Chapter 1 challenges of human resource management

Human Resources Management
After studying this chapter you should be able to:
1. Define human resource management.
2. Describe the functions of human resource management.
3. Explain how human resources managers can help their firms gain
a sustainable competitive advantage through the strategic
utilization of people.
4. Explain how globalizations affect human resources management.
5. Explain how good human resources practices can help a firm to
achieve its corporate responsibility and sustainability goals.
Copyright for University of Burao@2016 1
Learning Outcome
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After studying this chapter you should be able to:
1. Describe hot technology can improve how people perform and are
managed
2. Discus how cost pressures affect human resources polices.
3. Discus how firms can leverage employee differences to their
strategic advantage.
4. Explain how educational and cultural changes in the workforce are
affecting human resources management
5. Provide examples of the roles and competencies of today’s HR
managers
Learning Outcome
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• Human resource management (HRM) encompasses those
activities designed to provide for and coordinate the human
resources of an organization.
• The human resources (HR) of an organization represent one of its
largest investments.
• Human resource management is a modern term for what has
traditionally been referred to as personnel administration or
personnel management.
• However, some experts believe human resource management differs
somewhat from traditional personnel management. They see
personnel management as being much narrower and more clerically
oriented than human resource management
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• Human resources management involves a wide variety of
activities, including analyzing a company’s competitive
environment and designing jobs so a firm’s strategy can be
successfully implemented to beat the competition.
• This, in turn, requires identifying, recruiting, and selecting the
right people for those jobs; training, motivating, and appraising
these people; developing competitive compensation policies to
retain them, and grooming them to lead the organization in the
future—and the list goes on
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• The terms human resources, human capital, intellectual assets,
and talent management imply that it is people who drive the
performance of their organizations (along with other resources
such as money, materials, and information). Successful
organizations are particularly adept at bringing together different
kinds of people to achieve a common purpose.
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• Tasks and duties human resource managers perform: e.g.,
1. determining the organization’s human resource needs;
2. recruiting,
3. selecting,
4. developing,
5. counseling, and rewarding employees;
6. acting as liaison with unions and government organizations; and
7. handling other matters of employee well-being).
• The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) has
identified six major functions of human resource management:
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Why Study Human Resources
Management?
• Suppose you want the opportunity to manage people, either for
another, a firm or one you start yourself.
• Having a good understanding of human resources management is
important for managers and entrepreneurs of all types—not just
human resources (HR) personnel.
• All managers are responsible for at least some of the activities that
fall into the category of human resources management.
• Managers play a key role in selecting employees, training and
motivating them, appraising them, promoting them, and so forth.
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Why Study Human Resources
Management?
• A great business plans and products and services can easily be
copied by your competitors.
• Great personnel cannot. Their knowledge and abilities are
among the most distinctive and renewable resources upon
which a company can draw.
• As Thomas J. Watson, the founder of IBM, said, “You can get
capital and erect buildings, but it takes people to build a
business.
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Human Capital
• The idea that organizations “compete through people” highlights
the fact that achieving success increasingly depends on an
organization’s ability to manage talent, or human capital.
• The term human capital describes the economic value of
employees’ knowledge, skills, and capabilities.
• Although the value of these assets might not show up directly
on a company’s balance sheet, it nevertheless has tremendous
impact on an organization’s performance.
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Human Capital
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Human capital is intangible and
cannot be managed the way
organizations manage jobs,
products, and technologies.
One reason why is because
employees, not the organization,
own their own human capital.
if valued employees leave a
company, they take their human
capital with them, and any
investment the company has made
in training and developing these
people is lost

Overall Framework of HRM
Copyright for University of Burao@2016
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Competitive Challenge and HRM
Challenge 1: Responding strategically to changes in the market place.
• Human resources managers need an intimate understanding of their
firms’ competitive business operations and strategies,
• Whatever they may be. During what is being called the “Great
Recession,” which began in 2008, many companies pursued cost-
cutting strategies, often in part by trimming workers’ benefits.
• Other companies took a different strategy: They beefed up their
benefit programs to attract top talent from other companies and
expanded in order to be ready when the economy began growing
again.
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Total quality improvements (TQM),
• Total quality improvements (TQM), reengineering,
downsizing, outsourcing, and
• the like are also examples of the means
organizations use to modify the way they operate
in order to be more successful.
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Total quality improvements
• Six Sigma quality is a set of principles and practices whose
core ideas include understanding customer needs, doing things
right the first time, and striving for continuous improvement.
• Six Sigma is a process used to translate customer needs into a
set of optimal tasks that are performed in concert with one
another
• Reengineering has been described as “the fundamental
rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to
achieve dramatic improvements in cost, quality, service, and
speed.
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Total quality improvements
• Downsizing is the planned elimination of jobs, and
• Outsourcing simply means hiring someone outside the
company to perform business processes that were previously
done within the firm.
• Change management is a systematic way of bringing about
and managing both organizational changes and changes on the
individual level.
• According to a survey by the research institute Roffey Park,
two-thirds of firms believe that managing change is their biggest
challenge.
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Manage change
• To manage change, executives and managers, including those
in HR, have to envision the future, communicate this vision to
employees, set clear expectations for performance, and
develop the capability to execute by reorganizing people and
reallocating assets.
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Manage change
• Some of the strategic changes companies pursue are reactive
changes that result when external forces, such as a the
competition, a recession, law change, or a crisis (such as BP’s
offshore oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010) have already affected
an organization’s performance.
• Other strategies are proactive change, initiated by managers to
take advantage of targeted opportunities, particularly in fast-
changing industries in which followers are not successful.
• Good HR managers know that they can be key players when it
comes to driving the business strategies of their organizations in
order to make changes.
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Manage change
• In addition to serving as a strategic partner to management, HR
managers are also responsible for listening to and advocating
on behalf of employees to make sure their interests are aligned
with those of the firm and vice versa.
• A good deal of evidence suggests that this is one of the
toughest parts of an HR manager’s job.
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Globalization pace
Challenge 2: Competing, Recruiting, and Staffing Globally
• Globalization involve the trend toward opening up foreign markets to
international trade and investment.
• The strategies companies are pursing today increasingly involve one
or more elements of globalization.
• The integration of world economies and markets has sent
businesses abroad to look for opportunities as well as fend off
foreign competitors domestically.
• Consumers around the world want to be able to buy “anything,
anytime, anywhere,” and companies are making it possible for them
to do so.
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Globalization pace
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Thanks to today's global economy in
which many companies, large and
small, market their products in their
home countries and abroad, it is
possible to find familiar products for
sale virtually anywhere in the world

How Globalization Affects HRm
• For all of the opportunities afforded by
international business, when managers talk about
“going global,” they have to balance a
complicated set of issues related to different
geographies, including different cultures,
employment laws, and business practices, and
the safety of employees and facilities abroad.
Human resources issues underlie each of these
concerns.
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Corporate social responsibility
• Challenge 3: Setting and Achieving Corporate Social
Responsibility and Sustainability Goals.
• corporate social
• Responsibility involves the responsibility of the firm to act in the
best interests of the people and communities affected by its
activities.
• Concerns have led to a new focus on corporate social
responsibility, or good citizenship.
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Corporate sustainability
Sustainability is closely related to corporate social
responsibility.
• Sustainability refers to a company’s ability to produce a good
or service without damaging the environment or depleting a
resource.
• Achieving complete sustainability is nearly impossible, but
companies are making strides to reduce their “carbon
footprints.” Those that are not are finding themselves under
pressure from consumers and groups determined that they do.
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Corporate social responsibility
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After the 2010 Deepwater
Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of
Mexico- one of several accidents
in BP Oil's history that have
harmed both people and the
environment- ,many people ,
including these demonstrators,
demanded that BP change its
approach to corporate social
responsibility

Technology challenges
Challenge 4: Advancing HRM with Technology
• Advancements in information technology have enabled
organizations to take advantage of the information explosion.
Computer networks and internet computer services and data
storage have made it possible for nearly un limited amounts of
data to be stored, retrieved, and used in a wide variety of ways.
• Collaborative software that allows workers anywhere anytime to
interface and share information with one another electronically.
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From Touch Labor to Knowledge Workers
• Advanced technology tends to reduce the number of jobs that
require little skill and
• to increase the number of jobs that require considerable skill.
• this transformation has been referred to as a shift from “touch
labor” to knowledge workers, in which employee
responsibilities expand to include a richer array of activities
such as planning, decision-making, and problem-solving
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Influence of Technology on HRM
• The most central use of technology in HRM is an organization’s
human resources information system (HRIS). Because HR
affects the entire workforce everyone who works for the
company must be hired, trained, paid, and promoted, usually
through HR—the impact of HRIS has been dramatic.
• It has become a potent weapon for lowering administrative
costs, increasing productivity, speeding up response times,
improving decision-making, and tracking a company’s talent.
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• human resources information system (HRIS) involves A
computerized system that provides current and accurate data
for purposes of control and decision-making
• The most obvious impact has been operational—that is,
automating routine activities, alleviating administrative burdens,
reducing costs, and improving productivity internal to the HR
function itself.
• The second way in which information technology is affecting
human resources management is relational in nature—
connecting people with each other and with HR data they need.
• The third effect of human resources information systems is
transformational in nature— changing the way HR processes
are designed and executed.
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Containing Costs
Challenge 5: Containing Costs While Retaining Top Talent and
Maximizing Productivity
• Most human resources managers have been under pressure to cut labor
costs. When Great Recession hit, stretching a company’s labor dollars while
gaining productivity from workers became an even bigger priority.
• Organizations take many approaches to lowering labor-related costs,
including carefully managing employees’ benefits, downsizing, outsourcing,
offshoring, furloughing employees, and engaging in employee leasing in an
attempt to enhance productivity.
• Few jobs come with lifetime guarantees and benefits that will never change.
Nonetheless, employees want to work for employers that can provide them
with a certain amount of economic security. Layoffs and cuts in employee
benefits have heightened these concerns.
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Containing Costs
Managing Benefits.
• Labor costs are one of the largest expenditures of any organization,
particularly in service- and knowledge-intensive companies.
• As a result, most firms closely monitor employee pay and benefit
programs. One casualty of cost cuts has been employee pensions.
• The biggest HR concern presently has, when it comes to benefits, is
skyrocketing health care costs and complying with the nation’s new
health care reform laws. In many industries health care costs are
now approaching 30 percent of total compensation. 26 One trend is
for firms to shift employees to high-deductible plans.
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Containing Costs
Downsizing.
• Downsizing does not just take a toll on those who lose their jobs.
Employees who are “lucky” enough to keep their jobs often feel guilty
they have been retained, mourn the loss of their coworkers, and
worry that they will be the next to go.
• These people, who are generally the firm’s best performers, also
usually end up picking up the work their former coworkers used to do
for the same salary. When the economy improves or they see a
chance, they tend to head for the door.
• Downsizing is no longer just a short-term fix when times are tough,
though. It has now become a tool continually used by companies to
adjust to changes in technology, globalization, and the firm’s
business direction.
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Containing Costs
Furloughing
• Furloughing refer to a situation in which an organization asks or
requires employees to take time off for either no pay or reduced pay.
• Costs are not cut as significantly as they would be with downsizing
because employees generally retain their benefits while they are
furloughed.
• Employees who are not furloughed often end up with more work and
feel resentful, and product and service quality as well as innovation
suffer as a result of the higher workloads. And,
• as with downsizing, furloughing employees can hurt a company’s
recruiting efforts when the public discovers it has resorted to such a
measure
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Containing Costs
Outsourcing.
• Companies hire accounting firms to take care of their financial
services. They hire advertising firms to handle promotions,
software firms to develop data-processing systems, and law
firms to handle their legal issues.
• The interest in outsourcing has been spurred on by executives
who want to focus their organization’s activities on what they do
best. In fact, some management experts predict companies will
one day strip away every function not regarded as crucial.
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Containing Costs
Offshoring
• Offshoring , also referred to as “global sourcing,” involves shifting
work to locations abroad.
• Cost reductions are among the key motivators for offshoring.
• Dramatically reduced labor costs can be achieved by reallocating
work to countries such as India, where highly educated workers can
perform the same jobs as U. S. workers at half the price.
• Other labor markets include the philippines, Russia, China, Mexico,
Brazil , Hungary, and Bosnia, where workers are paid only a small
fraction of what American workers make.
• In same cases, offshoring is done to allocate work across the various
countries in which a company does business
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Containing Costs
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Offshoring work to countries
that offer a highly educated yet
lower paid work force has
become a common cost- cutting
strategy for American Firms
Offshoring

Containing Costs
Employee Leasing.
• employee leasing refer to the process of dismissing
employees who are then hired by a leasing company (which
handles all HR-related activities) and contracting with that
company to lease back the employees.
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Demographic and Diversity Challenges
Challenge 6: Responding to the Demographic and Diversity
Challenges of the workforce.
• Challenges in the demographic makeup of employees, such as
their ages, education levels, and ethnicities , is the biggest
investment challenge facing organizations .
• Firms have long been criticized for hiring immigrant workers, -
both legal and illegal- because people believe they prevent U.S.
citizens from getting jobs.
• To bring in the talent it needs from abroad. After 9/11 the
number of work visas issued to foreigners by the US
government fell down.
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1
A significant proportion
of American workers, 79
million baby boomers,
who constitute 26
percent of the
population are hitting
retirement age

1
Hiring older workers can be a
win-win situation for both older
employers and
the firms that hire them. Many
firms find that older workers are
generally mature,
dependable, and remain on the
job longer than younger workers
who operate more
like free agents. Older workers
are also often willing to work
flexible hours.

Gender Distribution of the Workforce
• Women now constitute a little
under half of the U.S.
workforce. About 60 percent of
women age 16 and older are in
the labor force, and
approximately 71 percent of
mothers with school-age
children are employed in some
capacity.
• The educational attainment of
women is also increasing
relative to men. Today, three
out of every five college
graduates are women.
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Challenge 7 : Adapting to Educational and Cultural
Shifts Affecting the Workforce
An education also helps a
person stay out of the ranks
of the unemployed. For
example , in 2010 , the
unemployment rate of people
ages twenty to twenty-four
hit 17 percent. But those in
the same age range with
college degrees fared better.
The unemployment rate for
them was a little over 9
percent.
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• Cultural and Societal Changes Affecting the Workforce The
attitudes, beliefs, values, and customs of people in a society are an
integral part of their culture. Naturally, their culture and society
affect their behavior on the job and the environment within the
organization, influencing their reactions to work assignments,
leadership styles, and reward systems.
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• Employee Rights Laws affecting employee rights are continually
changing. In this book we will discuss the major laws affecting
companies today. Among them are laws granting employees the
right to equal employment opportunities
• Privacy Concerns of Employees HR managers and their staff
members, as well as line managers in positions of responsibility,
generally recognize the importance of discretion in handling all
types of information about employees. Since the passage of the
federal Privacy Act of 1974, increased attention to privacy has
been evident, heightened by the increase in identity theft in recent
years.
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• Changing Attitudes toward Work Employees today are less likely
to define their personal success only in terms of financial gains.
Many employees, especially younger ones, believe satisfaction in
life is more likely to result from balancing their work challenges and
rewards with those in their personal lives. Though most people still
enjoy work and want to excel at it, they tend to be focused on
finding interesting work and are more inclined to pursue multiple
careers. In fact, in a survey of more than 3,000 workers, 86 percent
said work fulfillment and work-life balance were their top priorities.
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• Balancing Work and Family Even though new Census Bureau figures
show couples postponing marriage and parenthood, balancing work and
family continues to be a major concern for firms and their employees.
• Employees are already working more hours than they have at any time
since 1973, and increasingly employees are tethered to their companies
around the clock via communication technologies.
• Complicating the task is the fact that today’s families are also more
diverse. They can consist of two-wage-earner families, single-parent
families, and families in which multiple generations of adults are living
under one roof.
• Competitive organizations are finding it advantageous to provide
employees with more family-friendly options.
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The Partnership of Line Managers and HR
Departments
• Successful organizations combine the experience of line mangers with
the expertise of HR managers to develop and unitize the talents of
employees to their greatest potential.
• Line managers are non-HR managers who are responsible for
overseeing the work of other employees. CEOs and line managers
work with different HR managers at different times, depending upon the
type of personnel situation being dealt with.
• There are different types of line managers who specialize in different
functions – operations, accounting , marketing and so forth- There are
different types of human resources managers who specialize in different
HR functions, employee training and development; recruitment, or
compensation
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Responsibilities of Human Resources Managers
The major activities for which a HR manager is typically responsible
are as follows:
1. Strategic advice and counsel. The HR manager often serves
as an in-house consultant to supervisors, managers, and
executives. Given their knowledge of internal employment
information and productivity metrics as well as their awareness of
external trends such as economic and unemployment data and
new legal and regulatory issues, HR managers can be an
invaluable resource for making decisions.
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Responsibilities of Human Resources Managers
2. Service. HR managers perform a host of service activities such as recruiting,
selecting, testing, and planning and conducting training programs. Technical
expertise in these areas is essential for HR managers as they design and implement
talent management programs.
3. Policy formulation and implementation. HR managers generally propose and
draft new policies or policy revisions to cover recurring problems or to prevent
anticipated problems. Ordinarily, the policies are proposed to the senior executives of
the organization, who actually issue them. HR managers also monitor the firm’s
managers and employees to ensure they follow established HR policies, procedures,
and practices. Perhaps more important, they are a resource to whom managers can
turn for policy interpretation.
4. Employee advocacy. One of the enduring roles of HR managers is to serve as
an employee advocate—listening to employees’ concerns and representing their
needs to managers—to make certain that the interests of employees and the
interests of the organization are aligned with one another.
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Competencies Human Resources Managers Require
• As top executives expect HR managers to assume a broader role in overall organizational
strategy, many of these managers will need to acquire a complementary set of competencies.
• Business mastery. As we have explained, HR professionals need to know the businesses of
their organizations and their strategies thoroughly. This requires an understanding of an
organization’s customers and economic and financial capabilities to help a firm achieve its
strategic direction and adjust it as needed.
• HR mastery. HR professionals are the organization’s behavioral science experts. HR
professionals should develop expert knowledge in the areas of staffing, development,
appraisals, rewards, team building, performance measurement, and communication. Good
interpersonal skills are essential.
• Personal credibility. Like other management professionals, HR professionals must establish
personal credibility in the eyes of people internal and external to the firm. Credibility and trust
are earned by developing good relationships with people both internal and external of the firm,
demonstrating the values of the firm, standing up for one’s own beliefs , and dealing with all
parties equitably.
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Competencies Human Resources Managers Require
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Chapter 1 challenges of human resource management

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