The Changing Social
UNIT 1 THE CHANGING SOCIAL Context and
Emerging Issues
CONTEXT AND EMERGING
ISSUES
Objectives
After completion of the unit, you should be able to:
l understand the meaning and concept of HRM;
l describe the emerging scenario of HRM;
l discuss the challenges of HRM; and
l explain the HRM position in India.
Structure
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Meaning of Human Resource Management
1.3 A New Mandate for Human Resources
1.4 Why HRM Matters Now More than Ever
1.5 The Changing Role of HRM
1.6 Managing Human Resources in the Emerging Scenario
1.7 Managing Talent : The New ‘AVATAR’of HR Manager
1.8 HRM in India
1.9 Faddism in Western Management and its Implications for Indian Managers
1.10 Guidelines for Better HRM
1.11 Summary
1.12 Self-Assessment Questions
1.13 Further Readings
Appendix 1 : Case Study
1.1 INTRODUCTION
By transformation of economic environment, the information explosion, advances in
technology and the intensly competitive global and domestic markets have created
enormous pressure on organisation to change or perish. Against this challenging
scenario, by choice or default a new era of human resource management practices and
philosophy is emerging and assuming significance in modern organisations. This unit
aims at discussing the emerging scenario of human resource management in detail and
also the position of HRM in India.
1.2 MEANING OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Human Resource Management (HRM) is a process of bringing people and
organizations together so that the goals of each are met. It is that part of the
management process which is concerned with the management of human resources in
an organization. It tries to secure the best from people by winning their wholehearted
cooperation. In short, it may be defined as the art of procuring, developing and
maintaining competent workforce to achieve the goals of an organization in an
effective and efficient manner. 5
,Human Resource According to Invancevich and Glueck, “HRM is concerned with the most effective use
Management: Context, of people to achieve organizational and individual goals. It is a way of managing
Concept and Doundaries
people at work, so that they give their best to the organization.”
1.3 A NEW MANDATE FOR HUMAN RESOURCES
Should we do away with HR? In recent years, a number of people who study and
write about business – along with many who run businesses – have been debating that
question. The debate arises out of serious and widespread doubts about HR’s
contribution to organizational performance. It is often ineffective, incompetent and
costly, in a phrase, it is value sapping. Indeed, if HR were to remain configured as it
is today in many companies, the competitive forces that managers face today and will
continue to confront in the future demand organizational excellence. The efforts to
achieve such excellence – through a focus on learning, quality, teamwork and
reengineering – are driven by the way organizations get things done and how they treat
their people. Those are fundamental HR issues. Create an entirely new role and
agenda for the field that focuses it not on traditional HR activities, such as staffing
and compensation, but on outcomes HR should not be defined by what it does but by
what it delivers – results that enrich the organization’s value to customers, investors,
and employees.
More specifically, HR can help to deliver organizational excellence in the following
four ways:
l First, HR should become partner with senior and line managers in strategy
execution, helping to move planning form the conference room to the
marketplace.
l Second, it should become an expert in the way work is organized and executed,
delivering administrative efficiency to ensure that costs are reduced while quality
is maintained.
l Third, it should become a champion for employees, vigorously representing their
concerns to senior management and at the same time working to increase
employee contribution; that is employees’ commitment to the organization and
their ability to deliver results.
l And finally, HR should become an agent of continuous transformation, shaping
processes and a culture that together improve an organization’s capacity for
change.
1.4 WHY HRM MATTERS NOW MORE THAN EVER
Regardless of their industry, size or location, companies today face five critical
business challenges. Collectively, these challenges require organizations to build new
capabilities. Who is currently responsible for developing those capabilities?
everyone and no one. That vacuum is HR’s opportunity to play a leadership role in
enabling organizations to meet the following competitive challenges.
Globalization: Gone are the days when companies created products at home and
shipped them abroad “as is”. With the rapid expansion of global markets, managers
are struggling to balance the paradoxical demand to think globally and act locally.
The imperative requires them to move people, ideas, products and information around
the world to meet local needs. They must add new and important ingredients to the
mix when making strategy: volatile political situations, contentious global trade
issues, fluctuating exchange rates, and unfamiliar cultures. They must be more
literate in the ways of international customers, commerce, and competition than ever
6
, before. In short, globalization requires that organizations increase their ability to The Changing Social
learn and collaborate and to manage diversity, complexity and ambiguity. Context and
Emerging Issues
Profitability Through Growth: During the past decade, most Western companies
have been clearing debris, using downsizing, reengineering, delivering and
consolidation to increase efficiency and cut costs. The gains of such yard work,
however, have largely been realized, and executives will now have to pay attention to
the other part of the profitability equation: revenue growth.
Technology: From videoconferencing to the Internet, technology has made out world
smaller and faster. Ideas and massive amounts of information are in constant
movement. The challenge for managers is to make sense and good use of what
technology offers. Not all technology adds value. But technology can and will affect
how and where work gets done. In the coming years, managers will need to figure out
how to make technology a viable, productive part of the work setting. They will need
to stay ahead of the information for business results. Otherwise, they risk being
swallowed by a tidal wave of data – not ideas.
Intellectual Capital: Knowledge has become a direct competitive advantage for
companies selling ideas and relationships (think of professional service, software and
technology-driven companies) and an indirect competitive advantage for all companies
attempting to differentiate themselves by how they service customers. Form now on,
successful companies will be the ones that are the most adept at attracting, developing,
and retaining individuals who can drive a global organization that is responsive to
both its customers and the burgeoning opportunities of technology. Thus the challenge
for organizations is making sure they have the capability to find, assimilate, develop,
compensate, and retain such talented individuals.
Change, Change and More Change: Perhaps the greatest competitive challenge
companies face is adjusting to – indeed, embracing – nonstop change. They must be
able to learn rapidly and continuously, innovate ceaselessly, and take on new strategic
imperatives faster and more comfortably. Constant change means organizations must
create a healthy discomfort with the status quo, an ability to detect emerging trends
quicker than the competition, an ability to make rapid decisions, and the agility to seek
new ways of doing business. To thrive, in other words, companies will need to be in
a never-ending state of transformation, perpetually creating fundamental, enduring
change.
The five challenges described above have one overarching implication for business:
the only competitive weapon left is organization. Sooner or later, traditional forms of
competitiveness-cost, technology, distribution, manufacturing, and product features –
can be copied. They have become table stakes. You must have them to be a player,
but they do not guarantee you will be a winner.
1.5 THE CHANGING ROLE OF HRM
In an organization, there are tall people, short people, fat people, thin people, black
people, white people, elderly people, young people and so on. Even within each
category there are enormous individual differences. Some will be intelligent, others
not so intelligent, some are committed to jobs, others are not, some will be outgoing,
others reserved and so on. “The point is that these differences demand attention so
that each person can maximize his or her potential, so that organizations can
maximize their effectiveness and so that the society as a whole can make the wisest
use of its human resources” (Cascio). The challenge of HR managers today is to
recognize talent and nurture the same carefully and achieve significant productivity
gains over a period of time. The enterprise is nothing but people. Technological
advances, globalize competition, demographic changes, the information revolution and 7
UNIT 1 THE CHANGING SOCIAL Context and
Emerging Issues
CONTEXT AND EMERGING
ISSUES
Objectives
After completion of the unit, you should be able to:
l understand the meaning and concept of HRM;
l describe the emerging scenario of HRM;
l discuss the challenges of HRM; and
l explain the HRM position in India.
Structure
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Meaning of Human Resource Management
1.3 A New Mandate for Human Resources
1.4 Why HRM Matters Now More than Ever
1.5 The Changing Role of HRM
1.6 Managing Human Resources in the Emerging Scenario
1.7 Managing Talent : The New ‘AVATAR’of HR Manager
1.8 HRM in India
1.9 Faddism in Western Management and its Implications for Indian Managers
1.10 Guidelines for Better HRM
1.11 Summary
1.12 Self-Assessment Questions
1.13 Further Readings
Appendix 1 : Case Study
1.1 INTRODUCTION
By transformation of economic environment, the information explosion, advances in
technology and the intensly competitive global and domestic markets have created
enormous pressure on organisation to change or perish. Against this challenging
scenario, by choice or default a new era of human resource management practices and
philosophy is emerging and assuming significance in modern organisations. This unit
aims at discussing the emerging scenario of human resource management in detail and
also the position of HRM in India.
1.2 MEANING OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Human Resource Management (HRM) is a process of bringing people and
organizations together so that the goals of each are met. It is that part of the
management process which is concerned with the management of human resources in
an organization. It tries to secure the best from people by winning their wholehearted
cooperation. In short, it may be defined as the art of procuring, developing and
maintaining competent workforce to achieve the goals of an organization in an
effective and efficient manner. 5
,Human Resource According to Invancevich and Glueck, “HRM is concerned with the most effective use
Management: Context, of people to achieve organizational and individual goals. It is a way of managing
Concept and Doundaries
people at work, so that they give their best to the organization.”
1.3 A NEW MANDATE FOR HUMAN RESOURCES
Should we do away with HR? In recent years, a number of people who study and
write about business – along with many who run businesses – have been debating that
question. The debate arises out of serious and widespread doubts about HR’s
contribution to organizational performance. It is often ineffective, incompetent and
costly, in a phrase, it is value sapping. Indeed, if HR were to remain configured as it
is today in many companies, the competitive forces that managers face today and will
continue to confront in the future demand organizational excellence. The efforts to
achieve such excellence – through a focus on learning, quality, teamwork and
reengineering – are driven by the way organizations get things done and how they treat
their people. Those are fundamental HR issues. Create an entirely new role and
agenda for the field that focuses it not on traditional HR activities, such as staffing
and compensation, but on outcomes HR should not be defined by what it does but by
what it delivers – results that enrich the organization’s value to customers, investors,
and employees.
More specifically, HR can help to deliver organizational excellence in the following
four ways:
l First, HR should become partner with senior and line managers in strategy
execution, helping to move planning form the conference room to the
marketplace.
l Second, it should become an expert in the way work is organized and executed,
delivering administrative efficiency to ensure that costs are reduced while quality
is maintained.
l Third, it should become a champion for employees, vigorously representing their
concerns to senior management and at the same time working to increase
employee contribution; that is employees’ commitment to the organization and
their ability to deliver results.
l And finally, HR should become an agent of continuous transformation, shaping
processes and a culture that together improve an organization’s capacity for
change.
1.4 WHY HRM MATTERS NOW MORE THAN EVER
Regardless of their industry, size or location, companies today face five critical
business challenges. Collectively, these challenges require organizations to build new
capabilities. Who is currently responsible for developing those capabilities?
everyone and no one. That vacuum is HR’s opportunity to play a leadership role in
enabling organizations to meet the following competitive challenges.
Globalization: Gone are the days when companies created products at home and
shipped them abroad “as is”. With the rapid expansion of global markets, managers
are struggling to balance the paradoxical demand to think globally and act locally.
The imperative requires them to move people, ideas, products and information around
the world to meet local needs. They must add new and important ingredients to the
mix when making strategy: volatile political situations, contentious global trade
issues, fluctuating exchange rates, and unfamiliar cultures. They must be more
literate in the ways of international customers, commerce, and competition than ever
6
, before. In short, globalization requires that organizations increase their ability to The Changing Social
learn and collaborate and to manage diversity, complexity and ambiguity. Context and
Emerging Issues
Profitability Through Growth: During the past decade, most Western companies
have been clearing debris, using downsizing, reengineering, delivering and
consolidation to increase efficiency and cut costs. The gains of such yard work,
however, have largely been realized, and executives will now have to pay attention to
the other part of the profitability equation: revenue growth.
Technology: From videoconferencing to the Internet, technology has made out world
smaller and faster. Ideas and massive amounts of information are in constant
movement. The challenge for managers is to make sense and good use of what
technology offers. Not all technology adds value. But technology can and will affect
how and where work gets done. In the coming years, managers will need to figure out
how to make technology a viable, productive part of the work setting. They will need
to stay ahead of the information for business results. Otherwise, they risk being
swallowed by a tidal wave of data – not ideas.
Intellectual Capital: Knowledge has become a direct competitive advantage for
companies selling ideas and relationships (think of professional service, software and
technology-driven companies) and an indirect competitive advantage for all companies
attempting to differentiate themselves by how they service customers. Form now on,
successful companies will be the ones that are the most adept at attracting, developing,
and retaining individuals who can drive a global organization that is responsive to
both its customers and the burgeoning opportunities of technology. Thus the challenge
for organizations is making sure they have the capability to find, assimilate, develop,
compensate, and retain such talented individuals.
Change, Change and More Change: Perhaps the greatest competitive challenge
companies face is adjusting to – indeed, embracing – nonstop change. They must be
able to learn rapidly and continuously, innovate ceaselessly, and take on new strategic
imperatives faster and more comfortably. Constant change means organizations must
create a healthy discomfort with the status quo, an ability to detect emerging trends
quicker than the competition, an ability to make rapid decisions, and the agility to seek
new ways of doing business. To thrive, in other words, companies will need to be in
a never-ending state of transformation, perpetually creating fundamental, enduring
change.
The five challenges described above have one overarching implication for business:
the only competitive weapon left is organization. Sooner or later, traditional forms of
competitiveness-cost, technology, distribution, manufacturing, and product features –
can be copied. They have become table stakes. You must have them to be a player,
but they do not guarantee you will be a winner.
1.5 THE CHANGING ROLE OF HRM
In an organization, there are tall people, short people, fat people, thin people, black
people, white people, elderly people, young people and so on. Even within each
category there are enormous individual differences. Some will be intelligent, others
not so intelligent, some are committed to jobs, others are not, some will be outgoing,
others reserved and so on. “The point is that these differences demand attention so
that each person can maximize his or her potential, so that organizations can
maximize their effectiveness and so that the society as a whole can make the wisest
use of its human resources” (Cascio). The challenge of HR managers today is to
recognize talent and nurture the same carefully and achieve significant productivity
gains over a period of time. The enterprise is nothing but people. Technological
advances, globalize competition, demographic changes, the information revolution and 7
