Global Marketplace - Dissertation Example

?Global Marketplace Table of Contents Introduction 3 The Global Work Markets and Virtual Employees 3 Brief overview of international HRM 5 International Human Resource Management for Virtual Teams 6 Reference 9 Introduction The 21st century planet is a global platform that promotes fast change and rapid development. As an emerging trend, it has to be highlighted that the concept of global marketplace is fast emerging in the recent times. Organizations of multinational, transnational as well as international orientation are increasingly looking forward to deriving competitive advantage by significantly reducing operating as well as other project related costs. In order to capitalize on the cost reduction benefits that might arise from currency difference rates of various nations around the world, the organizations are increasingly focusing on the process of outsourcing of jobs. This particular assignment intends to focus on the prospects of getting a particular project done in the global market, while capitalizing on the benefits of international human resources. The Global Work Markets and Virtual Employees Because of the favourable economic policies that are being developed and implemented in a regular manner, in various markets around the world, there are significant amount of opportunities related to business that are arising in both the developing as well as the developed markets. The tapping of these business opportunities by organizations around the world is leading to the creation of new and diverse range of jobs in the market. Needless, to say that these jobs require a diverse and in some cases, highly advanced range of skill sets. Now analysing the new jobs that are being created, from the economic viewpoint, it is important to highlight that not all markets around the globe provide the same flow of human resource talent as well as advantages in regards to competitive labour costs. It has to be increasingly considered that the markets of the Asia Pacific Region have a greater output of qualified and able professionals in the diverse domains of law, business, engineering and medical (Dogra, 2007, p. 311). In discussing the cycle of supply and demand of talents in the Asia Pacific markets, it can be said that the current supply of talent has far outstripped the demand factor in the current days (Sengupta and Basu, 2013). As of the year 2012, the nations of India and China are the largest producers of graduates all around the world (Coughlan, 2012). This oversupply of qualified human talent is lowering the competition for talent in the markets of India and China and as a result leading to lowering of job costs in these specific markets. Additionally, in analysing the scenario from the financial as well as strategic perspective, the currency difference that exists between the Western and Eastern nations of the globe are further generating lucrative options for organizations of the West who can get the desired jobs done at much lower costs from the low cost talent base available in the market of the East. The influence of the macro economics and market dynamics of the various nations also has to be taken into consideration while trying to gauge the factors that are fuelling outsourcing. The stress in the economic growth of the global nations is directly creating pressures on the manpower costs that can be handled by the organizations. The organization management trends reveal that companies are opting for lean staffing and high employee productivity. Routine restructuring of the work force by organizations are leading to discharging of skilled employees who are again opting forward to cover their own lifestyle expenses by working in a freelancing mode. This is indirectly triggering the demand for freelancing in an indirect manner (Pattison, 2009). To leverage the advantage emerging out of low cost skilled talent available in the global markets, especially from the nations of the East, the organizations of the global markets are turning to outsourcing of jobs of certain levels. Also, the factors of high penetration of internet in the markets around the world are greatly enhancing the scope of outsourcing of jobs. It is important to note that various outsourcing based job sites like People Per Hour, Freelancer.com, Elance and many others have emerged which increasingly act as a platform for providing jobs to talented and skilled people who are willing to work on outsourcing contracts. It is very interesting to state that the rise of freelancing trends among the people as well as organizations around the world is increasingly forming the base and triggering the rise of virtual team of employees. The virtual employees, who prefer to work using the technology platform as an interface, offers a widely diversified skill set for the employers and contractors. Also, because of their virtual nature, these employees are often spread in various geographies and nations around the world. It is important to state that the organizations which intend to extract the best value and output from these virtual employees needs to focus on providing motivation and work associated benefits to the globally located virtual employees. In order to attain success in doing that the organizations needs to employ various kinds of strategies which falls under the arena of international human resource management. Brief overview of international HRM From the theoretic point of view, it can be stated that the international human resource management focus on managing the human resources that are spread in various locations and markets around the world. The international human resource management comprises of functions like human resource planning, staffing by handling the process of recruitment, selection, training as well as placement, performance management of the employees, compensation as well as industrial relations (Dowling and et.al, 2008, p. 2). In justifying the need and demand for the international human resource management in the business arena, the evolving market and business dynamics that are prevalent in the today’s marketplace has to be taken into consideration. Faced by competition in the home and domestic market, firms are venturing into international markets. This is automatically raising the complexity of the business operations of the organizations, the proper handling of which needs a very skilled and talented human resource. While firms increasingly focus on managing their international subsidiaries by sending expatriates or hiring locally available high skilled talent in the newly entered market, human resource management of international nature was greatly desired for effective managing of the human resources operating in the foreign markets. Talking on these lines it is important to mention that the roles of international human resource management are greatly variable in regards to the type of the organization, which may be global, multinational, international or transnational in nature (Bhatia, 2005, p. 6). Also, it is highly important to state that the international human resource management is variable in regards to the organizational structure. There can be a wide range of organization structures ranging from international division structure, functional structure, geographic area structure, product structure and matrix structure. It has to be stated that each of these organizational structure needs a very different combination strategy of international human resource management (Aswathappa and Dash, 2008, p. 79). International Human Resource Management for Virtual Teams This particular project intends to discuss about implementation of international human resource management for the proper handling of virtual teams that are often formed as a result of routine outsourcing of jobs by various global organizations, which requires a diverse skill set and competitive labour costs. It is important to highlight that in the case of virtual teams management, various issues might crop up in regards to role conflict, interpersonal relations, work relationship, motivation as well as cultural and pay difference (Rao, 2008, p. 187). These various issues that might arise in connection to handling of virtual team has been discussed on a case by case basis from the point of international human resource management Talking in regards to role conflict, it can be said that this factor might emerge in virtual teams as the various employees who are working for an organization as a part of the virtual team are spread in different geographical location. The lack of face to face interaction among the team member automatically leads to the lack of coordination within the team. This might automatically trigger a potential conflict in regards to the roles that are supposed to be performed by the various remotely operating members of the virtual teams. As a process of resolving these issues, the HR department of the organization dealing with international HRM issues should focus on clear role definition for the employees working as a part of the virtual team of an organization In discussing about the interpersonal relationships and work relationships, it is important to consider that since the members of the virtual team are operating in a remote manner, there is a tremendous lack of interaction among the team members of both formal as well as informal nature. From the point of group dynamics, it needs to be stated that for smooth operating of any team, it is important to promote mutual interaction within the team members. For the process of promoting interaction among the team members working in a virtual team, the HR department of the organization needs to encourage the team leader responsible for supervising the virtual team to promote mutual interaction among the team members of both formal and informal manner. The factor of motivation and culture also needs to be dealt by the HR team which is overlooking the management of the employees working in a remote team of an organization. It needs to be stated that since the members of a virtual team are mostly from various markets around the world which often has differing culture and attitudes, the team is bound to be diverse in regards to various cultural issues (Sengupta and Bhattacharya, 2007, p. 262). By applying various strategies related to international human resource management, the HR team of the organization needs to deal with the various cultural issues of the employees working in the virtual team, so that it does not impact the motivation level of the team members. Finally, it needs to be stated that the HR department of the organization also needs to deal with the issues that might arise a result of pay difference among the members of a virtual team. It needs to be stated that the pay factor is intrinsically linked to the motivation and dedication level of the employees. As a result, in order to increase efficiency and productivity of the employees, the HR team of the organization needs to implement a global payment scale that will help in addressing the differential pay that are made to the members of the virtual teams who are operating for the organization, while being physically located in various geographical boundaries and locations (Dessler and Varkkey, 2011, p. 380). Reference Dogra, B., 2007. Strategic Outsourcing: Concept, IT Outsourcing, IT Enabled Services Outsourcing, Sectoral Applications of Outsourcing, the India Advantage. India: Deep and Deep Publications. Dowling, P. J., and et.al, 2008. International Human Resource Management. 5th ed. USA: Thomson Learning. Dessler, G. and Varkkey, B., 2011. Fundamentals Of Human Resource Management: Content, Competencies And Applications. India: Dorling Kindersley Pvt. Ltd. Sengupta, N. and Bhattacharya, M.S., 2007 International Human Resource Management. India: Excel Books Rao, P.L., 2008. International Human Resource Management: Text and Cases. India: Excel Books Aswathappa, K. and Dash, S., 2008. International Human Resource Management. India: Tata McGraw Hill Bhatia, S.K., 2005. International Human Resource Management. India: Deep and Deep Publications. Sengupta, D. and Basu, S.D., 2013. Non-IIT and second-tier engineering colleges looking for ways to beat placement blues. [Online] Available at: http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-08-06/news/41131879_1_engineering-colleges-placement-blues-vit-university [Accessed 9 Aug 2013] Pattison, K., 2009. Enlisting a Global Work Force of Freelancers [Online] Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/business/smallbusiness/25freelance.html?_r=0 [Accessed 9 Aug 2013] Coughlan, S., 2012. End of empire for Western universities? [Online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18646423 [Accessed 9 Aug 2013] Read More