Hello,
Whatever the name, both deal with and are concerned with the "human resource" at the disposal of the organization.
These names appear fancy names but in fact show significant and specific orientations of the function.
Where the major part of the function is located in the manufacturing establishment and where a large number of employees are blue collared, the strategy to deal with this collectivity has to be well thought out. Blue collared employees were, especially in the past less educated that the white collared employees, came mostly from rural background and were rather uninitiated in the ways of the formal world. The "industry" (machines, equipment, technology and concomitant hazards, trade skills etc. influenced the individual and collective behaviour in peculiar ways, especially in matters of trust & confidence, credibility, perceptions of being exploited, ability to deal with "superiors" to get problems resolved. One saw concentration of Trade Unions, Discipline management Issues, statutory compliance, collective bargaining etc, taking a substantive part of time and skills of those who looked after the human resource. In short Industrial Relations (IR) had to deal with a majority of "conflict prone issues for the industry.
On the other hand HR (as differentiated from IR in present days) deals with mostly non-conflict prone issues concerning human resource. Typically these include, Man-power planning, recruitment, selection, induction, probation, confirmation, performance appraisals, rewards and punishment (mostly as absence of rewards!), Training & Development, Promotions etc.are handled by the HR people.
As you can see there is fair difference in skills for both but you would do well to remember that there are common issues in both the groups. Its just that the prime work orientation is significantly different.
In past your "Personnel Officer/Manager" handled both emphasis area himself and competently anyway and its only changing times has evolved two "virtually" different functions. HR does not want to do IR work, if it can avoid and IR feel that they are great since they handle conflict prone areas!
Both deal with human beings for the same organization in any case! Ultimately the issue will depend upon the technology and culture of the organization!
Have you got your answers?
Regards,
samvedan
February 10, 2013
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