The Role of Psychology in Human Resources Management
Human resource management entails management of people in an organizational context. Further, the role also involves planning on how the meet the needs of human resources including the emotional aspects. There is evidence of strategic alignment of psychology and human resource management since the former is vital in dealing with such aspects as employee welfare, training and development, safety and recruitment which is part of HRM.
In order to stay relevant and attain a competitive edge, it is important as Oppenheim and Kydd (1990) advises for personnel managers and HRM practitioners to use selection and recruitment strategically in responding to the prevailing labor market conditions. This entails the use of psychology effectively in understanding the kind of staff who are being brought on board as well as in addressing social issues that could be affecting them. There comes a time when employees are affected by issues that could emanate from their work environment, as well as outside of their work environment. If such issues are not addressed amicably by the relevant figures, then it is probable that employee’s morale and productivity will significantly decline, thus affecting the performance of an organization.
Based on this, it becomes important for Human Resource Managers to be adequately trained on the psychological aspects of management in order to deal with such employees among employees. May (2016)explains that in this 21st century, human resource managers need to have thorough knowledge on industrial psychology in order to understand and work with a specific business culture, employees, organizational and workplace structures. Consequently, all managers including supervisors who deal with employees either directly or indirectly should be in a position of applying industrial psychology in both workplace settings and outside workplace settings. Areas where this aspect should be applied include in training and development, leadership, life/work balance, team development, ethics, diversity practices and educational development.