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Describe the role of Personnel Management under the Systems Approach.
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A system is an organised whole, consisting of inter-related and inter-dependent parts. A business
enterprise is an open adaptive system describing the principal elements of the input-transformation-
output system operating in its environment.
Today management of personnel involves analysis of dynamic multiple and often conflicting forces. A
business enterprise is considered as a socio-economic system. It is a part of a large system, namely, the
economic system. The economic system is again a part of the political system of a country. There are
four components of a system
(1) Inputs
(2) Processor
(3) Output and
(4) Management
Members of outer environment arc owners, customers, labour organisations, rivals, suppliers, financial
institutions, government and the public. All these parties have certain expectations from the business
enterprises. The society expects from the management of a business enterprise socially responsible
behaviour with employees, customers and the public. It also wants the business to maintain clean
physical environment. The goals of productivity and satisfaction can be solved by enlightened personnel
policies and programme procurement, development, maintenance and compensation of personnel
are the normal function. But integration of different interests is the challenging task of personnel
management. Under the systems approach we visualise the business enterprise as a master system and
also as a subsystem of its environment.
Under systems approach personnel management is called as "Human Resource Development" (HRD).
This new term "Human Resource Development" emphasise two things:
(1) The human beings are the most important resource of an organisation. The more an
organisation invests in them, the more it can increase its return on investment.
(2) Personnel management is a closed-loop system i.e., system made up of several mutually dependent
sub-systems.
System approach enables a personnel manager
(1) to know how the activities and programmes of his department flow directly out of, relate to and
support the basic objectives and plans of the company.
(2) to know how various sub-systems of the personnel system are mutually dependent on each
other.
(3) to understand how the whole system is not just the sum of individual sub-systems but rather
more than this sum.
(4) to monitor his system continuously and to check deviations with the help of feed back.
(5) to realise that he can accomplish his objectives with diverse inputs and with varying internal
activities.
