This chapter discusses the business environment of human resource management (HRM). It surveys the external environment and the influences on the organization that originate from outside its boundaries. The chapter aims to provide encouragement and guidance to explore the external influences, both actual and potential, that impact an organization. It begins by considering how to 'order' the various influences in the external environment using the STEEPLE framework. Then, working within this framework, the influences are grouped in order to investigate them and thereby emphasize the dynamic interrelations between the individual influences.
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The business environment of human resource management
Rob Thomas
Chapter
The changing context for strategic human resource management
This chapter explores a range of contextual factors that have implications for the strategies adopted by organizations in managing human resources. First, it examines population and demographic trends, changes in attitudes to work, and how people see work in the context of their lives. Second, it focuses on where people work and what that work entails. Third, it considers the growing phenomenon of flexibility, both from the point of view of organizations, which seek flexibility and greater agility with which to respond to their environments and improve their competitive position, and from the view of employees, who seek flexibility to help them to balance their work and non-work activities more effectively. Finally, it analyses the trend towards greater individualism and the concern for greater productivity in the ways in which human resources are managed.
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Conclusion: understanding employment relations
This concluding chapter provides an overview of the key themes covered by this book and reflects on the prospects for employment relations. It demonstrates just how varied and complex the regulation of work and employment relationships has become. However, it argues that employment relations cannot simply be understood as the study of how work and employment relationships are regulated; studying employment relations must also involve a concern with understanding workers' experiences and how they contest the terms of their employment relationships. Indeed, a central feature of this book concerns the need to recognize the experiences of workers. On a positive note, it appears that workers are better informed about workplace and organizational decisions than in the past. More negatively, however, it seems that genuine employee involvement and participation is rather limited in practice; workers have few opportunities to influence workplace or organizational decision-making.
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Conclusions
Sarah Gilmore
This chapter provides the a summary of the topics covered in the text. It reviews the principles, approaches, and other relevant aspects of human resource management (HRM) that were previously discussed in each chapter. It begins by evaluating the 'promise' of HRM. Then itIt then moves on to assessing the HRM themes presented in the book. It concludes by examining what the future holds for human resource management in an ever-changing world.
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Corporate social responsibility and ethics
This chapter provides an overview of the meaning of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and its relationship with the subject of ethics to provide a backdrop for a discussion of dilemmas that multinationals and their expatriates face in managing international business. The chapter begins with an introduction to the meaning of CSR and discusses various aspects of ethics that form the basis for CSR today. It then shows the links between CSR and business ethics. The chapter illustrates the different approaches taken to discern right from wrong and the problems associated with coming to a common understanding of ethical behaviour in different cultures. It also shows the lack of ethical business practices and considers the difference between the concepts of universal ethics and ethical relativism in two separate case studies.
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The dark side of international employment
This chapter addresses the growth of migration and the contribution of migrant labour to both western and developing economies. The ‘dark side’ refers to the exploitation and ill-treatment of employees, particularly migrant workers, across the world. The focus here is on legal migrant workers, but many of the scenarios covered also apply to marginalized workers, minority groups, and undocumented migrants. The chapter identifies the main types of migrants and their employment problems. The extent of worldwide migration is examined next, and the key differences between an expatriate's position and that of a migrant worker are identified. After this, the chapter explores the impact of different national regulations on migrant workers and the importance of temporary staffing agencies (TSAs), as well as the role and responsibility of multinationals. It concludes with calls for more monitoring of the activities of multinationals and a more humane approach by governments towards their migrant workers.
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Developing human resources
Sarah Gilmore
This chapter studies the approaches to human resource management (HRM) in the context of heightened competition and fluctuating economic conditions. It investigates the changing nature of skills and government responses to organizational and national requirements for competent employees. It then focuses on government interventions in the training and skills arena. andIt also explores the means by which training and development needs, design, delivery, and evaluation are undertaken in organizations via an explanation and evaluation of the systematic training cycle (STC). Next, tThe chapter also exploresdiscusses the approaches to training and development which emphasize the centrality of learning,. especially It mentionsthe ways by which employees, groups, and organizations as a whole can learn from engaging in work, and how organizations are trying to capture and share learning outcomes internationally. It concludes with an evaluation of the developments outlined in the chapter.
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Diversity management in an international environment
This chapter draws attention to the notion of diversity within a workforce, emphasizing the differences that exist between an organization's employees and suggesting the potential benefits of harnessing such a distinctive combination of qualities. In an organization where such diversity is readily accepted, each individual is respected and their contribution valued. For equality management (EM) and diversity management (DM) schemes to be truly successful, however, they must break the barriers of human prejudice, which are typically unthinking and anchored in cultural traditions. In short, they must modify people's attitudes and behaviour so that unfair treatment is eradicated, diversity is genuinely valued, and inclusion is consistently practised. The chapter thus differentiates between DM and EM and concludes that in order to be effective, DM needs to build on EM. Finally, the chapter highlights the problematic nature of the efforts of multinational enterprises (MNEs) to manage workforce diversity.
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Employment relations
Steve Williams and Iona Byford
This chapter tackles the main employment relations features and trends of employment relations in the UK. It examines the basis of joint regulation as a means of governing employment relationships,. tThe extent of its decline, and its diminishing importance is also explored. It also presents the principal managerial approaches to employment relations. The last part of the chapter demonstrates that differences of interests between employers and employees continue to feature prominently in human resource management (HRM), generating problems, grievances and, sometimes, instances of conflict that managers must confront.
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Employment relations in the contemporary economy
This chapter examines the implications of developments in the contemporary economy for work and employment relations, particularly the labour market. It provides an overview of the impact of the ‘great recession’ following the 2007–2008 financial crisis on the economy and the labour market. Next, self-employment and the rise in the number of self-employed people are explained and interpreted. Afterwards, the chapter explores flexible employment, covering the topics of temporary and agency work, working time flexibility, and wages. Whereas there is undoubtedly a trend towards greater ‘knowledge work’, the chapter also shows that the nature of occupational change is in fact rather complex, with much work and employment continuing to be of an insecure, ‘precarious’ type. Overall the chapter points to the notable extent to which changes in the economy and labour market have contributed to the increased ‘commodification’ of labour, characterized by the attempts of employers to secure productive effort from workers at the lowest possible cost and render them more disposable.
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Equality, diversity, and dignity at work
Charlotte Rayner and Sally Rumbles
The This chapter explores the development of our understanding of workplace equality, and diversity, and dignity at work. It begins by considering the concepts that underpin the understanding of equality and diversity. Then, it outlines the legal issues affecting equality and diversity issues. The chapter also provides a contemporary view of bullying at work. Finally, it examines the implications of equality, diversity, and dignity at work for the management of human resources.
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Ethics and human resource management
Richard Christy and Gill Christy
This chapter studies the link of between human resource management (HRM) to and the ethical behaviour of the organization. It begins by reviewing the major approaches to ethics in Western philosophy such as deontological, consequentialist, and virtue-based approaches. It also talks about the strengths and weaknesses of those approaches and how they can be applied to business undertakings. The chapter presents the special features of the employment relationship. It also examines the concept of whistleblowing and investigates the ethical questions and problems posed when engaging in two core HRM activities, employee reward and the management of equality and diversity issues. The concluding part of the chapter highlights the role of HRM specialists with respect to organizational ethics and asks if they have a potential role as 'ethical stewards' or the 'conscience' of the organization.
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Ethics and Leadership in HRM
This chapter focuses on the role and contribution of human resources (HR) in ensuring ethical standards and ethical behaviour at work. It begins by exploring the meaning of ethics and links ethical decisions to outcomes as well as criteria. The chapter considers that fairness is an essentially subjective concept and can be determined by reference to a range of criteria. Different ethical prisms to help manage ethical conflicts are also provided. Ultimately, HR might wish to claim to be the organization's conscience, but the evidence suggests that not all managers are convinced that this is a role it should or could take on. Furthermore, being perceived as primarily a policing and compliance function might undermine its influence and capacity to contribute to other aspects of HRM.
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The Evolution of the HR Function: A Critical Perspective
This chapter discusses the evolution of the human resources (HR) function. It explains that the definitions and meanings in human resource management (HRM), an approach to the management of employees which sees people as a key organizational resource that needs to be developed and utilized to support the organization's operational and strategic objectives, are socially constructed and are constantly being reconstructed. It tackles the origins and evolution of HRM and explains the reasons for the change in approach and emphasis from personnel management to HRM. In addition, the chapter explores the contribution that HR makes to individual and organizational performance. The role of the line manager, a critical function to the management of human resources, is also considered.
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The foundations of strategic human resource management
This chapter tackles the question that lies at the heart of this book: what is strategic human resource management (SHRM)? It reviews the historical development of the SHRM field and provides the definitions to commonly used terms. It also examines the three major approaches to the topic: universalist theories, which are predicated on the assumption that there is ‘one best way’ in which to manage people; contingency theories, which assume that approaches to SHRM will vary in different contexts; and configurational approaches, which argue that coherent bundles of practices are more likely to impact positively on performance than individual practices alone.
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The global context of strategic human resource management
This chapter provides an overview of important global trends and their impact on organizations, the nature of work, and SHRM. It begins with a discussion of the concept of globalization and how emotive and contentious it has become. The chapter also evaluates different perspectives and levels of globalization and considers both positive and negative attitudes towards globalization. The last part discusses the implications of globalization for organizations, the nature of work, and SHRM. Attention is likewise given to important SHRM issues including employer branding, global talent management, managing an international workforce, and the use of technology to deliver SHRM.
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Global staffing
This chapter explores global staffing. Global staffing takes into account influencing factors at the national level such as legal frameworks; local factors such as labour market conditions; and organizational factors such as size, strategy, and structure. When staffing occurs across a multinational company (MNC) operating in several regions, the complexities of selection are magnified. Rational–logical and impersonal approaches to selection that emanate from the Anglo-American model to find the highest performer and that are based on empirical data taken during the selection process do not necessarily travel very well. Organizational and national cultures interact to produce distinctive approaches to staffing. Indeed, there are good grounds for thinking that selection is the one HRM practice that varies the most between countries. However, caution is needed before criticizing staffing systems that deviate from empirically based, performance-chasing models.
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Global talent management
This chapter identifies a wide range of threats to fair and equitable talent management on an international scale. Talent management provides a rich arena for advances in practice and for researchers to understand how talent strategies work. The idea that organizations were competing for talent caught the imagination of business leaders and, latterly, of academics. Seeing good employees as talent opened up new ways of thinking about labour markets, and new discourses grew around the high performers that organizations wanted to attract and retain. This development forced, or at least obliged, HRM practitioners to rethink their human resource strategies to match and respond to the new love of ‘talent’. The basic idea and guiding principle is that talented employees make disproportionate or differential contributions to organizations. Thus, developing talent strategies that minimize impacts of the biasing factors identified in the chapter presents a major challenge to organizations.
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Globalization and employment relations
This chapter offers an international focus on contemporary employment relations, which is delivered through an examination of globalization and its implications. Globalization can be understood both as a process involving greater internationalization of economic activity and international labour mobility and as a neo-liberal project designed to open up markets and promote free trade. The question of how far neo-liberal globalization has promoted greater uniformity—or ‘convergence’—in employment relations is a matter of serious debate. Multinational companies (MNCs) are often viewed as powerful agents of convergence. The chapter next examines the influences on employment relations in MNC subsidiaries and considers the part played by MNCs, and their use of global supply chains, in undermining employment conditions and workers' rights and protections. Concerns about a ‘race to the bottom’ in labour standards have prompted a growing interest in how regulation can be established on an international basis. Finally, the chapter examines international trade union responses to globalization. Although globalization has caused unions some major difficulties, their efforts to organize workers and improve labour standards, often by engaging in conflict, are integral features of employment relations in a globalized world.
Book
Sarah Gilmore and Steve Williams
Human Resource Management is made up of five parts. Part One looks at the nature of human resource management (HRM). Part Two is about the external and internal contexts of HRM. It looks atexamines the business environment of HRM. Part Three is about concerned with the essence of HRM. Topics covered include recruiting and selecting staff, developing human resources, rewarding people at work, utilizing human resources in organizations, and redundancy. The fourth part looks atPart Four discusses the challenges and controversies of HRM. This includesThese include equality, diversity, dignity, managing performance and absence, employment relations, and managing grievances and conflict. The final part is aboutconsiders ethics and international HRM.
