Soft and Hard HRM

There are a variety of ways to approach the management of HR in a business. The business textbooks like to describe two broad approaches to HRM which are explained further below:

• "Hard" HR
• "Soft" HR

However, it is important to remember that, in reality, these two approaches are somewhat academic in nature. In real businesses, an HR department or manager would be likely to adopt elements of both soft and hard HR, and in many cases would not be interested in the slightest in the distinction!

The key features of the hard and soft approach to HR can be summarised as follows: