HRM and Labour Problems - Essay Example

HRM: Need of HRM: It is studied over the years that the Industrial relations in countries and regions have come under the influence of various situations and players such as economic imperatives, political philosophers, the role played by state in determining the direction of economic and social development, the business communities and the unions, the role of the colonial governments and their legacies. Most of the industrialized economies like Australia- New Zealand, Western nations, Asia-Pacific and South-Asian nations have neglected the human resource management in the their Industrial relations over several decades. The policies implemented via Industrial relations had given the employees a common voice, and established unions to formulate terms and conditions of service, within an enterprise or within an industry or across the economy. The objectives of the labour welfare have been achieved via freedom of the unions, right to strike and collective bargaining. (Syrian Desilva) Industrial relations shall influence the employers and employers’ organizations, so as to make them aware of labor law, labor welfare and the industrial competitiveness. Many of the organizations in Asia-Pacific are poorly equipped with this type of knowledge which can make valuable change in their policy decisions. These facts suggest that the employers’ organizations has to develop planned Industrial relations in order to nurture the growth of Human Resource Management (HRM) policies for augmenting the competitiveness. It becomes a matter of debate that in view of HRM policies whether the labour markets are to be deregulated or not. The objectives should be properly understood and legitimate areas of legal prescription are to be carefully identified. In the Industrial relations the efficiency of the labours plays a vital role. Inequality makes the labours inefficient. There is a need of providing adequate measures in HRM towards labour management and labour law which can make the enterprises more competitive. The labour management in the HRM deals with various aspects, like settling of the balance of power between the labour and management and, formulating the terms and conditions of employment, minimizing the friction and conflicts at the enterprise level on such grounds. A long term enterprise-based aspect, was not taken into consideration during last two decades by many academics and recognized by the employers. The employers realized that many of the problems and labour issues are not only restricted to conflict over terms and conditions of employment, negotiated between employers and unions. The labour mismanagement reflects into lack of job security, absenteeism, low productivity, high labour turnover, inadequate training, and non-recognizing the performance of individuals and groups with respect to the prevailing wage systems. The problems in the labour management are required to be discussed and resolved at the enterprise level. The HRM practices thus provided a wider angle to look deeper into the labour problems and made it clear that their causes are not external to the enterprise, but they are directly concerned with the inefficient management of human resources within the enterprise. These facts directly put thrust on the corrective measures to be initiated at the enterprise level by implementing necessary HRM practices for mapping the individual goals and needs over the organizational goals, and finding the optimum balance between them. (Syrian Desilva) The labour issues need to be addressed to the unions and policy makers in the framework of industrial relations and competitiveness. If such measures are not initiated, the employers may be forced to make HRM policies in context with the labour issues, which are the relevant means for reaching the organizational goals. Now it is understood that industrial relations fail to grow in the absence of competitive strategies, and further given rise to labour management as the important aspect of HRM. The modern day HRM practices improve the labour’s satisfaction; it may result into reduction of demands by the unions. These policies make groundwork for labour management and reducing conflicts, making an HRM-substitution remedy of union decline. It is quite obvious that in such circumstances, unions may become obsolete with respect to the labour problems. Storey’s (1992:113) report on the adoption of HRM practices in the 1980s showed the developments in these practices at the time of study. It remains a debatable question that which organizations have incorporated the labour management as strategic HRM. As per the worldwide research it forms a negligible portion of the corporate sector. Towers-Perrin (1992) showed that in the survey of 3000 organisations, only one fourth of them were proactive and inclined towards strategic HRM. Storey (1995) also put forward that many organizations use labour management in HRM only as symbolic label. He further stated that only forty percent out of the total organization using HRM, are acting in coordination with line managers, acting as counselors. Following are the major concerns while considering HRM as a strategic tool towards labour management in the organizations: 1. Storey (1995) says that, in view of the labour management, the HR policies drafted by the board of directors, provide the labour’s working status as well as the influential opportunities available at his/her disposal. As per Sisson (1995), if key decisions are approved without taking the HR objectives into consideration, then personal issues are automatically stepped down to inferior status. 2. HRM plays a vital role in the developing corporate strategy. The role of HRM is not restricted to post development consultative one but extended far beyond that. 3. An HRM policy with formally written issues, emphasizes on the organisation’s sincere efforts to unify the corporate strategy with human resource objectives. If an organization has unwritten HRM strategy, it does not create any ground for the involvement of human resource issues in the corporate goals and such informal strategies shall be disregarded as standard practices. 4. The organisations’ shall implement the HRM strategy via HRM programs which puts the theoretical conception into practice and makes the organisations’ more concerned about human resource. 5. The evaluation of human resource performance provides the importance given for HR policies and their respective outcomes. Storey (1995) stated that considering the criticality of HR practice in view of core activities of the business, it becomes too important to consider its implementation by personnel specialists. The implementation of the policy directly by the employer does not fall under HR strategy, rather it should be transferred to the line managers, as they are closely associated with labours/employees. In this perspective it also carries lot of importance that the line managers shall understand the correlation amongst the physical, financial and human resources. Modern HRM: The concept of human resource started gaining importance over personnel management, in the 1980s (Storey 2001). The growing competition in the global economy generated thinking about the management of people in the organisations (Best, 1990). The success stories of Japanese organisations in exporting the prevailing western prducts like electronic goods and cars during 1970s and 1980s raised the eyebrows of western organisations. The study found that Japanese organisations put major efforts on effective man management as a competitive strategy of their organization (Ouchi, 1982). The studies further revealed that the Japanese employers bettered in a fair way than their western rivals with respect to process innovation and labour productivity. These success stories had a key role played by human resource management practices implemented by the Japanese organisations like Toyota and Matsushita. As the Japanese companies founded manufacturing plants in North America and Europe, a consequential implementation of the human resource practices prevailed in the west. The successful Japanese human resource management practices had been migrated internationally with better achievements (Wickens, 1987). The human resource management practices include: 1. Implementation of unbiased and strict selection and recruitment procedures. 2. Elevated stages in training, induction training and on job training to the employees/labours. 3. Implementation effective ways of team working among the labours/employees. 4. Developing different skills in the labours/employees. 5. Improving the communication practices between management-labour. 6. The increased efforts on right first time quality. 7. Encouraging the employees for giving suggestions and innovations. 8. Creating a sense of equality amongst labours through single status symbol like corporate uniforms and common canteens. Storey provided the peculiar details of human resource management while dealing in labour management, they are discussed as follows: Assumptions: Human resource is the possible means to provide competitive advantage. Just compliance of the rules does not serve the objective, it’s the employee/labour commitment that results to overall success. In view of the importance of the labour/employee, they must be selected with due care and developed properly to fit the job requirement. Strategic qualities: The beliefs and assumptions in the human resource management, made the HR decisions strategically important. The employer in consultation with the top management must deal human resource management. The human resource management policies shall form integral part of business strategy. The HRM policy thus arises from business strategy and further contributes to achieve it. Role of Managers: Considering the criticality of the correlation of human resource management with the core activities of business, they must be implemented through the personal specialists. Being at a crucial position, line managers play a vital role of delivering of the HR policy as well as driving ahead the policy to the labours. Management of managers is an important activity and needs higher degree of attention. Key factors: In comparison to procedures management and systems management, managing culture is more important. The overall action taken with respect to selection, training, communication and development has vital importance in the human resource management. To pass on the responsibility and as an empowerment measure, restructuring and redesign of job are necessary in human resource management. In his study, Storey has made important findings. As per his findings, human resource management is not the sole authority of human resource manager. In this context, line managers are the most influential persons and they play crucial role in the actual implementation of labour management in HRM. The business strategy is designed in such a way that human resource management forms an integral part of it. The HR manager becomes a part of top-level strategic team of the corporate and human resource management became the key contributor to the success of business. Developing or managing culture is a pivotal aspect of human resource management. The development of HRM culture creates devoted labours and workforce in the organization who lead to the successful achievement of the business objectives. It is now clear that human resource management not only deals with the management of employees/labours but it also provides means through which corporate culture is founded, augmented and transmitted. Criticism: The development of human resource management and its labour management practices has not evolved just like that. There are some criticisms come up, over the years. The prime criticism has evolved from the industrial relation scholars. These scholars consider the older method of personnel management as more appropriate as compared to human resource management. As per their views, personnel management not only dealt with the administration of people in organisations but also provided thrust on the employee relations and role of unions and managers for implementing change at the workplace(Gust, 2001). The scholars further looked at human resource management as the outcome of non-unionised environment of big organisations, in which measures are taken by the managers to keep unions out of the working places. The measures taken by the managers are better working conditions, higher pay and sophisticated ways of human resource management. The Industrial scholars termed this as ‘unitarist’ employee relation. Human resource management measures have shown an advantageous position in the organisations which has also maintained the rudimentary industrial relations structure where union plays crucial role via bargaining and negotiation powers. Storey, analyses that organisations take up several measures to retain competitive position. Storey clarified that the unitarist view towards human resource management is a partial way of thinking and it has no conflict with the old industrial relations policy. Therefore both the policies can co-exist in the competing interest of the various sections in the workforce and labours. Best Practices: From the beginning of the research of human resource management, labour/worker has been treated as the focus point of attention. Human resource management just look at the measures to maximize the resource available in the form of labour/worker. Storey (1989) originated the concepts of “soft” and “hard” human resource management. The practices that were designed to bring out the devotion of the worker/labour termed as the soft theories. These theories described the prominence of developing teamwork, changing jobs between workers, making better workplaces. The best practice approach towards human resource management is followed from Storey’s initial concepts of soft human resource management. The other concept i.e. the “hard” human resource management theory is concerned with the external fit. This implies the direct correlation between the business strategy of the organization and the fit of the human resource management policy. External fit is the directly related with Storey’s hard human resource management. Many attempts have been made to find out the best fit, majority of them take help of categorization of business strategy. HRM and Labour problems: Since the old days industrial relation policy and personnel management were existing in the organisations. It was assumed that the freedom to form and join trade unions has given great impetus to resolve the problems and grievances of labours. The tools of collective bargaining and negotiating were considered as the great weapons for securing the rights of the labours in the industrial relations policy. In this traditional structure of the personnel management, Human Resource managers were placed at a lower position in hierarchy and actual decision of labour welfare, pay hike and other conditions have been taken by the top management or by the employer. In this type of setup many things remain unheard and unresolved. Individual issues had not been entertained most of the time. Though the method of collective bargaining and negotiation sounds good up to some extend it fails to motivate the individual labour. It also fails to nurture commitment in the labour. The basic flaw in the personnel management policy was that, it didn’t involve labour welfare as the part of business strategy. As against the Personnel management, the human resource management has a business strategy that directly involves labours’ welfare. In this setup Human Resource manager is placed along with the top brass and directly involved in decision making. Line managers are considered as the most important key persons for the implementation of HR policies. The top management for the control over labours and their issues directly deals with the line managers. HR policies include better workplaces for the labours, training and education, direct communication, encouraging suggestions and innovations, sense of equality etc. The direct involvement of labours into the business strategy makes them feel responsible and committed. The enhanced mode of communication increases efficiency and reduces the grievances of labours. In such situation trade union and their tools seems to be redundant mechanism. Human resource management thus proved as a powerful remedy for dealing the labour issues and their welfare strategies. Conclusion: The practice of human resource management emerged in the 1980s. The policies of human resource management implement directly involve the issues of the employees/ labours into the business strategy. Therfore there is no separate mechanism required for the welfare of the employees and for securing their rights. Storey put forward human resource management as a strong tool against the traditional personnel management methods. Human resource management employs the policies to enhance the productivity of the human resource. Managing managers has been given greater importance in HRM. The HR manages culture and inculcates practices that augment the efficiency of the labours and in turn increases the productivity, thus ensures competitive edge in the market. There are some criticisms from Industrial scholars regarding the unitarist approach of human resource management. In spite of the suggestions by scholars and their criticism, human resource is an efficient tool for the business development of an organisation and for the betterment of labours and employees of the organization. Bibliography 1. Storey, 1995, Human Resource Management. A Critical Text 2. Guest, D.(2001). Industrial relations and human resource management in J. Storey (ed) Human resource management: a critical text (2nd Edn), Thomson, London. 3. Storey, J (2001). Human resource management today: an assessment in J. Storey (ed) Human resource management: a critical text (2nd Edn), Thomson, London. 4. Storey, J (1989). New perspectives in human resource management. Routledge, London 5. Sriyan de Silva, The Changing Focus of Industrial Relations and Human Resource Management, Workshop on Employers’ Organisations in Asia-Pacific in the Twenty- First Century Turin, Italy, 5-13 May 1997. 6. Wickens, P (1987). The road to Nissan. MacMillan, London 7. Ouchi, W.G. (1982). Theory Z, Avon Books, New York 8. Best, M (1990). The new competition: institutions of industrial restructuring. Polity Press, London. Read More