Human Resource Management Issues

Contemporary Studies in Human Resource Management

Report Prepared by

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Table of Contents

1 Introduction        

2 Globalization        

3 Increasing Individualism        

4 Technological changes        

5 Potential trends and Future challenges        

6 Conclusion        

References        

1 Introduction

With the establishment of new constraints in the business environment, the necessity of practice of new human resource management has become more critical. Many changes have seen in the trends of human resources practice in organizations through decades. It is important to understand that organizational success or even survival is possible with the availability of the most critical and scarce resources of the organizations. The human resource management function has environments such as organizational strategy/objectives, changes in international economy, changes in technology, changes in national economy actions of corporate headquarters, size of an organization, structure of an organization, priorities of top management, priorities of line managers, issues of power and politics.

Different issues such as competing for talents during constrained resources and tight labour markets, difficulty in flexibility during recruitment of committed employees and competing for effective employment practice for maintaining reputation are changing the way human resource department professionals practice their leadership and management skills. Among different factors contributing to the changing human resource environment, increase in individualism, globalization, change in technology, increase of affluent society, rising concerns for ethics are some significant factors which help human resources department professionals better understand the need of change management for an organization to achieve its goals.

The report discusses three major significant factors that have affected the changes in human resources environment which include globalization, increase in individualism and change in technology. It highlights the causes of these factors on human resource environment along with their impacts. The report also investigates the potential trends and future challenges brought by contributing factors on changing human resource environment.

2 Globalization

Globalization is a significant factor that lets organizations to compete for customers with high expectations for quality, performance and low cost. Due to the increasing demand of products that are similar across cultures, technology advancements, reduced global transportation costs and low labor and production costs, globalization has become a focus for number of organizations to expand their businesses world-wide (Friedman 2007). Apart from that the economics of globalization has taken competitions among organizations to an international level. Human resource management requires refinement in organizational contribution to support organizations remain competitive to an international level. According to DeCieri, Fenwick & Hutchings (2005), although best human resource management practices may not seem to be transferrable to other nations due to institutional and cultural differences, research claims that financial performance is affirmative with effective international human resource management.

Various issues that have shaped the field of human resources due to globalization are desire of companies to expand globally, economic growth in Asia and increased cross cultural awareness. Similarly, low labor costs and advancement in internet and telecommunication technologies have also brought changes in human resources environment with the concept of globalization. Benefits, compensation and labor relations are few other fields of human resource management which have been affected by globalization. Cross-country employees find their benefits and compensation much higher than in their own home country. As for example, the compensation preferences of employees in China and Hong Kong are different.

2.1 Effects of Globalizaton

With the increase in economic and technical organizational interdependence, international human resource planning also gains importance. It is important to understand that globalization helps organizations in finding opportunities beyong its national borders. The concept of globalization in an organization let professionals of human resource department to assist leadership with mergers and acquisitions particularly those that cut across international borders. Globalization also results in starting  businesses across distinct cultures, legal environments and languages. As a result, the organizational renewal gets more challenging.

3 Increasing Individualism

Individualism is one of the significant factors that have contributed in changing human resources environment. Individualism shows the concerns of individuals in relation with their own well- being versus the well-being of others. In individualistic cultures, self-interests are given more priority than group-interests resulting in loose ties among individuals. Research and surveys have also found that individuals have spent lesser leisure time in communal activities and shown lesser affiliation with religion, class and political parties which clears the growth in individualism.

3.1 Causes for Increasing Individualism

With the increase in the individualism, the managers working for human resources department have been forced to implement changes in their process of recruitment. Among different causes, increasing affluence is also the one which have made individuals no longer need of collective action. According to Boateng and Agyemang (2015), individualism has encouraged individuals to be more independent from others. Similarly, contemporary employment practices such as individualized reward, performance management, career trajectories, etc. have increased the individualism among people. Some studies suggest that the participants claiming for individual rewards have been highly motivated for their better performance resulting in less sharing of knowledge among others. Gaining higher qualifications has become easier with the rise in educational opportunities supporting the growth in individualism. Sharing knowledge among senior employees and junior employees has been found depending upon the type and level of qualifications seniors have.