ABSTRACT
The approach to the management of people in the organisation, known as Human Resources Management (HRM), as an alternative to Personnel Management, emerged as a result of international comparison, being developed first in the USA in the 1980s as a response to the shock of Japanese competition. In brief outline, the HRM approach emphasises three characteristics of policy infrastructure. The need:
for strategy concerning the management of people to be integrated with business planning at corporate level;
for the various people-management activities such as selection, appraisal, development and reward to be themselves integrated into a consistent strategy, and
that the responsibility for the management of human resources should rest with the line manager rather than HRM professionals (Guest, 1987).
