Theoretical Models of Human Resource Management: The Anthropological Model as a Full Model to Manage Human Resources

The literature on human resource management (HRM) has focused primarily on analyzing the relationship between human resource practices and business performance. However, we find fewer studies that focus on determining how and why these practices can be linked to the same pattern or pattern of behaviors. In this work, we analyze the different models of human resources management that determine the framework of action of any organization and that justifies the application of different human resources practices. To achieve this goal, we analyze the soft and hard models of human resources management and present the main limitations it has. Furthermore, we establish a typology of models focused on the motivational quality of the person, where the anthropological model is presented as a more complete model than the mechanistic model and the psycho-sociological model. The fundamental difference found between these two classifications is that while the soft and hard models are presented as excluding models, the relationship between the mechanistic, psycho-sociological and anthropological models is that the different elements of each model are included in the next model, establishing a more similar representation with the business reality and increasing its explanatory capacity.