| Human resources is a relatively
      modern management term, coined in the 1960s. The origins of the function arose in organizations that
      introduced 'welfare management' practices and also in those that adopted the principles of 'scientific
      management'. From these terms emerged a largely administrative management activity, co-ordinating a range of
      worker related processes and becoming known, in time as the 'personnel function'. Human resources
      progressively became the more usual name for this function, in the first instance in the United States as
      well as multinational corporations, reflecting the adoption of a more quantitative as well as strategic
      approach to workforce management, demanded by corporate management and the greater competitiveness for
      limited and highly skilled workers.    The use of the term 'human
      resources' by organizations to describe the workforce capacity available to devote to the achievement of its
      strategies has drawn upon concepts developed in Industrial/Organizational Psychology and
      System
      Theory. Human resources has at least
      two related interpretations depending on context. The original usage derives from
      political
      economyand
      economics, where it was traditionally
      called labor, one of
      four factors of
      production– although this perspective has
      shifted as a consequence of further ongoing research into more strategic
      approaches.[1]This first usage is used more in
      terms of 'human resources development' of the individuals within an organization, although the approach can
      also be applied beyond the level of the organization to that of industry sectors and
      nations.[2]  |