Week3TheHRMLens.pdf
UTS BUSINESS SCHOOL UTS CRICOS PROVIDER CODE: 00099F business.uts.edu.au
THE HRM LENS HOW DO HRM MANAGERS SEE THE WORLD?
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BRIEF RECAP OF LAST WEEK • What is HRM, how did it evolve and what functions does it involve?
• From personnel management and administration to HRM
• Managerial control strategies – personalised control, technical control, bureaucratic control, commitment-based control
• Different approaches to the employment relationship
• Describes best practice, best-fit and evidence-based HRM
• How does HRM relate to other parts of an organisation and what is Strategic HRM?
• Ethics of HRM
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• Impact of external factors on the internal operations of organisations
• Global and national socio-economic contexts and HRM
• Changing workforce demographics and HRM
• Perspectives of social justice and equity and HRM
• Appreciate your own role in advancing equality and justice
TODAY
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“the increased pace of economic and cultural interconnectedness between different countries”
Country interconnectedness has deepened in the past two decades:
• Australia and Free Trade Agreements (FTAs)
• Investor-state dispute settlements (ISDS) provisions
• International skilled labour migration
• Impact of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC)
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FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS Neoliberalism: importance of free markets, deregulation and individual responsibility, removing trade barriers
• General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) • China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (CHAFTA) • Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
Australia has FTAs with Thailand, Chile, South Korea and Japan that have labour market testing exemptions
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TRADE AGREEMENTS AND LABOUR MIGRATION
“A business that has a contract with an Australian business to supply a service can bring its own workforce […] under the contractual service supplier category and there will be no requirement that these jobs first be offered to local workers”
• Overseas workers can replace Australian workers • Work for award wages rather than market rates
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INVESTOR-STATE DISPUTE SETTLEMENT PROVISIONS
• Foreign-owned companies can sue the Australian Government for decisions that adversely impact on their investment in Australia
• Right to access an international tribunal to resolve the dispute Examples
• Philip Morris vs Australian Government: plain-packaging laws
• Veolia vs Egyptian Government: Over increase in minimum wage
• Vattenfall vs German government: Phasing out nuclear energy
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AFTER THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS… • Almost 30% of Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry members had
implemented flexible working arrangements in response to the GFC.
• Flexible labour pool, changing hiring practices, adapting of HRM practices.
• A new business model (?): “ theories of capital accumulation and resource utilization have been largely responsible for the current crisis. It is time we turn our
attention to (new) theories of wealth and resource distribution”
• New managerial identities: “green change agent”, the “rational manager” and the “committed activist” (Wright, Nyberg & Grant, 2012)
THE AUSTRALIAN ECONOMY • Labour force participation: over 12.7 million employed persons (Jan 2019),
unemployment rate: 5.1% (Jan 2019) • Australian economy fluctuates in response to global and domestic factors • The Australian economy has performed comparatively well in the post-GFC
period. However, the contraction of the Chinese economy, among other factors, has put pressure on Australia to restructure its economy away from mining
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Table: The number of full-time equivalent job losses resulting from the collapse of the motor vehicles industry in Australia
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THE AUSTRALIAN ECONOMY • Productivity Commission – Australia’s rate of structural change to the economy has been
greater than the average for a selection of 15 OECD countries. • In the past, the agricultural sector was the largest in Australia, now it is dominated by:
• (Financial) Services • Resources
• But, resource-based economies are not sustainable – climate change and shrinking Chinese economy means less demand for coal
• Productivity: efficiency of all factors of production • Labour productivity: output per hour of work • Capital productivity: output relative to capital input
CHANGES IN INDUSTRY AND OCCUPATIONAL STRUCTURES
People entering the workforce today are expected to have 17 jobs in five careers over their working lives […] due to the changing nature of work, the rise of automation and other technologies, and the remarkable rate at which new and emerging industries are defining the modern economy.
Businesses seeking a competitive edge are beginning to acknowledge the urgent need to upskill and reskill their existing workforce.
CHANGING WORK AND EMPLOYMENT PATTERNS
Working hours Longer and harder Non-standard working week (for example, 12-hour shifts) Work-life strategies Part-time employment
Non-standard employment Numerical flexibility Increased casualisation
• Flexibility has become a driving force for the restructuring of many organisations.
• Shrinking proportion of permanent employees.
• Three main forms of flexibility: numerical, functional and hours of working time.
One in four Australians is employed on a casual basis. People in part-time work increased by 51% in 10 years since 1991, FTE increased 11%.
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CHANGES IN WORK PATTERNS: FLEXIBILITY
• Employers and governments have wanted increased flexibility of the labour market, working hours and payment systems
• For employers it means the ability to vary employee numbers, hours, and work locations to meet fluctuations of demand for goods and services
• For employees, flexibility means flexible hours, times, schedules, places to work from, and generally balancing work-life desires and duties
• A shrinking proportion of permanent staff, supplemented by temporary and casual staff, consultants, contractors and outsourcing of services
• Rise of the contingent or precarious workforce: different terms to permanent employees, less job security
• It represents a big challenge for employees, and therefore for HRM
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• 1970-71: 31% of the population was 15 or younger
• By 2001-2002: 22% were 15 or younger
• 65 or over increased from 8 to 13%
• In the next 40 years, it will double to 25%
THE AUSTRALIAN POPULATION IS AGEING • Ageing population, declining
fertility rates, low mortality rates = changes in workforce participation rates
• HRM challenges = flexible work practices, elder care policies, retirement plans, workforce planning
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GENDER DIVERSITY • Female participation in the labour force
has increased
• Historical trend of men engaged in paid work and women engaged in unpaid/ caring work saw concept of the “ideal worker” emerge
• Landmark Harvester case (1907) established a ‘living wage’:
"fair and reasonable" wages for an unskilled male worker required a living wage that was sufficient for "a human being in a civilised community" to support a wife and three children in "frugal comfort"
From “breadwinner” model to:
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BUT… • Pocock’s concept of the ‘family friendly/
unfriendly’ iceberg – a small tip with good policies, a large group below the surface that have not yet addressed the issue or made appropriate changes
• Work has traditionally been designed for those without direct responsibility in caring for others – this is no longer tenable
• Problems still persist for men and women e.g. perceptions of fathers taking parental leave, women accruing superannuation savings
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RISING EDUCATION LEVELS / GENERATIONAL CONFLICT (?) Workforce is becoming more educated: by 2025 40% of 25-34 year olds is expected to hold a Bachelor’s Degree. They will demand fulfilling jobs, career progression and higher salaries.
Millennials – digital natives – post 1990
Generation Y – frequently change careers, work-life balance oriented, digitally integrated, affluent, expected to be empowered, feedback-oriented (1980-90, can be later)
Generation X – hard working, individual, no stranger to economic downturns, accustomed to receive feedback, skills-development oriented (1965-1980)
Baby Boomers – Family oriented, one career, hard working, humanistic, expecting the best from life, respect authority (1946-64)
Cogin, J. (2012) Are generational differences in work values fact or fiction? Multi-country evidence and implications.
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CONCEPTUAL AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS
The social and psychological contract are determined by assumptions about how things are, or how they should be, which we use to inform our choices. A way of seeing the world, or a particular problem, conceptual frameworks provide a lens that guides thinking and action, and shapes our reality.
In a workplace context, our perspective on a given scenario is dependent on the conceptual or theoretical framework that we (unknowingly) adopt. Perception: translating sensory impressions into a coherent and unified view of the world around you.
CERTAIN DIMENSIONS OF DIFFERENCE ARE CULTURALLY DOMINANT AND PRIVILEGED
Dimension of Difference Form of Unfair Discrimination
Gender
Race
Sexuality/gender identity
Age
Ability/disability
Social Class
Religion
Sexism
Racism/Discrimination based on skin colour
Homophobia/heterosexism/heternormativity
Ageism
Disability discrimination
Class discrimination
Religious discrimination
Traditional Privilege
Masculine
White
Heterosexual
Younger
Able bodied
Upper class
Varies
DISCRIMINATION VS. UNFAIR DISCRIMINATION
To differentiate between things or people based on given and justified criteria
To make distinctions between things or people based on an arbitrary category they are identified with (e.g. gender, race, age, disability) and to favour or disfavour people because of that
Discrimination
Unfair Discrimination
The question is whether the way people are treated based on their differences is fair and just
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EXAMPLE – UNCONSCIOUS BIAS AWARENESS TRAINING
• Unconscious bias – ingrained stereotypes that inform our decision-making of which we are unaware
• Unconscious bias in recruitment and selection decisions may result in highly suitable and talent applicants being overlooked
• Common cognitive biases: • In-group bias • Confirmation bias • Halo effect • Stereotyping • Group attribution error
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WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH HRM? • Organisations are changing and they will always be changing
• The diversity of people who work in organisations is much broader than the time and place in which our rational theories of organisations were established
• Rationality is the belief that one action will have a set consequence, as long as environmental conditions are controlled for. But, as our workplace environments are different to when rational theories of organisations were established, set outcomes are less predictable
Example: pay and conditions were determined around a full-time, male employee as per the “Harvester Judgement” of 1907: The Industrial Relations Court determined the living wage of a man with a wife and three children.
This dichotomy no longer exists, nor is this a typical family. The “male-breadwinner model” is no longer viable.
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HOW ARE ORGANISATIONS DIFFERENT NOW FROM 50 YEARS AGO?
• Multicultural profile of employees – organisations are no longer mono-cultural, yet there can be a pervasive, white and masculine culture.
• Gender representation – women are present in the workforce in near equal numbers to men; yet pay and leadership positions remain lower.
• Ageing profile of employees – there is a larger percentage of people over 55 in Australian organisations than 50 years ago. Changing demographics mean that older Australians need to work for more years.
• Automation will substitute and disrupt labour: decrease of clerical and laboring jobs, more focus on intellectual and innovative work.
These developments have changed the operational landscape for Australian organisations and HRM professionals
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CONCLUSION The challenge for HR managers is to identify current and future needs of their organisation and their employees.
• What are the global and national socio-economic factors that influence the economy and the labour force?
• How is the profile of companies changing, why, and what can be done to advance this and deal with the challenges?
• What are conceptual and theoretical frameworks, and how do they shape the way we view employees and the workplace?
UTS BUSINESS SCHOOL UTS CRICOS PROVIDER CODE: 00099F business.uts.edu.au
NEXT WEEK Human Resource Planning How does the labour market impact on the practice of HRM in organisations?
Readings
• Nankervis et al. (2017), Chapter 4
• Department of Employment (2017) Australian Jobs 2018, Australian Federal Government, Canberra. Available at: https://docs.jobs.gov.au/system/files/ doc/other/australianjobs2018.pdf
