Learning and Development

GLOBAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT ISSUES


01. Introduction

WHAT IS HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT ?

Human Resource Management is the policies and practices involved in carrying out the people or human resource aspects of a management position, including recruiting, screening, training, rewarding, and appraising. (Dessler, 2005)

HRM is a managerial perspective which argues the need to establish an integrated series of personnel policies to support organizational strategy. (Buchanan and Huczynski, 2004).


HRM is a strategic approach to managing employment relations which emphasizes that leveraging people’s capabilities is critical to achieving competitive advantage, this being achieved through a distinctive set of integrated employment policies, programmes and practices. (Bratton and Gold, 2007).

Human resource management also keep the business a pleasant place in which to work. Making staff and management aware of employment law and good behavior at work is part of every HRM department’s remit. They resolve disputes before they arise, remove staff that may not add to the overall ethos and mediate between staff and management when problems do occur.

Somewhere around 1970s, that the human work strength was recognized as a resource. In one of the early references, Armstrong stated that in an enterprise “the key resource is people” (Armstrong, 2014)

Human resource management involves developing and administering programs that are designed to increase the effectiveness of an organization or business. It includes the entire spectrum of creating, managing, and cultivating the employer-employee relationship.

WHAT IS GLOBAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT ?

According to Armstrong (2009) Handbook of  Human Resource Management Practice, International human resource management is the process of managing people across international boundaries by multinational companies. It involves the worldwide management of people, not just the management of expatriates. 

Traditionally, international HR has been about managing an international workforce – the higher level organizational people working as expatriates, frequent commuters, cross-cultural team members and specialists involved in international knowledge transfer. Global HRM is not simply about these staff. It concerns managing all HRM activities, wherever they are, through the application of global rule sets. (Brewster et al, 2005)

WHAT ARE THE FIVE MAIN FUNCTIONS OF GLOBAL HUMAN RESOURCE 
MANAGEMENT ?

1. Recruitment Process

Attracting, hiring and retaining a skilled workforce is perhaps the most basic of the human resources functions. There are several elements to this task including developing a job description, interviewing candidates, making offers and negotiating salaries and benefits.

2. On-the-Job Training

Even when an organization hires skilled employees, there is normally some level of on-the-job training that the human resources department is responsible for providing. This is because every organization performs tasks in a slightly different way.

3. Professional Development

Closely related to training is HR's function in professional development. But whereas training needs are centered around the organization's processes and procedures, professional development is about providing employees with opportunities for growth and education on an individual basis.

4. Benefits and Compensation

While the management of benefits and compensation is a given for human resources, the globalization of companies in the twenty-first century has meant that HR must now adapt to new ways of providing benefits to an organization's employees.

5. Ensuring Legal Compliance

The final function of human resource management is perhaps the least glamorous but arguably of utmost importance. Ensuring legal compliance with labor and tax law is a vital part of ensuring the organization's continued existence.

REFERENCE

Armstrong, M. (2014) A Handbook of Personnel Management Practice. 13th Ed. London: Kogan Page.

Armstrong, M. (2009) Armstrong’s Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice r HR. 11th ed. UK: Kogan Page.

Brewster, C, Sparrow, P and Harris, H (2005) Towards a new model of globalizing HRM,

The International Journal of Human Resource Management,16 (6), pp 949–70

Bratton, J. and Gold, J. (2007) Human Resource Management: Theory and Practice, 4th edition. Basingstoke: Palgrave McMillan.

Buchanan, D. and Huczynski, A. (2004) Organizational Behaviour: An Introductory Text. 5th edition. Harlow: Prentice Hall.

Dessler, G.(2005) Human Resource Management. The Strategic Role of Human Resource Management. 10th Ed. West Alabama:Prentice Hall Inc.