through soft HRM practices such as work delegation, employee concentration, effective communication etc. These aspects empower employees to provide their maximum for organizations and employee feel that employers treat them as a valuable resource (Truss, et al., 1997). Soft HRM promotes employee commitment and collaboration within workplace to achieve higher productivity. Soft HRM within an organization leads to create flexible working environment for employees under the democratic nature leadership characteristics. At the same time employee are emotionally attached to the organization with soft HRM practices and they tend to improve their performance (Saha, 2013).  Soft HRM enhances employee morale as employees feel that organization value their effort and motivate to perform effectively (Cook, et al., 2016). However, democratic leadership in soft HRM may lead to delays in problem solving and some time it can be leads to reduce performance of individuals and organization (Cregan, et al., 2021).

 

Conclusion

Soft HRM is a crucial aspect for enhancing employee motivation in the workplace and it contributes to feel employees to their value for organization (Prowse & Prowse, 2010). However, mere soft HRM is not suitable for every organizational setting and organizations should apply both soft and hard HRM concepts to achieve effective performance from employees.

References

Cook, H., MacKenzie, R. & Forde, C., 2016. HRM and performance: The vulnerability of soft HRM practices during recession and retrenchment. Human Resource Management Journal, 26(4), pp. 557-571.

Cregan, C., Kulik, C. T., Jonston, S. & Bartram, T., 2021. The influence of calculative (“hard”) and collaborative (“soft”) HRM on the layoff‐performance relationship in high performance workplaces. Human Resource Management Journal, 31(1), pp. 202-224.

Prowse, P. & Prowse, J., 2010. Whatever happened to human resource management performance?. International Journal of productivity and performance management, pp. 1-15.

Saha, S., 2013. Increasing organizational commitment strategically using Hard and Soft HRM. International Journal on Global Business Management & Research, 2(1), p. 62.

Truss, C. et al., 1997. Soft and hard models of human resource management: a reappraisal. Journal of management studies, 34(1), pp. 53-73.

Tutor2u,2019.Tutor2u.[Online] Available at: https://www.google.com/search?q=difference+between+soft+and+hard+hrm+pictures&tbm=isch&ved=[Accessed 11 November 2021].