Read this article to learn about the role of a ‘personnel manager’ in a big industrial undertaking !
Personnel manager occupies a pivotal position in a work organisation. The success of an organisation largely depends on the way in which the personnel manager discharges his functions.
The personnel manager has been playing a variety of roles at different stages in the past like that of a police agency, a legal defender of rights and a negotiator, a catering man meeting the welfare needs of the employees.
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Presently it is felt that personnel management is what personnel managers do; and what personnel managers do can aptly compared to a Sunday morning jumble sale-a collection of incidental chores, fire fighting tasks, welfare functions and a watch-dog function.
Earlier, the personnel man first appeared at lower rungs of the organisation and was concerned merely with recording the files and was labelled as files clerk. Later on, the personnel man started performing the function of a liaison man or channel of communication between the top management (boss) and the employees.
In the next stage, he started performing the welfare functions and in this process he sandwiched himself between top management and trade unions and he became a trouble shooter on fire-fighting man.
Personnel manager was held responsible for all kinds of labour problems, if he is unable to solve them. Over a period of time, he started performing sophisticated functions of a advising the line managers and hence he was labeled as an expert rather than a controller or manager of men.
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These days, personnel manager performs multifarious roles such as—counsellor, a mediator, a company spokesman, a problem-solver, a change agent, and miscellaneous functions in accordance with the needs of the situation.