Concept of Global Human Resource Management Human Resource Management (HRM) is the process of acquiring, training, appraising and compensating employees, and attending to their labor relations, health and safety concerns. It includes policies and practices involved in carrying out the people of a management position, including recruiting, screening training, rewarding and appraising. An organization’s human resource management (HRM) function focuses on the people aspect of management. It consists of practices that an organization deals effectively with its employees during the various phases of the employment cycle: pre-selection, selection and post selection. Many firms realize that they must enter foreign markets in order to compete as part of a globally interconnected set of business markets. From an HRM perspective, such organizations must foster the development of more globally oriented managers: individuals who understand foreign languages and cultures, as well as the dynamics of foreign market places. Globalization is the tendency of Continue reading
International HRM
Managing Workforce Diversity
How administrators manage workforce diversity greatly depends on the needs of the organization. For example, some companies may want a diversified work force in order to make them more competitive in the global market. Diversity helps them to better understand international markets. While other organizations consider diversity as a means to bring about greater harmony in the workplace and an opportunity to prepare employees and volunteers to deal with the nation’s changing demographics. Regardless of the reasons, managing diversity is here to stay. So, it’s no longer an issue whether to implement diversity training, but how diversity training will be implemented. “Managing for Diversity” pertains to a philosophy that is purely motivated by business purpose and market advantage. It is seen as a strategy for improving organizational competitiveness and efficiency. It is distinctly different from policies grounded in social purposes such as equal employment opportunity or affirmative action. It focuses Continue reading
Four Generations in the Workplace
For the first time in history, the workforce has become a melting pot of four diverse generations. While diversity is increasingly common in the workforce, usually it is only considered in differences of race, religion, sex, nationality, education, and skill level. While each of these traits can contribute to an employee’s perception of work and preferences in the workplace, generational differences will also have an effect. When organizations try to understand and cater to differences in generations, they will experience benefits both for the organization and the individual employees. By offering more of what employee’s want, an organization can begin to see the benefits of a multi-generational work force. Currently, there are four prominent generations in the workforce. A generation is defined by demographics and key life-events that shape, at least to some degree, distinctive generational characteristics. Since the 1920s, key historical events have shaped society. It is argued that Continue reading
Organizational Change
The concept of organizational change is in regard to organization-wide change, as opposed to smaller changes such as hiring a new person, modifying a program, buying a new computer for the department etc. Examples of organization-wide change are a change in mission statement, restructuring operations (e.g., restructuring to self-managed teams, layoffs, etc.), new technologies, mergers, major collaborations, “rightsizing”, new programs such as Total Quality Management, Business Process Re-engineering, etc. Some experts refer to such change as “organizational transformation”. Organizational change means that there is a fundamental and radical reorientation in the way the organization operates. What are the forces, which necessitate change? Change should not be done for the sake of change — it is a strategy to accomplish the overall goal. Usually organizational change is provoked by some major outside driving force, e.g., substantial cuts in funding, address major new markets/clients, need for dramatic increases in productivity/services, etc. It Continue reading
Understanding the Talent Cliff
The talent cliff is a looming challenge facing organizations across a variety of industries. The phrase refers to the coming shortage of experienced, knowledgeable workers as the baby boomer generation retires en masse. This large cohort of workers has played a central role in driving the U.S. economy for the past several decades, and their absence could lead to a significant talent gap that could prove detrimental to many industries. This essay will explore the talent cliff, its causes and effects, and the potential strategies and solutions that organizations can adopt to mitigate the talent cliff’s impact on their operations. Causes of the Talent Cliff The baby boomer generation, which includes individuals born between 1946 and 1964, has played a central role in the U.S. economy for many years. As this generation reaches retirement age, a significant portion of the workforce is expected to retire in the coming years, leading Continue reading
Managing International HR Activities
The key global pressures affecting human resource management are deployment, knowledge and innovation dissemination, and identifying and developing talent on a global basis. Today, it is easy to get the right skills to where we need them, regardless of geographic location. Similarly, spreading the knowledge and practices throughout the organization, and identifying persons who can function effectively in a global organization and developing his or her abilities etc. are all possible. Managing international HR activities are an elaborate and complex task. Human Resource Planning (HRP) is the process of forecasting an organization’s future demand for and supply of, the right type of people in the right numbers. HRP assumes greater relevance in international businesses where efficient use of human resources is necessary to realize strategic global objectives. The key issues in international HR planning are identifying top management potential early, identifying critical success factors for future international managers, providing developmental Continue reading