Unit-1 Introduction To HRM

Subject Code Credit Hours
Human Resource Management HRM 501 4
Human Resource Management

MBA
Introduction to Human Resource

Management
7 Lecture Hours
Lecturer : Mohan B. Basnet
Email:
mohanbasnet01@gmail.com
Course Evaluation
Course Evaluation
• Consists of Two components, namely:
• 1. Continuous Evaluation:
– Quizzes 10%
– Assignment 20%
– Mid-Semester Exam 20%
• 2. Final Examination: 50%
• TOTAL 100%
Course Evaluation
Learning Modes
Lectures
Tutorials
Quizzes
Exams
Projects
Presentations
Learning Outcomes of the Session
Learning Outcomes of the Session
• After completing this unit, student will be able
to describe:
• Meaning, HRM policies
• Relationship with other fields, E-HRM, Recent
trends in HRM
• Managing Global HR, Implementing Global HR
System
• Staffing Global Organizations, Challenges of
managing expatriate.
Introduction
 Human resource management is the process of acquiring, training,
appraising, and compensating employees, and of attending to their labor
relations, health and safety, and fairness concerns. These include:
• Conducting job analyses (determining the nature of each employees job)
• Planning labor needs and recruiting job candidates
• Selecting job candidates
• Orienting and training new employees
• Managing wages and salaries (compensating employees)
• Providing incentives and benefits
• Appraising performance
• Communicating (interviewing, counseling, disciplining)
• Training and developing managers
• Building employee commitment
 And what a manager should know about:
• Equal opportunity and affirmative action
• Employee health and safety
• Handling grievances and labor relations
Management Essentials
• Management involves setting goals and
allocating scarce resources to achieve
them.
• Management is the process of efficiently
achieving the objectives of the
organization with and through people.
Fundamentals of Human
Resource Management 8e,
DeCenzo and Robbins
Management Essentials
• Primary Functions of Management
– Planning – establishing goals
– Organizing – determining what activities need
to be done
– Leading – assuring the right people are on the
job and motivated
– Controlling – monitoring activities to be sure
goals are met
DeCenzo and Robbins
Why is HRM Important to an Organization?
• The role of human resource managers has
changed. HRM jobs today require a new level of
sophistication.
– Federal and state employment legislation has placed
new requirements on employers.
– Jobs have become more technical and skilled.
– Traditional job boundaries have become blurred with
the advent of such things as project teams and
telecommuting.
– Global competition has increased demands for
productivity.
DeCenzo and Robbins
• The Strategic Nature – HRM must be

– a strategic business partner and represent
employees.
– forward-thinking, support the business
strategy, and assist the organization in
maintaining competitive advantage.
– concerned with the total cost of its function
and for determining value added to the
organization.
DeCenzo and Robbins
• HRM is the part of the organization

concerned with the “people” dimension.
• HRM is both a staff, or support function
that assists line employees, and a function
of every manager’s job.
DeCenzo and Robbins
• HRM Certification
– Colleges and universities offer HR programs.
– The Society for Human Resource
Management and Human Resource
Certification Institute offer professional
certification.
DeCenzo and Robbins
Four basic
functions:
• Staffing
• Training and
Development
• Motivation
• Maintenance
DeCenzo and Robbins
Four basic
functions:
• Gaining People
• Preparing them
• Stimulating
them
• Keeping them
DeCenzo and Robbins
How External Influences Affect HRM
• Strategic Environment
• Governmental Legislation
• Labor Unions
• Management Thought
DeCenzo and Robbins
• HRM Strategic Environment includes:
– Globalization
– Technology
– Work force diversity
– Changing skill requirements
– Continuous improvement
– Work process engineering
– Decentralized work sites
– Teams
– Employee involvement
– Ethics
DeCenzo and Robbins
• Governmental Legislation
– Laws supporting employer and employee
actions
• Labor Unions
– Act on behalf of their members by negotiating
contracts with management
– Exist to assist workers
– Constrain managers
– Affect non unionized workforce
DeCenzo and Robbins
• Management Thought
– Management principles, such as those from
scientific management or based on the
Hawthorne studies influence the practice of
HRM.
– More recently, continuous improvement

programs have had a significant influence on
HRM activities.
DeCenzo and Robbins
Challenges and Opportunities for HRM
1. Improving People Skills:
• Technological changes, structural changes, environmental changes are
accelerated at a faster rate in business field. Unless employees and
executives are equipped to possess the required skills to adapt those
changes, the achievement of the targeted goals cannot be achieved in
time. There two different categories of skills – managerial skills and
technical skills. Some of the managerial skills include listening skills,
motivating skills, planning and organizing skills, leading skills, problem
solving skill, decision making skills etc.
• These skills can be enhanced by organizing a series of training and
development programs, career development programs, induction and
socialization etc.
 Implications for Managers: Designing an effective performance appraisal
system with built-in training facilities will help upgrade the skills of the
employees to cope up the demands of the external environment. The
lower level cadre in management is required to possess more of technical
skills. As they move towards upward direction, their roles will be
remarkably changed and expected to have more of human relations and
conceptual skills.
2. Improving Quality and Productivity:
• Quality is the extent to which the customers or users believe the
product or service surpasses their needs and expectations. For
example, a customer who purchases an automobile has certain
expectation, one of which is that the automobile engine will start
when it is turned on. If the engine fails to start, the customer’s
expectations will not have been met and the customer will perceive
the quality of the car as poor. Deming defined quality as a
predictable degree of uniformity and dependability, at low cost and
suited to the market. Juran defined it as fitness for use.
• More and more managers are confronting to meet the challenges
to fulfill the specific requirements of customers. In order to improve
quality and productivity, they are implementing programs like total
quality management and reengineering programs that require
extensive employee involvement.
• Total Quality Management (TQM): It is a philosophy of
management that is driven by the constant attainment of customer
satisfaction through the continuous improvement of all
organizational process. The component of TQM are (a) intense
focus of the customer (b) concern for continual improvement (c)
improvement in the quality of everything the organization does (d)
accurate measurement and (e) empowerment of employees.
• Reengineering: This refers to discrete initiatives that are intended
to achieve radically redesigned and improved work process in a
bounded time frame. Business Process Reengineering employees a
structural methodology that reduces work process to their essential
composite activist and provides cost performance matrices to
facilitate a business case for dramatic improvements. Both
functional and cross-functional processes are evaluated through
workflow analysis and activity based costing. In many cases, the
application of new technology and industries best practices will
enable quantum improvement in an organization’s cost and
performance.
 Implications for Managers:
• Today’s managers understand that any efforts to improve
quality and productivity must influence their employees.
These employees will not only be a major force in carrying
out changes, but increasingly will participate actively in
planning those changes. Managers will put maximum effort
in meeting the customer’s requirements by involving
everyone from all the levels and across all functions.
Regular communications (both formally and informally)
with all the staff at all levels is must.
• Two way communications at all levels must be promoted.
Identifying training needs and relating them with individual
capabilities and requirements is must. Top management’s
participation and commitment and a culture of continuous
improvement must be established.
3. Managing Workforce Diversity:
• This refers to employing different categories of employees
who are heterogeneous in terms of gender, race, ethnicity,
relation, community, physically disadvantaged,
homosexuals, elderly people etc. The primary reason to
employ heterogeneous category of employees is to tap the
talents and potentialities, harnessing the innovativeness,
obtaining synergetic effect among the divorce workforce. In
general, employees wanted to retain their individual and
cultural identity, values and life styles even though they are
working in the same organization with common rules and
regulations. The major challenge for organizations is to
become more accommodating to diverse groups of people
by addressing their different life styles, family needs and
work styles.
• Managers have to shift their philosophy from treating
everyone alike to recognizing individual differences and
responding to those differences in ways that will
ensure employee retention and greater productivity
while, at the same time not discriminating. If work
force diversity is managed more effectively, the
management is likely to acquire more benefits such as
creativity and innovation as well as improving decision
making skills by providing different perspectives on
problems. If diversity is not managed properly and
showed biases to favor only a few categories of
employees, there is potential for higher turnover, more
difficulty in communicating and more interpersonal
conflicts.
4. Responding to Globalization:
• Today’s business is mostly market driven; wherever the
demands exist irrespective of distance, locations, climatic
conditions, the business operations are expanded to gain
their market share and to remain in the top rank etc.
Business operations are no longer restricted to a particular
locality or region. Company’s products or services are
spreading across the nations using mass communication,
internet, faster transportation etc. An Australian wine
producer now sells more wine through the Internet than
through outlets across the country. Japanese cars are being
sold in different parts of globe. Sri Lankan tea is exported to
many cities across the globe. Executives of Multinational
Corporation are very mobile and move from one subsidiary
to another more frequently.
• Globalization affects a managerial skills in at least two
ways: i) an Expatriate manager have to manage a
workforce that is likely to have very different needs,
aspirations and attitudes from the ones that they are
used to manage in their home countries. ii)
Understanding the culture of local people and how it
has shaped them and accordingly learn to adapt ones
management style to these differences is very critical
for the success of business operations. One of the main
personality traits required for expatriate managers is to
have sensitivity to understand the individual
differences among people and exhibit tolerance to it.
5. Empowering People:
• The main issue is delegating more power and responsibility to the lower level
cadre of employees and assigning more freedom to make choices about their
schedules, operations, procedures and the method of solving their work-related
problems. Encouraging the employees to participate in work related decision will
sizably enhance their commitment at work. Empowerment is defined as putting
employees in charge of what they do by eliciting some sort of ownership in them.
Managers are doing considerably further by allowing employees full control of
their work. An increasing number of organizations are using self-managed teams,
where workers operate largely without boss. Due to the implementation of
empowerment concepts across all the levels, the relationship between managers
and the employees is reshaped. Managers will act as coaches, advisors, sponsors,
facilitators and help their subordinates to do their task with minimal guidance.
 Implications for Manager: The executive must learn to delegate their tasks to the
subordinates and make them more responsible in their work. And in so doing,
managers have to learn how to give up control and employees have to learn how
to take responsibility for their work and make appropriate decision. If all the
employees are empowered, it drastically changes the type of leadership styles,
power relationships, the way work is designed and the way organizations are
structured.
6. Coping with ‘Temporariness'
• In recent times, the Product life cycles are slimming, the
methods of operations are improving, and fashions are
changing very fast. In those days, the managers needed to
introduce major change programs once or twice a decade.
Today, change is an ongoing activity for most managers. The
concept of continuous improvement implies constant
change. In yester years, there used to be a long period of
stability and occasionally interrupted by short period of
change, but at present the change process is an ongoing
activity due to competitiveness in developing new products
and services with better features. Everyone in the
organization faces today is one of permanent
temporariness. The actual jobs that workers perform are in
a permanent state of flux. So, workers need to continually
update their knowledge and skills to perform new job
requirements.
Implications for Manager:
• Managers and employees must learn to cope
with temporariness. They have to learn to live
with flexibility, spontaneity, and
unpredictability. The knowledge of
Organizational Behavior will help understand
better the current state of a work world of
continual change, the methods of overcoming
resistance to change process, the ways of
creating a better organizational culture that
facilitates change process etc.
7. Stimulating Innovation and Change
• Today’s successful organizations must foster innovation and
be proficient in the art of change; otherwise they will
become candidates for extinction in due course of time and
vanished from their field of business. Victory will go to
those organizations that maintain flexibility, continually
improve their quality, and beat the competition to the
market place with a constant stream of innovative products
and services. For example, Compaq succeeded by creating
more powerful personal computers for the same or less
money than IBNM or Apple, and by putting their products
to market quicker than the bigger competitors.
Amazon.com is putting a lot of independent bookstores out
of business as it proves you can successfully sell books from
an Internet website.
Implications for Managers:
• Some of the basic functions of business are
being displaced due to the advent of a new
systems and procedures. For example – books
are being sold only through internet. Internet
selling an organization’s employees can be the
impetus for innovation and change; otherwise
they can be a major hindrance. The challenge
for managers is to stimulate employee
creativity and tolerance for change.
8 Emergence of E-Organization:
• E- Commerce: It refers to the business operations involving
electronic mode of transactions. It encompasses presenting
products on websites and filling order. The vast majority of
articles and media attention given to using the Internet in
business are directed at on-line shopping. In this process,
the marketing and selling of goods and services are being
carried out over the Internet. In e-commerce, the following
activities are being taken place quite often - the
tremendous numbers of people who are shopping on the
Internet, business houses are setting up websites where
they can sell goods, conducting the following transactions
such as getting paid and fulfilling orders. It is a dramatic
change in the way a company relates to its customers. At
present e-commerce is exploding. Globally, e-commerce
spending was increasing at a tremendous rate.
• E-business: It refers to the full breadth of activities
included in a successful Internet based enterprise. As
such, e-commerce is a subset of e-business. E-business
includes developing strategies for running Internet-
based companies, creating integrated supply chains,
collaborating with partners to electronically coordinate
design and production, identifying a different kind of
leader to run a ‘virtual’ business, finding skilled people
to build and operate intranets and websites, and
running the back room or the administrative side. E-
business includes the creation of new markets and
customers, but it’s also concerned with the optimum
ways to combine Computers, the Web and Application
Software. A sizable number of multinational
corporations are selling goods and services via the
Internet.
• E-Organizations: This embraces e-commerce
and e-business. State and central
governments, municipal corporations are
using the Internet for extending all the public
utility services more efficiently through
internet.
Implications for Managers: The employees
must acquire skills, knowledge, attitudes in
learning new technology, overcoming any
resistance.
9. Improving Ethical behavior:
• The complexity in business operations is forcing the workforce to
face ethical dilemmas, where they are required to define right and
wrong conduct in order to complete their assigned activities. For
example, Should the employees of chemical company blow the
whistle if they uncover the discharging its untreated effluents into
the river are polluting its water resources?
• Do managers give an inflated performance evaluation to an
employee they like, knowing that such an evaluation could save
that employee’s job?
• The ground rules governing the constituents of good ethical
behavior has not been clearly defined. Differentiating right things
from wrong behavior has become more blurred. Following
unethical practices have become a common practice such as
successful executives who use insider information for personal
financial gain, employees in competitor business participating in
massive cover-ups of defective products etc.
• Managers must evolve code of ethics to guide
employees through ethical dilemmas. Organizing
seminars, workshops, training programs will help
improve ethical behavior of employees.
• Retaining consultants, lawyers, voluntary service
organizations to assist the company in dealing with
ethical issues will ensure positive ethical behavior.
• Managers need to create an ethically healthy climate
for his employees where they can do their work
productively and confront a minimal degree of
ambiguity regarding what constitutes right and wrong
behavior.
Trends Shaping Human Resource Management
Staffing Function Activities
• Employment planning
– ensures that staffing will contribute to the
organization’s mission and strategy
• Job analysis
– determining the specific skills, knowledge and
abilities needed to be successful in a
particular job
– defining the essential functions of the job
DeCenzo and Robbins
Staffing Function Activities
• Recruitment
– the process of attracting a pool of qualified
applicants that is representative of all groups
in the labor market
• Selection
– the process of assessing who will be
successful on the job, and
– the communication of information to assist
job candidates in their decision to accept an
offer
DeCenzo and Robbins
Goals of the Training and Development Function
• Activities in HRM concerned with

assisting employees to develop up-to-
date skills, knowledge, and abilities
• Orientation and socialization help
employees to adapt
• Four phases of training and development
– Employee training
– Employee development
– Organization development
– Career development
DeCenzo and Robbins
Goals of the Training and Development Function
• Employee Training – To get better skills for

current job
• Employee Development – Develop additional
competencies to ensure the future internal
human resource requirements
• Career Development – Assist employees to
advance their work lives and help them
realize their career goals
• Organization Development – Facilitates
System wide changes in organization and
• To change the attitude and values of
employees foreseeing strategic direction
DeCenzo and Robbins
The Motivation Function
• Activities in HRM concerned with helping
employees exert at high energy levels.
• Implications are:
– Individual
– Managerial
– Organizational
• Function of two factors:
– Ability
– Willingness
• Respect – Involving employees in decision that
affect them, listening to them
DeCenzo and Robbins
• Managing motivation includes:
– Job design
– Setting performance standards
– Establishing effective compensation and
benefits programs
– Understanding motivational theories
DeCenzo and Robbins
• Classic Motivation Theories
– Hierarchy of Needs –Maslow
– Theory X – Theory Y –McGregor
– Motivation – Hygiene – Herzberg
– Achievement, Affiliation, and Power Motives –
McClelland
– Equity Theory – Adams
– Expectancy Theory - Vroom
DeCenzo and Robbins
How Important is the Maintenance Function
• Activities in HRM concerned with maintaining

employees’ commitment and loyalty to the
organization.
– Health
– Safety
– Communications
– Employee assistance programs
• Effective communications programs provide for
2-way communication to ensure that employees
are well informed and that their voices are
heard.
DeCenzo and Robbins
Translating HRM Functions into Practice
• Four Functions:
– Employment
– Training and development
– Compensation/benefits
– Employee relations
DeCenzo and Robbins
• Employment - Employment specialists:

– coordinate the staffing function
– advertising vacancies
– perform initial screening
– interview
– make job offers
– do paperwork related to hiring
• Training and Development –
– help employees to maximize their potential
– serve as internal change agents to the organization
– provide counseling and career development
DeCenzo and Robbins
• Compensation and Benefits –

– establish objective and equitable pay systems
– design cost-effective benefits packages that
help attract and retain high-quality employees.
– help employees to effectively from now The
prime And that utilize their benefits, such as
by providing information on retirement
planning.
DeCenzo and Robbins
• Employee Relations – involves:

– communications
– fair application of policies and procedures
– data documentation
– coordination of activities and services that
enhance employee commitment and loyalty
– Employee relations should not be confused
with labor relations, which refers to HRM in a
unionized environment.
DeCenzo and Robbins
• Purpose and Elements of HRM

Communications
– Keep employees informed of what is
happening and knowledgeable of policies and
procedures.
– Convey that the organization values
employees.
– Build trust and openness, and reinforce
company goals.
DeCenzo and Robbins
• Effective Communication programs

involve:
– Top Management Commitment
– Effective Upward Communication
– Determining What to Communicate
– Allowing for Feedback
– Information Sources
DeCenzo and Robbins
Does HRM Really Matter?
• Research has shown that a fully functioning HR
department does make a difference.
• Organizations that spend money to have quality
HR programs perform better than those who
don’t.
• Practices that are part of superior HR services
include:
– rewarding productive work
– creating a flexible work-friendly environment
– properly recruiting and retaining quality workers
– effective communications
DeCenzo and Robbins
E-HRM
 Definition: E-HRM is the integration of all HR systems and activities using the
web based technologies. Simply, when HR uses the Internet or related
technologies to support their activities, procedures, processes, then it
becomes an e-HRM.
• Through e-HRM, the HR manager can get all the data compiled at one place
and can make the analysis and decisions on the personnel effectively.
 Types of e-HRM
• Operational e-HRM: It is concerned with the operational functions of HR such
as payroll, employee personal data, etc.
• Relational e-HRM: It is concerned with the supporting business processes Viz.
Training, recruitment, selection, etc.
• Transformational e-HRM: It is concerned with the HR strategies and its
activities such as knowledge management, strategic orientation.
 Through e-HRM, the main activities that could be performed online are
Recruitment, Selection, Training, Performance Management, Compensation.
 E-HRM is seen as offering the potential to improve services to HR department
clients (both employees and management), improve efficiency and cost
effectiveness within the HR department, and allow HR to become a strategic
partner in achieving organizational goals.
DeCenzo and Robbins
E-HRM
DeCenzo and Robbins
E-HRM
 e-Recruitment: Also known as online Recruiting, is being widely used by companies these days.
Through e-Recruitment, companies usually hire the candidates using the internet as a medium.
 The common practice of facilitating the online recruitment is by uploading the recruitment
information on the company’s official website or hiring the online recruitment websites to serve
the purpose. Monster.com, Naukri.com, Timesjob.com are some of the well renowned online
recruitment websites.
 e-Selection: The HR department using the online selection process must ensure that each step
complies with the procedural requirements viz. Project steps, vendor selection, assessment steps,
feedback to the candidates, etc. The purpose of E-selection is to utilize the maximum human
capital at a reduced cost and in less time.
 E-Performance Management: Many companies make use of web-based technology to evaluate
the performance of an individual. This can be done either using the computer monitoring tool,
wherein the complete working of an individual can be recorded, or through writing the reviews
and generating the feedback on the employee’s performance using the web portal.
 E-Learning: It means using the internet or organization’s intranet to facilitate the training and
development programs for the workforce. Getting the online modules of training, a large number
of employees can be covered irrespective of their locations.
 E-Compensation: An organization using the compensation management online enables it to
gather, store, analyze, and distribute the compensation data or information to anyone at anytime.
Also, the individual can access electronically distributed compensation software, analytic tools,
from any place in the world.
 Thus, with the help of e-HRM, the records of all the employees sitting in different geographical
locations can be stored and also the new candidates could be hired from any part of the world.
DeCenzo and Robbins
HRM in a Global Village
• HRM functions are more complex when
employees are located around the world.
• Consideration must be given to such
things as foreign language training,
relocation and orientation processes, etc.
• HRM also involves considering the needs
of employees’ families when they are sent
overseas.
DeCenzo and Robbins
 With the advent of globalization, organizations - big or small have
ceased to be local, they have become global! This has increased the
workforce diversity and cultural sensitivities have emerged like
never before. All this led to the development of Global Human
Resource Management.
• Even those organizations who consider themselves immune to
transactions across geographical boundaries are connected to the
wider network globally. They are in one way or the other
dependent upon organizations that may even not have heard
about. There is interdependence between organizations in various
areas and functions.
• The preliminary function of global Human Resource Management
is that the organization carries a local appeal in the host country
despite maintaining an international feel. To exemplify, any
multinational / international company would not like to be called as
local, however the same wants a domestic touch in the host
country and there lies the challenge.
DeCenzo and Robbins
 The preliminary function of global Human Resource Management is that the
organization carries a local appeal in the host country despite maintaining an
international feel. To exemplify, any multinational / international company would
not like to be called as local, however the same wants a domestic touch in the host
country and there lies the challenge.
 We may therefore, enumerate the objectives of global HRM as follows:
• Create a local appeal without compromising upon the global identity.
• Generating awareness of cross cultural sensitivities among managers globally and
hiring of staff across geographic boundaries.
• Training upon cultures and sensitivities of the host country.
• The strategic role of Human resources Management in such a scenario is to
ensure that HRM policies are in tandem with and in support of the firm’s strategy,
structure and controls. Specifically, when we talk of structures and controls the
following become worth mentioning in the context of Global HRM.
• Decision Making: There is a certain degree of centralization of operating decision
making. Compare this to the International strategy, the core competencies are
centralized and the rest are decentralized.
• Co-ordination: A high degree of coordination is required in wake of the cross
cultural sensitivities. There is in addition also a high need for cultural control.
• Integrating Mechanisms: Many integrating mechanisms operate simultaneously.
DeCenzo and Robbins
 Global HRM and the Staffing Policy
• Here also the role is no different i.e. hiring individuals with requisite skills to do a particular job. The
challenge here is developing tools to promote a corporate culture that is almost the same
everywhere except that the local sensitivities are taken care of.
• Also, the deciding upon the top management or key positions gets very tricky. Whether to choose a
local from the host country for a key position or deploy one from the headquarters assumes
importance; and finally whether or not to have a uniform hiring policy globally remains a big
challenge.
 Nevertheless an organization can choose to hire according to any of the staffing policies
mentioned below:
• Ethnocentric: Here the Key management positions are filled by the parent country individuals.
• Polycentric: In polycentric staffing policy the host country nationals manage subsidiaries whereas
the headquarter positions are held by the parent company nationals.
• Geocentric: In this staffing policy the best and the most competent individuals hold key positions
irrespective of the nationalities.
• Geocentric staffing policy it seems is the best when it comes to Global HRM. The human resources
are deployed productively and it also helps build a strong cultural and informal management
network. The flip side is that human resources become a bit expensive when hired on a geocentric
basis. Besides the national immigration policies may limit implementation.
 Global HRM therefore is a very challenging front in HRM. If one is able to strike the right chord in
designing structures and controls, the job is half done. Subsidiaries are held together by global
HRM, different subsidiaries can function operate coherently only when it is enabled by efficient
structures and controls.
DeCenzo and Robbins
 Global Human Resources Functions
• Much like domestic companies, the roles for the HR department working for a global company
consist of five main functions. Below we will look at each one and explain how they differ when
they're being conducted on a global scale.
1. Recruiting and hiring: The goal of recruiting is finding a qualified candidate that can fulfill the duties
of the position. It involves understanding the job description and interviewing, after which comes hiring
the candidate that is the best match. When completing this function on a global level, there are some
important considerations. First, the HR department needs to understand the tasks for the position in
that part of the world, and the skills needed to be successful. Education levels and differences are also a
consideration, since they may not be the same from country to country.
2. Training: Once the employee has been selected, they need to be trained. Most employees need some
training in order to learn the ways a company does things. When the company is global, it is crucial that
processes and policies are similar from one global area to the next in order to clearly communicate and
to be able to use resources and materials in a variety of different places. Using the same processes and
polices avoids miscommunication among offices and staff, and it cuts costs when the resources can be
passed around to all of the different locations.
3. Developing and administering: Most companies, global or not, offer opportunities for additional
training in order to develop the skill sets of their employees. When this happens on a global level,
employees may have an opportunity to visit another country to receive valuable training. This increases
the value of the employee because they can now become successful in a variety of locations. As for
administration, companies also need to make sure that they oversee their employees in a professional
manner. This may mean, training, compensation, or adhering to laws and regulations. On a global level,
this is especially important because working hours may vary from location to location. Following the
local laws is a priority for global HR departments.
DeCenzo and Robbins
4. Salary and benefits: Whether the company is local or global, they have to
compensate their employees. And most offer some sort of benefits package, which
include things like insurance, vacation, and sick days. However, companies need to pay
close attention to how laws differ in all parts of the world. For example, the minimum
wage might be different, and some countries might offer paternity leave for new
fathers as a benefit. While the common goal is to pay employees for their work,
knowing the standards, laws, and rules for each global area is an important goal for a
global HR department.
5. Legal and personnel relations: 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. The federal government as well as the state and local
government where the business operates impose mandates on companies regarding
the working hours of employees, tax allowances, required break times and working
hours, minimum wage amounts and policies on discrimination.
This task becomes very much more complex when different laws in different countries
need to be taken into account as well. Being aware of these laws and policies and
working to keep the organization completely legal at all times is an essential role of
human resources.
DeCenzo and Robbins
1. The internationalization of business influences employers HR processes. The big
issue is coping with the cultural, political, legal, and economic differences among
countries. For example, citizens of different countries adhere to different values, and
countries have differing economic systems as well as different legal, political, and labor
relations systems.
2. Staffing the global organization is a major challenge. Companies may use
expatriates, home-country nationals, or third-country nationals. Offshoring means
having local employees abroad do jobs that domestic employees previously did in-
house. Employers seeking to gain cost advantages by offshoring rely on their HR
managers to help identify high-quality, low-cost talent abroad.
Top management values will influence how they staff their operations abroad.
Ethnocentric companies tend to emphasize home-country attitudes, polycentric
companies focus more on host-country employees, and geocentric employers try to
pick the best candidates from wherever they might be. Selecting employees to
successfully work abroad depends on several things, most importantly on adaptability
screening and on making sure that each employees spouse and family get the realistic
previews, counseling, and support necessary to make the transition abroad. Successful
expatriates tend to be extroverted, agreeable, and emotionally stable individuals.
DeCenzo and Robbins
3. After selecting the employees to send abroad, attention turns to training and
maintaining your expatriate employees. In terms of pre-departure preparation,
training efforts ideally first cover the impact of cultural differences; then, the focus
moves to getting participants to understand how attitudes influence behavior,
providing factual knowledge about the target country, and developing skills in areas
like language and adjustment. In compensating expatriates, most employers use the
balance sheet approach; this focuses on four groups of expenses: income taxes,
housing, goods and services, and discretionary expenses. The balance sheet approach
aims to provide supplements in such a way that the employees standard of living
abroad is about what it would have been at home. Its usual to apply incentives such as
foreign service premiums and hardship allowances to get employees to move abroad.
Distance complicates the issue of appraising expatriate managers, so its prudent to let
both the home-office supervisor and the managers local superior contribute to the
appraisal.
 Labor relations tend to be different abroad from what they are in the United
States. For instance, there is a much greater emphasis on centralized bargaining in
Europe.
 With terrorism a threat, most employers today take protective measures, including
buying kidnapping and ransom insurance.
 To reduce the chronic problem of turnover among newly returned employees, its
important to have well-thought-out repatriation programs. These emphasize
keeping employees in the loop as far as what is happening in their home offices,
bringing them back to the office periodically, and providing formal repatriation
services for the expatriate and his or her family.
DeCenzo and Robbins
4. With employers increasingly relying on local rather than
expatriate employees, its important for managers to
understand how to implement a global HR system. Studies
suggest that it is realistic for a company to try to institute
standardized human resource management practices at their
facilities around the world, although it may be necessary to
fine-tune them to the needs of the specific facility. The basic
approach involves three steps.
(1) Develop a more effective global HR system (by forming
global HR networks and remembering that it s more
important to standardize ends rather than specific methods).
(2) Make the global HR system more acceptable (for instance,
by taking a global approach to everything the company does,
by investigating pressures to differentiate and determining
their legitimacy, and by creating a strong company culture).
(3) Implement the global system (by emphasizing continuing
communications and by ensuring that adequate resources are
available).
DeCenzo and Robbins
HR and Corporate Ethics
 HRM must:
– Make sure employees know about corporate ethics
policies
– Train employees and supervisors on how to act
ethically
 The different act, establishes procedures for public
companies regarding how they handle and report
their financial status.
– Establishes penalties for noncompliance.
– Provides protection for employees who report
executive wrongdoing.
– Requires that companies have mechanisms in place
where complaints can be received and investigated.
DeCenzo and Robbins
Summary
1. Discuss how cultural environments affect HRM practices.
 Globalization is creating a situation where HRM must search for mobile and skilled employees who
can succeed at their jobs in a foreign land. These employees must, therefore, understand the host
country’s language, culture, and customs.
2. Describe how technology is changing HRM.
 Technology is having a major impact on HRM. It’s giving all employees instant access to information
and changing the skill requirements of employees. Technological changes have required HRM to
address or change its practices when it deals with such activities as recruiting and selecting
employees, motivating and paying individuals, training and developing employees, and in legal and
ethical matters.
3. Identify significant changes in workforce composition.
 The workforce composition has changed considerably over the past thirty-five years. Once
characterized as having a dominant number of white males, the workforce of the new millennium is
comprised of a mixture of women, minorities, immigrants, and white males.
4. Describe the HRM implications of a labor shortage.
 It is estimated that there will be a shortage of skilled labor in the United States over the next ten to
fifteen years. The primary reasons for this shortage are birthrates and labor participation rates. For
HRM, the labor shortage means that human resource managers will need sophisticated recruitment
and retention strategies and have a better understanding of human behavior.
5. Describe how changing skill requirements affect HRM.
 Changing skill requirements means HRM has to provide extensive employee training. This training
can be in the form of remedial help for those who have skill deficiencies or specialized training
dealing with technology changes.
Summary
6. Explain why organizational members focus on quality and continuous
improvements.
 Organizational members focus on quality and continuous improvements
for these reasons: today’s educated consumers demand it, and quality
improvements have become strategic initiatives in the organization. HRM
is instrumental in quality initiatives by preparing employees to deal with
the change and training them in new techniques.
7. Describe work process engineering and its implications for HRM.
 Continuous incremental improvements focus on enhancing the quality of a
current work process. Work process engineering focuses on major or
radical change in the organization.
8. Identify who makes up the contingent workforce and its HRM implications.
 The contingent workforce includes part-time, temporary, consultant, and
contract workers who provide as-needed services to organizations. The
HRM implications of a contingent workforce include attracting and
retaining skilled contingent workers, adjusting to their special needs, and
managing any conflict that may arise between core and contingent
workers.
Summary
9. Define employee involvement and list its critical
components.
 Employee involvement can be best defined as giving
each worker more control over his or her job. To do
this requires delegation, participative management,
developing work teams, goal setting, and employee
training. If handled properly, involving employees
should lead to developing more productive employees
who are more loyal and committed to the organization.
10. Explain the importance of ethics in an organization.
 Ethics refers to rules or principles that define right or
wrong conduct. Given organizational practices of the
early 2000s, ethics has become a focal point of proper
organizational citizenship.
Assignment
 What are the recent trends in Human
resource management. What will be the
implications of such trends to HR manager?
 What is global human resource management?
How global organizations are staffed?
 What are the challenges of managing
expatriates?
Business
Reference English
and (BBATextbooks
Suggested 1213)
• Gary Dessler (2015), ―Human Resource
Management, Pearson India, 12thEdition,
Prentice-Hall, Inc.
• K. Aswathappa, ―Human Resource
Management: Text and Cases, McGraw Hill,
Sixth Edition.
THANK YOU

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Subject Code Credit Hours

Human Resource Management HRM 501 4

Human Resource Management

Introduction to Human Resource

• 2. Final Examination: 50%

• The Strategic Nature – HRM must be

• HRM is the part of the organization

– More recently, continuous improvement

• Activities in HRM concerned with

• Employee Training – To get better skills for

• Activities in HRM concerned with maintaining

• Employment - Employment specialists:

• Compensation and Benefits –

• Employee Relations – involves:

• Purpose and Elements of HRM

• Effective Communication programs

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