The effective management of an organisation’s employees (i.e. its human
resources) is arguably the single most difficult, most complex, most
ambiguous, yet most important task that managers face. It is an area of
management policy-making that is not characterised by rigorous globally
accepted professional standards. This is true for at least four reasons:
• HR policies refer to human behaviour, which is complex, often conflictridden,
and culturally dependent.
• There are many different HR policy instruments and practices.
• The success or otherwise of different HR policies, programmes and
plans is difficult to evaluate.
• Many managers believe that people management is just common sense.