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Abstract

Human resource management (HRM ) is a strategic and coherent approach to management of an organisation 's most valued assets - the people working there - who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of enterprise goals . It is important for a company to understand how HRM practises affect employees ' attitudes , job satisfaction and level of the organisational trust . This is especially true for the airline industry because the sector of commercial airlines is an extremely competitive safety-sensitive , high technology service industry

This research sought to investigate HRM issues based on five HR

br functions and relate them to the job satisfaction and level of organisational trust of China Eastern Airlines WUHAN LTD . A survey was carried out with 127 respondents of the company . The findings were discussed in light of the current issues prevailing within the company The conclusion and recommendations have been related to these issues as well

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

1 .1 Introduction

According to Stone (1998 , the focal point of human resource management (HRM ) is on managing people within the employer-employee relationship It includes the productive utilisation of employees to achieve the organisation 's business objectives and satisfy individual employee needs . This approach has also confirmed McGraw 's (2003 ) assertion that HRM seeks to strategically combine the interests of an organisation and its employees . Consequently , ineffective HRM can be a major barrier to employee satisfaction and organisational success

HRM practices play a key role in attracting , motivating , rewarding , and retaining employees . HRM practices include recruiting employees selecting employees , designing work , compensating employees , and developing good labor and employee relations (Noe , 2005

For the purpose of this study , the researcher has focused on five specific human resource practices . These are HR planning , training career development , performance appraisal , and employee participation programmes since these five HR functions are interrelated and directly reflect the company 's performance (Torrington , 2005 ) For example training and development , and performance appraisal overlap each others results . The appraisal of an employee 's performance will show improvement areas and identify gaps in employees ' knowledge , skills , and abilities that may be addressed by training and development Furthermore , Torrington (2002 ) has also defined the HRM philosophy which stated that `HRM is a series of activities which first enables working people and the organisation to use their skills to agree about the objectives and nature of their working relationship and , secondly ensures that the agreement is fulfilled (Torrington , Hall and Taylor 2002 :13 . As individual contributors have satisfied their needs , then the business is likely to obtain commitment to the company 's objectives which is necessary to achieve organisational success . It is only if individuals contribute to organisational success will they be able to satisfy their own needs . Moreover , this can only achieved when the employer and employee accept that mutuality and reciprocal dependence are the reasons that human resource management exists , centre stage and productive of business success (Torrington , 2005 . On the other hand , if employers are only concerned of employees only as players in production or manage them...