Question 2: Critically discuss the nature of HRM in contemporary organizations and the various stages of its development. Use examples to support your argument.

It is a fact to keep in mind while analyzing and discussing the nature of HRM in contemporary organizations that nature of business has changed with so many aspects. The businesses are able to achieve so much in this current arena, which was not possible few decades ago. The expansion of businesses on global scale has become a common norm for big companies and this global level business perspective looks like to continue with more booming effects in the future as well. It is happening because the strategies of firms are defined by their global competition. The biggest companies in the world are those, who are giants in their fields operating as multinational companies. They are competing on many things and therefore they have to be proactive in their approach to keep things moving forward in right direction. The way global competition as well as expansion of businesses is increasing with the passage of time, the work processes and procedures for HRM are also evolving. In recent few decades, the industrial economy has turned into knowledge economy, where knowledge has become so important part of businesses that how they handle things proactively with innovative measures.

            The other important thing to keep in mind is that multinational firms have to attract customers and retain them with their better offerings in terms of variety as well as quality. It means that quality is one of the main reasons behind the global competition between international firms, as they not only compete on international level, but they have to deal quality of the local products and services as well. So, to stand apart from the rest, the companies have to on their toes to make sure that achieve utmost quality in their every work process to deliver quality to their customers. Now, the questions is that how will they achieve this great quality and efficiency? The answer is that they need proper strategy to do that, but actual execution of the strategy and business plan will be done by the human resource. They are the ones who have to deliver quality and efficiency for the company. If human resource management does not have clear vision and direction, and it lacks the vision of handling processes with new and innovative techniques, then the goal of quality and efficiency looks far beyond the reach of firms. In contemporary business landscape, the need for an efficient human resource management is indispensable for business firms; otherwise it is almost impossible for them to compete well in global business arena (Mayhew, 2019)

            To understand the various stages of development in contemporary organizations, it is important to understand the fact by taking an example that how things have changed over the years. So, let’s take the example of United States to see how HRM developed with the passage of time. In the era of 1970s, the businesses in United States were family enterprises, with less involvement of any external people and pressures. But it was time, when things started to get change as businesses started to increase their reach. The business firms started to become multi unit businesses, so they have to hire managers to manage so many affairs of the business. The managerial involvement with its hierarchy became an essential part of the business organizations. This is how managers started to develop as more skilled and professional workforce for organizations to keep things on right track. It was the time when HRM started to emerge as a field and become one of the most crucial functions as well as part of the corporate business. The managers have to perform the role of middle management, where rest of the responsibility was on their shoulders. This is how they continued to develop human resource management as an integral part of organizations (Vitaud, 2016)

The concept of HR was introduced in the 18^th century and its general credit is given to two persons; one of them is Scottish social reformer named Robert Owen and the other one was a mechanical engineer named Charles Babbage. Robert Owen has been considered one of the pioneers of HRM as he introduced so many important concepts of HRM such as pay for performance as well as performance appraisal. He believed that if companies want to get best out of their workforce, then don’t threaten them rather motivate them to do well. The wage slavery was in not helping the cause in that period as workers did not have any considerable rights. In this stage, the HRM developed as an important tool to help employees in getting their rights as well as a performance appraisal system, which started to give them rearwards on the basis of their performance. The HRM has met its evolution with various stages, like its earlier stages were related to concepts such as industrial psychology, welfare work and scientific management, then another stage of development went through after WWI as HRM started to get emergence as  a proper profession. The things have been changing since then with the needs and requirements of business as they also started to emerge on global scale (Debnath, 2012)

The above facts reveal that how human resource development made its mark after passing from different stages of its development. Then in contemporary business organizations, its role has become even more crucial as it has so many aspects to cover. The global workforce has to be managed to make sure that everything is in order. The training and development was not as important part of HRM, as it was in earlier era of businesses. It has become an important tool for HRM to manage because if companies want to achieve competitive advantages and stay ahead in the competition, then they have to come up with human resources, who is more skilled and informed as well as have latest trends to adopt so that more efficiency and quality is achieved. In contemporary organizations, the role of HRM is getting more crucial, and its importance will increase by more innovation and evolution (Burma, 2014)

Q 3: Critically evaluate the responses of the HR functions within the globalised workplace, using examples to support your argument.

            The range and reach of business organizations have exponentially expended in last 10 to 20 years. So, it is important to look its impact on HR and its key functions because the competition between business organizations is getting tough with each passing day. There is so much variety and diversity coming in the business field that things are getting intensely tough for organizations to compete as global business landscape is throwing various challenges to them. The way organizations are growing on global scale, it is more likely that competition will get more intense in the future, and every element of organizations have to respond well to this increasing competition. This is what HR has to do as well because role of HR is crucial for an organization in so many ways. The growing globalization of business has made various impacts on HR and its functions, and its role is expanded in different ways. The global workplace has so many different dynamics as compared to local and traditional workplace, so HR has to manage this essence of globalization to keep things on right track.

            It is important to analyze that what effects and impacts has been made by globalization on HR, and how HR role is being changes with the passage of time. For this purpose, it is necessary to understand this idea with a certain example. For instance, a local food company is doing great in domestic market and has enough resources to expand their business. Moreover they are looking to expand its business on global scale, and they want to expand to other locations around the world so that they can gain more profits and revenue. So, when they decide that company will start working in another culture, which is different from its local culture, and it will have global element as well, then they have to adjust in so many ways. Like when they will start operations at any other foreign destination, they will have to send their current experts and trainers to go and set up the business as well as train staff as per policy of the company. These workers will have to adjust to new location and work culture, and they will have to develop a work culture, which is more close to the original ideology of the business, and has ability to cope with diversity coming with the global aspect. The company may have people from different cultures and backgrounds to work for them. So, they have to set up rules and regulations, which keep a better relationship between employees, even when they are diverse in so many different ways (Bratton & Gold, 2017)

            It is important to understand in terms of Food Company that they can’t offer every food product in every other culture. For instance, they may not be able to get good response for some American dishes in Japan or any other location. Moreover, there might be some food, which they may not be able to sell due to local norms and values. The biggest example for this is Hamburger, as in Islamic culture, the company may not be able to offer Hamburger, as it is something, which is prohibited in Islam for Muslims to eat. The other example could be India, where Cow meat is not supposed to be used for eating purpose, so company cannot offer cow meat in their food point as it is not taken well from their Hindu community. These two examples are to show one major issue that companies have to face when they go global, and they have to deal with every such challenge. So, they have to develop a team through proper human resource management; a team which has the capacity and capability to deal with global issues of doing business on global scale (Cooper, 1996)

            The above mentioned examples depict that how globalization has made its changes to many functions of business organizations including HR functions. Moreover, now companies look to hire people from different parts of the world to have some diversity and variety in their work with a large diverse pool of talent. In a global workplace, the things are not easy to manage as people from different backgrounds work together. One may have his/her religious beliefs and values, and others may be influenced by their cultural values, and HR has to manage both kinds of employees at single platform under a global workplace culture. HR has to prepare and train their employees that how they can manage workplace diversity and respect each other even when they have different views and backgrounds. The cultural difference and diversity can bring so many issues for HR, and they have to deal with these issues to make sure that they avoid any severe workplace conflicts, as they are never productive for an organization. The companies have to make sure that their diversity at workplace is not halting their overall progress and productivity to achieve set goals and objectives.

            The HR functions along with job functions have been redefined due to globalization. For instance, the HR function in a global business organization does not only involve managing human resource and relevant activities, but they are also becoming part of the strategic planning. They develop training as well as development programs, which are required for proper adjustment of a global workforce in a global workplace environment. Moreover, when HR professionals are given the essence of globalization, their options grow in different directions. For instance, when they have to hire people just from local area, they may do not have people with required skills or education as well as experience. But when they look for talent on global scale, there is no issue to find relevant and required workforce. The multinational company does hire people from other parts of the world to get in more creative and talented people to work for them. This diversity, variety and even challenges of globalization are proving productive, not only for organizations, but for HRM as well (Carty, 2017)

 References

Bratton, J., & Gold, J. (2017). Human Resource Management, 6th Edition: Theory and Practice. Macmillan Education UK.

Burma, Z. A. (2014). Human Resource Management and Its Importance for Today’s Organizations. International Journal of Education and Social Science , 1 (2).

Carty, S.-L. (2017). Effects of Globalization on Human Resource Management. Retrieved March 15, 2019, from https://bizfluent.com/info-8568053-effects-globalization-human-resource-management.html

Cooper, K. J. (1996). IT'S LAMB BURGER, NOT HAMBURGER, AT BEEFLESS MCDONALD'S IN NEW DELHI. Retrieved March 15, 2019, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1996/11/04/its-lamb-burger-not-hamburger-at-beefless-mcdonalds-in-new-delhi/e22d7821-5c07-4407-bec7-4c8741c111c5/?utm_term=.4204de2d9209

Debnath, K. (2012). History of Human Resource Management and Its Contribution To The Society. Retrieved March 15, 2019, from http://historyhrmtosociety.blogspot.com/

Mayhew, R. (2019). Six Main Functions of a Human Resource Department. Retrieved March 15, 2019, from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/six-main-functions-human-resource-department-60693.html

Vitaud, L. (2016). The Rise and Fall of HR as a Department. Retrieved March 15, 2019, from https://medium.com/willbe-group/the-rise-and-fall-of-hr-as-a-department-8a8fd5ffd06a