International and Comparative HRM - Coursework Example

Student Name: Tutor: Title: International and Comparative HRM Course: International and Comparative HRM Introduction and structure There is increasing awareness of the significance of human resource management (HRM) in the global context and more understanding of the international dimensions. In the current world discussions concerning cross-national boundary human resource management suggest that culture-free and culture-bound variables and factors are significant determinants of human resource management practices as well as policies. HRM is depicted as context-specific and it is explained that with the emerging new markets across the globe, and enhanced levels of globalization of business and competition, there is a need to explore cross-national human resource management studies. It is predicated that India and China will disrupt workforces, companies, markets and industries greatly in the coming decades (Armstrong, 2012). Demographic and cultural dimensions have an impact on the human resource strategy of the organization. More women have been incorporated in the labour force and have rose to management level than before. There are points of convergence and divergence from the national and global realm while as the organizational level sets the pace for the ability of the business to compete at any other level. Employers have a great challenge of attracting and keeping the best human resource capital through competitive pay and motivation. Labour and capital transfer has been enhanced with the growth in globalization in the world. Outsourcing has become a way that some organizations meet their human resource needs where they are not able to produce their best (Torrington et al, 2009). Offshore production of functions in countries where the cost of labour is low and has advanced technology has become the order of the day. The labour union relationship with the employer is very important to the welfare of the employee. The government plays an important role in legislation of labour laws and its ideology will be used to implement various policies that influence the operation of the business. This essay explores human resource from the national, global and organizational context while dwelling the employer-employee relation to discuss labour relations. National context: Organizational and national culture is very important in defining the practices of an organization or the environment from within which it operates. Even where the organization has to explore the international market, it has to understand the local context that will venture into to avoid cross-culture challenges. Culture is broadly applied to explain differences within human groups in spite of it not having a universal accepted definition (Jawad & Özbilgin, 2010). Culture characterizes a group rather than single individuals and refers to the expression of ways of behaving and thinking that define a group and sets it apart from the rest. Culture develops gradually and it is the outcome of successful adaptation by a particular group to a particular environment. Culture has various forms or expressions that involve behaviours, artifacts, beliefs and values. The organizational culture the decision-making patterns and values systems of an organization. Cultural change is crucial before implementing any strategic plans and changes. Social groups can be distinguished in the manner in which they portray a certain pattern of observable behavior. Organizational and national culture all contribute to organizational success. Equal treatment in terms of pay and responsibilities ensures that no gender is discriminated against (Varma & Budhwar, 2013). More women are working mothers and many have risen to the management level than before. The human resource objectives have to be realistic and achievable within a reasonable timeframe. Demographic factors such as level of education, gender, training, and age determine the policies that will be implemented by the organization to get the best workers. Training needs will be presented with the kind of workers that an organization has. East European economies that were centrally planned have workforces that are well educated. Their secondary and primary education systems are almost good as those in countries that are industrialized and better as compared to developing economies. Human resource practitioners work in changing and complex organizational contexts (Ackers & Wilkinson, 2005). For the purpose of dealing with issues arising from these circumstances, human resource professionals have to clearly understand these settings and manage them through implementing and developing suitable human resource strategies and practices in the long-term or short-term. Human resource professionals have to understand how to understand external contexts that have a bearing on the organization. Organizations are impacted on by external forces that force managers to adjust their internal organizational behaviour and structures to deal with them. Organizational outcomes and activities are attributed to the context within which the organization operates from. Organizational involvement in developing school curriculum to meet the expectations of the employers is important in some countries where the quality of education and the target market is paramount (Varma & Budhwar, 2013). The values and goals of the organization have to be communicated clearly to the employees to avoid misinformation. The management has to address the grievances or needs of the employees and set well defined targets at various levels. The line managers have to motivate the employees to give their best and still love to remain in the organization. The employees have to be motivated to remain at the organization. Getting talented and competent employees determine how successful an organization can be. Employment relationship The issue for employers stretches beyond upgrading skills of the workforce. It is important to equip entrants to the workforce with the necessary education that makes them able to train for constantly changing and emerging skills requirements. Improvement has to qualitative. Employees have to have the ability to move from skill to another and develop inter-personal and analytical skills needed to work in modern organization and as the economy upgrades from one level to another. Training and development of workers have to be seen at a very important exercise of human resource management strategy. The overall strategy has to connect training, recruitment, career planning, and development, pay for performance and skills, performance appraisal, and employment security. The government has a right to protect its citizens from exploitation by unscrupulous business owners who want to make maximum profits and pay minimum wages. Strengthening the relationship between employees and managers culminates into a positive approach to employee motivation and performance (Varma & Budhwar, 2013). Line managers have an impact on employee behavior and attitudes. Studies present the important role played by line managers in implementation of Human Resource (HR) policies. The line managers have to work closely with human resource practitioners in order to maintain effectiveness and consistency in accomplishing human resource activities. Like managers have a role to play in performance appraisal, absence management, staff development and team briefing. HR professionals and line managers must have shared responsibility in promotions, performance pay, recruitment, and welfare of employees. Devolving human resource activities to line managers come with its share of challenges. Line managers do not necessarily have the competencies and skills to effectively manage people at the workplace. Low educational and technical bases of many United Kingdom managers hinder the devolution of Human Resource activities in certain organizations (Condrey, 2005). In certain cases, line managers show very little interest in human resource work having a view that competence in the area is obtained from a combination of experience and common sense as opposed to training. Some line managers assume that they understand how to manage people, motivate and address problems, but face challenges in dealing with this. Organizations outsource some human resource activities to outside agencies or bodies. HR outsourcing is whereby organizations subcontract human resource activities for the purpose of cost saving and get external expertise. There are many benefits associated with leanness and flexibility. Where core HR activities are outsourced, subcontractors can be changed when they do not deliver to the expected standards (Torrington et al, 2009). Outsourcing is in many forms like a shared service center working for an organization, a multi-client call center offering human resource advice to various organizations, or a joint-venture of organizations combining HR resources. Some of the HR activities that are often outsourced include recruitment and selection, payroll administration, executive research, learning and development, redundancy counseling and outplacement. The form of government and political ideology affect human resource policies and their implementation. Legislation with an impact on the human resource practices and polices entail legal framework whereby union management and unionization relations happen, hour and wage laws concerned with overtime payment, equal opportunity for employment legislation, laws concerning occupational health and safety, laws about employees’ pension funds, as well as maintenance programmes such as workers compensation. Within Europe more legislation is in place to take care of employee relations including laws about the freedom of the employees to terminate employment (Ackers & Wilkinson, 2005). The organizations HRM ideology or philology has to be within the countries ideology and expectations from the government legislation. Some scholars view ideology as a false misconception whereby the dominant class applies it to disguise their control such as communism and capitalism. The trend by the government to privatize companies is in an effort of enhancing competition in the open market where government control is limited. The government provides security and ensures that law and order is maintained in order to ensure stability. Political stability is very important to business. Political ideologies can shape the operations of the company. Organizations get attention from the government during periods where there is political stability. The current political environment often influences the operations of human resource management in many forms. The human resource managers have to be aware of the expected response from the government or political parties in case employees are laid off due to redundancy. Human resource professionals have to be aware of ruling parties on matters like social security benefits, collective bargaining, and recruitment (Armstrong, 2012). Moreover, the legal environment has an impact on the human resource management. The legal environment is shaped by the laws in place. An ideology can be understood as more or less coherent system of major ideas. The ideology is the perspective of policymakers and their supporters or associates that a specific way of governing and dealing with human resource needs of public agencies is better when considered and will result into higher level of efficiency as compared to other means. Political ideology is the force behind the government institution and influences in a big way the economic success and viability of organizations (Jawad & Özbilgin, 2010). Political ideologies set the tone for government hindrance or support of the development of resources whether human or natural. Politics is an important factor impacting globalization and causing international workplace changes. National labour laws influence human resource practices by the level of organizational autonomy that they carry. The breadth of policies that are and the length of time that has taken vary from one place to another. Trade unions that represent employees work closely with the human resource department. In the continental European system the government plays a crucial role in the labour market regulation since there is strong legislative protecting the rights of the employees (Marchington & Wilkinson, 2008). Trade unions are independent of employers but they develop close working relationship with employers. Trade unions consist of groups of employees who come together to improve and maintain their employment conditions. A union has to be formally recognized by the employer and has the mandate of negotiating with the employer over terms and conditions. This is what is referred to as collective bargaining. Employers and unions strike a deal on how the collective bargaining is going to work. They can make arrangements to have the employer deduct subscription from the salary of the workers who are being represented. A trade union is involve in offering services and assistance to all members, bargaining increase in salary and wages, and fighting for better working condition at the work environment; industrial action and political campaigning. Members of trade unions have the right to be escorted to discipline hearing with a trade union representative. Trade unions have to be consulted where redundancies or business transfers are proposed. Close to 7 million people in the United Kingdom are members of trade unions. Trade unions organize and train workplace representatives who assist union members with the challenges that they face at their place of work (Ackers & Wilkinson, 2005). The representatives offer advice and support for better pay and working conditions. Trade unions have over time contributed to the abolishment of child labour, setting of national minimum wage; improve safety of the workers, enhancing living standards through reduction of working hours and providing time for healthy/work balance. Trade unions have also lobbied for equality legislation, protection of migrant workers as well as reduction in cases of exploitation, sickness entitlements and minimum holiday. Unions have entered into many local agreements regarding matters affecting individual workplace after negotiation, consultation and lengthy bargaining. No organization can run its human resources practices without considering the labour laws that have been passed by the government. Global trends and influences Companies and organizations as a whole operate in a globalized economy that is accompanied by intense competition and moreover, more economic collaboration and interdependence. Services and products are being consumed far away from the manufacturing country than before since globalization creates greater convergence with regard to the taste and preferences of the consumer (Varma & Budhwar, 2013). Concurrently, in the event of the increased convergence, there is also an opposite form of divergence in operations that force companies to adjust business and corporate strategies, marketing plans, as well as production efforts to the local domestic markets. Many organizations are venturing into offshore outsourcing with the aim of remaining competitive. Many companies’ operations are being relocated to Malaysia, India and other countries which have low costs in terms of labour, workforce with high levels of education, and have the technological infrastructure to perform the functions. Statistics show that companies like Nestle, General Motors, and Ford employ many workers outside their headquarters as compared to within those countries (Torrington et al, 2009). Most companies in service or manufacturing industry can find a function that can be carried out off site. Information sharing and communication are happening across the world in multiple cultures and multiple languages. Global cooperation and global competition exist at the same time in the modern global economy. One important outcome of globalization is increased mobility in international labour markets and international capital. This results into a global market place whereby there is increased opportunity since there are many potential customers. On the other hand, there greater competition as local companies have to compete with other foreign companies to attract customers. The processes relating to global market integration of markets for capital, services and goods have resulted into two types of tensions. In the first place, the reduced barriers to investment and trade increase imbalances between groups that can venture outside national borders and those that do not have this capacity. The first category refers to highly skilled workers, owners of capital, as well as many professionals. Semiskilled and unskilled workers and middle managers fall in the second category. Secondly, globalization enhances conflicts between and within nations over domestic traditions and the social institutions that contain them (Marchington & Wilkinson, 2008). Whereas the manufactured goods’ technology become diffused and standardized internationally, nations that have different sets of norms, values, institutions, and collective preferences start to compete head on for similar goods in markets. Trade becomes controversial when it results into forces that undermine norms present in the domestic or local workplace practices. One challenge that multinational companies face is balancing the need for local adaptation and global adaptation. Organizational effects Human resource management is very important to the organization since it affect the attainment on the goals and objectives. Managerial emphasis on cooperation, individualism and competition are viewed as a way of making legal an equal and hierarchical workplace and intended to enhance managerial control on work. Large organizations have more power of human resource planning as compared to small organizations. Human resource strategy formulation shows the response of the organization to changes in the external environment (Armstrong, 2012). Human resource planning is a process that identifies the person for the right job at the right time. The future human resource requirements of the organization are estimated to meet the needs within the labour force market. Human resource planning is done before recruitment and selections of potential employees. An organization has to attract and retain an effective workforce. Organizations employ best practice strategies in order to achieve efficiency and effectiveness in achieving the strategic goals (Torrington et al, 2009). The number and people required for accomplishment of organizational goals are determined during human resource planning. New entrants in terms of workers have to be familiar with the corporate culture of the organization and integrated gradually. An organization must have a philosophy about training and development in order to equip the employees with the required skills and competences needed to accomplish organizational goals. Culture of a group is a set of values, beliefs, assumptions, thoughts and traditional practices that are shared by a certain group. An organization has also its culture that is followed by its members (Condrey, 2005). Functional strategies conform to the organizational culture of the business in order to meet the strategic goals. Human resource planning also enables attainment of internal consistency as well as external competitiveness using the competition policy. The organizational goal has to align the human resource plan and organizational strategy with the compensation plan. Conclusion Human resource management converges at a certain level such global, regional, national and organizations, despite showing challenges in culture and other behavioral practices. The government of the day has a big role to play in shaping the human resource practices through policy implementation of establishing a certain ideology about how business should be conducted. Human resource planning at the organizational level has an important role of determining the future needs of the organization in terms of human resource and aligning them to the strategic goals. The local culture has an impact on the operation of the business and how gender and other sensitive issues are handled. The managers particularly the line managers have the task of training and supervising the induction process of employees. The corporate culture of the organization determines the way things are accomplished and employee motivated. Labour unions involvement in the workers affairs is important and beneficial to the workers since there is a body to look after their welfare. Trade unions remain independent but maintain a close working relationship with the employers. The subscription fees are deducted directly by the employers and send to the union. The union ensures that the employee has a fair hearing in case of disciplinary issues. The organization has to consult with the government and the union in case of inevitable reduction of the labour force through retrenchment. Whereas globalization is important, the local context of operation has to be considered with any business that ventures outside the national boundaries. Increased competitions as well as opportunities for new markets present itself at the global level. Globalization is inevitable but an organization has to understand the local context where it is venturing. Globalization has enhanced labour and capital transfer across national boundaries. Human resource managers have a duty of understanding the environment within which they are working in order to come up with viable human resource strategies. References Ackers, P. & Wilkinson, A. 2005, British Industrial Relations Paradigm: A Critical Outline History and Prognosis, Journal of Industrial Relations, 47(4): 443-56. Armstrong, M., 2012, Armstrong's Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice, Kogan Page Publishers, New York. Condrey, S. E., 2005, Handbook of Human Resources Management in Government, John Wiley & Sons, London. Jawad, S., & Özbilgin, M. F., 2010, Managing Cultural Diversity in Asia: A Research Companion, Edward Elgar Publishing, Melbourne. Marchington, M. & Wilkinson, A., 2008, Human resource management at work: people management and development, 4th ed. CIPD, London. Stone, D., & Stone-Romero, E., 2012, The Influence of Culture on Human Resource Management Processes and Practices, Psychology Press, Melbourne. Torrington, D., Hall, L., Taylor, S. & Atkinson, C., 2009, Fundamentals of human resource management: managing people at work, Pearson Education, Harlow. Varma, A., & Budhwar, P.S., 2013, Managing Human Resources in Asia-Pacific, 2E: Second, Routledge, London. Read More