International Comparative Human Resource - Essay Example

International Comparative Human Resource Introduction For every organization to succeed, it must have strategies in place to guide its operations andway of management. Human resource management is the strategy used to make decisions concerning the organizations intentions about the people essential components. Strategic human resource management is described as the strategy by which an organization achieves its goals via the people as its resources. The Role of Human Resource Department The 21st century is a critical period in the growth of business departments especially the information and communications departments and the human resources departments as these have become every critical for the development of any organization (Browne 2000). The following are major functions of the human resource department as identified many organizations with well developed department divisions; Human resource planning (keeping workers records, forecasting, career modelling and succession planning); employment (recruitment, training, selection, testing and orientation); training and development (primary and advanced skills training, devising working programs); labour relation (solving employee concerns, monitoring morale, labour management programs); compensation (incentives, analyses of job performance, salary surveys and performance reviews); workforce benefits (administration of policy, health insurance, designing vacation and sick benefits schemes) (Fisher & Ashkanasy 2000); safety (making sure that the workplace complies with safety regulations like Occupational Safety and Heath Act, supervising security, carrying out possible accident investigations, and evaluation of the physical environment); discipline (policy formulation and coordination, conduction of disciplinary measures); and personnel research (conducting opinion surveys, carrying out the Human resource audits, and analyzing work related statistics as well as publishing it), Gibb (2001). Specific Dimensions Human Resource Management The understanding of the specific dimensions of the human resource management is very essential for any business organization. The following are the major dimensions of human resource; human resource planning; human resource recruitments; people selection; human resource training and development; induction; employee motivation (reward) and people evaluation as well as appraisal. Man power planning is very essential for any organization of a business firm. This sis because the consequences of the failing to do so are very costly and as such, a firm that is understaffed losses out on the economies of scale of the business and customers, profits and orders. However overstaffing on the other hand is wasteful and very costly at the same time (Johnson 2000, p 69). Basing on the current legitimate handling of workforce issues, it would be difficult to eliminate such a phenomenon because of redundancy payments, time of notice, and consultations. Furthermore, overstaffing discourages the competitive effectiveness of the firm. During planning, it's very essential to take into consideration all the future requirements so the firm and make comparisons with the current resources from which postulations can be made in terms of resources. This step attempts to balance the supply and demand needs. The process of selection and recruiting of workers is the second most critical function of the business organization (Browne 2000). The first step to be conducted before the recruitment id initiated is the analysis of the work to be carried out (that is the analytical study of the responsibilities to be taken care of and to establish their important aspects) this is then written out in job descriptions so that during the selection those in charge can have a clear indication of exactly what to look for (applicant's mental and physical characteristics) in terms of attitudes, qualities and what are disadvantages (Johnson 2000, p 69). Employee evaluation is a crucial function as an organization needs to continually know the performance of tits workforce and this can only be achieved by assessing their work. This can help to the firm to in improving the performance of tits workforce in terms of individual contributions. The evaluation process also assists to identify possible talents and other capabilities to fill other vacancies in the organization and finally this can be a sure way linking payments to the performance (Meyer & Smith 2000, 319). Employee Motivation: This is a very important aspect of both organization behaviour and the department of human resource management. This helps in retaining good employees and encouraging them to work even better by given the best working environment. Financial, physiological and psychological rewards are very critical. This is basically the zeal to exert high levels of performance towards achieving the organizational objectives (Meyer & Smith 2000, 319). It starts with the physiology or psychology that activates character that works towards the targeted objective. Primary financial rewards and better working conditions are established externally especially by bargains presented by the governments for instance minimum salary legislation (Fisher & Ashkanasy 2000). Occupational safety and Health act is one such regulation and this takes care of the workers working environment and the employer is required to provide a safe working environment. Personnel policies are also important and this will take into account the employee benefits, welfare, rewards, awards, allowances etc. the ability to influence behaviour is becoming very critical to the human resource department and this is not only because the widely known fact about many being a motivator but also the continually changing mix and type of work for instance more professional jobs and few unskilled labour force. Culture Research There is a very close relationship between human resource management and culture especially the cross cultural studies. Several researchers have worked on these issues and have confirmed that it's not an easy task starting with formulating the problem statement. One great research is Hofstede who has done a great job in finding out how the culture of certain regions can affect business management and particularly human resource management. However, despite his great research work, Hofstede has come under criticism from other scholars like MacSweener who question his tactic of operationalising culture via series of numerically measured dimensions (Sondergaard 1994, p 447). MacSweener prefers that richer qualitative methods be used. Many people have argued that cultural convergence has insightful outcomes on the society. Hofstede's work has been viewed as being controversial. Some of the criticisms against him include; Relevance- many critics of Hofstede's work have alluded that survey is not a proper too for accurately measuring the extended of cultural discrepancy. This is particularly clear when the variable under investigation is culturally subjective and very sensitive. However to his critics (McSweener) Hofstede affirms that survey is just one of the many methods and not the only one (Sondergaard 1994, p 447) Cultural Homogeneity- under his studies, Hofstede makes the assumption that the domestic population is homogenous. However, many countries are usually made up of clusters of ethnic or tribal units. The assessment is hence restricted by the individual being analyzed. The consequences have a probability or arbitrariness. Secondly, McSweener thinks that Hofstede has a tendency of ignoring the significance of society and the stratification of the society manipulate. National Divisions- In his research, Hofstede indicates that the national identifications are the readily available means that can be used to identify and measure cultural differences (Sondergaard 1994, p 447). However, critics think that countries are not the most relevant units of measurement or analyses of cultural diversity as these cultures may not be bound necessarily by national boundaries. Political Influence- the timing of surveys can affect the outcomes of variables like masculinity, and uncertainty avoidance. For instance, up to now, there are still communist insurgences in Asian nations, Europe and even some states in Africa. In the post cold war era when Hofstede was doing most of his research, Europe was still suffering the effects of cold war and the memories were still in their mind. Single Company Approach Hofstede's study was fixated on one company and this could not possibly provide the real information on the whole cultural system of a region. However defending his research, Hofstede says this was only for making or rather gauging the differences in various cultures and these methods of cross sectional evolution was proper (Sondergaard 1994, p 447). Furthermore, Hofstede affirms that the use of one multinational company reduced the effect of corporate policy and management styles from different nations manipulating character in different ways and this leaves national culture as a way of explaining the differences. Other aspects that have been criticized include the fact that Hofstede's style is outdated; lacks enough dimensions to provide sufficient information on the differences in culture; and also lacks statistical integrity as the questionnaires are use on more a single scale. Trompenaar's Culture Diversity Trompenaar's analyses of culture took into account four cultural diversities. These major dimensions were person vs. task and Centralized versus Decentralized. Some of Trompenaars cultural dimensions are discussed as follows; Universalism versus Particularism- this is the belief that ideas and practises can be applied universally against the belief that adoption of ideas and practices according to circumstances is better. Individualism versus Particularism- the notion of individuals leading private lives and caring being accountable for only themselves against the notion of people living together and keeping strong relationships. Individualism versus Communitarianism- the perception of people leading private lives and compassionate against people living together and maintaining strong community or family ties. Neutral versus Emotional- this is a culture where emotions are regulated against a culture emotions are supposed to be expressed conveniently without any restrictions. The above dimensions help to understand that when working with other nationals, it's imperative to research their culture based on these dimensions and then check whether they use these. The Human Resource Management in UK and other Countries: Comparisons Over the recent past, there has been a growing concern over the effects of human resource management practices on the performance of companies both local and the multinational companies. The major limitation of research on this issue is the concentration of the researchers on the western multinationals and the rapidly developing countries otherwise known as the emerging economies (Hsu & Laet 2000, p 414). Studying the impact of human resource practices in the UK and other nations is very critical to the current economic development for the following reasons; first, the multinationals in the European nations and other emerging economies are making their entry into the western countries. For example, Taiwan has about five multinational companies in the top 50 companies named as non financial multinational firms from the emerging markets. Second, designing and managing Human resource practices are being faced with a lot of challenges and hence our understanding of the impact of the host nation on the human resource strategies employed by multinationals is very critical. It's likely that the multinational companies may want to copy what the successful companies from the western countries manage their human resource rather than conforming to the host country's way of action (Hsu & Laet 2000, p 414). Previous researches have indicated that there is always dual pressure to conform to some HRM practice either home country or the host country. There is a big difference between the way the UK conducts its human resource practice compared to other emerging markets like India, China, Taiwan, and Japan. The cultural n institutional settings in other nations so different for instance Taiwan, the Taiwanese business environment is categorized into low individualism, high in long term inclination, high power distance, and medium in avoidable of uncertainty. Generally the Taiwanese management tradition is based in Confucianism (plying consensus and harmony). This culture promotes conflict free working environment (Hsu & Laet 2000, p 414) Recruitment and Selection: The tradition in the UK has been that most companies do not carry out these activities by themselves rather they use recruitment agencies and in some cases the executive search consultants. Other companies like the Taiwanese and the Chinese prefer to do it directly from the grass roots. The UK also prefers to use aptitude tests rather than targeting friends and relatives as in Indian and Taiwanese nations. Panel interviews, application forms and competency oriented interview are the order of the day in UK (Farley et al 2004 p 688). Training and development: the UK firms basically prefer recruiting skilled people who come with great experience while other emerging markets prefer on the job training and professional training so as to maintain the expertise. They believe everyone has the potential to perform and be a teacher (Farley et al 2004 p 688). Pay and Benefits: the Chinese have a culture of favouring the middle way and hence support junior employees to protect the economic security. The Taiwanese are also found to be more egalitarian in imbursement than their UK counterparts. Most nations prefer not to cause conflict at workplace by making team or group related pay, on the other hand, the UK concentrate more on rewards and punishments depending on the performance of individual employees (Farley et al 2004 p 688) Management Promotion and Reward There is clear contrast in the way managers in Britain and in other emerging countries operate. In certain nations like China and Taiwan, there is so much collectivism than in the UK (Gamble 2003). Good Managers in Taiwan tend to focus on generating cooperation among the workers and enhance organizational loyalty; seniority is very critical. On the contrary, the UK managers believe in hard performance where issues like bottom-line delivery apply; functional experience is the hard-line. Organizational communication: most nations are worried about loosing face and as such focus less on goal setting and utilize open communication to disseminate business strategy and vision. Communication between the management and junior staff is minimal and in some cases, up ward response is not in existence (Guest & Conway 2002. pp 22). The UK firms however tend to be more formal in communication through constant meetings between the management and the junior staff. Furthermore the UK firms disseminate the corporate strategy and mission through formal management tools. HRM Practices Recruitment and Selection: this is the process of obtaining new member of the organization. A pool of qualified and interested applicants are brought together and selection is done. Selection is the choosing the most qualified and closely matched individual for the job (Guest 2002, p 335). Development and Training: this is the transfering of skills to the personnel of the company so as to better thier performnace. The activities here include education, career development, individual learning instructionnal training and organizational development. Performance Evaluation: this is basilly assessing the functionality of the organization and its employees. for adminstration and development purposes, the humanresource department usually carries out assessment of the performance. Perfomance assessment can be called upon wneh deiosions about employee work conditions have to be made. Remuneration and Benefits: pay is considered the main resource the workers get theri livlihood and the benefits that come with being an employee of a certain company covr other necessities like better health, relaxing on holiday in compamy's facility. Good compensation system allocates workers salaries that are comparable and competitive in the job market (Guest & Conway 2002. pp 22). Labor relations: this is wher the functions of the manage,ment and thos of the junior workers are addresed. The concept of labor relations is as varried as there are companies in the world. For instance in the US, labor relations are formal work relationships that could be antagonistic (union and management) while in Japan its cooperatinve relationship. Ethnocentric Approach This is a staffing stragegy whereby the multinational companies have apolicy of fiiling the key management post wiyh parent nation nationals. This makes sense for most of the international businesses because; they belive there is lack of expertise in host countries; ethnicentric maintains the unity of the corporation in terms of culture; some believe the best way to transfer core competeinceis is by transferring the countries nationals. As much as this could be benefical, in some cases it could lead to total failure since different countries have different business cultures and traditions (Gamble 2003). Enthnocentric staffing reduces thr chances of advancement for th host nations citizns and at the same time this can result in what is termed as cultural myopia. Trade Unions Trade unions are worker organizations whose work is to lobby for better working codtition of thot membrrs; beter, comparable and competitive pay for ther members, employee benefits among others. Trade unions employ certain techniques to push for these benefits and the major one is the collective bagain as such, the realtionship between the rtrade unions and miost comanis nas been antagonistic especially in the werstern countries which are basically capitalist ecomonimes (Guest 2002, p 335). Conclusion Human resource management is a way that a company or any other firm can use to manage its staff; in fact this aspect of organization has been identified as an academic theory of business functions which identifies workers or employees as resources with changing needs and ambitions. Workers are not just like other business resources like machinery, transport and raw materials as people ability to work depends on knowledge, training, and the processes set in place. 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