Issues and challenges facing the field of human resource

  

Date Posted: 7/15/2012 10:47:56 AM

Posted By: manubett  Membership Level: Bronze  Total Points: 20

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The question was to describe issues and challenges facing the field of human resource under the following subheadings and this were the answers i came up with.

INTRODUCTION
To be effective, strategic HR planning must occur within the context of the organisations overall business plan. Business strategies and objectives –short and long term – will dictate what HR will be needed, in what areas, with what job responsibilities and performing at what level. These strategies and objectives will shape HR decision and organisational design, selection, retention, training and development, performance, management and rewards.

Further, proactive organisation’s will be looking at new ways to elicit optimal performance from employees, integrate new technology to streamline the HR function, leverage new pension legislation to support HR and organizational goals, control benefits costs and of course, communicate effectively with employees about these and other changes.

More than ever before organisations today are facing increased competitive challenges due to globalization, rapid technology advances, an increased emphasis on accelerated change and innovation, demands for high quality And customer service and risks and rewards of managing a diverse workforce. To meet these challenges and sustain a competitive advantage organisation must combine human resource practices into an overall high performance work system that enhances employee’s involvement and performance. Human resource practices are designed to enhance employee’s competencies, motivation and performance is associated with lower employee turnover, high labour productivity and improve overall company.

Contemporary challenges and issues facing the field of human resource management are as under;

1. MANAGING EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY
Managing equality
Gender equality signifies a society in which men and women enjoy similar opportunities, outcomes, obligations and rights in every sphere of life. Equality between women and men exists only when both sexes are capable of sharing mutually in the distribution of influence and power, have equal opportunities for monetary freedom through information

of business or work enjoy equal and easy access to education and the prospects to develop own personal goals.

Human resource management represents effective and implemental solutions for issues evolving from the inequality between men and women. The adoption of practical human resource management model in an organisation presents equal opportunities, specifically for personnel policy as the adoption of an HRM theme which signifies developing and valuing people on pursuit of goals and which stresses the individual role and the significance of involvement, provide opportunities for arguments about assessing all people.

To ensure equal non-discriminatory treatment of both men and women is still a significant challenge confronted by HRM managers in the organisation. The area of managing diversity and HRM there is such emphasis on delegated responsibilities with the line managers assuming the major role. Development has some substantial resonance with the represents pragmatic deliberation of the organisation where optimal resources are inadequate and control overheads are particularly subject to scrutiny.

Development of gender management to HRM managers could present a significant opportunity for locating direct responsibility with the remit of most adequate people . Managers could confront many challenges while ensuring gender equality. It includes increasing activities of HRM conflicting priorities, their deficiencies and lack of accountability regarding equality.

Its essential to search for the ways that could effectively address the issues of gender inequality and develop cultures in which gender equality is ensured. Every individual is free to make his or her optimum contribution. Delegation and development of responsibility to HRM managers can vital role. However it has the huge potential to represent the eventual choice from gender equality. Supportive continuous training effective leadership, education for managers, vigilance for structure, communicating strategies, outcomes and processes are inevitable ingredients to address the grave challenges of inequality present between men and women.
The vital and empirically based assessment of HRM indicates a significant reality about the challenges faced by the HRM while managing gender equality. These include managerial control, increased surveillance, weakening of mutual regulation and shifting of substantial risk to employees. Therefore HRM promises such employment practices which can develop well rewarded, well trained, relatively secured, motivated, committed and empowered workforce, unbiased towards sexism and racism.

Managing diversity

Managing diversity ranks among the most underestimated challenges confronting human resource. The increasing thrust towards globalization has resulted in internationalization of the workforce and the increased demand for talent has resulted in groups of people hitherto out of the workforce. The dimensions of workplace diversity include age, ethnicity, gender, physical Abilities, race sexual orientation, educational background, geographic location, income, marital status, religious beliefs, parental status and experience.
The future success of any organization relies on the ability to manage a diverse body of talent that can bring innovative ideas, perspectives and views to their work. The challenge and problems faced of workplace diversity can be turned into a strategic organizational asset if an organization is able to capitalize on these melting pot of diverse talents. With the mixture of talents of diverse cultural backgrounds, genders, age and lifestyles an organisation can respond to business opportunities more rapidly and creatively, especially in the global arena which must of the important organizational goals to be attained. More importantly if the organizational environment does not support diversity broadly, one risk loosing talent to competitors.

The challenge of managing a diverse workforce assumes even greater importance in global firms. The impact of HRM practice varies depending on the extent of globalization of a firm’s operation as well as the strategy it employs to reach foreign markets. Several firms simply extend their operations into other countries by adapting their products, services and processes to foreign markets. They are essentially domestic firms that build on their existing capabilities to penetrate international markets.

On the other end of the spectrum are organisations that provide considerable autonomy to their foreign operations. They use flexible structures and procedures to suit the customs and preferences of people in each country or region where they operate. The foreign operations have wide latitude in setting goal, policies, systems and procedures that are appropriate to the local condition.
Indeed, a foreign operation grow in size and complexity, most organisations provide greater autonomy and flexibility to their foreign units to respond to local needs and demands. Naturally, the degree of international plays a key role in determining the challenges to HRM manager.

A lack of knowledge about internal openings can be a challenge. Some employees are reluctant to apply for international jobs because they fear they will loose touch with developments at headquarters, harming their opportunities for career advancement. As a result, many employees are forced to rely on an informal network when the HR department does not create systematic linkages among people to address these concerns.

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