International and Comparative Human Resource Management - Essay Example

International and comparative human resource management Today’s business environment is quite different from the traditional one. Globalization hascontributed to its rapid change depicted by highly advanced technology and sophistication. Consumers demand provision of high quality products that conform to the available technology in the market. Many entrepreneurs have thus come up establishing their own organisations. This has greatly contributed to an increase in market competition as organisations aiming at gaining market control and dominance to increase the scope of their market and overall sales. However to attain this, organisations should device mechanisms of adapting to the constantly changing business environment so as to survive in the global market which is highly influenced by the stiff market competition from business counterparts. The rapid technological advancement has greatly influenced the change observed in the business environment. Organisations’ processes are constantly being re-engineered and delocalised because work can now be carried out both at home and in the office. The re-engineering process has reduced middle management levels as today’s lower level managers are faced with more work and decision making activities. The work processes have been restructured to comply with the existing technology in the business environment, fragmentation against departments has been reduced in an attempt to fasten decision making process and accomplishment of tasks, the quality and speed of strategy execution has been improved, employees are empowered and information flows swiftly within the organisation (Thakur 2001, p. 311). For instance Joel Salatin owner of the Polyface Farm in Virginia has adopted sustainable agricultural operations such as use of green technology to maintain the quality of his land and animals. He is also able to meet the sophisticated demands of consumers that desire to use green technology products which are deemed to be safe as they cause less harm to the environment and their health. The business environment has been changed to a business of data by ‘formatting’ the workplace. Today workers manipulate data related to the products they are producing instead of the working materials. The communication technology has acquired a multiplier phase enabling all players in the business environment to get the same information simultaneously and thus react or act on it at the same time (Narasaiah 2004, p. 52-54). For example the Apple Computer Company has successfully managed to revolutionize the music world by incorporating technological advancement to its culture. Instead of providing music stored in CD’s, Apple Computer Company has enabled music lovers to easily gain access to the music of their choice by downloading them using the internet. This method is not only fast but also provides a safer storage mechanism. Therefore, today’s business environment comprises of contingent and temporary workers, consultants and subcontractors, flexible, disposable and just-in-time work force. For instance recently the Bayada Nurses Home Care Specialists advertised a vacancy post for a part time home health aide homemaker to work in its institution for a period of one year only. This is the current employment trend that most organizations are offering, temporary work. On the other hand employees today have to sell their skills and invent new relationships with employers to retain their jobs. This has contributed to the rampant unemployment rates. About a third of the adult population cannot find jobs while another third holds temporary, dead end and part-time jobs. On the other hand, the premiums of those that are employed on full time basis keep depreciating because of the premiums set for holding permanent jobs. These facts have made millions of people to stop searching for employment and become self employed (Becker and Gerhart 1996, pp. 779-801). For instance, the economy of China has been greatly affected by the rapid technological changes. Ten years ago China did not have a defined infrastructure; telephones were rare and those that existed rarely worked, tourism was uncommon and the main mode of transportation was use of bicycles and three wheeled peddle bikes. However, China has rapidly been modernized increasing its gross domestic product (GDP) to about 10.5% thereby creating an incentive for multinationals to establish their presence in China as quickly as possible (Aswathappa 2005, 99-106). Improvement in infrastructure has greatly uplifted China’s business environment by rapidly changing it. For example Yaraco, a BP acetic acid joint venture in Chongqing uses the new railroad tracks to directly serve the production site. However, the structure of the new business environment is causing unemployment in many parts of the country. There are many layoffs at the state owned manufacturing firms and few impromptu job opportunities. For example in 2008 Yahoo and Rio Tinto firms laid off most of their employees to cut down on costs. These effects can be related to the new phase that the business environment has adapted, de-jobbing. One may ask if de-jobbing is a product of the changes experienced in the business of today. The changes elaborated above quite clearly show the connection between the rapidly changing business environment and the increased urge and need to introduce de-jobbing into the culture of an organisation (George and Snell 2009, p. 238). During the industrial revolution the concept of fulltime employment was introduced to replace the rural subsistence and the home craft concept of working. On the other hand the post industrial world has introduced the concept of de-jobbing in the business environment where work is temporary, lasts for the term subjected to the completion of a project and is contingent. De-jobbing is introduced into the business environment when organisations focus their attention on the activities conducted by employees for instance those done through team work participation or those achieved by changing objectives rather than simply fulfilling the requirements of an existing job. This is because organisations have realised that focusing their attention on the job rather than employees does not yield effective results. De-jobbing comprises reduction of the total number of jobs in an organisation through combination of de-layering the hierarchy, functional flexibility and downsizing the workforce (Sims 1999, pp. 4-12). For example Coca Cola and Sony Companies downsized the number of their workforce as today they are operating with few employees. Organisations remove hierarchical levels in their structure with the attempt of flattening them to enable those in lower managerial levels to also take part in decision making processes. It is believed that this will fasten the decision making process as those in the lower managerial level are closer to customers and more familiar with the competitive market. Examples of successful companies that have flattened the structure of their organization and incorporated boundary-less strategy into the culture of their organization include Wal-Mart, Procter & Gamble and IKEA. However, de-layering results to job loss and increases the responsibilities and work load of lower level managers. Functional flexibility is in contrast with the traditional practice of demarcating jobs to define and identify tasks to be undertaken by different employees. Functional flexibility involves the process of organizing work to meet customer needs in the highly competitive business environment which is constantly changing (Dessler 2008, 112-778). Therefore, de-jobbing can be viewed as ultimately a product of the rapid changes taking place in business today. For instance, most corporations are reengineering their processes a fact that has decreased the number of available job opportunities in the organisation because of reliance on technology. For example, Mazda reengineered its account payable system thereby requiring manpower of five people in contrast with Ford which relies on the manpower of 400 people. Therefore, Mazda has managed to increase its output by relying on a smaller scale of employees. Most economic studies and researches that have been conducted in America reveal that reengineering in the private sector has reduced approximately 25 million job opportunities. This is because technological advancement has made non-technology based jobs to be obsolete thereby reducing the need for people to work in corporate offices (Forrester 2002, pp. 147-150). The above facts have encouraged creation of temporary based jobs as most workers telecommute part time while others have established home based jobs thereby enabling a huge number of people to enter into the temporary work force. Most corporations are focusing on meeting productivity needs which comply with the rapidly changing business environment. Therefore, most operations of an organisation are project focused and not job focused as before. The job opportunity ends with the completion of a project. For instance, Manpower has employed 56,000 temporary employees, General Motors has employed about 365,000 temporary employees while IBM has about 330, 000 temporary employees to undertake prospective projects. This has resulted to a decrease in financial security because today individuals must build it themselves. This is because the good jobs which were perceived to be secure are now quite risky and the freelance jobs which were perceived to be risky have now become the foothold of employment to many people (Meffinson, Banefield and Mathews 2004, pp. 37-75). Human Resource Management (HRM) entails application of coherent approaches to guide and monitor employees who work together to ensure an organisation attains its objectives, goals, mission and vision. Human Resource Management comprises of employment of staff members, development of employees’ competence, development and utilization of the organisation’s resources and ensuring organisation’s process adhere to the norms of business (Dessler 1999, p. 24). However, over the years Human resource management has undergone drastic changes due to the inclusion of strategic mechanisms of managing the resources of an organisation into its culture. Nowadays it is commonly referred to as strategic human resource management (SHRM) and it is used by organisations to gain competitive advantage over other organisations in the business environment. Strategic human resource management also enables organisations to align processes undertaken by employees with its mission and objectives (Jackson, Hitt and DeNisi 2003, pp. 360-396). Therefore, it is quite evident that de-jobbing is a product of the drastic changes that are taking place in the current business environment as its characteristics and elements are depicted in Strategic human resource management strategies. Moreover, organisations are able to develop and implement their strategies into their culture. Strategic human resource management comprises of identification of activities to be done in order to attain the corporate objectives of an organisation in a time span of about 3-5 years, studying and analysing the business environment, identifying an optimal fit between the organisation and its surroundings and monitoring the strategic plan of an organisation to re-evaluate it when need be (Huselid 1995, PP. 635-672). Strategic human resource management is achieved through identification of a mission statement which defines the organisation and stipulates the future plans that the organisation plans to implement in order to succeed. This is followed by environmental analysis of the business environment to determine the market pressures the organisation will face. The next one involves conduction of self examination where the organisation accesses its operations in regards to fulfilment of its goals. The last step includes monitoring the performance of the organisation. These steps are summarised in the strategic management process model below (Jackson, Hitt and DeNisi 2003, pp. 360-396). Fig 1: SMP model. Retrieved from (Jackson, Hitt and DeNisi 2003) Human resource management is shaped by local, national and global issues such as economic, legal, social, cultural as well as political ones which are constantly changing. These issues are influenced by the current trends of globalisation, technological advancement, demographic changes, migration, customer’s expectations and ownership structures among others. Globalisation has greatly influenced the business environment by enabling organisations to penetrate into the global market. For instance Starbucks, McDonalds and Toyota have established their Companies in every corner of the world. This is because of improvement in transportation services which ease and accelerate the movement of people and goods. Globalisation has also improved telecommunication thereby enabling mass migration of work force to areas requiring the required skills and present opportunities of performing the work at minimal costs (Greer 2002, pp. 110-232). This has led to formation of virtual corporations that coordinate economic activities to fully satisfy the demands of customers using resources that are not within the traditional boundaries of the organisation such as outsourcing. This change has enabled organisations to gain flexibility and thus establishing a network of dynamic relationship with other organisations whereby they take advantage of the competence of the other organisations. However, virtual corporation introduces reduction in control of management over the activities of the corporation. The current human resource management strategies also support formation of horizontal corporations that are characterized by lateral decision processes and horizontal networks to establish a wide and strong business philosophy. Inter-relationships with the organisation are built to foster a cultivated environment for producing and marketing the products that the organisation avails into the market (Husleid, Jackson & Schuler 1997, pp. 177-188). Today’s business environment comprises of a lot of amalgamations formed by two or more companies to enable them to gain better access into the global market for example Moores which was among the biggest Canadian Company availing men’s clothes is now owned by the America’s Men’s Warehouse Inc . Human resource planning involves formulation of mechanisms that predict the future staffing requirements of an organisation by defining the recruitment and selection criteria to be used. This enables the organisation to effectively tackle new initiatives and changes in the business environment such as introduction of new systems or re-organisation of ongoing operations. Organisations therefore stand a better chance of having competent and effective employees because they will be able to identify old employees that they can retain and employ others that are appropriate thereby effectively meeting the evolving demands and improving performance at minimal costs. This is because human resource planning enables organisations to optimize the deployment of personnel needed to respond to changes in the external business environment and meet objectives of an organisation for instance through training and retraining strategies. This further proves that de-jobbing is a product of the rapid change taking place in business today. The changes taking place in the business environment highly influence human resource planning (Bridges 1995, p. 227). Human resource planning comprises of three basic steps that is data gathering, analysis and forecasting and succession and career planning which should be inter-related with the culture of the organisation, workforce development and organisation development among other concerns of human resource for an organisation to succeed. The following model outlines an overview of the processes involved in human resource planning and how the processes align with the goals of an organisation. From the diagram it is quite evident that human resource planning allows organisations to appropriately analyse the demands and supplies of their human resource department thereby being able to develop strategies that define the quality and quantity of staffing to undertake. Human resource planning entails analysis of skills of the workforce, ensuring that supply meets the forces of demand and conducting manpower forecasting. Therefore, the current human resource planning strategies support the implementation of de-jobbing into the culture and structure of an organisation. The current human resource plans aim at complying with the changes depicted in the business environment. It is therefore, evident that de-jobbing is a product of changes experienced in today’s business environment (Sims 2002, pp. 99-102). Fig 2: Human resource planning processes. Retrieved from (Sims 2002, pp. 99-102) Human resource planning, recruitment and selection activities are determined by job analysis and mechanisms that organisations employ. Job analysis comprises of the procedures to be used to determine staffing strategies and the duties to be performed by staff members in order to successfully accomplish the objectives and goals of an organisation. This is because job analysis results to formulation of a list of what the job at hand entails i.e. a job description and specifications defining the skills that are needed to undertake the job at hand. Through job analysis HRMs are able to come up with appropriate work activities that are needed to enable an organisation to comply with the change in the business environment. The working activities also comprise of a list of who will perform the activities, how they will be performed and the appropriate time to perform the activities (Barnes-Nelson 1996, pp. 39-49). Job analysis also enables human resource managers to determine the type of human behaviour which complies with the demand of the job such as communication and sensing among others. Moreover, human resource managers are able to identify working aids, tools, materials and equipments to be used to enable the organisation strive in the stiff market competition, for example financial aid and counselling services among others. Human resource managers will also be able to determine the performance standards. For instance, the quality and quantity of levels for each designated duty. Furthermore, Human resource managers are able to identify the context of the job which entails working schedule, physical working conditions and the social context of the organisation. With the above information Human resource managers are able to deduce staffing requirements such as job competence, skills, working experience and personal attributes of an individual like physical characteristics, interests and personalities. Therefore, information gathered from job analysis forms the basis for formulation of recruitment, selection, compensation, performance appraisal and training requirements as shown in the figure below (Carson 1996, pp. 49-64). Job Analysis ↓ Job Description and Job Specification ↓ Recruiting and Selection → Performance Appraisal → Job Evaluation; Wage → Training Decisions and Salary Decisions (Compensation) Fig 3: Retrieved from (Carson 1996, pp. 49-64) Job analysis comprises six steps which include determining how the information collected will be utilized. This dictates the type of data collection method that will be used for example use of face to face interviews or questionnaires. The second step involves review of relevant background information related to the organisation such as process and organisation charts. This enables the human resource to determine the division of the job processes, the relationship between the job at hand and other jobs and how the job fits or complies with the goals of the organisation. The third step involves selection of representative positions to prevent analysing many similar jobs. The fourth step involves implementation of actual analysing mechanisms to evaluate the job at hand such as data collection on employee behaviour, human traits, abilities and working conditions among others. The fifth step comprises of verification where the human resource manager compares their results with the views of supervisors and workers. This confirms if the factuality of the information is accurate and reliable (Cardy 1992, p. 4). Moreover, employees will easily accept the job analysis process because of incorporating them in the review activities. The final step comprises of development of job description and specification report thus enabling the human resource to effectively describe the activities, features and responsibilities of the job at hand and summarize the required skills, background, traits and personal attributes of the individuals required to perform the job at hand. For instance, the US bank utilized job analysis mechanisms to refocus its competitive strategy. This was as a result of many customers closing down their accounts to open up new ones in competing banks. The human resource came up with a job description for the employees which explained the new service related duties the bank was adopting. To emphasise on the urgency of attaining customer satisfaction the bank had to train the employees on effective measures of implementing their new service related duties. The human resource also adopted new strategic hiring standards to enable the organisation attain service oriented individuals. Below is an example of a process chart for analysing a job’s work flow (Henderson 1985, pp. 158). Input from Input from Plant Managers Suppliers \ / Information Output to Plant Managers ↓ Inventory Output to Job under Study— Plant Managers Inventory Control Clerk Fig 4: Process chart. Retrieved from (Henderson 1985, pp. 158) De-jobbing has enabled organisations to keep up with the rapidly changing business environment and strive in the stiff market competition. The employees in the current business environment have the opportunity and ability to make operating decisions that were reserved for managers. This quickens up the decision making process thereby enabling organisations to effectively meet the demands in the market. Employees also interact more with customers and have a better understanding and experience of the external competition that the organisation is facing in comparison with the managers. This is because they are well versed with appropriate information that organisations can rely on to make decisions. The current business environment offers training programs and seminars to all its employees thereby improving their competence and basic understanding of the policies, objectives, mission, vision and goals of the organisation. For instance, after undergoing training the employees are in a better position of understanding the financial and business issues that affect the operations of the organisation. They therefore will take it upon themselves to accomplish their responsibilities and at the same time protect the resources and assets of the organisation. This is because the employees are empowered as they have a stake in the fruits of labour and profit shares of the organisation. These facts make employees to be engaged with the organisation and its operations - a change that greatly motivates them greatly increasing the market scope, control and sales of the organisation. The domestic and foreign markets both are subjected to an increase in business competition. De-jobbing has therefore enabled organisations to strive in this stiff competition because they are able to cut down their overall expenses and subject most of their resources into production of quality and sophisticated goods and services that will meet the demands of consumers. Temporary workers are not included in the pension and benefit plan of the organisation, this enables the organisations to have lower wage expenses. However, de-jobbing demands for acquisition of technological advancement knowledge which is achieved by constantly adding new skills to the already existing ones. Technology is a major social trend that keeps on revolving and greatly influences the work force. Therefore, employers need to always be ready with strategies of improving the skills and knowledge of employees such as use of training aids and programs. Implementation of strategies to comply with the rapid changes in the business environment add initial expenses to the already strained budget of organisations due to the economic regression that is being faced globally. Also de-jobbing demands acquisition of new personality traits such as humility and the right attitude to enable individuals keep on attending training programs to attain new skills. However, not everybody is bestowed with these virtues and therefore cannot attain the patience required. De-jobbing ends the secure long-term employment that existed in the traditional business environment. This is because it has changed the business environment from producing goods to becoming more service oriented. For instance, tourism and hospitality industries have gained growth momentum in the global market. De-jobbing has also supported the growth of smaller businesses that can be contracted by big organisations to avail temporary services of conducting certain operations or a project for a specified period of time. It has encouraged a shift to non-standard jobs because few of the people that have permanent jobs work for long hours. This is because of the flattened structure of the organisation which resulted into an increase in job operations for those who were lower in the hierarchy level. Also there is an increase in the number of people that want permanent jobs but because of existence of very few fulltime employment opportunities they end up settling for contingent jobs. Non-standard jobs comprise of contract, part-time and temporary help agencies. Mostly they are self-operated and therefore owners do not employ workers. This fact increases the number of unemployed individuals. De-jobbing has also eliminated the security of full-time jobs. Nowadays organisations strive to attain freedom and flexibility in that they can change the policies and processes of the organisation at any time to comply with the existing changes in the business environment. Therefore, they rely on temporary workforce and formulate their operations into project basis. From the above it is quite clear that de-jobbing is as a result of changes in the business environment. Today’s business environment gears towards establishing flexible working hours. This explains the presence of organisations that work for 24 hours. Nowadays the working hours of individuals are not monitored, what is evaluated is their work output. Organisations do not have convectional managers because they have been replaced by project teams which highly collaborate with each other to accomplish their responsibilities within the given time frame. These changes are implemented to make an organisation compatible with globalisation - the main factor that influences elements of the business environment. Reference list Aswathappa, K 2005, Human resource and personnel management (pp. 99-106), 4th Ed, Delhi, India, Tata McGraw-Hill. Barnes-Nelson, J 1996, ‘The boundary-less organisation: implication for job analysis, recruitment and selection’, Human Resource Planning, Vol. 20, pp. 39-49. Becker, B & Gerhart, B 1996, ‘The impact of human resource management on organisational performance: progress and prospects’, Academic Management Journal, Vol. 39, pp. 779–801. Bridges, W 1995, How to prosper in a workplace without jobs (p. 227), Massachusetts, Addison-Wesley. Cardy, B (1992), ‘Job analysis in a dynamic environment’, Human Resources Division News, Vol. 16, No. 1, p. 4. Carson, K. P 1996, ‘Job analysis and the sociotechnical approach to quality: a critical examination’, Journal of Quality Management, Vol. 1, pp. 49-64. 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