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ASSIGNMENT ON CONTEMPORARY
CHALLENGES AND EFFECT ON

HR

Prepared by K.M. Tanbhir Siddiki MBA 26th batch ID: 111005

Submitted To

Date of submission: 09.05.2011

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Table of Content Serial number 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. Introduction Executive summary Objective Explanation Cultural Differences Technological Trap Equal verses equitable Mismatched Labor Supply Continuous Improvement Program Employee involvement HRM ethics Conclusion Name of the topic Page number 3 3 3 4 4 5 6 6 7 7 8 8

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Introduction:
Human resource management is more important in a changing environment than before. There are some challenges and changes, which have great impacts on organizations respective to human resource (HR) function behaviors. These impacts know as globalization, increasing customers expectations, transparent market, and human resource management (HRM) provides possibilities to make organizations more healthy and competitive. Where the firm may focus on cost for employee compensation and make conclusions on share services or outsourcings. We can say that, the function of HR units offers and increases some potential of organizations structure and some of human capital, globalizations, increasing information technology, enhanced customer expectations and the transparency of global markets that know as a main shift in a developing world.

Executive summary:
This report is prepared to find out and analysis the global contemporary challenges of Human Resources Management. How thus challenges affecting the activities of HR and its impact. I tried to find out the best way to face thus challenges by HR.

Objectives:
After reading this lesson, one will be able to accomplish the following: 1. Describe how changes in the global business environment affect HRM. 2. Summarize the HRM challenges created by changing technology and by workforce changes, including workforce composition, labor supply and demand, skill requirements, contingent workers, and diversity. 3. Describe how HRM can support continuous improvement programs. 4. Explain why ethics is important to HRM and organizations, and describe the features of an effective ethics program.

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Explanation
This lesson summarizes the major forces that are changing the business environment and how it effect on Business and how these changes specifically impact this important business function. Since businesses do not operate in a vacuum, any change in the environment, such as where and by whom work is done, how work is done, who is available to do the work, and expectations about the employer/employee relationship, means that successful businesses will have to adapt. Since people are at the center of business operations and success, effective HR managers must pay attention to the human resource. Here I tried to focus on how all this changes affect the business and how HR will handle these. All the criteria are directly related to companies' HRM philosophies, policies, and practices, and stress the importance of effective people management to corporate reputation.

1. Cultural Differences
That businesses are going global is a gross understatement. Businesses that successfully operate in the international arena understand the importance of acknowledging and respecting cultural differences.

status differentiation, societal uncertainty, assertiveness, and Individualism.

Scholars have examined cultural differences that stem from time orientation, future orientation, gender differentiation, uncertainty avoidance, performance orientation, and humane orientation. All of these differences create potential HRM challenges when doing business abroad and when hiring diverse peoples to work in the organization. For instance, Americans tend to view time as a finite resource. We measure productivity and efficiency; we equate time with money; and we focus on saving time. In contrast, other cultures view time as an unlimited resource to be enjoyed and are less concerned about punctuality and speed. Likewise, in some cultures, men and women have more clearly defined gender roles than in the United States. Successful managers and businesses will consider such cultural differences when operating in a different culture.

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2. Technology Traps
Technology changes the way businesses operate. While technology often improves efficiency, new work methods and tools are not without their downside. For example, sometimes technology sacrifices effectiveness for efficiency. When dealing with complex issues, many customers grow weary of automated phone answering systems and long for human interaction. Automatic teller machines may impersonalize banking transactions to the point that they reduce the association that bonds customers to specific financial institutions. In addition, technological advances often create employee resistance because new technology frequently benefits some employees while leaving others behind. Certainly technology can enhance business dealings. So in case of introducing new technology HR manager face problem like some employee cordially welcome new technology but some are not. Another way some times some employee doesnt want to be work with new technology. Like in our country government Bank has started introducing new technology but some employee are not positive to this because they are habituated to work manually. And as they have not enough training to operate new technology they dont want that. Its become a critical decision making time for HR that how to introduce new technology. In this situation HR should survey or evaluate the present skill, ability, willingness of the employee to accept new technology. And by analysis HR should arrange internal workshop or training to introduce new technology for the existing employees.

Figure 1. A challenge to businesses is how quickly technology changes. The palm-held computer has been replaced by cell phone technology.

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3. Equal versus Equitable

Most of the time managers try to be fair by treating all employees the same way. However, to meet the organization's objectives and to comply with legal standards, sometimes managers need to be sensitive to differences between different groups of workers. For example, an HRM graduate intern with the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Prisons (BOP). At the time, the BOP enforced a policy that required all HR managers to transfer to a different BOP facility within the United States about every three years. While the policy's legitimate purpose was to ensure that employees did not become overly familiar or cozy with a particular set of inmates, But the policy negatively affected female managers more than male managers since women were more likely to transfer for their husband's jobs than vice versa. Not surprisingly, the BOP no longer enforces this requirement. Thus, managers must focus on equity in some situations, which means they must treat all employees fairly and reasonably considering entire circumstances. For example, you would not fire an expert employee who was late to work one time in a year; however, you might terminate a new employee who was late to work once per week. In contrast, equal treatment means that everyone is treated the same. If a senior vice president and an hourly skilled worker both engage in the same form of sexual harassment, they both must be disciplined equally without regard to status. One of the hardest parts of being a HR manager is knowing, when to be equitable and when to be equal. Only by understanding the total circumstances HR manager should make these difficult decisions.

4.

Mismatched Labor Supply/ labor supply

The simultaneous labor shortage and labor surplus that many companies face is often described as a mismatch between the skills needed by employers and the skills of existing employees and/or job applicants. When current employees lack the skills and/or aptitude to perform a needed function, employers often face the difficult decision to end the employment relationship. A labor shortage in the relevant workforce means the employer will also face recruiting challenges when it attempts to fill positions. Thus, the problem is not that workers are not available; instead, the problem is that workers with the right skills and knowledge are not available. For example, the U.S. manufacturing sector needs more skilled craft persons (e.g., welders, machinists, electricians, etc.) than are generally available; however, unskilled manufacturing workers are readily available and often in surplus supply.

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In this situation HR manager need to go through tow way, one is to train existing employee and if not possible to train all then second one is to end the employment relationship.
5.

Continuous Improvement Program:

An organizational commitment to constantly improving quality of products or services. Work process engineering is radical, quantum change in an organization. As a new HR manager, you may think that employees should be eager to help the company succeed. However, you would be partially right and partially wrong. Many employees do understand that their potential for individual success is inherently tied to the company's success. In contrast, though, a significant portion of employees are resistant to change of any type, regardless of the reason. Some employees may be nearing retirement and not want to change the way they work or learn new work methods. Others may benefit from the current system through seniority, salary, or other forms of status. The wise HR manager anticipates this resistance and develops mechanisms to reduce it. In "Tipping Point Leadership," Kim and Mauborgne (2003) describe the strategies and techniques used by William Bratton, who was appointed the police commissioner of New York City in 1994. Bratton successfully led what could be called a widespread work process engineering campaign to dramatically improve the safety and policing effectiveness of this large city. In less than two years, with no increase in budget, Bratton creatively struck down the typical hurdles that plague change efforts: organizational focus on the status quo, lack of resources, a de-motivated staff, and opposition from powerful vested interests. Bratton focused his energies on converting the views of a critical mass of key players instead of trying to gain buy-in from every single police employee; he then relied on these key change agents to silence the opposition. Through his tipping-point leadership style, Bratton also required employees to personally experience the city's policing problems and to hear from the public regarding its policing priorities as methods to generate agreement about the causes of the problems and the need for change. He concentrated resources on the most important functions with the biggest potential for payoff and conquered political hurdles by carefully selecting his allies and effectively using their support. Because Bratton followed the same change method in several successful transformations of different organizations, this leader demonstrates that organizations can improve their performance by anticipating resistance and responding effectively (Kim and Mauborgne 2003).
6.

Employee Involvement

While many employees desire the opportunity for more involvement and input, some employees are perfectly happy just being told what to do and how to do it. As an HR manager involved in the applicant screening process, you will generally want to seek individuals in the former category, not the latter. Employee participation programs rely on the leadership skills and independent thinking of rank-and-file employees along with managers who are willing and able to equip others to succeed.

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In fact, employee involvement has been positively linked to a concept called organizational commitment. Organizational commitment, is an employees loyalty to an organization including their willingness to go above and beyond the companys minimum expectations. Researchers have found that companies that value employee "voice" through grievance resolution processes, employee involvement programs, and decentralized decision making are more likely to generate organizational commitment. Many believe that employees' organizational commitment is important because it affects overall organizational performance in the forms of reduced absenteeism, willingness to take on extra responsibilities, increased individual performance, lower turnover, and higher levels of job satisfaction (Fiorito et. al 2007).

HRM and Ethics

One researcher found that two-thirds of the ethical issues faced by the managers she interviewed involved human resource issues or internal organizational processes. Moreover, when ethics hotlines are made available for employees to report their concerns and observations, over half of the calls relate to human resource issues, such as abusive behavior, sexual harassment, lying, and conflicts of interest. Finally, for many companies, the greatest legal exposure and the potential to be on the losing end of costly lawsuits come from human resource issues (Trevino and Nelson 2007). I hope you get the point. Companies' ability to effectively manage their people issues is critical to avoiding litigation and other negative organizational consequences.

Conclusion:
The role of the HR manager must parallel the needs of the changing organization. Successful organizations are becoming more adaptable, resilient, quick to change directions, and customer-centered. Within this environment, the HR professional must learn how to manage effectively through planning, organizing, leading and controlling the human resource and be knowledgeable of emerging trends in training and employee development.