英国Human Resource Management assignment

英国Human Resource Management assignment

 

如今，随着全球化的发展，劳动力发生了巨大的变化——多元化劳动力人群。导致这种情况的原因主要是两个因素： 首先是由于国家人口组成已有所改变，其次是因为全球化。梅奥（quoted by Elmuti, 2001）揭示了增加劳动力多样性是一个全球性的趋势，这已经扩展到世界上的许多国家。出生率的居高不下和移民数量的增加导致国家人口的变化，因此导致了劳动力的变化。（巴西和霍尔 1991 年;考克斯和布雷克，1991 年 ；唐纳利等人，1998年）。根据研究 Elmuti （2001 年），在美国，少数群体在劳动力市场中的比例预计将在第一个十年上升至 29%。全球化，即意味着无论大型或小型的公司，在当今社会都要面对日益激烈的竞争，而它们为了提高自身竞争力，必须采取一些新的方式来做生意 (Jana，2000年）。他们必须去争取最优秀的人才，并使用各种方法来留住现有人才 (Thomas 1991 年 ；Datt 1997)。当一家公司有越来越多的国际业务，这些雇员将会分散于世界各地。这趋势的之一就是越来越依赖于通过使用信息技术来使其成为可能的虚拟团队。（扎卡里亚、 Amelinckx 和 Wilemon 2004）

 

Nowadays, with the development of globalization, there is a huge change taking place in the workforce---Diverse workforce. The reasons for this situation are mainly due to two factors: firstly the national population composition has changed and secondly globalization. Mayo (quoted by Elmuti, 2001) reveals increasing diversity is a global trend，which extended to many countries of the worconsequently is reacted in the workforce (Abbasi and Hollman 1991; Cox and Blake, ld. The high rates of birth and the increasing number of immigrants lead to the national population change, which 1991; Donnelly et al, 1998). According to the research by Elmuti (2001), in the US, the percentage of minorities in the workforce is expected to rise to 29% in the first decade. Globalization means that no matter large or small companies in today’s society are faced with increasing fierce competition, in order to improve the self-competitiveness, the company must take some new ways to doing business (Jana, 2000). They must strive for the best talents, and use various methods to retain the existing talent (Thomas 1991; Datt 1997). As more and more international business in a company, these employees will be scattered around the world. Part of this trend is the increasing reliance on virtual teams, made possible by information technology (Zakaria, Amelinckx and Wilemon 2004). Therefore, managing a diverse workforce in today’s organization is very important. Kandola et al.(1995, p. 2) defined diversity is “virtually all ways in which people differ, not just the more obvious ones of gender, ethnicity and disability.” How to manage a diverse workforce? The method of human resource management can be divided into reactive approach and proactive approach. Reactive approach is a method that waits for something happen and then to react and solve it. While proactive approach is expected to needs and problems and tried to prevent them (Jenner, 1994). Both proactive approach and reactive approach of HR is used to add value to an organization. There is a book named Strategic Human Resource Management by Mello explained the terms reactive and proactive approach as:“Reactive HR focuses on implementing the business strategy; that is, given a clearly formulated business strategy (e.g., growth, new product, innovation, cycle reduction, new market entry). Such activities include identifying and developing the technical knowledge, tactical skills, and business culture that are consistent with the demands of the business strategy. They may also include facilitating change management and organizing HR into service centers.”(Mello, Jeffery A., 2006, p. 238).

 

Proactive HR focuses on creating future strategic alternatives. Such activities include creating a culture of innovation and creativity; identifying merger and acquisition possibilities and creating internal capabilities that continually track and align with the marketplace for products, markets and capital with their respective lead indicators. (Mello, Jeffery A., 2006, p. 238) Most organizations usually use a reactive rather than a proactive approach to managing its diverse workforce. Actually, rather than using reactive approach and waiting for a “diversity crisis” to occur (i.e. Coca-Cola), an organization need to using proactive perspective to managing diversity (Joplin and Daus, 1997).

 

This paper will focus on the issues about why and how organization should take a strategic approach to managing its diverse workforce. The first section will briefly examine the reasons and benefits of taking a strategic approach. The next section will focus on issues of the implication on HR function. Finally, it will summarize the paper.

 

The benefits of taking a strategic approach

 

Empirical research supports the view that using a strategic approach can have a positive effect in the diverse workplace.

 

Creativity: The creativity of teams that were homogeneous on a train of attitude methods were compared against teams with heterogeneous attitude. Problems solution creativity was judged on originality and practically. The results show that, as long as the team members had similar ability levels, the heterogeneous teams were more creative than the homogenous ones (Cox & Blake, 1991).

 

Cost: The adoption of using strategic approach that employees will be more loyal to employers who recognize and value their individual differences (Robinson & Dechant, 1997), and for this reason, the costs of turnover and absenteeism will be reduced.

 

Customer and market: Cox and Blake (1991) advice that organizations which have adopted a strategic approach will put themselves to be ‘employers of choice’ by enhancing their labor market. The managing diversity literature suggests that organizations with visible diversity in their staffing can attract a wider customer base and be more sensitive to different customers needs in their products and services (Thomas and Ely, 199; Whitehead, 1999).There is a research by Johnson-Hillery et al.(1997) found that older customers thought sales staff of the same age more positively than younger staff. Those supports of using a strategic approach argue that diverse workforce generate more ideas and solutions than homogenous group.

 

Social: Some reported also show that the benefits of using a strategic approach include a greater concern for socially responsible behavior in organizations (Wentling and Palma-Rivas, 1998), at the same time, more flexibility in organizational polices because of recognizing the differences needs of staffs will require that polices are more innovative and less formalist (Cox, 1993).

 

Individual: The purpose of using a strategic approach is to create and maintain a positive work environment, which making the diverse workforce can be valued, so that maximize their potential and ultimately to achieve the objectives of the organization.

 

How to using a strategic approach
 

Recruitment and Selection

 

The traditional way of recruitment and selection is given differences individuals and jobs, and the organization matched the individual to the job. However， this approach neglect the aspect of exchange and viewed as a one-way decision-making process, in other words, it is a way that the recruitment managers selecting from a number of passive applicants. From the strategic perspective, both of recruiting managers and the candidates has expectations in their current or future needs and values. It is a process to determine whether there is indeed ability between the individual and the organization through a mutual information exchange and negotiating. The result of using this approach, if successful, managers and candidates will reach a consensus on their expectation of needs and values (Loden and Rosener, 1991). However, if the process of negotiation failed due to the parties cannot agree with this sense, this still can be called “success”—or using the terms by Herriot,‘valid negative’—because this way avoid recruiting unsuitable employees for the organization and avoid candidates taking on a unsuitable job (John et al, 2005).

 

In a word, both the traditional approach and the strategic approach emphasize‘suit’between the individual and the job environment (Schneider et al., 1997). However，the former one put the emphasis on the fixed dimensions of both the job and the individual，and the managers have the right to determine whether this candidate suit this job or not; While the latter one put the emphasis on through the exchange and negotiation of each other (manager and candidate) to determine the ‘suit’. In other words, the traditional approach is related to personal characteristics and ability of the individual and the skill demands of the specific job (‘person-job fit’). The strategic approach is related to the matching of each other’s expectations of needs and values, even the environment of the organization.(‘person-organization fit’) (Ostroff and Rothausen, 1996).In particular, where an organization intend to recruit and retain employees which has high level of knowledge, skills and expertise , the strategic approach is likely to be more effective.