Human Resource and Industrial Relations - Essay Example

Running Head: HUMAN RESOURCE & INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS Title: Human Resource & Industrial Relations Name: Course: Instructor: Date: Human Resource & Industrial Relations Introduction Industrial relations are organization that concerns themselves more with the welfare of employees at workplaces. It concentrates on the bond between the management at the organization and workers, particularly unions representing groups of employees. Today, industrial relations have become of more help in analyzing neo-liberalism within any organization worldwide. To facilitate all these, the management at the industrial relations has to pose strong human resource department. Human resource is the art of managing people in any organization. It comes in two main types that is HR management or HR development. HR management is mostly concerned with minimizing financial risk within the organization and maximizing the return on investment from organization’s human capital (Poole, 1999: 171-243). They attain this through being accountable for the human resource manager post in an organization thus being able to conduct employees’ duties in fair, effective, legal and consistent way. On other hand, HR development is concerned with developing the human resourcefulness by mean of enlightening and cohesive policies in training, employment, education and health. Both of these human resource skills takes place at any level within an organization either; local, regional or even national. For a bigger organization, it is wise to distribute the powers so that the manager can be able to attain the required information to plan better strategies for the organization. Power distribution scheme at the industrial relation is known to affect the economic functions of the institution (Hansen, 2002: 513-538). While designing the scheme to be used at the industrial relation, one has to ensure that there is the ability to adjust to change at any level of the organization. This changes can be; political, technological or economical changes. Over the last 20years, the practitioners at industrial relations have faced major changes within the organization. These changes include neo-liberalism, decentralization and deregulation. These have caused challenges to the human resource practitioners in the organization. Thus, the paper will look at the way in which these changes have challenged the human resource practitioners at the industrial relations in relation to the case study “ANZ and St George lead the way in off shoring jobs”. To attain this, it will discuss on circumstances that led to the changes then relate them to ways in which the changes have challenged the practitioners. Later, the paper will look at the impacts that the practices will have on the current economic climate. Changes at Industrial Relations With the result of defeat of the centre-right in Australia government it forced organizations to implement the use of decentralization scheme to handle their matters. This was the shift from centralization where the government was entitled to all activities done in any organization countrywide to distribution of power to lower levels in the country. Presently, industrial relation has become very common among Australia organizations as they can decide on ways to operate on their organization without any involvement of the government. They have also faced deregulation in such away that they are able to alter on the amount of fee changed on bank loans for their client without any permission from the government. This is also evident on the change of regulation on entry to bank. Today, the government has no powers on to control what the bank think is the right step for them to take. This is evident on the case of St George and ANZ who have reduced the loan fees to their clients as well as created easy entry to the bank (John 2006). The organization has also relocated the economic power of the nation economy from public sector to the private sector, thus presence of neo-liberalism. This is experience when the banks on the study offshore their services and employees to other nations oversee, e.g., St George and ANZ banks have relocated their jobs to lower-cost nations such as India but maintains their call centre in Australia. This gives the organization more control over the business to be conducted in the nation. Challenges to the Human Resource Practitioner as Result of the Changes Human resource practitioners are entitled to solving any problem that arise at the industrial relation, they are also in charge of ensuring that everything runs smoothly at the station (Lewin et al, 1992: 266-315). Thus, with the change in operation system at the workplace, they are the first group to be affected either directly or directly. This is because, they are the ones to ensure that the new system is established fully in the organization through organizing training to the employees, educating them and recruitment of qualified candidates to fill the vacancy post in the organization, to promote the attainment of the organization goals. With the changes at industrial relation, there are challenges that the human resource practitioners have faced. Decentralization is the process of bringing closer leadership of decision making to the people. It is mostly intended to reach to all citizens in the nation at minimal cost. In regard to St George and ANZ bank, they have relocated most of their administration jobs oversee. This gives the organization better chance to attend to their clients all over the world. None the less, this has also impacted some challenges to the human resource practitioners. They are faced with the issue of diversity at the workplace (Clark et al, 1998: 167-198). This is because, having to reach many countries with different cultures, the human resources have to come up with better strategy that they have to use at any country without compromising the culture and business behavior of the citizens. Having administration at different location, the human resource practitioners get difficulty in coming up with training that will serve all of their employees. This is due to the different natures of nations and time frame for their activities. As result of this, it has made most of their training capacity program to take long before being implemented into the system. Guaranteeing technical and managerial competence among the employees has been a bigger challenge to the human resource practitioners (Hutchings & De Cieri, 2007). Having to locate their call centre in Australia with other office in oversee countries, industrial relation has had problems with maintaining excellent standards from their employees. There has also been the issue of securing adequate performance conditions. With different rate in technology change in different nation, the human resource have had problem with attending to their employees in oversees nation in timely. This has especially been experienced in nation with low level of technology. The human resource practitioners are forced to invest in developing staff. Decentralization generates change in roles and duties to the employees and thus requires new skills to be introduced to the organization. Having to offshore administration jobs to oversee nations, the human resource practitioners will have to come up with better ways that they will use to train the employees so that they are able to offer quality services at their station. Impact of the Change to the Economy Having distributed powers to lower levels in the nation, the economy of the organization and that of the nation as a whole is expected to be affected. When St George and ANZ banks relocated their administration jobs to oversee nations, it is expected that the economy of Australia together with other nations will be affected greatly (De Cieri, 2007: 166-198). This is to the fact that, as St George and ANZ offshore their services to lower cost countries, it will at the same time reduce their prices for clients and improve productivity as well as efficiency in firms enabling them to enlarge domestic employment. With high employment rate in the nations, the economy of the government is expected to increase as majority of the population will be independent other than relying on the government for support. At the same time, as they relate with other nation through off shoring, Australia tend to create good relationship with other nations worldwide and thus being able to establish strong foundation for their international business. This will enable the Business council of Australia to experience international trade thus encouraging viability of business operation and competitiveness in the country (Eggleston, 2006). With presence of competition among the business in the nation, it is expected that the quality of the products being produced will increased and reduced the price. At the same time, many of the business people will work hard to attain the competitive advantage and thus improving the economy of Australia as that of other nations from the current financial crisis. The presence of neo-liberalism is at the same time expected to increase the economy of the nation. Private business is thought to be more effective and productive in the society compared to the public business (Horstman, 1999: 325-341). People compete better in private sector than in public sector and thus, the increase of private business will increase competition in business thus increasing the economy. Deregulation in ANZ and St George banks will lead to many people in the nation to be access to bank loans. This will enable them to start up their own business and thus be able to pay tax to the government. Thus, the change affects the economy positively in such a way that many people will be able to sustain them as well as pay taxes to the government. Conclusion In conclusion we can say that, as much as the changes have given more challenges to the human resource practitioners in industrial relations, it is at the same time of importance to the nation ion such away that it will assist them to improve their economy especially at this time when the whole world is under financial crisis. Therefore, as much as the major banks in the world are against the move of St George and ANZ banks, it is evident that the outcome of their action will be positive in future as it will improve the economic status of the nation as well as that of the world. Thus, the paper supports the changes and urges other banks to implement the changes at their relative stations. References: Clark, T., Mabey, C. & Skinner, D. (1998) Experiencing Human Resource Management, SAGE Publishers 167-198 Cieri, H. (2007) Human Resource Management in Australia 3rd Ed McGraw-Hill Irwin Publishers 166-198 Eggleston, A. (2006) Employment & Offshoring Retrieved on 3rd Nov 2009 from Hansen, W. (2002) Developing New Proficiencies for Human Resource & Industrial Relation Professionals (12) (4) 513-538 Horstman, B. (1999) Effects of Decentralization & Deregulated Australia Industrial Relation on HRM Employee Relations MCB UP Ltd (21) (3) 325-341 Hunt, I. & Provis, C. (1995): The New Industrial Relations in Australia Federation Press 77- 134 Hutchings, K. & De Cieri, H. (2007) International human resource management: from cross- cultural management to managing a diverse workforce University of California Ashgate Publishers John, D. (2006) ANZ & St George Lead the way in Offshoring Jobs retrieved on 3rd Nov 2009 from Lewin, D., Mitchell, O., Sherer, P. & Industrial Relations Research Association (1992) Research Frontiers in Industrial Relations & Human Resource Cornell University Press 266-315 Poole, M. (1999) Human Resource Management Routledge Publishers 171-243 Read More