Comparative Analysis of Hard and Soft HRM Approaches: Tesco and Miller

This report provides a comparative analysis of hard and soft human resource management (HRM) approaches, using Tesco and Miller as illustrative case studies. The report defines and explains the core principles of both hard and soft HRM, highlighting their distinct focuses on employee treatment, organizational structure, and strategic objectives. It examines Tesco's implementation of a hard HRM approach, characterized by a task-oriented focus, cost control, and a hierarchical structure. The report also analyzes Miller's adoption of a soft HRM approach, emphasizing employee well-being, motivation, and empowerment. The analysis includes details on leadership styles, communication strategies, and the impact of each approach on employee relations and overall business outcomes. The report concludes by summarizing the key differences and implications of these two contrasting HRM philosophies.

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Task..................................................................................................................................................3
Definition and explanation of soft and hard HRM......................................................................3
Hard approach.............................................................................................................................3
Soft approach..............................................................................................................................4
Hard approach by Tesco..............................................................................................................4
Soft approach by Miller .............................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Human resources management is one of part of the management. Human resources deals with
the welfare of an organisation, or mainly anxious with management of employees of there
organisation or company and highly concentrate on policies or system of the organisation.
Human resources is very important and exclusive asset of an organisation, it is the process
selecting or recruiting employees,providing proper direction,training and developing skills.
Human resources professionally maintain the human capital of the organisation. Main purpose of
the human resource is to assure that organisation is able to accomplish success through
employees of an organisation. Human resources include all function which falls under the banner
of human resources management ,it has very broad scope. Human resources perform the various
function in an organisation like performance appraisal of the employees of an
organisation,remuneration and development. Human resource found in every organisation and it
is an pervasive in nature, it motivate employees of an organisation to give there best of their
efficiency to achieve desired goal. Tesco is a British multinational grocery store and it is a
general merchandise retailer with headquarter in Welwyn garden city England, united kingdom.
It is founded in 1919 and the founder of Tesco is Jack Cohen. Miller departmental store is chain
of department stores based in East Tennessee. It is a retail industry founder in 1889 and the
founder of this store is Gustavus Hindman miller.
Task
Definition and explanation of soft and hard HRM
Hard approach
Hard human resources is one of the concept of human resources management. Hard human
resources management is task oriented concept of the human resources management. Hard
human resources is a staff management system. Hard human resources completely concentrate
on the goal of the organisation, the completion of task and Cost control. Hard human resources
management examine human resources as any other resources such as machinery or equipment,
under the hard human resources management there is a presence of the centralisation, under the

hard hrm decision taking is done by the higher authority of the organisation. In the hard human
resources management the wages of employees or workers are very minimum or depend on their
performance level, there is no motivation given to any worker or the employee of the
organisation. Hard approach treat their employees as resources. They have a strong link with the
corporate business planning like what are the resources need in the organisation and how they
will arrange the resources and how much it will they cost. They are short term because
recruitment and redundancy is done in short period of time. Appraisal system have focus on
taking judgements that how employees are performing. They have a taller organisational
structures. Hard human resources management is cost effective, there is strict form of hierarchy
as compared to the soft concept of human resources management. Manufacturing industries is
one of the best example of hard concept human resources management(Noe and et.al., 2015).
Soft approach
Soft concept of human resource management is completive different from hard concept,
generally soft concept of human resource management may b define as threaten to human
resource management that includes treating employees as important asset of the company under
this concept of human resource management employees are rewarded for hard work done by
them this concept of the human resources management is not a typical or complicated. This
concept of the human resources management is also concentrate on the desired goal of the
organisation. They have strategic focus on long term planning of work. They are strong and
regular communication with the subordinates. They will pay in competitive structure like
rewards are paying from profit share. Employees under soft HRM are empowered and
encouraged to take responsibility. Appraisal system of soft HRM is pretty good because they
have focus on development of employees and provide training and motivating them is the best
thing to achieve future goals. They have a flatter organisational structures. Generally soft
approach use democratic leadership style. Soft human resources management concept mainly
examine in organisation supporting participation of employees of an organisation and having flat
structure(Amuna and et.al., 2017).
Hard approach by Tesco

Tesco is large company which is using hard approach of HRM, HRM explains different ways to
make use of human being as resources, their recruitment and rebundancy hence their objectives
can be understood. Tesco aim is to make use of their resources which are capably encouraging
the HR department to arrange important objectives and strategies. HRM provides encouraging
surrounding for workforce with the aim of that the human being working in Tesco can perform
resourcefully. Finally, they assist them to expand their resource knowledge, expertise and
capability(Noe and et.al., 2017). HRM put stress on employees to accomplish advance creation
and most active exploitation of operative assets. This will create problems in development of
business and their aims and objectives. Tesco simply treat their employees as building and
machinery when they want to achieve any objective. They will use their employees as resources.
Tesco has a strong link and they will use corporate planning when they want their employees to
do hard work and meet the business missions and goals. This type of planning is known as
corporate business planning and Tesco focus on their staff responsibilities and their procedures,
they just want their work on time(Stone and Deadrick., 2015). Tesco knows that what are the
needed resources they want in the organisation and how they will get that resources and how
much they will cost. They have to pre planned and work hard on their employees to achieve
objectives. Focus of Tesco when they are using hard approach is that they identify the need of
workforce in the business and how they will manage and recruit new employees and how they
will manage to fired employees from the organisation. The whole focus is on hiring, firing and
moving and taking new staff in the organisation. Tesco always done short term changes in the
number of employees(Tracey., 2016). Tesco looks for redundancy and recruiting and they will
replace new recruiters with that employees who are not working or putting more efforts. Tesco
don't communicate with the lower management they just order that what to do and lower
management has to follow that orders. They can't communicate with the top management like
employees can't communicate with the managers so there is minimal communication in Tesco.
Tesco pays enough money on recruiting and retaining for their staff. They are investing huge
amount on retaining their staff that for a long time not even a single employee will leave the
company when they are paying enough. Sometimes Tesco provides delegation and little
permission to employee to give suggestions and ides in decision making. After giving that small
power to employee then employee can also make changes and takes decision for welfare of
organisation(Madera and et.al., 2017). Tesco use appraisal system to tell their employees that

who is working properly and who is not working good enough. They will appreciate that
employees who are putting their efforts and able to get good results for their organisation. They
will not appreciate that employees who are not working well their results are not good enough
for the business. Tesco provide bonus, rewards and other benefits to that employees who are
giving their best but they will not use appraisal system for a bad staff they will not give rewards
to them they will not promote them to higher post, all these things are done in appraisal system.
Autocratic leadership style suits Tesco and Tesco uses this style when every task is going to be
perform by leader and on the basis of leaders decision the Tesco employees will proceed their
work. By using this style a leader of Tesco will create willingness through their staff to achieve
objective and goal. Then the leader will be group influencer. Leader have to decide quickly
according to the situation and the needs and increase the strength of organisation. A leader must
be confident under trying and testing conditions. This is the coolness of leader. A Tesco leader
must acquire the ability to judge someone on the available information or through commonsense
way to make effective results. A Tesco leader must show continuous effort that is combined with
the degree of reputation in order to complete the task or achieve an objective. Autocratic
leadership style is used by Tesco and according to this style everything is based on the leader. In
Tesco leader holds all the responsibility and authority. Tesco leaders make decision on their own
without taking any suggestion or consulting with the subordinates(Cascio., 2015). They will
make the decision without communicate with the lower staff and they were expecting prompt
implementation(Whetzel and Wheaton., 2016). Tesco work environment according to autocratic
is don't have flexibility. This style can give clear direction to the Tesco but this will also ignore
subordinates from the team. This approach is appropriate in some situations. It is profitable when
business is facing problems and they want urgent solution or immediate response. Giving
services to the customers according to their demand is the main aim of Tesco. Tesco analyses
that what is the latest trend in the market and identify needs of customers and demand from
customers. The concept of hard HRM is expected to be more money effective workforce where
taking of decision is fast and focused on managers which are senior. This approach pays little
attention towards the needs of the employees and business is adopting hard approach will lead to
the higher absenteeism and staff turnover and it will result in less successful recruitment. Totally
the concept of Hard HRM is based on traditional approach towards human resource
management(Brewster., 2017).

Tesco is making use of those approaches which has helped the leaders of organization in creating
employee loyalty. They have been engaged in providing training to workers and employees
which has helped firm in increasing their efficiency and also it has supported company in
reducing operational efficiency. New workers in a firm are usually given an induction
programme in which they meet other workers and are shown the skills they must learn.
Generally, the first few days at work will simply involve observation, with an experienced
worker showing the ‘new hand’ the ropes. Many large firms will have a detailed training scheme,
which is done on an ‘in-house’ basis. This is particularly true of larger public companies such as
banks and insurance companies. These program has supported Tesco in increasing their goodwill
and it has also helped them in establishing their goodwill in market. Company has also updated
their technology and provided training on making use of updated technology. This has made
work easier of company and organization. They have also appointed more efficient and skilled
employee so that they are able to understand the changes easily and firmly. Training also helps
them in increasing productivity of organization. It supports firm in growing. It helps firm in
earning profit.
Soft approach by Miller
Miller Use Soft approach of HRM to treat their employees. Miller treat their employees as
important assets of the company. When Miller use soft human resource management it sees that
its employees are its critical resources who will help them to run their business for a long term.
Soft HRM is different from the hard HRM because in hard HRM they treat their employees as a
machine or building and soft HRM is totally different from it. Miller employees are source of
competitive advantage. Employees of miller are treated as individual and what they need or what
they want are planned according to their employees(Cascio., 2015). The focus of miller are on
the needs of employees, That how to reward them, give promotion and motivation etc. miller
focuses on their employees that they will work for a long time in the company. Their strategic
focus is on workforce and they are plan for a long time. By increasing their motivation, or give
small benefits or rewards will motivate other employees to stay for a long time. Promotion of
subordinate and giving roles are helping team to achieve desired goals. Miller has strong
communication and two way communication which gives lower down employees to interact with
each other and they will also give their opinion to top level management and help them to make

the decision. So miller has advantage of regular communication because with the help of regular
communication they will get to know that what their employees are thinking and what are the
thoughts running in their mind(Masri and Jaaron., 2017). Because of using soft HRM miller have
competitive pay structure and miller will pay according to their performance and rewards like
profit shares are given to the employees according to their work performance and results. Miller
have one great thing which is that their employees are already empowered and they can take
decision and responsibility which gives benefits to the organisation. Their employees are
encouraged to seek assignment of responsibility. Miller employees have advantage of the power
given to them that they can take and make decision which is good for organisation and they can
take responsibility as well. The appraisal system of miller is that they are focusing on the needs
of employees like their development and training. The focus of miller is to invest on training and
development programs of employees because they know the more employees are learning the
more benefit they will going to earn. They will appreciate their employees for good work and
bad work too because they know they can't fired anyone, every employee is important for the
organisation so they will appreciate both employees who are performing very good and the bad
performers too. Miller usually follows Democratic leadership style. It is also known as
participative leadership style because it is depend on participation of employees. Miller use this
technique because it is giving satisfaction and employees will take participate in decision making
may also result in huge innovation and creative solutions to millers problems which will serve
the organization better. Miller headship is based on subordinates contributions. The democratic
leader of miller holds the final responsibility but the authority can delegate to other people also,
who determine work projects. The best part(Brewster., 2017) of using this style in miller is that
communication is on regular basis and it is active upward and downward. Self guided employees
are here and high commitment of employees happened here. It is related to human relations. The
utilization of teamwork is done perfectly. Practices to development of culture management.
Miller are more strategic in nature. They attempt to achieve all objectives of miller and also the
objectives of their employees.It is the most preferred leadership which is used by most of the
organization(Stewart and Brown., 2019). The soft approach will absolutely appeal to feel touchy
among us because we like to see people happy and treated very nicely. People are focused in soft
HRM and the miller treat their employees as the most important resource for the company.
Miller use modern approach to the management of strategic human resource. Miller can make

good business case that provide rewards on the performance of employees and motivate staff
effectively. Soft HRM in miller are charm organizational structures. Miller have advantage
because if they are hire experienced employees they will use their best skills to perform their
task. The more experienced employees more creativity and innovation will going to be seen.
Techniques which is used by miller are delegation and empowerment. The danger of taking soft
approach is that the employees are free and by providing all the benefits to the employees will be
disadvantage for the company because the money for workforce leave the company at a
competitive disadvantage(Wehrmeye., 2017). Miller if do not provide training to employees then
it can lose base in the global market. So they are engaged in providing training to workers,
CONCLUSION
This report include the information related to human resource of the organisation how human
resources is became an important part of management program under which provided the
guidelines related to the recruitment,selection and the welfare of the organisation or human
resources totally focus on the management of employees of the organisation under this report has
mentioned about the scope, nature and different function of the human resources. Provided the
study of the human resources with the concept of the both TESCO uses hard concept of the
human resources management or miller uses soft concept of human resource management. Hard
concept shows that what are the advantages they are facing after using hard concept like Tesco
have advantage that this is short term and there is minimal communication. They will pay on
retainment of employees and appraisal system focus on making judgments. Miller uses soft
HRM and its main focus on employee welfare and there is strong communication and appraisal
system is totally focused on development of employee needs. Under this project we have taken
the example of the two company for the hard and soft concept of the human resource
management that is TESCO and MILLER.

REFERENCES
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tourism: A review of current literature and suggestions for the future. International
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Masri and Jaaron., 2017. Assessing green human resources management practices in Palestinian
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Noe and et.al., 2015. Human resources management. Instructor.2015.
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York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
Stewart, and Brown., 2019. Human resource management. Wiley.
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management. Human Resource Management Review.25(2). pp.139-145.
Tracey., 2016. The human resources glossary: The complete desk reference for HR executives,
managers, and practitioners. CRC Press.
Wehrmeyer., 2017. Greening people: Human resources and environmental management.
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Whetzel and Wheaton., 2016. Applied measurement: industrial psychology in human resources
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