Human Resource Management - Case Study Example

INTERNATIONAL AND COMPARATIVE HRM Name Institution Professor Course Date Introduction From 1990s, the economic, social and political landscape has shifted greatly. In the political area, key developments entail the fall of the European communism in early 1990 and the re-surfacing of numerous independent states that quickly moved towards capitalism. The major expansion and the integration of the European Union, with its devotion to free trade and free movement of people is paramount. Economically, the world has witnessed increased globalization, economic expansion waves, global financial crises, economic decline, increasing competitive pressures and changes in dominant industries. Advancement in the region of information and communication technology has altered the manner in which firms conduct their businesses. From a social perspective, significant shifts in migration blueprints were experienced with an increase in number of immigrants. All these shifts have generated a novel context for human resources management. These macro-level shifts in economic, social and political landscape impacts organisations in different indirect and direct ways. They also hold major effects on the role of the Human Resource Management function besides affecting how human resource management is conducted. Studies have put forward that the Human Resource Management function is going through major changes. This essay discusses how Human Resource Management policies and practices are influenced through national context, global trends and organisational factors with reference to Japan. The essay provides an analysis of how global effects, national effects and organisational effects impacts Human Resource Management policies and practices. Particularly the paper highlights how social political, economical and technological influences Human Resource Management strategy, how institutional and national cultural influences HR policies and highlight company specific practices and their suitability in the global and national context. National Context: Japan Demographic Details Comprehending national disparities in dealing with HRM issues is essential in international management policies. According to Parry (2013, p.1), there is great evidence that human resource management differs significantly amid nations, institutional settings and cultures. How important these discrepancies are relies on whether they are proof of the embeddedness of human resource management in the national context or differing stages of advancement and different pace of understanding organisations from divergent perspectives. As globalisation augments, these discrepancies become less articulated. According to Parry (2013, p.1), specific dimensions of national culture that differs between groups and nations affects collective and individuals actors such as organisations. National cultures affect collective and personal values which subsequently influences organisational and individual behaviour (Khan 2011, p.77). Institutional perspective, on the other hand, views societal institutions as major distinctive characteristics of the respective settings. All social connections are embedded in this particular setting and take into account the informal and formal norms and rules governing a particular setting (Parry 2013, p.1). For instance, there are diverse and equally successful means of organising economic activities in a given capitalist economy. However, the most essential aspect is that organisations and the manner in which they function and work are linked in a given national environment. Japan is in the Asian continent with a population of 126, 057,352 million people. It one of the global most populated country and it high development is linked to increased development experienced between the 19th and 20th centuries. The population of Japan is declining due to low birth-rates and reduced immigration. The labour market in Japan influences HR practices and policies. The Japanese labour market faces challenges due to the reduction in birth rate, aging population and increasing rates of unemployment. The annual population growth of the country is declining with the increasing rate of the country population slowing down to less than one percent. With the rise in the aging populace and the decline in the workforce, fears of economic growth in the country are eminent. The demographics shifts in the country influence HR policies and practices. According to Sultana and Rashid (2013, p.133), demographic shifts compel policy makers to take on novel strategies to handle the increased challenges in the labour market. Demographic shifts promote the access of employment to perceptible minorities. In this context, nations execute a diversification policy through engaging employees from diverse backgrounds via institution of equity policy in spite of religion, colour and race in employment prospects. Studies indicate that even the increased economic growth between 1950s and 1960s in Japan; the unemployment rate was placed at one percent. However, with the following impact of oil crises, the economic bubble blast and Plaza Accord, the unemployment rate rose to 5.4 percent (Pudelko 2004, p.337). As a result, scores of employers took cost-cutting measures and executed employment adjustment programs that consequently impacted employment relations practices and policies. With the structural shifts taking place in industries in Japan, the ration of non-regular employees reached 27% of all the country’s labour force. While the labour force is lowering, the rations of labour force remain stable. With respect to the status of the Japanese labour market, the labour market characteristics influence employment relation practices at organisational level. The impact of national culture on employment relations in Japan is evident when employees, managers, clients and other stakeholders draw upon the laws that are specific to their culture. The work-linked culture in Japan is inherited from the country’s religion, beliefs and values and the society (Khan 2011, p.77). Given that the national culture is the origin of company-based and work-linked regulations and rules, it is imperative to evaluate how regulations and rules in Japanese firms emerged to identify how these activities influence employment links at organisational level. Manager forms their organisational culture based on the national culture. Employment Relationship In the course of the Second World War, the Japanese economy was severely damaged, but since this period, the country has changed to be the second largest economic power following the United States (Pudelko 2006, p.123). This happened after the country incorporated novel ideas, changed its older establishment and embraced diversity. Its enthusiasm to adopt state activism and a participatory and egalitarian system of labour management relations instigated the socio-economic superiority of the country. The Japanese government remained supportive and vigilant in the build up of national level policies, regulations and rules pertaining to the national labour and economy thereby initiating numerous policy measures to reform institutions in the period following the war (Pudelko 2006, p.124). Restructuring was carried out in the employment relations practices and by 1970; the growth rate reached ten percent annually. Japan has a market economy that is akin to the Western developed capitalist nationals such as the United Kingdom and the United States (Pudelko 2006, p.124). Competitiveness in the market instigated growth in the country’s economy and increase in business nationally and internationally. The aspect of globalisation makes the Japanese economy to attain a competitive advantage and it has grown as a competition model for other nations. In 1991, the economy of Japan encountered economic crisis that prompted huge employment adjustment at organisational levels (Pudelko 2006, p.123). Organisations faced pressure to rationalize office work, redesign jobs and workplaces in efforts of making them more effective. Amid these intricacies, Japanese organisations executed successful shifts that included establishment of industrial relations and employment practices that make the country’s firms stable. Numerous shifts have been made in Japan’s national factors during and after the war. With these shifts, Japanese employment relations are influenced. Some of the national factors that influence the employment relations in Japan include national institutions (Pudelko 2004, p.338). National institutions are among the most important national factors. Institutions entail customs, practices, behavioural blueprint and practice that are crucial to a society (Pudelko 2006, p.126). National institutions key to Japan include educational institutions, government institutions, trade unions, employers’ associations and vocational training establishments. According to JILPT (Japan Institution of Labour and Training) as well as JBF (Japan Business Federation), the highlighted institutions are key influences of employment relations and labour policies (Stahl 2006, p.95). The Japanese government regularly establishes and changes national level rules, policies, and regulations to introduce shifts in country’s workplaces. In addition, the government observes business, economic and social changes while introducing workplace shifts (Stahl 2006, p.96). With the shifts in the global monetary systems, the country’s economy changed, but the government upheld a comparatively powerful economic performance alongside developed nations through embracing productive macroeconomic policies (Stahl 2006, p.95). There have been major shifts to numerous employment policies and labour linked regulations that hold a great impact on employment relations. The government institutions in Japan are careful in upholding economic and social order to cope with international and domestic environmental shifts (Zhiwei 2012, p.22). For instance, the Japanese government initiated proactive and radical reform measures to encourage foreign investments (Stahl 2006, p.96). With the rise in foreign investment in the country, competition in both foreign and domestic markets increases. Trade unions are institutions that influence employment relations in Japan at organisational level. However, given the rise in service industries compared to manufacturing industries in Japan, as well as non-regular workforce, the rate of trade unions declines (Pudelko 2004, p.337). From the employers’ perspective, the non-regular workforce increases the wage level, hence the need to promote the egalitarian wage rise to look for new means of reinforcing union-management relations (Pudelko 2006, p.126). Employers are embracing wage reduction measures to ensure organisational profitability and productivity. Educational establishments that include schools and training centres facilitate attainment of qualified workforce needed to steer the success of most organisations in Japan (Stahl 2006, p.95). Educational establishments are the backbone of Japanese economic development as they contribute greatly to industrial growth in the country. These establishments are crucial source of development and recruitment of human resources (Stahl 2006, p.95). However, the rise in market competitions prompts a shortage of creative and trained workforce. The present educational systems in Japan fall short of nurturing visionary leaders. This calls for demands to re-evaluate the present educational systems. As a result, the Japanese government has made efforts to enhance the educational system to nurture talents and skills needed in the current business environment. This entails efforts to improve the quality of university learning. At the level of companies, leaders provide career development prospects to their employees in to avoid the mismatch between qualifications and job roles. Other institutions include employer’s associations. The Japan Business Federation is the major employer’s association in the country tasked with attaining a lead in the business sector (Stahl 2006, p.97). This association demonstrates its role in the country through influencing its members conducts through the Global Environment Charter and Charter of Corporate Behaviour. National Culture is another national factor that influences labour policies and employments relations in Japan. Culture refers to the behaviours and values that contribute to the distinctive psychological and social setting of a given organization (Watson 2003, p.83). The national culture influence work culture. However, national culture in essential is moulding employment relation practices (Stahl 2006, p.98). Employment relation policies and practices indirectly and directly impacts workplace culture. For example, how individuals communicate, socialize and react to situations, connections between managers and their subordinates guide employees and managers in a company’s settings. Human resources strategies should be combined with strategic planning and utilized to strengthen suitable national culture (Zhiwei 2012, p.22). This is because human resources are valuable and important origin of competitive advantage. Managers tap through commonly reliable strategies that prop up commitment and enthusiasm in employees to function amenably in pursuit of organizational superiority. Global Trends and Influences As globalisation shrinks space and time, it forms networks and heightens cross-border links. Haughton (2007, p.18) asserts that globalisation describes the procedure of boosting interdependence and global enmeshment that occurs as images, ideas, money, values and citizens flow even more efficiently and swiftly across nationalized boundaries. Globalisation influences all types of organisations. Organisations can take advantage of markets across the world easily with respect to marketing (Pudelko 2004, p.339). However, the human resources needed by these organisations in different nations present major challenges for human resource managers in the sense that human resource management must recruit and retain talent on the global arena. From a global perspective, the demand for workers surpasses the supply. This is evident particularly in positions that call for specialized skills. HR managers must seek for qualified candidates from locations across the globe and they must devise approaches to relocate and train employees to meet the needs of their organisations (Parry 2013, p.65). If HR managers source their employees from their country of origin, they must offer their employees with orientation to novel customs, housing and novel language skills. They must also seek for advanced means of communications besides delivering training to employees abroad particularly those who cannot attend live training sessions in their home country. Globalisation with respect to business entails interaction of a firm’s operations, strategies and processes into diverse ideas, services, products and cultures (Parry 2013, p.58). Given its importance on diversity, globalisation holds a direct impact on the manner in which firm’s management their human resources. Comprehending the impact of globalisation on HRM helps manager to better understand and equip their firms for the rising global business setting. Globalisation instigates diversity recruitment where companies interact with stakeholders and clients from diverse culture, social background and languages (Parry 2013, p.65). In reaction, human resources managers hire employees from diverse backgrounds. Firms embracing diversity recruit acknowledge the worth of employing people who can relate to their customers and they understand that having a team of diverse individuals hold important influences within the organisation. Globalisations push for career and professional development and management of law across different jurisdictions (Lussier 2008, p.376). HRM must comprehend and apply laws of scores of divergent jurisdictions to their business. For instance, Japanese government set out numerous labour laws and taxes that firms operations in the country must comply with. HRM managers must also learn how to manage workforce diversity (Zhiwei 2012, p.23). Globalisation augments cultural diversity in workplaces leading to workplace diversity. Workplace miscellany is an issue of people focussed on the disparities and similarities that people from different cultural, gender, religious, and ethnic backgrounds bring to a firm. Workforce miscellany includes dimensions that bypass those categorised lawfully in equal panorama and Affirmative Act and non-discrimination laws (Lussier 2008, p.376). Diversity is comprehensive and compliments non-discriminative policies in workplaces via forming the workplace setting and organisational culture that promotes working of disparities in a company. Organisational Effects Employees execute human resources policies to provide an organisation with structure, to offer discernible guidelines to employees and to promote the actions of an organisation. Even though, the principle reasons for Human Resource policies are akin, HR policies are not equal. Numerous aspects are relevant in building up HR policies (Watson2003, p.85). These factors include the corporate culture, the workplace climate, the employee base, company location which comprises of organisational culture that affects HR policies. According to Watson (2003, p.83), organizational culture is the set of values and meanings shared by all members of a given organization that defines the suitable ways for individuals to behave and think with regard to the organization. Organizational culture entails an organization’s experiences, attitude, values and expectations that hold the organization together. Organizational culture is represented through future expectations, self-image, interactions with other organizations and inner workings, and founded on common customs, rules and attitudes created over time and viewed as legitimate (Watson2003, p.83). With development of organisations, culture alleviates, constrain and offer meaning and structure to an organization to a degree of ultimately specifying what form of leadership is acceptable. When components of a specific culture become dysfunctional, leaders surmount their own culture and pace up the regular development practice with compelled controlled culture change programs. These vibrant procedures of culture construction and administration are the essence of leadership. The employee base determines the workplace culture. Organisations that employ a lot of workers must hold a more bureaucratic culture compared to organisations with few employees (Watson2003, p.83). Employees in small firms hold friendly and collegial links as they are few. In this regard, the human resource policies for a small firm are different compared to the process-orient practices and policies implemented by large organisations. The structure of an organisation affects HR policies and practices. For instance, a matrix organisational structure hold less structured human resource policies compared to strict hierarchical structured organisations (Watson2003, p.84). Employees working in a matrix-structured work setting hold dual reporting links. In this regard, executing HR policies relies on what the structure of an organisation can support and whether the HR policies implemented are in line with the culture. The perception of employees is important to workplace environment. Workplace environment influences HR practices and policies. Workplace environment is determined through how employees perceive the integrity, openness and appreciation of their employers. Workplace environment is adjustable through introducing clear objectives, promoting team philosophy and assessing employee’s performance (Watson2003, p.84). HR policies with positive workplace setting are more embraced compared to HR policies that direct a work setting with little space for interpretation. Industry and location impacts workplace culture, hence HR policies and practices. As a result, location and industry are essential in implement HR policies and policies in an organisation. For instance, HR policies and practices for a company in Japan many differ greatly with those of a company in the United States. Conclusion The today’s world business is highly dynamic and organisations prepare to become productive global competitors. Organisations must be flexible and reconsider their human resource management systems besides restructuring their hard-established processes. Numerous shifts in different countries’ national factors that include labour market, national culture and national institutions affect employment relations. National institutions, labour market, economic factors, technological factors and national culture affect HR policies and practices in modern organisations. Notwithstanding the attractiveness of the surfacing paradigm of human resource management, a number of questions require to be answered. Several studies have attempted to examine the applicability of some theoretical HRM models. Organisations should adopt the best-fit model or best practices perspective where the best practices perspective is founded on normative statements of what Human Resource practices should be. However, organisations should adopt an approach that leads to organisational excellence. These approaches are strengthened by the convergence -divergence debate where the convergence perspective suggests that international competitiveness overrides disparities in the national management system. On the other hand, the divergence perspective implies that management practices are strongly affected by national-economic context. There are many factors that affect HR policies and practices. The convergence-divergence debate proves that HR practices and policies are influenced by global effects, national effects and organisational effects. Increased foreign investments across the globe and the trend of doing business across national borders imply that organisations are expanding to different geographical regions. In this regard, managing human resources has become significantly complex and dynamic. Employers have to handle the demands of managing people in divergent national settings. They also have to comprehend the perspective in which they are operating through building human resource management policies and practices suitable for their specific region. These demands call for understanding how HRM practices and policies differ across nations and how build up of management practice may be influenced through various cultural and institutional contexts. Reference List Haughton, S 2009, Drugged out: Globalisation and Jamaica’s resilience to drug trafficking. New York: Cengage Learning. Khan, S 2011, ‘Convergence or middle of the path: HRM model for Oman’, Journal of management Policy and Practice, 12, 1, pp. 76-86. Lussier, R 2012, Leadership: Theory, application, & skill development, 5th Ed. New York: Cengage Learning. Parry, E 2013, Global trends in human resource management. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Pudelko, M 2004, ‘HRM in Japan and the west: what are the lessons to be learnt from each other’, Asian Business and Management, 3, 1, pp. 337-361. Pudelko, M 2006, ‘A comparison of HRM systems in the USA, Japan and Germany in their socio-economic context’, Human Resource Management Journal, 16, 2, pp. 123-153. Stahl, G 2006, Handbook for research in international human resource management. New York: Edward Elgar Publishing. Sultana, M, Rashid, M 2013, ‘Cross-cultural management and organisational performance: A content Analysis perspective’, International Journal of Business and Management, 8, 8, pp.134-146. Watson, T.J 2003. Sociology, Work and Industry. 4th Edition. Abingdon: Routledge. Zhiwei, N 2012, ‘The impact of national factors on personnel management: A cross-national examinational of HRM practices in Singapore and Thailand’, International Journal of Business and Management, 7, 13, pp. 21-27. Read More

However, the rise in market competitions prompts a shortage of creative and trained workforce. The present educational systems in Japan fall short of nurturing visionary leaders. This calls for demands to re-evaluate the present educational systems. As a result, the Japanese government has made efforts to enhance the educational system to nurture talents and skills needed in the current business environment. This entails efforts to improve the quality of university learning. At the level of companies, leaders provide career development prospects to their employees in to avoid the mismatch between qualifications and job roles.

Other institutions include employer’s associations. The Japan Business Federation is the major employer’s association in the country tasked with attaining a lead in the business sector (Stahl 2006, p.97). This association demonstrates its role in the country through influencing its members conducts through the Global Environment Charter and Charter of Corporate Behaviour. National Culture is another national factor that influences labour policies and employments relations in Japan. Culture refers to the behaviours and values that contribute to the distinctive psychological and social setting of a given organization (Watson 2003, p.83). The national culture influence work culture.

However, national culture in essential is moulding employment relation practices (Stahl 2006, p.98). Employment relation policies and practices indirectly and directly impacts workplace culture. For example, how individuals communicate, socialize and react to situations, connections between managers and their subordinates guide employees and managers in a company’s settings. Human resources strategies should be combined with strategic planning and utilized to strengthen suitable national culture (Zhiwei 2012, p.22). This is because human resources are valuable and important origin of competitive advantage.

Managers tap through commonly reliable strategies that prop up commitment and enthusiasm in employees to function amenably in pursuit of organizational superiority. Global Trends and Influences As globalisation shrinks space and time, it forms networks and heightens cross-border links. Haughton (2007, p.18) asserts that globalisation describes the procedure of boosting interdependence and global enmeshment that occurs as images, ideas, money, values and citizens flow even more efficiently and swiftly across nationalized boundaries.

Globalisation influences all types of organisations. Organisations can take advantage of markets across the world easily with respect to marketing (Pudelko 2004, p.339). However, the human resources needed by these organisations in different nations present major challenges for human resource managers in the sense that human resource management must recruit and retain talent on the global arena. From a global perspective, the demand for workers surpasses the supply. This is evident particularly in positions that call for specialized skills.

HR managers must seek for qualified candidates from locations across the globe and they must devise approaches to relocate and train employees to meet the needs of their organisations (Parry 2013, p.65). If HR managers source their employees from their country of origin, they must offer their employees with orientation to novel customs, housing and novel language skills. They must also seek for advanced means of communications besides delivering training to employees abroad particularly those who cannot attend live training sessions in their home country.

Globalisation with respect to business entails interaction of a firm’s operations, strategies and processes into diverse ideas, services, products and cultures (Parry 2013, p.58). Given its importance on diversity, globalisation holds a direct impact on the manner in which firm’s management their human resources. Comprehending the impact of globalisation on HRM helps manager to better understand and equip their firms for the rising global business setting.

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