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The paper suggests that traditional descriptive approaches to Personnel Management do not successfully answer the question ‘what is Personnel Management?’, nor do they explain the way in which it actually exists in work organizations. A framework for analysis is proposed, looking at work organizations from the perspective of the Personnel Manager; it is suggested that this framework may help to answer some of these questions, provide a means of exploring the phenomenon of Personnel Management and also of studying it as a subject and a meeting point of disciplines.

It has recently been argued that the use of external consultants is indicative of a crisis in personnel management. However, the use of consultants, of whatever type, has not been adequately explained for a number of reasons. The reasons underlying the increasing usage of external consultants by personnel is a form of defence, allowing it to shed some activities thereby strengthening its position within the organisation. To illustrate this argument the reasons for the growth in the use of a particular type of consultant by personnel – executive recruitment consultancies – are considered. The results reported draw on two major surveys. The first was directed at executive consultancies whereas the second was directed at corporate personnel directors in the Times 100 companies. Response rates of 42 per cent and 55 per cent were achieved.

The concept of human resources could be a significant development for the personnel function, with a change of emphasis with implications as far reaching as the evolution of sales into marketing or of works management into operations management. On the other hand, it could be a simple novelty with only minor ramifications. What seems quite clear at the moment is that there is little consensus about what human resources management (HRM) actually is among either practitioners or academics. A shift in emphasis within and around the personnel function of organisations is clear, with personnel management tending to decline and for human resources management to increase, but this is often no more than changes of labels, and few people have a clear view of what they are doing and of the way in which their situation is changing(p. 178). In the academic world, we now see university chairs in human resources management being established, although no British university ever had a chair in personnel management.

The monograph analyses (a) the potential impact of information technology (IT) on organisational issues that directly concern the personnel function; (b) the nature of personnel’s involvement in the decision making and activities surrounding the choice and implementation of advanced technologies, and (c) their own use of IT in developing and carrying out their own range of specialist activities. The monograph attempts to explain why personnel’s involvement is often late, peripheral and reactive. Finally, an analysis is made of whether personnel specialists – or the Human Resource Management function more generally – will play a more proactive role in relation to such technologies in the future.

There can be no doubt that the small and medium sized enterprise (SME) plays a pivotal role in most if not all economies, and that social policy makers have an interest in ensuring the viability of this sector of the economy, which plays a crucial role in the contract culture of national and international competitiveness. Quite apart from the essential symbiosis between the large multinationals and public limited companies and this sector, the sustainability of unemployment benefit payouts would be jeopardised should the sector experience a significant downturn. There are already worldwide concerns about the ability to continue to finance state pensions at anything like the present scale, and any loss of viability of the SME sector will simply exacerbate this situation. There are also useful reciprocations to be achieved by comparisons across sectors, including in significant areas such as internal control (Vinten, Lane, Hayes, 1996). The recent flurry of activity has included initiatives of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales 1996) and the information needs of owners (Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales 1996a), an Auditing Practices Board (1996) Practice Note, and a Department of Trade and Industry Consultation Document (DTI 1996).

The effective harnessing of human resources is inevitably an issue of considerable moment in any modern nation state. Nevertheless, particularly because of the rapidity of change, in countries in which major processes of economic and technical advancement are in train, this problem undoubtedly assumes a particular significance. In the following analysis, therefore, some of the general forces which affect the personnel function in the organisation will first be examined. This will be followed by a review of the ways in which “human resource management” may be different in “emergent” countries from other developed nations. Evidence from case studies of the constraints upon and the actual operation of personnel departments in the Third World will then be assessed. And, finally, the thesis will be advanced that there is considerable choice in the ways in which the personnel task may actually be performed in the countries under review.

A reaction to an article in a previous issue of the journal about the dangers of Human Resource Management (HRM). HRM was described as amoral, anti‐social, uneconomic and ecologically destructive. Whilst accepting that HRM is flawed, argues that its acceptance is partly attributable to the dependence of management researchers on the approval of research councils and employers. Concludes with suggestions for personnel managers to consider: less obsession with strategy at the expense of operations; less preoccupation with management at the expense of other members of the business; and much greater preoccupation with the recreation of employment.

In this article the author analyses the HRM strategies and practices of a major life insurance company, designed to promote a marketing‐led, change‐oriented culture in an industry traditionally characterised and paternalism by low levels of change.

Considers the career profiles of 103 personnel specialists from research carried out in Ireland, in 1989/1990. The study examined education and training, career progression, reasons for working in personnel, membership of the Institute of Personnel Management and the differences in male and female careers. The research indicated that career progress in personnel management is more rapid if the individual is male and in possession of a postgraduate degree. The initial choice of organization may be critical to the type of career experienced. Some personnel specialists will find themselves confined to the resolution of industrial relations disputes or the provision of an administrative support system. For others a career in personnel will offer the opportunity of involvement in a wide range of activities and initiatives. The research indicated that there may be little movement between these two career paths.

Traces the development of personnel management in Britain over four distinct periods from the late nineteenth century onwards, and identifies the economic, political, social and institutional forces in the growth of the function. Builds up a detailed profile of the personnel practitioner, covering demographic and remunerative data, qualifications, time spending and status in the enterprise. Critically discusses the role of the professional association and its occupational models. Finally examines the conceptual and operational distinctions between personnel management and human resource management in the British context.