Trends in Human Resource Management

Last year, when the writer was invited to address the Inaugural State Conference of the IPMA QueenslandDivision on trends affecting human resource management in the United Kingdom, he had some doubts about the extent to which it would be possible to present a general description of these developments. Experience as a management researcher in Britain, which had brought him into close contact with a wide range of organisations, had led him to conclude that personnel practices in Britain varied enormously. Some concerns (albeit only a few) appeared as impressive, effective, and innovative in their management of human resources as organisations anywhere in the world; others were strong in a particular facet of the personnel function (e.g. industrial relations) but weak in others (e.g. manpower planning); many had rudimentary and not particularly well-managed personnel functions, and in some enterprises this field of management activity left a great deal to be desired. His involvement at national level in the activities of the Institute of Personnel Management for some five years confirmed the view that there existed a wide range of personnel practices in British organisations. Based on an address he gave to the 1982 State Conference of I PMA Queensland Division, the Author presents some reflections on the UK Human Resource Management scene and their implications for Australia. tntroductio