The Relationship between Differential Inequity and Job Satisfaction - Essay Example

Human resource managers in the UK are faced with formidable challenges in the twenty-first century. These human resource (HR) challenges include attracting the right candidates, recruiting the right talents and retaining these talents within their organisations. (Taleo, 2008). The key areas of concern for HR include: expatriate support, succession planning, career development; cutting recruitment costs; generating boardroom support for HR; and trend towards higher internal mobility of staff. As part of global HR strategies, human resource managers in the UK must learn to engage the hearts and minds of a diverse workforce (Ghoshal and Gratton, 2002). The HR department must know how to measure performance in a global setting. The HR staff must pursue talent management initiatives for executives. The HR staff must revamp organizational capabilities and competencies to enhance the performance of company employees. The HR department must help the employees identify with and actively push for corporate global brands. In addition, international joint ventures, transfer of knowledge and foreign direct investment also pose several challenges to HR staff. The recurrent challenges refer to subsidiary to Company Headquarters relations and the management of expatriate employees. (Sparrow et.al., 2004). The effective deployment of human resources is a strategy which helps firms attain competitive advantage. The HR departments of UK companies respond to the needs of the firms as these participate in global competition. (Sparrow, et. al., 2004). Most UK companies start operations in the domestic marketplace. This set-up demands that all of the firm's facilities, employees, and customers within the boundaries of one country. In this context, employees may differ to a certain degree in terms of their regional or ethnic origins but the pool of employees is homogeneous. International firms consider their international markets as part of their domestic operations. This strategy requires that firms enter international markets by building production facilities in foreign countries. Multinational firms build facilities in different countries to make use of costs and production efficiencies. The HR problems tackled by multinational companies are similar to those faced by international companies. The HR department needs to consider the cultural, financial, legal, and economic linkages of several countries. (Sparrow, et. al., 2004). Transnational firms utilize modern, high quality products and services at minimum costs. These firms combine the strength of global efficiencies with local responsiveness. Transnational companies specialize in economies of scale and emphasize flexibility and mass customization of products. In this set-up, HR systems should encourage flexible production create synergies through the cultural differences. Multinational firms locate facilities in a particular country to tap that country's market. The transnational firms take into account the cultures, political, legal and economic framework to choose locations around the globe. These firms have multiple headquarters spread across the globe, which redounds to less hierarchy, hence, emphasizing decision-making. These HR systems attract, train and retain executives who are not only competent in cross-border transactions but are also competent in decision-making in flattened organizations. In a transnational firm, the HRM issue is to identify strategic advantages of a given set of labor resources. (Sparrow, et. al., 2004). In a study by Deirdre McCaughey and Nealia S. Bruning (2005) global corporations such as McDonalds and Hewlett Packard derive more than 60% percent of their revenues from international operations. The HR departments of these companies hire employees for foreign assignments as a strategic human resource strategy (Brewster, 1997). The assignment failure of expatriate employees is due to the failure of the HR Department to provide training to engage with people from varying cultures. Other forms of HR failure with respect to expatriate employees include the failure to give employment assistance to the employee's spouse and the lack of mentor and network access to foster career advancement. (Baruch and Altman, 2002) The HR department is responsible for improving the job satisfaction of employees. The five principal elements of job satisfaction based on the Job Descriptive Index, are satisfying work, equitable pay, promotion opportunity, and satisfaction with supervisors. (Philips & Connell, 2003). These elements of job satisfaction are also affected by personal growth, exciting work, ecellent workplace communication and work and family balance. (Ryan, et al., 1996). British employees continue to seek gainful employment, organizational support, work and family balance, and career development as major determinants of their job satisfaction levels. Interestingly, financial support as a factor in job satisfaction is not significant to British employees. British employees also experience easy individual adjustment to their new jobs when they have a high degree of maturity, life experience, personality, and previous experience. Confidence in one's personal skills helps one to ility to complete a task and results in better job satisfaction (Philips & Connell, 2003). Workforce development is crucial in achieving future productivity improvements in the UK. The UK Sector Skills Development Agency assumed a key role in enhancing workforce development and securing employer commitment to the skills and productivity agenda. The skills challenge stems from shortages in the supply of skills in the UK and unmet employer demand. When analyzing the current supply of skills, the UK still has a poorly skilled workforce. There are five HR challenges with respect to skills of the workforce. One, many of the economically active adult population has low qualifications or no qualifications at all. The less well-qualified a person is, the less likely will they get employment. Second, the young people have low skills which present a risk in meeting future skill requirements. The proportion of young UK people with five good GCSEs or equivalent is lower than the OECD average. The UK has high drop-out rates at 6% and one in ten young people leave school with no qualifications. Third, there is a deficiency in basic skills. The UK has weak literacy and numeracy skills being ranked 16th and 17th out of 22, respectively. Seven million people lack basic literacy and numeracy skills, but only a few people are willing to recognize it. Fourth, there are skill shortages. Skill shortages occur when employers are unable to recruit the workers they need because the skills they seek are not available. In England, 8% of all the firms experience skill shortage vacancies but these are hard to fill. In Scotland, 3% of all the firms experience skill shortage vacancies opening up 12,000 vacancies. (New Statesman, March 10, 2003). There is also a shortage of craft and intermediate vocational skills. The largest proportions of skill shortage vacancies are in intermediate level jobs in skilled trades covering metals, electrical and construction sector. Given that UK has an ageing population, this situation highlights the urgency of tackling this skill deficiency now. There is a deficiency in generic skills. Generic skills involving literacy, numeracy, communication skills and problem-solving have been increasing. The current workforce supply is not matching the market demand. Vickers (2005) covered HR's role in promoting a highly ethical business environment. He explained that the HR professionals must help put a premium on ethics in the organization. Given the string of business scandals, the HR manager will take a dominant role in monitoring the culture of the organization. The HR manager must demand that the leadership selection processes include an ethics component. The recruitment process must filter out people who, although talented and superior, are known for cutting ethical corners. The HR manager must update himself on ethics issues. This means looking at the entire social and business environment and identifying conflicts of interest before they develop into full-blown scandals. In general, the HR managers are faced with daunting tasks in harnessing the human resources both expatriate and workers to maintain global competitive advantage. The existing supply of skills in the UK is fairly poor and there are significant skill deficiencies that need to be met. Important steps need to be taken to meet the country's skill priorities. The challenge is to increase the demand for skills in particular from employers. HR managers can emphasize the role of employers in labor market and workforce development, link skills development to productivity, competitiveness and business performance and secure employer commitment to the skills productivity goals. EFERENCES Abraham, R. 1999. "The Relationship between Differential Inequity, Job Satisfaction, Intention to Turnover, and Self-Esteem," Journal of Psychology, 133: 205-215. Adler, N. 1997. International Dimensions of Organized Behaviour, 3rd Edition. Cincinnati, OH: South-Western College Publishing. Brewster, C. 1997. "International HRM: Beyond Expatriation," Human Resource Management Journal, 7: 31-41. Ghoshal, S. and Gratton, L. 2002. "Integrating the enterprise," Sloan Management Review 44 (1): 31-38. Lawler III, Edward, Susan Albers Mohrman, Alice Yee Mark, Beth Neilson and Nora Osganian. 2004. Creating a Strategic Human Resources Organization: An Assessment of Trends and New Directions. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Mccaughey, Deirdre and Nealia S. Bruning. 2005. Human Resource Planning. Volume: 28. Issue: 4. Page Number: 21+. Mcwilliams, Abagail, David D. Van Fleet and Patrick M. Wright. 2001. Strategic Management of Human Resources for Global Competitive Advantage. 2001. Journal of Business Strategies. Volume: 18. Issue: 1. Sparrow, Paul, Chris Brewster and Hillary Harris. 2004. Globalizing Human Resource Management. New York: Routledge. The Skills Challenge in the UK - Developing the Skills for Business Priorities. March 10, 2003.New Statesman. Volume: 132. Issue: 4628 Vickers, Mark. 2005. Business Ethics and the HR Role: Past, Present, and Future. Human Resource Planning. Volume: 28. Issue: 1. Online sources: "Retention top challenge for HR managers". http://www.taleo.com/news/press/improving-staff-retention-top-2008-resolution-388.html Canadian Research Policy Networks (2000). "It's More than the Money--What Canadians want in a Job," Canadian Research Policy Networks Website. http://www.jobquality.ca/indicator_e/rew001.stm (date retrieved November 1, 2008). Read More