How Globalization Is Affecting HRM - Essay Example

?Management Q Over the past decade globalization has been driven by technological advances and information technologies, thus we can say that the world has become a small village, and globalization is here to stay. Discuss this statement and explain how globalization is affecting human resource management (HRM). A.1) Globalisation is a key word in all the business operations in today’s world. Companies which operate in restricted geographical area want to cash on this new trend in business. The ultimate aim of all the business is to expand and establish themselves as a global company. Whenever a company starts the main operation in a particular region the initially grow steadily and then exponentially. However after a certain phase the company enters a stagnant phase, during this phase many companies realize the importance of approaching other geographical markets for growth. When the global recession had hit the US and Europe market many companies predominantly operating in those geographical area realized the importance of taking their products to growing market. The BRIC countries namely Brazil, Russia, India and China, have been recognized by many companies as markets which have lot of potential. Many of these countries have a substantial population of growing middle and upper middle class people. The increase in disposal income per family has made these countries, a lucrative target for many. In business globalisation denotes more market share, growth and profit making. The farther is the reach of a business the more customers and revenue it is bound to achieve (Tandon, p.29). Technology has been an important element in facilitating the globalisation. Technological advances in Information Technology have helped companies to operate their global operations more efficiently. A company that has to set up an operation in a foreign geographical region has to initially relocate their strategic team to establish themselves in the foreign market. However relocating the entire team is not very feasible and often a new set up is formed with new management. It helps these various operation set ups of a certain company remain in touch with each other. The parent company is able to communicate with their subsidiaries in regular frequency with the help of IT. IT also enables these companies to operate globally by enabling them to handle their clients from distant location. IT companies themselves are biggest advocate of globalisation. Most IT companies work for businesses in various geographical areas growing their network globally. Technological development and advances have indeed made the world a smaller place. These technological advances make it possible for operations situated miles apart interact with each other have formal meetings within few minutes without physically relocating. Technological advancement in transportation also has made global operations easier for companies. Travelling from a location to another also has become easier for the managers. One manger is able to handle several geographical areas due to these technological advancements. Technology also helps in keeping the operations located in various locations have a common identity. One of the main aspects of globalisation has been to utlise the resources carefully and efficiently. Each geographical market has a unique resource quotient that gives a comparative advantage to that market. The companies try using these resources in such a way that maximum profit can be harnessed, this makes globalisation a rewarding option for companies also. Globalisation also enables consumers with the power to choose. The consumers are given wider option due to globalisation are in a position to demand better and efficient service (Ramos, p.1-30). One of the most complicated issues for companies opting for globalisation is planning resource management. Resource management is the back bone for any company. The operations will operate according to the plan only if the human resource planning is done in an intelligent way. Right person for the right profile and the structure of an organisation is very essential for having an efficient functioning. There are many factors that needs to be considered before the human resource management planning is done for global set ups. The style of management that will be more efficient in the foreign set ups and the work culture that will be accepted by the employees in those set ups are few of the important decisions. Globalisation has also spread awareness amongst corporate regarding cultural identity in Human Resource management. Companies have realised that encouraging cross cultural interaction within employees from various locations will help the management to understand culture and work traditions of a particular country. Globalisation has been able to bring the different cultures, traditions and principles followed in various part of the world on a common platform. Corporates are more aware of the different work culture and market customs of different countries due to globalisation. Globalisation has undeniably helped the world become better connected and closer (Misra, p.13-17). Q.2. Answer the following question: Does structure follow strategy or strategy follows structure? Why? Discuss. A.2. Organisational strategy and organisational structure go hand in hand to help the organisation become increasingly productive in order to enhance both revenue and market share. The organisation to perform effectively must set some definite goals and objectives and in that should streamline the existing resources to help in achieving the stated ends. The above process underlined acts as the strategic imperative of the organisation to help in carrying on the process of production and thereby to meet the growing demands of the society. However in terms of the organisation the strategic functions can be either made on a planned basis or can develop along an extended time period depending on the actions of the managerial decisions. Strategic developments in the organisational processes depending on the changes in the external environment are found to grossly affect the existing organisational structure and hierarchy. Further elucidation shows that the organisational structure counters change depending on the level of strategies taken for organisational growth. The strategic imperatives taken for organisational growth can either be related to enhancing the productive aspects by generating more volumes or can also be in regards to expansion drives to cover new market areas. Again the firms can diversify both in terms of organisational processes and in the realm of their product or service portfolio to satisfy the objectives of growth strategies. These types of strategies internationalise or diversify the existing organisation structure which thereby turns more complex and also becomes more specialised and flexible to meet the changing needs. Thus impact of the strategic imperatives taken causes the organisation to be broken down into a number of specialised departments and thereby also signifies the decentralisation of organisational authority. On the contrary the changes in the organisational structure also render some definite impacts upon the organisation requiring such to change the existing strategies practiced to counter competition. Increasing complexity in the organisational structure leads to changes in the decision making styles in the concern to formulate strategies. In complex set of organisational structures the strategic decisions are taken in a comprehensive manner fully complying with the organisational objectives. Hence the level of integration in these types of activities is found to be low. Again in terms of formal organizational structures the set of decisions that would be taken depend on a proper hierarchical system. The levels of decisions that are taken depending on the set hierarchies are generally observed to render solutions to organisational problems. As contrary to the complex organisational system the strategic decisions in regards to the formal organizational structure operate generally on a comprehensive system which would involve the integration of decisions pertaining to different manpower levels in the concern. Further the level of centralization enhanced in the organization also tends to affect the process of taking strategic management decisions. In the process of centralization the upper management body generally takes the strategic decisions which are thereby percolated along the different department levels in the concern. Thus in this type of organizational hierarchy the level of strategic decision making greatly depends on the understanding of the upper management body of the said problems and thereby requires the integration of the ideologies of the several departments (iun.edu; Rasche, 55). Q.3. Answer the following question: Are leaders born or made? Why? Discuss your answer and you may provide some examples. A.3) Leaders are people who have the courage to lead people from front. The motives that inspire the leaders differ from individual to individual. For some it is the fame and attention factor that is attached to the leadership. For some it is the need of an hour to rescue certain community that they take up such role. For some it is an urge to lead there society to betterment. It is an ongoing debate amongst scholars about whether leaders are made or born. However, history clearly indicates that leaders are people who learn from their mistakes and incorporate the required changes in their personalities. Leaders are people who have a focused mind (Rae, p.293). To achieve their goal these leaders work hard on their personal as well as on their professional attributes. Leaders are made and are not born. However the leaders can be self groomed or be groomed by their mentors .Leaders like Bill gates and Steve Jobs are personalities who had a clear goal and to achieve their goals they brought a lot of changes in their work pattern as well as in their behaviour pattern. The urge to leave a mark in this world is very predominant in most leaders. There are few leaders like Warren Edward Buffett who were born with an inclination towards certain aspects. Warren Buffet from his childhood had keen interest in stocks and shares, he developed his skills further to achieve his goal. These examples of leaders in today’s business world clearly indicate that there are certain qualities that all leaders are born with and there are certain qualities that they acquire as grow older. However the learning part in all leaders indicates that leaders are generally made. They are made by their own hard work, experience and their persistent nature. Most of the business leaders that we look up to in today’s business world had to overcome many personal and professional failures to reach the point they are currently placed now. To be leaders a person must have a clear vision and strategy to achieve the vision. A leader must also have the ability to make other followers dream with them to achieve a common goal. The ability to convince the followers that the goal in focus is achievable is one of the most important aspects of a leader. The ability to motivate and the ability to keep the peers together to achieve a common goal is something leaders learn as they grow into their shoes. Few situations often can break a person or make them. Leaders make it a point to learn from each situation and work harder to strive in their field. Leaders are also risk takers as they learn to apply unconventional methods to reap profits. When Bill gates and Steve Jobs ventured into the Computer industry , the concept of having a Personal computers was absurd for many, but they had in them to change the way the world thinks and bring the It revolution in the world (Liu,p.40,41). Q.4. Management theory attempts to determine the predictable relationship between the elements of actions, outcomes, situations. Six different themes in management theory were used to convey the mood of current thinking and debate about the management and organizations. Define and explain the new six themes on management theory. A.4 The modern management theory encompasses six different themes which can be enumerated as follows. The first theme encompasses that the environment of the organization does not depend on static set of factors but rather is dynamically involved with the changing needs of the external environment. Dynamism in the organisational environment is further enhanced through the level of increased interaction enabled among the organisational people. Managers in an organization need to proactively interact with other managerial staffs pertaining to different departments for helping the organization generate all round productivity. Hence a dynamic organizational environment needs to encourage a highly interactive environment in the concern through the progressive cooperation of the managerial and other organisational staffs. The second theme related to management theory in an organization focuses on the social responsibility and ethical aspect of the organizational managers. Managers acting as organizational leaders must potentially reflect high amount of ethical attributes to encourage a healthy working environment in the concern. Again the managers must increasingly work towards protecting the social environment of the concern. This would help enhance the organisational image of the concern in the society. In the third theme of the management theory the need for internationalising the organizational activities are strongly felt. With the development of internet activities the world is gradually getting transformed to a global village for which the organizational managers need to be dynamically active to resort to organizational changes. Focusing on the fourth theme it is observed that organizational managers need to encourage high amount of innovation in the organization. This process of innovation rendered in the organization helps the organizational employees to be highly flexible to the external changes and thereby to generate more productive operational systems and processes. Moreover high amount of creativity ushered in the organization’s operational processes helped in generating motivation among the organizational people to operate in a more challenging environment. Further the fifth theme in regards to the modern organization concerns the engagement of several organizational cultures and subcultures of the different units operating in foreign nations. The modern day business organizations operate along international borders and thus are constituted of different types of people pertaining to different nationalities. These people have separate cultural ideologies which need to be synchronized by the organizational managers to help in the fulfilment of the organizational objectives. Further the people belonging to the different departments inside the organization tend to build in different cultural subsets which also must be effectively governed by the modern day managers to fulfil the needs of the concern. Finally the sixth theme concerns the need of the organizational managers to enhance the productivity and the quality aspect of the organization. The nature of goods and services produced in order to meet the needs of the people in an enhanced manner must effectively satisfy the quality requirements. In this the organisational managers must introduce the system of quality management in the concern depending on both technological and scientific systems to help enhance the productive lifecycle of the produced. Further the quality of work life in the concern must be also enhanced to help encourage the organizational people to render more effective job performances. Organizational mangers acting on the final theme must work forward to render high amount of investments pertaining to research and development activities to help enhance the quality of the products produced or served. Quality improvement can also be rendered pertaining to the realm of customer servicing activities. Quality enhancement rendered in this direction would help in generating larger amount of customer loyalty in the organization and thereby in enhancing the productive aspect of the concern. This amount of customer loyalty thereby augments the level of profit and market share in the concern. The organisational managers henceforth must rightly incorporate the organizational resources both technological and human to effectively bring about both quality improvement in the work sphere and as well as in regards to the productivity rendered. These six themes must be duly satisfied by the modern organizational managers to render total quality enhancement in the organization’s functions. The six themes effectively dealt with would help the organizational managers to effectively manage the impact of the outcomes in regards to the managerial actions taken pertaining to the different environmental situations (Thenmozhi, 17-21; Ferlie, 45; Stoner, 75). References Ferlie, Ewan. The new public management in action. Oxford University Press, 1996. iun.edu. Strategy and Structure. No date. May 23, 2011 . Liu , Lan . Conversations on Leadership: Wisdom from Global Management Gurus. John Wiley and Sons, 2010. Misra, R.N , Human Resource Management After Globalisation, Discovery Publishing House, 2009. Rae, Andre . Organizational Behavior. Pearson Education India, 2008. Rasche, Andreas . The Paradoxical Foundation of Strategic Management . Springer, 2007. Ramos,C. Globalization and technology. Rex Bookstore, Inc., 2003 Stoner. Management. Pearson Education India.2010. Tandon, Yash . Development and globalisation: daring to think differently. Fahamu/Pambazuka, 2010 Thenmozhi, M. Evolution of Management Theory. No date. May 23, 2011 < http://nptel.iitm.ac.in/courses/IIT-MADRAS/Management_Science_I/Pdfs/1_2.pdf>. Read More