Human Resource Policy

Managing Global human resources –

recommending an Effective set of instruments

akhlas ahmed*, akbar ali**, Junaid hussain***, and

novera ansar****

The very purpose of writing this paper is to rightly grasp the

concept of HR functions, operations, activities and required

strategies. Need of HR policies and practice has also been deeply

elaborated in the paper. Very important researches by eminent

scholars have been reviewed and necessity for the development

of contemporary leaders has been well looked into. How these

leaders or managers should run the local and particularly global

organizations has been thoroughly explained. A set of instruments

comprising of versatile competences required by every leader has

been proposed to lead the organizations effectively and efficiently.

Keywords: HR Policies, Contemporary Leaders, Instruments, Competences, Synergy

introduction

The ingredient of an organization, which is really relevant to the people’s

dimension, is termed as Human Resource Management. Decenzo and Robbing

(1996) declared it a “support” and “staff” function of the organization. HRM deals

with the matters of all the employees, including line and staff employees, who

are committed in producing the goods and services of the organization. Regardless

of the type of organization; be it social, recreational, business, health, public or

private, it is always true that HRM is a mechanism which consists of following

four functions and four activities as shown in figure 1 and 2 respectively:

Fig – 1: HR Functions Fig – 2: HR Activities

Source: Author’s Design Source: Author’s Design

Journal of Business Strategies, Vol.9, No.2, 2015, pp 13–22

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__________________________________________________________________________________ *Director, GRDC, Greenwich University, Pakistan

**Dean, Management Sciences, National University of Sciences & Technology, Islamabad, Karachi Campus

***&****National University of Sciences & Technology, Islamabad, Karachi Campus

Today importance of people i.e. human element has enhanced manifold at

organizational, country and global level. For example, Standard Charted Bank, Sony

Music entertainment and other MNCs view each “employee” as an asset and very

essential component of the organization in order to achieve strategic goals. As reciprocal,

needs of people must be realized and met. Colleges and universities are working hard

to prepare HRM professionals through offering majors in disciplines. HR certification

Institute concept has been realized by HR societies to handle HRM affairs.

After having a thorough survey of the contemporary studies and cutting edge

research on HRM, it is proposed that following strategic components must be

religiously adopted to make the organizational business a real success:

• Need of devising HR policies & practices

• Maintaining synergy & cohesiveness between all the organs of HRM

• Understanding of how to develop high performing leaders who can rightly

overcome the contemporary challenges

Realization of need, basic concepts, functions and activities of HRM, leads to

exploration of some innovative instruments or tools which can prove effective for current

HRM mechanism. This set of instruments should comprise of skills, competencies, means

and behavior that can really make a difference and transform the managers/leaders

working in local or global organization into a high level potential capital.

Effective hrM Leads to Organizational success

Huang (2000) compared the HR practices of 315 firms with their organizational

performance in Taiwan. He proved very significant relationship between the

performance and effectiveness of following HR functions as shown in figure-3:

Fig – 3: HR Huang’s functions

Source: Author’s Design

Performing HR functions effectively can result into better performance of the

organization i.e.

Ef (Effectiveness of Functions) ∞ Porg (Organizational Performance)

Ahmed, A., Ali, A., Hussain, J., and Ansar, N.

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Subsequently, same relationship was proved and authenticated by a very high

level research of Alan & Price (2004). The HR functions are performed while

ensuring following factors:

i. Quality.

ii. Inter-relationship between these functions.

iii. Sequential activity.

iv. Each function complements the other functions.

v. Functions act as a professional life cycle for the personnel.

vi. Recognizing each function as mandatory components for a healthy and

profitable organization.

In order to understand the co-relation between the corporate performance and

HR practices, Michie and Sheehan-Quinn (2001) carried out a survey of more than

200 firms of manufacturing field in UK and they established that “low-road

practices” are inversely proportional to the “corporate performance”. If we desire to

increase the performance, then said practices are to be lessened and discouraged.

Fig-4 (A and B) confirms this relationship and indicates names of low-road practices.

Fig – 4: Co-relation between performance and HR practices

A: Low - Road Practices

Source: Author’s Design

B: High - Road Practices

Same researchers also proved that “high- road practices” are directly

proportional to the “good corporate performance”:

It was also observed that when HR practices are launched as “comprehensive

package” then “competitive success” is achieved in real terms. If integrated

package comprising of coherent HR policies and practices is implemented, then

HRM impact remains highest, supported by the evidence provided by the

investigation of Kelliher and Riley (2002).

Managing Global Human Resources – Recommending An Effective Set of Instruments

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Progressive and high “performance” has been made conditional to provision

of conducive work place climate along with other “HRM practices”. In this regard

Rondeau and Wager (2001) surveyed 283 nursing homes in Canada. They proved

that good qualitative performance is the result of following:

a. More progressive HRM practices,

b. Workplace climate of greater employee “participation”, “empowerment”

and “accountability”,

c. And strong commitment by HR Managers that can reflect them as best

performers

Another very thorough and voluminous research on 2632 employees of 73

organizations was conducted by Gibb (2001) to consolidate their feelings about

the HRM. Survey concluded that:

a. Employees rated some HRM elements as positive i.e. “training and

development”, ”motivation” , “rewards and performance”.

b. Employees rated negative to “recruitment”, “retention”, “staffing levels”,

“communication” and “overall morale” in organization.

In author’s opinion all the investigations and studies carried out by above

mentioned eminent evaluators carry potential wisdom and hold good for all the

levels ranging from national to global organizations. Following are concluded:

i. Appropriately performing all the entire functions and activities can lead to

optimum organizational performance and success.

ii. Formulation of good policies and implementation of right practices is also

paramount for corporate success.

iii. Management has to provide conducive working environment through

employee’s “participation”, “employment” and “accountability”.

iv. This has also been noted that employees should also perceive all the

organizational activities as positive and beneficial.

Leading the Global hrM

Business success in contemporary world solely depends upon the positive role

playing of the leadership. In case of absence of this factor, resources whether

material, financial or workforce will be wasted and right potential shall not be

available to earn desired results that may prove beneficial for the organization

Ahmed, A., Ali, A., Hussain, J., and Ansar, N.

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and employees. To address the challenges in HRM world at global level, need for

developing the right leaders/managers cannot be over emphasized. Accordingly,

following aspects are required to be especially looked into and addressed:

Leaders and Economy Wyatt’s (1997) conducted a mega global survey and sought

the opinion of many executives at senior levels and observed that the real issue being

faced by their company is “non-developing the right leaders” to reach at potential level.

His survey questionnaire was completed by 1057 top leaders of 75 global companies

in 18 countries of the world. The result of this report addresses three points:

a. Organizationally, leaders are to create global organizations of high

performance.

b. Interpersonally, leaders are to create global personnel of high performance.

c. Process to build step by step “leadership strength” should continue.

Report highlighted the strength and weaknesses of leadership in the

organizations which were surveyed. It covers a definite relationship between the

“leadership development” and subsequent “financial or economic success”. It was

concluded in the report that there are ‘five key elements’ to create a pool of

potential leadership as shown in Fig – 6:

Fig – 6: Five key elements

Source: Author’s Design

Authors have noted that an effective pool of good leaders available in the

organizations is now prerequisite for the smooth conduct of operations resulting

into business success and subsequently boosting of economy. So in contemporary

global arena economy cannot be optimally addressed without maintaining the

infrastructure of “development and retention” of leaders.

Managing Global Human Resources – Recommending An Effective Set of Instruments

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Developing ‘human skills” through institutional Mechanism

Tariq Behram (2006) discussed in “The News Daily” that the World Education

Forum celebrated the tenth anniversary on “education for all (EFA)” in Dakar

(Senegal) in April 2006. EFA 2000 declared results that enough progress about

realization of educational goal at primary level, has been made. Enrolment rate

has increased from 10% to 70% between years 1990 to 1999. It is noteworthy that

75% of world’s illiterate personnel live in South Asia. In order to prepare youth

for real participation in affairs of public, training in Human Skills illustrated at

Fig – 7 is necessary:

Fig – 7: Training Elements

Source: Author’s Design

Study also found that growth of youth is too steady in South Asia whereas it

is fact that young people create the future of any country and they must be

considered as major target segment of HR development programs and policies.

Authors observed that for the purpose of developing Human Skills a

mechanism comprising of HR development programs and policies must be

institutionalized in every organization.

Building cross-cultural relations

Lorelei Carobolante (2007) observed that solution of all the HR issues can be

sought through building or developing “cross-cultural relationship” with

colleagues at overseas. Following three aspects should be reviewed to make

organizational success possible:

Effectiveness of Diversity Programs

Since the people from different cultural background float diverse ideas

therefore, trend of developing “diversity programs” is on rise. Kochan (2002)

carried out study and found “there is no reason to believe that diversity will

naturally translate into better or worse results”.

Ahmed, A., Ali, A., Hussain, J., and Ansar, N.

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It was also deduced that only having diverse teams is not automatic advantage

but if these groups or teams are organized as per “Integration and learning

perspective” can enhance “synergy”, “value” and “business” as well as “strategic

growth”. Kochan emphasized that in order to acquire cultural uniqueness for

employees; firms have to consider the integration of “insights”, “skills” and

“experiences”.

For the purpose of making the managers “multicultural environment” fit, many

counter measures are adopted i.e. training of relevant culture and languages,

hiring the personnel who can speak the “target market” language. To achieve

desired goals it is crucial to build relationships with counter parts at national or

global level who can lead and support to achieve “synergy”.

relationship Building

Collaborative roles of the teams in HR arena bring about significant

improvement in the relations between the companies/MNCs worldwide. “The

chartered institute of personnel and development (CIPD) UK” has identified key

skills and competences that are essential to perform “HR functions” in a global

organization. One of these key skills, is the ability to develop collaborations at

global level and share the strengths of each other. The advancement in information

technology and telecommunication has afforded global outreach to the

organizations. Accordingly, facilities such as virtual meetings, secure digital

transactions, remote monitoring etc. are readily available. These facilities need

to be effectively employed to build relationships across the globe.

Overcoming challenges

a. Concept of “positive change” has emerged when different HR groups from

different countries started thinking “their organizations as one single global

rather than multiple local systems”.

b. HR group should well understand that any changes in attributes of personnel

at local level may bring about changes at global level. In search of tangible

solutions of the issue, different perspectives should be taken into account to

promote synergy.

c. People usually contain “diversified life and variety of professional

experiences”. If their natural uniqueness is well appreciated, than it will

ultimately result into better “learning and business growth”.

A very large number of research work and investigations have come up

rather with the strong belief that effective diversified programs of learning,

Managing Global Human Resources – Recommending An Effective Set of Instruments

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focusing the techniques for building strong relations between the companies

and developing and preparing the managers/leaders to face the emerging

national and global challenges, can really bring a marvelous business success

all around.

Global hrM instruments – a complete Picture

After thoroughly reviewing the research and investigation conducted by

eminent scholars, eight competences have been notified to be mastered by all the

organizations performing at local or global level. Fig-8 illustrates a “wheel” that

can be termed as a set of ‘Global HRM instruments”. If these activities are

performed after attaining sufficient skills level, a real difference shall be observed

and same shall ensure the smooth, efficient and effective running of the

organizations.

Fig-8: Instruments

Source: Author’s Design

Ahmed, A., Ali, A., Hussain, J., and Ansar, N.

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conclusion

The basic functions of HRM are, by and large, well defined. These functions

are motivation, staffing, training and development. The HR Activities are also

well pronounced and standardized in the relevant research work. Barring few

deviations, these activities are acquiring, preparing, stimulating and retaining. It

is widely observed that the improvement in effectiveness of these HR functions

also brings about positive effect on the performance of organizations. Low- Road

practices tend to lower the performance and High-Road practices improve the

performance. Job insecurity, inadequate training and short term contracts are

among major Low-Road practices by employees. At global canvas, the HRM

needs few additional traits such as building cross cultural relationships,

developing diversity programs and global collaborations along with enterprising

leadership. Embracing the advanced technology in the field of information

technology and telecommunication is yet another organizational challenge. In

that, virtual meetings, secure digital transactions and remote monitoring need to

be availed at the most. Finally, a comprehensive set of Global HRM Instruments

has been presented for the benefit of the Organizations/HR Leaders.

Managing Global Human Resources – Recommending An Effective Set of Instruments

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references:

DeCenzo, David, A. & Robbins, Stephen, R. (1996), Human Resource

Management, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. New York, USA. P 5.

Huang, S.-F. (2000). Seaweeds of Northeastern Taiwan. pp. xii, 1-233. Taipei:

National Taiwan Museum.

International Federation of Training and Development Organizations (IFTDO)

Kelliher, C., and Riley, M. (2002), ‘Making functional flexibility stick: an

assessment of the outcomes for stakeholders’, International Journal of

Contemporary Hospitality Management , Vol 14, No 5, pp 237–242.

Kochan, T.(2002). The Effects of Diversity on Business Performance: Report of

theDiversityResearchNetwork.http://www.shrm.org/about/foundation/r

esearch/Documents/kochan_fulltext.pdf

Lorelei Carobolante (2007), “The role of Perspective in global HR”, available at;

http://www.expatica.com/hr/story/the-role-of-perspective-in-global-hr-

part-ii 19456.html

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http://www.bestbooks.biz/hrm/why_hrm.htm

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management and corporate performance, British journal of Mgt, 12(4): 287-306.

Rondeau, K. and Wagar, T. (2001). ‘Impact of human resource management policies on nursing

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employees’ views of HRM systems and staff”, Employee Relations, Vol.

23 Iss: 4, pp.318 - 336

Tariq, Behram, (2006), “Institutional Mechanism for Developing Human Skills”

The News Daily, Karachi, Nov 27, 2006 p.19.

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http://www.watsonwyatt.com/research/resrender.asp?id=W-344&page=1

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Ahmed, A., Ali, A., Hussain, J., and Ansar, N.

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