Globalization sooraj
- 1. Introduction Globalization, an inevitable and irreversible force, has significantly affected the workplace and the community, in ways both good and bad. Human resource development's (HRD's) response and impact has been minimal and at a mostly micro level. Although the future of the field of human resource development (HRD) cannot be precisely foretold, trends and analyses provide us with insight into the challenges likely to be faced by professionals in the field. Few HR trends that are changing the face of business after globalization are given as follow: • The Changing Role of the HR Professional • The War for Talent • Outsourcing of HR Functions: The Virtual HR Organization • The Healthy Workplace: Wellness, Work-Life Balance • The Diverse Workforce • The Impact of Technology • Talent Management: Leadership Development • Talent management: Succession Planning Globalizing HR Processes: Global staffing and global leadership development are the two components of global human resources with the greatest potential for powerful leverage for global firms. In both the areas, a major paradigm shift is required in comparison to the traditional perspective. • Global Staffing: While it may be obvious that global firms will need more and more employees with “global brains”, translating this attractive vision into operational reality is not simple. Most managers are not born global; they acquire global brains through a series of experiences, many of them at a substantial cost to the organization. Making a rational business case concerning the future need and use of global managers is one of the critical decisions the global HR function and business leaders must make together.
- 2. • Global Leadership Development: One of the principal tasks of global leadership development should be to create and support an environment where global mindsets can flourish. It will focus on providing a broad spectrum of employees with opportunities to acquire and enhance their global leadership skills and capabilities, often using nontraditional developmental techniques such as cross- border job swaps or assignments to multicultural task forces and project teams. Let us see the changes is HR Myth before and after globalization Before globalization Myth After globalization realities • People go into HR because they • HR departments are not designed to like people provide corporate therapy or as social or health-happiness retreats. HR professionals must create the practices that make employees more competitive, not more comfortable. • Anyone can do HR • HR activities are based on theory and research. HR professionals must master both theory and practice. • HR deals with the soft side of • The impact of HR practices on business and is therefore not business results can and must be accountable measured. HR professionals must learn how to translate their work into financial performance. • HR focuses on costs, which • HR practices must create value by cannot be controlled increasing intellectual capital within the firm. HR professionals must add value, not reduce costs • HR’s job is to be the policy • The HR function does not own police and the health-and- compliance, managers do. HR happiness patrol practices do not exist to make employees happy but to help them become committed. HR professionals must help managers commit employees and administer policies.
- 3. • HR is full of fads • HR practices have evolved over time. HR professionals must be see their current work as par of an evolutionary chain and explain their work with less jargon and more authority • HR is staffed by nice people • At times, HR practices should force rigorous debates. HR professionals should be confrontative and challenging as well as supportive • HR is HR’s job • HR work is as important to line managers, as are finance, strategy and other business domains. HR professionals should join The skill set change which any HR manager has to make if they have to lead the work force into the future after globalization are as follows: Vision and foresight: HR professionals have been making the transition over the years from administrators to business partners to leaders of change. The next logical step in the transformation of the HR function will involve the ability to see around corners. This skill encompasses the vision and foresight to anticipate future trends globally and the business savvy, credibility, and leadership skills to influence and shape these trends on a global basis. HR people will focus increasingly on turning human resource and organization capability into a strategic competitive advantage for the business. The quality of people and people-related practices is exceedingly difficult to imitate for the competitors. These are embedded in the culture of the organization. External focus: Managing By Wandering Around (MBWA) is not a strategy only for the line managers. It has to be practiced by HR professionals in equal, if not greater measure. They tend to concentrate on the internal issues most of the time. However, HR people should partner with customer more than ever before on joint HR initiatives, such as training and moving people across company boundaries. HR professionals will be responsible for determining and meeting customer expectations of organization capabilities – the capacity to
- 4. respond to customer concerns and act on their behalf. As part of this process, customers will be more directly involved in issues such as the selection and assessment of individuals in key assignments. This kind of interaction with customers will cause HR people to venture out beyond traditional organization boundaries. Future Workforce: Organizations must continuously create a more flexible workforce. Professional development initiatives including major commitments to training, global development assignments, and modern day apprenticeships programs have to be put in place to keep pace with changing technology. Further, organizations should promote and deploy flexible, family-friendly workplace practices. Flexible work schedules and time-off family/personal leaves and sabbaticals, job sharing, telecommuting, and remote work locations, employee assistance counseling, child and elder care, financial consulting, and on-site convenience, like casual dress, etc. are some of the propounded concepts, though none of them are new. “They will be, by necessity.” Finally, a more open workplace through access to information, exchanged seamlessly across organizational, functional and geographic boundaries, will become increasingly commonplace. Confrontation: The future role of HR will be to create organizational cultures that unambiguously confront realities and make the inner workings of the organization much more transparent to the typical employee. The employees should be trusted with sensitive information, which should not be hidden from them for fear of competition gaining access to such knowledge. It is the HR function’s job to convince others of this truth. Also, HR can challenge outmoded policies and practices that have a detrimental effect on employee morale and productivity. The logic and assumptions behind policies should be examined. If there is any lacking on part of management in maintaining transparency, the HR people must take up the matter in their hands. Competitive Weapon: As organizations strive to become seamless, the emphasis on collaboration across business units, functions, countries, cultures, and companies will increase significantly. HR professionals have a major role to play in making seamlessness a competitive weapon. It is the job of HR to define the kinds of sharing behaviors expected of people. Benchmarking and
- 5. sharing practices are not enough. Real value comes from implementing these practices fully and quickly than everyone else and building on them to create a unique advantage. Scoring performance: Organizations continue to struggle to strike a balance between shorter term, financially driven objectives and long-term qualitative goals. It will increasingly involve the issue of accountability for employee satisfaction and organization capability and of measuring these priorities with the same degree of rigour used to measure financial performance. HR and organizational capability audits should be as commonly accepted, as are financial audits. HR should believe in the adage, “What gets measured gets done”. General Challenges for Global HR Function Functions such as operations, sales, and marketing have generally made great progress in adapting to the global reality. However, the HR function has typically lagged behind in developing policies and structures that support globalization. The top challenges HR faces in the globalization process include: • Coordination of activities in many different locations. • Understanding the continual change of the globally competitive environment. • Building a global awareness in all HR departments/divisions. • Creating a multicultural HR team. Conclusion Globalization has its positive side as well as its negative side. In order to survive and prosper in the new global competition, companies are embracing global integration and coordination, but at the same time they must push for local flexibility and speed. Global companies have to nurture global organization learning by stimulating creativity, innovation and the free-flow of ideas across boundaries, but also advocate a disciplined and methodical approach to global continuous improvement. To succeed in global competition requires an open and empowered organizational climate, but also a tightly focused global competitive culture. If global organizational capability, intrinsically linked to people issues, is the principal tool of competition, it is only natural that HR in the future should become the pivotal partner in the globalization process.
- 6. REFERENCE: 1. THE GLOBALIZATION OF HUMAN RESOURCE PRACTICES By Sheila M. Rioux, Ph.D., Paul R. Bernthal, Ph.D., and Richard S. Wellins, Ph.D. 2. THE CHALLENGES OF GLOBALIZATION AND THE ROLE OF HUMAN RESOURCES. Muhammad Aminu Bawa, Dr Juhary Ali 3. “TOMORROW’S HR MANAGEMENT” By Dave Ulrich, Michael R. Losey, Gerry Lake, Editors 4. IMPACT OF GLOBALIZATION ON THE HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT FUNCTION IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: A CASE STUDY OF KENYA PUBLIC CORPORATIONS Hazel Gachoka Gachunga
- 7. Globalization of business and its impacts on Human Resource Development Assignment for Strategic Human Resource Development Submitted by SOORAJ. R 2nd yr. MBA DMS PONDICHERRY UNIVERSITY