Emerging Themes in Human Resource Management

This article explores the emerging themes in human resource management (HRM) like leadership development, artificial intelligence, strategic HR, and innovation. It discusses how these themes impact HRM and the future of work. The article also highlights the need for an effective action plan to eradicate problems and meet customer expectations.

Running Head: EMERGING THEMES 0
EMERGING THEMES
7/2/2018

EMERGING THEMES 1
EMERGING THEMES
The current business environment is highly dynamic and uncertain where traditional
strategies are not applicable and also there is a demand of greater flexibility and adaptability
from the business firms due to the rise in the consumer awareness and expertise. Emerge is
related to the change that can be in any term like economic policy like globalization whereas
theme is interrelated with a change in demand, the culture of society, taste and preferences of
customers etc. So, Emerging theme is imminent of various factors changing according to the
situation, market, and demand which drive the company to change its policy, strategy and
incorporate various practices so that the customer's aspiration and demand can be valued. In
the following an effort has been made to listing our various emerging themes which had an
impact over human resource management in next few years.
Various emerging themes which are evolving year by year in HR are leadership development,
artificial intelligence, moving from functional HR to strategic HR, innovations etc. The
leadership development is a critical aspect and quality of leadership help the organization to
create a strong brand identity in the market. Leadership development helps individuals in
delivering proactive HR professionals, which lead to the achievement of the goal of the
organization effectively. HRM system is a combination of wide varieties of applications,
which includes compensation management, career development programs, human capital
management etc. It helps the management by managing and delivering the work in a timely
and effective manner and thus saved cost at multiple levels.
These emerging themes will lead to a new leadership style that is forward-looking and
innovative and it helps the organization to use technology effectively, development of
individuals and cooperation with one another. These emerging themes will also affect various
aspects like environmental factors, social factors, cultural factors etc. (Horwitz and Budhwar
(2015). These themes help the management in promoting cultural diversity that will develop
team spirit in the employees. Also with the effective use of technology, the HR manager will
able to provide better service to the line managers that will result in a superior customer
service.
HR is a field which is continuously evolving and in the next 10 years, there will be huge
changes like HR bots (Artificial Intelligence driven HR), Man Machine collaboration,
Systems for checking and developing employee engagement in the work. Also from an
environmental perspective, several units of an organization like HR. IT etc. works
collectively to put a positive join effort towards Green initiatives driven by corporate social
responsibility (Ahmad, 2015).
Few themes like AI in HR, Man Machine collaboration etc. will help HR managers to save
costs at multiple levels as well as to enable them to complete their task in a timely manner but
they all are lacking at some certain points like a high cost for implementation, increases in
unemployment etc. (Fuhl, 2017). So there is a need to be an effective plan for the

EMERGING THEMES 2
implementation of these themes and various factors also need to be analyzed before making
any strategy.
Business management which includes varieties of field, skills and strategies is emerging
continuously by the demand of market and environment. For instance, the companies are now
changing their policy from centralization to decentralization, selling concept to marketing
concept, labour to the human capital concept and functional management to strategic
management. This is all due to various economic, technological, legal and social factors
including the customer demand and preferences.
For achieving their mission and goal, every company adopts different strategies which make
their pillar of growth for a long period of time. For e.g., BT group, a telecommunication
company is adopting a strategy based on broadening and deepening their customer
relationships (BTPLC, 2017) whereas a car manufacturer company Aston Martin connects
their strategy with shareholder values. So, it depends upon company to company.
So, there is a need for an effective action plan which will help in eradicating problems to a
great extent. It can be like retaining top talent and build leaders from that only, fostering
diversity within the organization, encouraging effective learning and scan business
environment regularly to meet up with customers’ expectations.
Various critical factors like globalization, diversity, competition etc. has forced the company
to change their policies and strategies continuously as per the need of the market and so it is
needed to analyze these factors before time so as to be fast and adaptive. These emerging
trends will have a vast impact in the future on both organization and customers but a proper
set of the plan is needed with an ability to see future perspectives.
References
Ahmad S. (2015) Green Human Resource Management: Policies and practices. Cogent
Business & Management, 2(1).
BTPLC. (2017) Our Strategy [ONLINE] Available from:
https://www.btplc.com/Sharesandperformance/Annualreportandreview/pdf/
2017_our_strategy.pdf [Accessed 02/07/2018].
Horwitz, F. and Budhwar, P. (2015) Handbook of Human Resource Management in
Emerging Markets. UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Fuhl J. (2017) 5 HR tech trends to watch in 2018: What the sector says [ONLINE] Available
from: https://www.sagepeople.com/about-us/news-hub/top-hr-trends-watch-2018/ [Accessed
02/07/2018].