Concepts and perspectives in Human Resource Management

Concept

of

HRM

Human resources are the total knowledge, talents and aptitudes of an organisation as well as the
values, attitudes, approaches and beliefs of the individuals involved in the affairs of the
organisation. It is the sum total of the inherent abilities, acquired knowledge and skills
represented by the talents and aptitudes of the persons employed in an organisation.
Definition:
According to Edwin B. Flippo, "human resource management is the process of planing,
organising, directing, controlling of procurement, development, compensation, integration,
maintenance and separation of human resources to the end that individual, organisational and
social objectives are accomplished."

HRM is the process of bringing an oranisation and its employees together so that they work
together to achieve their goals. It is a management function which includes recruitment,
selection, training and development, appraisal, compensation, rewards, motivation and growth,
industrial relations, employee welfare, grievance redressal, etc in relation to the employees of an
organisation.

Perspectives
Normative

in

perspective

Human
of

resource
Human

resource

management:
management

This approach deals with HRM from two basic perspective "hard HRM" and "soft HRM".
"Hard" HRM embraces all those elements in employment relations laying emphasis on
employee's compliance, quantitative output, managers, task and the development of the
organisation. "Soft" HRM will tend to favour flexibility, negotiation, performance, quality,
recognition of environments and rights in employment relations. It is more strategic and long
term.

Critical

perspective

of

Human

resource

management

The critical perspective of HRM is an outcome of normative perception. It proposes that

organisations maintain their "soft HRM" approach only to show in their policies but in reality
they
practice
"hard
HRM"
to
extend
management
control.
They pretend to be concerned for workers and exploit them through work intensification and
downsizing. Thus Critical Perspective proposes that HRM has only changed organizational
rhetoric and reality has not changed since the introduction of Personnel. However it also argues
that HRM uses a unitary, soft HRM rhetoric to obscure hard reality characterized by increased
management control and diminished job security for employees. The first proposition describes
HRM
as
powerless
and
the
second
as
powerful.
Behavioural

perspective

of

Human

resource

management

Behavioural perspective of HRM believes that it is vital for an organisation to control or mould
the behaviour of its employees to bring the desired results from them. Focus is on the
identification of desired behaviour, ensuring availability of opportunities and environment for
desired behaviour, developing employees' skills to bring desired behaviour, and motivating
employees
to
behave
as
desired.
Different employee behaviours needed for different organisations. Organisations' policies and
practices help in bringing desired employee behaviour and that increases its effectiveness.
Strategic

perspective

of

Human

resource

management

Strategic perspective of HRM believes that the human resources are valuable in improving an
organisation's
efficiency
or
effectiveness.
It provides a strategic framework to support long term business goals and objectives. The focus
is on longer term people issues and macro concerns about structure, quality, culture, values,
commitment
and
matching
resources
to
future
need.
It involves development of consistent practices, programs, and policies to facilitate achievement
of strategic objectives.

Pricing objectives
Pricing is the process of translating the value of product or service into quantitative terms and
adding to it the revenue a firm wants to earn after considering all the expenses occurred both in
monetary and non monetary forms. Price is the outcome of pricing which is kept unchanged for a
certain
period
of
time.
Pricing considers all the factors like cost of procurement of raw materials, cost of production,

cost of transportation, distribution, marketing, packaging, and sales promotion, competition,

purchasing power of target market, government policies, etc.

Pricing includes setting objectives, identifying the factors governing price, formulating price
policies, formulating strategies for setting prices, implementing them and controlling them.
Some

of

the

objectives

of

pricing

are

as

follow:

1. Return on investment: Main objective of pricing is that the price decided for a product
should be able to bring satisfactory return on investment so that the firm gets motivation and
viability
to
carry
on
the
production
of
a
product.
2. Profit maximisation: When product gets acceptance in the market firms try to maximise their
profits by way of pricing by keeping the price of a product high.
3. Price stability: When the price of a product is volatile its consumers are confused therefore
companies try to keep the price stable to win the confidence of consumers.
4. Under the reach of target market: This is also one of the basic objective of pricing where
price of the product is kept at the level where the target market can easily afford it.
5. Social welfare: Sometimes social welfare is the objective when a company keeps the price of
a product at minimum possible level so that they can serve the beneficiary. It happens mostly
with generic and basic products run by some NGO or non-profit organisation working with
social
welfare
objective.
6. Complying Government policies: In the process of pricing a product government policies for
maximum price including taxes have to be kept in mind. Price of the product needs to be in
compliance
with
the
law
of
the
land.
7. Beating competition: When a firm runs a product with the objective to beat the competition it
may follow low price policy to penetrate the market and increase its market share.
8. In line with firm's objectives: In whatever stage of product of a firm be in product life cycle

its pricing is directly influenced with that. It means pricing objectives are directly proportional to
a
firm's
objectives.
9. Bringing satisfactory profits to channel partners: After a product is manufactured it reaches
to its customers via different channels who are called traders or intermediaries having monetary
interests. Pricing has to cater their interest and profits to sell the products to final customers.
10. Consumers' satisfaction: A product is made for the ultimate customer who uses it. Pricing
of a product should be such that a consumer feels satisfaction while buying and using the
product. It should not be too high that the customer feels it does not worth it and nor too low that
customer feels it is of sub quality.

Marketing : Share increasing strategies

After a firm has seen growth in its business and reaped profits from it but the business has now
become stagnant and growth slowed down. The business needs to expand its horizon to increase
its market share to increase its profit. Some of the strategies to increase market share are as
follow:
1. The firm should look at the customers it presently has as an asset and should do all the efforts
to sustain them. If it tries to look out for new customers and doesn't pay attention to the present
customer base then acquiring new customers is of no use as the firm still has same or even less
customers as old customers have left them.

2. By the expansion of geographic area business may acquire new customers and expand its
market share. They can do it by expanding their sale to new state or even new country by means
of
export.
3. The firm can tap new customers in the present geographic area who are not using their
products
by
way
of
schemes
and
promotion.
4. New uses of the same product can be found out and suggested to the market via advertising
like
does
Dettol.
5. New variants of the product can be brought for capturing different tastes and interests of

customers like Colgate introduced many variants of toothpaste like colgate maxfresh, colgate
total,
colgate
herbal,
colgate
active
salt,
etc.
6. Up-gradation in manufacturing process for manufacturing upgraded product according to the
market
demand
helps
in
increasing
market
share.
7. Exploring new niches is always a good way to increase market share.
8. Product innovation of products in demand helps the company to stay ahead in the competition.
9. Strengthening the brand image and making it popular among customers automatically pulls the
demand
of
products.
10. Customer relationship management helps in sustaining the current customer base and
bringing
new
customers
via
word
of
mouth
communication.
11. Brand or product promotion via advertising, contests, sponsorship, CSR, helps in increasing
sale of a product.

Marketing : Brand building strategies

Branding is one of the important processes of marketing. Be it a big business or a small one
branding has its say everywhere. Difference between branded and non branded goods or services
can be seen and felt easily. In today's world of internet and technology as much easy it has
become to communicate that much difficult it has become to be seen as committed to that
communication.
Its not like once you have created or developed a brand and now rest of your life you can bank
upon

Branding
that. The business has to continuously evolve its brand with time. Some of the brand building
strategies
are
as
follow:
1. Define the brand: It includes how a business sees its brand and what are the traits it want to
be associated with it. How it want the consumers to look at and feel about the brand. What values
of the firm they want to attach with the brand. It helps in defining the brand.
2. Composition of brand: Here the firm has to decide upon the things that present the brand to
the outer world. Like brand name, logo, colour, design, music, etc.

3. Target and positioning of the brand: Once the brand is ready now here comes the step to
make it open to the world and present it to the consumers. Now comes the question how to covey
the values of the brand to the consumers. Advertising is one of the ways to do it but only
advertising can not do the work. Business needs to show its values through its product, services
and
conduct.
Not only consumers but employees are also a vital part of this brand building. The conduct an
organisation does with its employees is seen in their interaction with the consumers.
4. Review the brand: After the brand has been exposed to the market it needs to be reviewed
periodically on the grounds of company's philosophy which may change with time, its
effectiveness, its influence, the value it holds for consumers, competition, etc.
5. Reaffirm the brand: If any changes need to be incorporated it should be as business is an
ongoing process and needs and wants of consumers changes with time. New demographics occur
with
new
thinking
which
needs
to
be
addressed
without
delay.
The

brand

should

be

relaunched

with

freshness

and

new

values.

Apart from above I would like to share some new age branding strategies which I recently read
in
an
article
on
www.forbes.com
contributed
by
Glenn
Llopis:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

See
Establish
A
lifestyle
Continuous
Promote
Serve

consumers
engagement
that
others
don't.
an
identity
that
is
easily
relatable.
platform
that
inspires
people
and
communicates
hope.
innovation
with
flawless
timing
and
execution.
the
genuine
spirit
of
giving.
others
to
leave
a
legacy.

Marketing : Brands Meaning and Role

According to American Marketing Association," A brand is a name, term, symbol or a design, or
a combination of them which is intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or group
of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors."

Brands
Brands represent a product, service or company which have their values embodied in it. Like
Tata is known for its strength, reliability and quality and McDonalds for quality and pocket
friendly burgers. They make it easy for the company to get into the mind of its customers.
A good brand is mostly simple and short which is easy to identify like Apple if someone talking
about electronics and heard the name Apple or seen its icon they know its one of the world's top
most company manufacturing iphones, tablets, laptops Mac books, etc. Apple has been
successfully
able
to
make
its
name
in
the
premium
market.
Sometimes people themselves become a brand like Sachin Tendulkar, Aamir Khan and Amitabh
Bacchan are brands themselves. Many times people go to the movie theater only by knowing the
star-cast of the movie because those actors have been consistent in their performances and the
choice of films they do that always entertain them and prove to be value for their money.
Brands can be read, seen, heard or felt they are the intangible assets of a company. The qualities
associated with them can not be build only by advertisements the product they are representing
should be able to perform on the said quality standards.

Role of Brands in marketing

Brands play a very important role in the success of a business. some of them are:
1. They help in making the product identifiable. There are so many companies selling the same
product in the same market brands for them are like names given to human beings.
2. They make it easy to advertise for the product. A product with a brand name is easy to
advertise and become known to people like it was easy for Rahul Gandhi to enter the politics
with Gandhi surname.
3. Products with brand names becomes easily acceptable by the customers like ITC launched
sunfeast biscuits under its brand and was easily accepted by the people as a good brand in
biscuits.
4. It becomes easy for a company to expand its product mix under a successful brand like ITC
has varied product mix tobacco, hotels, agriculture produce, soaps, biscuits, etc.
5. Brands provide an assurance of quality to the customer which saves his money and energy in
researching and looking out for appropriate product which enable the company to charge a
premium
on
price.
6. Middlemen who are involved in the business of branded goods have many advantages as they
don't need to expend on advertisement and there is less risk of loss.
7.
Brands
pull
the
sale
of
products
and
thus
increase
the
profit.
8.
Brands
protect
fluctuation
of
price.
9. Consumer is satisfied after using the product of a good brand as he feels value for money.
10. Sale of the product comes automatically under the name of an accepted brand.

Marketing : Product Life Cycle (PLC)

Products also have a life cycle just like humans. They also have different stages in their life as
they
move
forward
in
their
journey
of
life.
The

concept

of

PLC

is

based

on

following

assumptions:

1.
Products
have
a
limited
life.
2. Product sales passes through different stages which offer different challenges, opportunities
and
problems.
3.
Profits
rise
and
fall
at
stages
of
PLC.
4. Products require different strategies of marketing, human resource, finance, purchase,
manufacturing,
etc
in
different
stages
of
its
life
cycle.
These different stages of life of a product can be plotted on a chart named as PLC. Where X axis
represents time and Y axis represents sales and profit. Sales are always greater than the
realisation of profit.

Different stages of Product Life Cycle (PLC)

Basically, PLC is a tool which allows a business to examine the stage of its product in the
market through its sales and profit in particular time period. After that it can chalk out a strategy
to over come the problems faced by the product in the market. Lets have a look at the different
stages of product life cycle and problems and opportunities it generally faces in that stage:
1. Introduction stage: It is the stage of introduction of product in the market. The company has
to make heavy investments in order to launch and run a product in the market for the first time.
Sales volume are very slow and profits are generally non existent or are negative. If a company is
able to sustain and overcome it, then only it reaches the next stage.

2. Growth: If the product has been accepted by the market its sale grows rapidly and the
business start making profit very steeply. There is awareness in the market about the brand and
product. Product starts facing competition therefore marketing expenditure increases.
3. Maturity: After the product has seen substantial growth and reached to masses it starts facing
stagnation in sales and rate of growth of sales declines. Profits may increase or come down due
to competition. The business has to make expansion and promotional strategy, offer different
models of the same product, find new niche markets, offer discounts, schemes, etc to sustain in
the
market.
This
is
the
longest
stage
of
PLC.
4. Decline: After the fruits of maturity has been reaped product faces huge decline in sales and
its declining stage of product life cycle starts. Profits start falling severely. Competition becomes
cut throat and market share start declining fast. Company may focus on only profitable markets.
At this stage business may decide to make investments in fixed assets for technology upgradation that may revive the product and manufacture totally new kind of variants. Innovation
and up-gradation may be the best strategy at this stage if the company wants to continue the
product or divestment or elimination of the product is the other option.

Shortcomings of product life cycle:

Although PLC is a good tool to asses a product's future prospects and strategy it is not the only
life cycle of a product. A product may show other pattern of life cycle apart from this and be
unpredictable. Not all the products necessarily reach the decline phase or a product may never
see
a
decline.
Sometimes it is difficult to asses the stage of a product, it may seem to be maturity but it may
come
out
to
be
decline
without
passing
through
maturity.
Life span of different stages may be very different from this. Maturity need not always be the
longest
stage
instead
introduction
stage
may
be
the
longest.
If a temporary fall in profits mistakenly taken as decline and plan for its discontinuance have
been started it will lead it to decline even when actually it was not.

Marketing : Static and Dynamic understanding of BCG Matrix

BCG matrix is a growth - share matrix depicting the position of a corporation's portfolio of
business units with comparison to each other on a single plot. It was developed by Bruce
Henderson
of
Boston
Consulting
Group
in
1970s.

BCG Growth - Share Matrix

This matrix considers two factors important for the growth and success of a firm one is market
growth rate and another is relative market share. The matrix is plotted along these two factors.
Market growth rate is the overall industry's growth rate, as much high it is that much attractive it
is to be in that business. An increased market growth rate leads to consumption of cash. Relative
market share is the firm's market share in comparison to the market leader in that sector. An
increased market share leads to the generation of cash and it is generally a good position for a
business unit to have a high market share as it is able to capitalise on its experience curve and
employ
cost
advantages.
There are four segments on the basis of different combinations of these factors:
1. Cash Cows : This is a situation for a business unit when the market growth of its industry is
low but relative market share of the firm is high. This may be a result on the product life cycle
when the business had really gained a significant market share during the growth days of market
and it is still able to maintain that when the market growth rate had slowed down.
It means business is consuming less funds as market growth is slow but it is generating more
funds as it has dominance in the market share because of its experience in the market. And due to
this the business has been able to cut its cost and being more productive in less funds.
It does not need funds for investment in fixed assets, research or mass marketing but only for
operations
and
to
target
the
target
customers.

These kind of businesses are good as long they can survive or should be retained even if small
investments needed to run it as it can fund the corporation's growing units with least attention
and investment. Just giving the fruits of corporation's hard work in its old years.
2. Stars : A business unit comes under stars when both its market growth rate and relative
market share are high. It means the business unit needs more funds to satisfy its need for
expansion and up-gradation, fixed investments, research, marketing,etc. At the same time when
its market share is increasing it is able to generate more funds from volume sales, new customer
acquisition, etc. Its net profit may be even out with its funds consumption. The business is in
growth
stage
of
product
life
cycle.
This is the right time to invest in it by pouring in funds from the corporations' other business
units which may be from cash cows or by divesting loss making units.
3. Question Marks : Some business units become question mark when they have low relative
market share in highly growing market. They tend to consume more funds but lack in funds
generation. These are also in the growth stage of product life cycle.
There may be some problem with the way of carrying business because if the market is growing
it means the industry's other competitors are growing and they are hitting the nail at the right
place. We can take the example of Nokia, it was the king of mobile handset market in India but
with the inception of low price handset companies like Micromax and smart phones from
Samsung it started loosing its market share even when the market growth rate was very high.
These units need more and more funds for carrying out business but even on this they do not turn
out to be profitable and make losses and thus there is a question mark on them they are also
called
problem
child.
If the corporation's philosophy allows it may be better to chalk out the actual problem and try to
solve it, it may be regarding not getting sufficient funds or some procurement, production,
finance,marketing or sales related problem or sell it as Nokia sold its handset business to
Microsoft.
4. Dogs : Businesses which have relatively low market share in the slowly growing market are
called dogs. They neither consume much funds nor generate enough funds. This stage generally
comes in the late maturity time of product life cycle when the market growth rate has slowed
down.
It may not be wrong to say that we are in the wrong business as even being for a long time in the
same business since its growth the business has not been able to gain sufficient market share and
still
struggling
with
profits.
Retrenchment
Shortcomings

may

be

the
of

best

option
B.C.G

for

these

units.
matrix:

BCG matrix is not much relevant in today's scenario. As it considers only two factors market
growth rate and relative market share important for taking decisions in business. There are many
other factors which play important role in a business's success like no.of competitors, size of the
market,
sector
of
the
business,
etc.
A business unit may have very small market share in comparison to competitors but it may have
complete
hold
on
the
niche
it
is
playing
in.
A corporation's all the business units need not necessarily be dependent on each other.
According to matrix when a business seems to be a dog it may in actual be a cash cow for the
corporation.
Its not necessary that particular strategy is applicable to all the situations, many things also
depend on corporation's philosophy and situations that whether it want to stay in the market at
any cost or its objective is to make money only or to keep its presence in the market or
philanthropy.
Although BCG matrix may not be so relevant in today's world but it still provides a basic tool for
the understanding of business and business decision making.