Oxford Handbook of Human Resource Management

Table 6.1 The contributions of four strands of organization theory to HRM

Role of proto-

OT in the

emergence of

personnel

practices

Role of OT in the

social scientific

study of personnel

management

Role of OT in

academic HRM

The potential role of OT

in the future analysis of

HRM: contributions from

four OT strands which

might be utilized within

a ‘pragmatic pluralist’

framework

Functionalist/
systems
strand

Mechanical

engineers

and the

‘systematizing’

of employment

practices

Contingency theory

identified as an

expert resource

which personnel

managers might

use to deal with

the ambiguities

and tensions

inherent in their

roles (Legge 1978)

Preference for a

systems (and often

prescriptive) style

of thinking which

OT had largely

abandoned; greater

influence of strategic

management and

economics in more

formal theorizing

than OT

Acceptance of the notion
of the organization as a
recognizable pattern
of actions and
commitments but
without retaining a
conception of the
organization as an entity
with goals or purposes of
its own; contingent
circumstances
understood as matters
interpreted by managers
and taken into account
in strategic choices
Weberian
strand

Personnel

management

seen as both a

manifestation

of societal

rationalization

processes and a

handler of its

unintended

consequences in

the sphere of

employment;

interaction of

human ‘interests

and ideas’ in

context of rival

priorities among

personnel and

other managers

(Watson 1977)

Emerging attention

to the institutional

pressures towards

organizational

‘isomorphism’ which

make HR practices

more similar across

different employing

organizations and

disseminate HRM

thinking generally

(Paauwe and Boselie

2003; Boxall and

Purcell 2003)

HRM experts understood

as employed by owning/

dominant interests to

work within a

bureaucratic logic of

authority based on

expertise; the division

of labor within that

bureaucracy leading to

(unintended) tensions

and rivalries between HR

and other managers who,

at the same time as

working to bring about

the continuation of the

enterprise, act to further

their personal and career

interests—all of this

occurring in the context

of (a) the ambiguities,

conflicts, and

uncertainties inherent in

work organizations and

(continued)

organization theory and hrm 121