Changing Role of Human Resource Management in the 21st Century - Assignment Example

REFLECTIVE JOURNAL Insert name Insert Institution Reflective Journal for Week 5 Changing role of Human Resource Management in the 21st century Word count: (520) excluding reference list Explain: The role of human resource has been undergoing evolution since time immemorial. This change occurs in several aspects of HRM including the way the organisations perform their roles, extent of employee engagement and talent management. The current trend of expansion of organisations into the global market has led to the internationalisation and proliferation of expatriate assignments. The HR organisational structure has changed for the benefit of both the company and the individuals. Currently HR is defined based on its output rather than its function. In the 21st century range from, single businesses, holding companies and allied businesses. The HRM has evolved with them to corporate, self-service, embedded among others. This change ensures that HRM is not compromised by its operation in the changes that occur daily and this would cause failure to business and organisation in question. Expand: In this current century characterised by globalisation, human resource management is becoming an international crucial concept (Plessis, 2008). This is not only applicable to multinational corporations and international joint ventures but to the domestic human resource managers. As pointed out by Gomez and Candy failures occur when home country nationals work in foreign nations (Gomez-Mejia, 2004). Management of staff in an international context is critically important for businesses today. According to Shen, human resource management is a set of activities that are distinct, activities and functions with the main aim of attracting, maintaining and developing global human resources (Shen, 2005). In the last two decades, there has been a big transition in the substance and style of human resource management. Lundy believes that in the last two decades the human resource management lacked its role in strategic management relevance (Lundy, 1994). This is because it was an administrative-type. The modern concept of human resource management is comprehensive in strategic role. Storey supports the same argument by giving reasons to the change. He says that this change was due to a change in the objectives, boundaries, substances and functions (Storey, 2001). As much as human resources is the major key to the success of a domestic organisation, effective management of human resources in the global market is a factor in its failure or success (Scullion, 2000). Critical Analysis: A report by Giammalvo provided evidence for high failures among the US expatriates, of between 20 to 40 percent (Giammalvo, 2005). This is approximately three to four times higher than the experienced in Asian and European companies. This failure in the United Stated was attributed to by several factor. Initially it was thought to be US economic dominance and colonial mentality but later it was discovered to be; culture shock, carrier blockages, ever emphasis in technical training, lack of pre-departure cross cultural training, employee and family problems. When moving to a global market, adjustments need to be made both to the employee and to the human resource management. Failure of either of these to occur leads to failure to the organizational goals. All in a nutshell, the Human resource should aim at improvements which will attract, engage and retain personnel that would facilitate the achievement of overall organisational goals. References Giammalvo, P. (2005). Developing an Equitable and Fair Compensation Scheme for Multinational Project Teams. Cost Engineering , 18-23. Gomez-Mejia, L. C. (2004). Managing Human Resources. New Jersey: Pearson. Lundy, O. (1994). From PM to SHRM. International journal of HRM , 45-77. Plessis, A. B. (2008). The Changing Role of Human Resource Managers For International Assignments. International Review of Business Research Papers , 166-181. Scullion, H. S. (2000). In search of the Changing Role of the Corporate HR in the International Firm. International Journal of HRM , 1061-1081. Shen, J. (2005). Towards a generic International Human Resource Management. Journal of Organissational Transformation and Social Change , 83-101. Storey, J. (2001). Human Resource Management- A Critical Text. London: Thomson. Reflective Journal for Week Six Strategic International HRM Word count: (490) excluding reference list Explain: Strategic human resource management is the management of personnel with a vision. International strategy occurs in three main forms; the multi-domestic, global and transitional. An organisation would enter the international sector through; exporting, strategic alliances like shared costs, licensing, new subsidiary and acquisition (Freeman, 1998). Strategic International HRM has been defined as management of human resource issues, policies and practices, functions which result from the strategic activities of international enterprises and which impact on the international goals and concerns of the enterprises in question (Caligiuri,1999). The definition or description of human resource management remains the same as described in the week five review, the difference between domestic and international HRM is that domestic is basically dealing with domestic setups while international deals with international organisations. International HRM has additional activities, complexities in involvement, employee mix, external influences and increased risk. Expand: In strengthening the relevance of strategic international human resource management, it is critical that we consider its application outside the corporate sector, especially the international non-governmental organisations. It is highlighted by Dowling (1999) the major factors that influence strategic international human resource management. These are; country or regional characteristics, industry characteristics and inter-organisational alliances. While regional characteristics may differ between INGOs and MNCs, like different laws, the factor may not be so different from the way the specific characteristics differ across MNCs. While the regional chacteristics should be the same for both INGOs and MNCs, INGOs operate at a higher risk because of the nature of their work. Both MNCs and INGOs have international partners that influence their SIHRM and demonstrate the impact of inter-organisational networks. INGOs have used the inter-organisational networks to a great extent. Based on the extent to which literature has extended INGOs, two additional factors which impact on SIHRM have been identified; funding source and international pressure groups (Anheier, 1994). An MNC will receive funding for the operation of the sale of its good and services while for an INGO it tends to be more complex. INGOs would receive funding from both private donations and government project funding. It is therefore proposed that the INGO composition in funding will influence its level, type of investment and its use of SIHRM. Critical Analysis: A comparison is made between the SIHRM of an INGO in the advocacy industry and that in the micro-credit industry. The difference in this case is not unlike that of an MNC which operates in the mining sector and one which operates in business consultancy. The greater involvement of INGOs in their network can be explained by an example of the Australian Council for Overseas Aid. This organisation developed a network code of conduct (Friedman, 1970). It is therefore proposed that, the influence and nature of external factors of the industry characteristic, country/regional characteristics and inter-organisational alliances on the SIHRM in INGOs is organisational and not sector specific. References Anheier, H., and K. Cunnigham (1994). Internationalisation of the Nonprofit Sector. The JosseyBass Handbook of Nonprofit leadership and Management. San Fransisco, Jossey- Bass Publishers. Caligiuri, P., (1999). The Ranking of Scholary Journals in International Human Resource Management. International Journal of Human Resource Management. 515-519. Dowling, S. and P. Raynard (2000). Ahead of the field: Pilot Agencies and the People in Aid Code. London, People in Aid: 1-37. Freeman, R.E. (1998). A stakeholder theory of the modern corporation, in Hartman L.P. (ed.) Perspectives in Business Ethics, pp. 171–181, Chicago: McGraw-Hill. Friedman, M. (1970). The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits, New York Times Magazine, 13 September. Reflective Journal for Week Eight Ethics and Human Resource Word count: (556) excluding reference list Explain: Morals, values, standards and ethics have become complex in the current society where the absolutes have given way to tolerance and ambiguity. This effects the decision of HR managers because it has a direct influence on people’s job and future employment. By definition, ethics is a study of moral principles and the values which are believed to determine the acceptance of actions (Greenwood,2002). Development and enforcement of ethical behaviours by the HR managers can be done through; training programmes, setting up of ethics committees, code of ethics and disclosure of mechanisms. Human Resource Management is a business where function is basically concerned with managing relations between different groups of people in their capacity as employees, managers and employers. This process raises questions on the respective responsibilities and the rights of each party in this relationship and about what constitutes fair treatment, this constitutes ethics within the organisation. Ethics guide the decisions of the parties involved in the organisation. Ones character and the organisation they work for is revealed in the type of decisions that one makes. Expand: Unethical practices in the HRM has attracted the public’s attention in several activities, these include; use of child labour, reneging on company pension agreements, longer working hours, increasing work stress, off-shoring and exploiting cheap labour markets and the use of disputed and dubious practices in hiring and firing of personnel (McIntosh,1998). The way consumers perceive the ethics of a company can affect sales, so do the views of investors matter to the share price. It has been confirmed that poor top management standards affect employees commitment to the organisational goals and employee motivation (Winstanleey,1996). Standards concerns are therefore seen in the current context of business processes. The society that we live in is complex in both moral and cultural diversity. The complexity can be identified through globalization of labour forces and markets, intensification of monopolies and competition- a case of the Coca-Cola Company, changes that are paradigmatic especially in technology and application of ICT, rapid increase of rates of product innovation, demand and obsolescence, aggressive marketing and the use of celebrities in the media. Management style and their ideology has undergone great change. New organisational forms and ways of managing like the emergence of more flexible working patterns. During this current era, Human Resource Management has become strategically concerned and focused with the facilitation of the achievement of organisational goals. A core distinction when analysing ethics and morality is the relativism issue (Goodstein,2000). this is the idea that morality will always vary with culture, circumstances and time. The opposite position is that of absolutism, the version that there are universal truths of morality that apply at all times and in all circumstances. For global businesses, absolutism is easily adopted because no one knows how far an organisation is willing to go to adopt to local rules and circumstances (Werther, 2006). Critical Analysis: Recently, the focus on business ethics has been directed against financial corruption, especially the accounting standards. The recent scandals are the ones involving Enron Corp. and WorldCom. Still concern has been raised over abroad range of issues in different industries e.g. Abuse of the world’s physical resources and ecological balance by Esso, the abuse of human rights by Shell-Nigeria, animal rights abuse by KFC and McDonald, aggressive treatment of competitors by Wal-mart and exploitative and unscrupulous marketing by Klein (Work foundation,2009). References Goodstein, J.D. (2000). Moral compromise and personal integrity: exploring the ethical issues of deciding together in organisations’ business, Ethics Quarterly, Vol. 10, No.4, pp. 805–819. Greenwood, M.R. (2002). Ethics and HRM: A Review And Conceptual Analysis, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 36, No. 3, pp. 261–278. McIntosh, M., Leipziger D., Jones, K. and Coleman, G. (1998). Corporate Citizenship: Successful Strategies for Responsible Companies, London: FT Pitman. Werther, W.B. and Chandler, D. (2006). Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility Stakeholders in a Global Environment, London: Sage. Winstanley, D. and Woodall, J. (1996). Business ethics and human resource Management, Personnel Review, Vol. 25, No. 6, pp. 5–12. Work Foundation (2009). Corporate Social Responsibility:Managing Best Practice, No. 98. Read More