Thursday, April 18, 2013

Contemporary HRM Issues The changing world of work How will future changes affect Human Resource Management




INTRODUCTION

In ancient times, people were working to meet basic needs, they needed to go into field and work hard to have something to eat.  Similarly, it was still in the area of the industrial revolution. People worked in order to survive: to pay for basic needs such as food or accommodation. The hard work which provided survival has become a pleasure, luxury and a symbol of the higher needs but how those changes from the past are affecting the future in Human Resource Management? That report was created to answer that difficult question.

 What is work?

   Working alongside the family, health and religion is one of the most important values in people life. The perception of this form of social activity could be divided into two basic approaches.
    The first- when the daily work is treated instrumentally and the calculation of benefits is made, that work brings revenues to ensure a sense of security and the importance of bigger income become necessary to  cover the basic needs such as food, accommodation or health.
   The second- when the work is an objective in itself, is the way to fulfilment, a sense of satisfaction and rewarding.
    Both of the points should comply with each other to provide financial security and also to give opportunity for the development of their own interests, increase self –esteem and respect of others.(Mullins, 2007)     
                                       
                                                         
Typology of work

There is two types of work paid and unpaid. Those two are divided as follows:
  • Paid formal legal work, were money are  taxed
  •  Paid informal work which is common and is called ‘cash in hand’ economic activity. Its hidden nature makes it very difficult to assess its size. This type of work is illegal(Directgov, 2011)
  • Unpaid formal work such as charity, household, caregiving
  • Unpaid informal work such as for example looking after someone and the person instead money will give in return some goods( Mahalingam , A .2011)

‘’Working life in Europe is changing at an ever-increasing speed, which can give rise to new risk areas or change the way that occupational safety and health needs to be managed. This has implications for workplaces themselves and also for the occupational safety and health system. For this reason the 'Changing World of Work' has been a priority topic of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work. The Council Resolution on a New Community Strategy on health and safety at work (2002-2006) stresses these topics as well.’’ (OSha, Europe, 2006)


 Design of work

In the history of changing world of work there are two sectors of old and new systems.
Old:
·         Industrial society,
·          Fordism,
·         Bureaucracy ,
·         Compliance
·         Direct control
·         Hard HRM
      New:
·         Post-Industrial society
·         Knowledge economy
·         Information economy
·         Post -Fordism
·         Post-Bureaucracy
·         Commitment
·         Indirect control
·         Soft HRM (Williams, C. C. 2007)


     Fordism and Taylorism mass production was a close supervision on work in the factory (people working in the groups doing the same things all the time-work has been moving around the tape) kind of work set by the tape production. In the old work system  bureaucracy was largely perfected and the administrative controlled by rules and procedures. Ford saw the need to link to increase in production of the market and started and perfected the manufacturing belt. The system had some limitations and was only suitable for large companies and massive production. The preparation and implementation of production was very expensive. Post-fordism was characterised by a departure from the spirit of Fordism and Taylorism. It was a flexible and innovative system which was adapted very well to market and individual market requirements. The company used a small group of highly skilled workers and using the latest technology.

   Strategies of Fordism and Taylorism were connected with the progressive work of factory and disappearance of skilled ‘abstract work’-activities characterised only by the unutilised time and not by specific form that takes. Working on a tape and repeating routine activities have evolved not so much the ‘producer’ but energy from people to greater flexibility in the labour force which was able to perform the same task anywhere. (Williamette, 2011)

 Role of HR

  Crucial is to point the important role of the human resources in both of the old and new systems of work. HR plays one of the significant functions in any organisation. The perception of this feature and its implementation is dependent on the socio-economic environment organisations as well as its size and characteristics. Study the evaluation of the personnel function can reach the beginnings of economic activity when first person has been employed. That started problems such as selection, allocation, training, motivation or evaluation and thus associated with the typical components of human resources area. The shape and  development of personnel (today HR) function in particular organisation is the result of many factors, such as corporate strategy, its organisational culture or the situation on the labour market and individual issues are solved in the system of internal and external specific configurations. Independent personnel function was established in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, which was aimed at matching employees to the existing organisational structure.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                The great importance of human resources was pointed in modern production, financial and material resources. The progress in HR work can be divided into three periods/stages of development of forms and methods:
1.       The period (pre-industrial) of generalists and artists, agriculture, construction, sailing, producing clothing, craft division of labour, practice specific skills, rules, and working conditions, training, evaluation and compensation of employees, workforce planning.
2.       The period of industrial development specialist for industry, mass production, establishing new mass work places, easy to control the work of organisational structures, fixed working hours, work evaluation, labour cost, labour relation, compensation on the basis of working time.
3.       The period of post-industrial area- the period of teamwork and self-support. Flexible manufacturing system and flexible working hours, the use of information systems, slimming organization, restructuring, development of services, teleworking(call centres), virtual organisations (internet), a new dedication to customer, personnel policies and legislations, multi-skilling, flexible salaries, outsourcing, knowledge management.
Nowadays motivation to work is the formation of a certain system of forces that will motivate employees to behave in a manner required by the employer. It is therefore process of conscious impacts on the workforce by providing resources and opportunities to meet their expectations in such a way that employer and employee can benefit. (Farmer, M.2009)
It is also important to mention that trade unions are one of the main elements of protection in workplace of labour rights in both individual and collective labour relations. Their task is to protect the rights and interests of the employees. (Worthington, I. 2009)

 HRM work in the future


    HR become well established position in the companies. In the past 20 years had many names and forms but the essence of the action remain the same, changed only the method of achievement. Companies managed to overcome old practices and to adapt Human Resource Management (HRM) to the new challenges, also a big step forward in smaller firms. The approach to human capital will make in the near future the pace and scale of changes and grown in HR divisions. (Redman, T. 2009)
Within the next 20 years staff competencies will be a key asset of the company. The fight for talent will become even more ready than ever. Traditional human resource planning will replace strategies for attracting and retaining talented employees in the company.
HR will increasingly use marketing tools and techniques. The recruitment process will have a clear beginning and end. Finding workers is an ongoing process and the best workers will be absorbed into the market at a very fast pace.
Continuous recruitment will provide more administrative work which will result in increasing the number of companies that decide to outsource their responsibilities to outside companies. Most HR departments will limit its activities to issue of ‘’soft HR’ ‘and strategic. HR work will be able to concentrate on activities which will bring the greatest profit such as improvement in the HRM field. Outsourcing a ‘’hard HR’’ (calculation of wages, settlement of social insurance) will speed up the implementation of the most important duties.
HR activities will be directed not only to its employees but also their families, customers and community. Families will benefit from free care for the whole family employed or private nursery for children.HR will be involved into development of their public image.
Implementation of developing HR strategy will require support from specialists. According to the Charted Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) over 70% of companies have budget for staff training.
  A major challenge for HR departments will increase globalization of business. The company’s activities will be spread across different countries and time zones, all depends on customer needs. The companies are facing all ready the challenges of globalisation. Due to the increasing importance of the relationship between cost and work efficiency the firm’s operations will be transferred more and more to those regions of the world where the cost effectiveness are most favourable for employers. Because the globalisation will change the transformation in the companies of diverse in their country of origin, religion, etc. HR professionals will need to prepare employees to be involved in contact between the cultures and increasing diversity.
Rising labour cost will force nationalization of employment which means that companies will able to quick adjustment of changes and find the balance between permanent employment and flexible work.
Very important role will play a system of motivating employees. HR departments will turn towards the highly effective work systems (HPWS –High Performance Work Systems) (Varma, A. 2010)
  The vision of potential revenue will encourage more effective work and for managerial positions a more profitable business management.
In the future the HR practices will more contribute to the improvement of the business by creating new value and deliver them to customer. HR will increasingly act as a service organisation and will be much more towards a business partner. The HR department will be jointly responsible for creating value and obtaining the highest financial performance.
Nowadays the internet is the main tool for every recruiter. Available online solutions make it easy to get in touch with the candidate and collect all needed data on the current path of career. Everything indicates that in the future recruitment may take only a virtual form. Some years ago ‘’Generation Y’’ entered the labour market and now everything is moving and changing much faster and looks like a social networking  will play increasingly more important role.( Bates, S. 2002)

Summary

       Future work of Human Resource Management will change drastically and has been changed all ready for the past 20 years. People will work where and when they need or want. Managing workplace and people talents will be developed dynamic and distributed by computers. The technological economy it is incredibly demanding and rewarding. People are and will still seek companies which enable them to succeed all over the world which is changing fast by technology, globalization, demographics and environmental issues.

References

Bates, S. (2002) BNET, The CBS interactive business network, facing the future- human resource management is changing [Online] Available from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3495/is_7_47/ai_89025017/?tag=content;col1 (accessed on 01 March 2011)


Cherry , K. (2010)Hierarchy of needs, The five levels of Maslow’s of Hierarchy of Needs[Online]Available from http://psychology.about.com/od/theoriesofpersonality/a/hierarchyneeds.htm (Accessed on 28 February 2011)

CIPD, (2011) Charted Institute of Personnel and Development [Online] Available from http://www.cipd.co.uk/ (accessed on 03 March 2011)

Directgov, (2011)Employment terms and conditions,Pay,[Online] Available from http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Employees/index.htm (Accessed on 01 March 2011)

Farmer, M and Yellowley,W (2009) People & Organisations, 2nd edition, Pearson Custom Publishing


Mahalingam , A. (2011) Gender & work database, Conceptual guide to the unpaid work module,[Online] Available from http://www.genderwork.ca/cms/displayarticle.php?sid=18&aid=56 (Accessed on 01 March 2011)

Mullins, J Laurie (2007), Management and Organisational Behaviour, 8th edition, FT Prentice Hall

Osha, Europa ( 2006) European Agency for Safety and Health at Work , Changing world of work [Online] http://osha.europa.eu/en/topics/change/index.stm (Accessed on 02 march 2011)

Redman, T.  Wilkinson,  A.  (2009) Contemporary Human Resource management, Text and Cases, 3rd edition, FT Prentice Hall


Varma, A. (2010) Questia, Trusted online research, High performance work systems:exciting discovery or passing fad? [Online] Available from http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst?docId=5001258112 (Accessed on 02 March 2011)

Williamette(2011)Fordism, Post-Fordism and the flexible system of production [Online]Available from : http://www.willamette.edu/~fthompso/MgmtCon/Fordism_&_Postfordism.html  (Accessed on 01 March 2011)

Williams, C.C. (2007) What does work mean 2025 and beyond? [Online] Available from http://www.beyondcurrenthorizons.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/bch_challenge_paper_work_colin_williams.pdf ( accessed on 28 February 2011)

Worthington,I. Britton, C, (2009) The Business Environment, 6th edition, Ft Prentice Hall





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