Human Resource Development Study

Running head: HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
Human Resource Development
Name of the Student:
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1HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
Human Resource Development has become an indisputable organ of any organization
(Wang et al. 2018). Though SMEs have not properly developed the HRD organ to their
organization, MNCs use this as one of their most important arm. The practices of HRD has
changes significantly in the last few decades and the main reasons behind that is the impact of
globalization. Globalization can be defined as the phenomenon that has created a world-wide
interdependence of economy, culture trade and population. This has made the world a large
market (Gunawan, Kurnia & Ghazali 2019). Thus, the impact, challenges and opportunities
that this phenomenon has presented to the HRD professionals needs to be analyzed. This
paper explores the impacts of globalization and the challenges it brings with it. Moreover, it
analyzes the opportunities presented by globalization.
Globalization brings with it the trend and need of expansion to new territory. Most of
the Multinational Corporations are setting up new offices in locations all over the world. This
impacts the human resource development in many ways. The greatest impact falls on the
management and development of the workforce (Walter & Förster 2019). Workforce is the
greatest concern of the human resource development and the focus of the HRD is to acquire,
manage and retain as many employees as possible. When a company becomes global their
workforce needs changes. They need to train and prepare existing employees to work in the
new locations, they need to acquire local new employees who are both trained and untrained
and they need to develop those employees to the desired performance level and manage all
the tax, travelling and payment related issues. All these aspects are making the work of HRD
much more complicated (Syed & Metcalfe 2017). Managing the relocation requires training
and support and new employees mean introduction of new culture that forces change in the
organization.
Globalization brings with it the need of developing a cross cultural organization. The
global organizations need to consider the differences between high context and low context

2HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
cultures. The cultural differences lies both inside the organization and outside. Different
cultures have different standard and mindset of organizational culture, leadership and work-
life balance. Globalization leads the organization to follow the different country rules and
expectations to ensure that the workers are motivated and performing up to their standards
(Garavan, McCarthy & Carbery 2019). There are also differences in gender roles and position
of women in top positions. For example, in countries like USA women at the top positions
are quite common while in the countries like China, India and Japan it is unlikely that a
woman leader would be sought after. Chances are high that women leaders in these countries
are seen as less competent and thus people might be unwilling to follow their instructions.
Operating in diverse countries also means that the company has to deal with various
kinds of labor, employment and tax laws. Globalized companies need to deal with these
differences in law and try to unify a standardized system that serve the whole purpose (Kim
& McLean 2012). They must also be aware of the ethical considerations as they also change
according to culture and economic conditions of the countries. For example, the developing
countries, child labor and forced labor, poor working conditions and lack of work-life balance
are not much of an issue as the countries try to ensure employment of as many people as
possible while in the developed countries like USA, Australia and other European countries
these aspects matter most and a company might become adversely affected if they fail to
maintain these (Asadi & Marin 2019). Their brand value decreases and they might face
lawsuit.
Another impact that globalization has is that they are able provide the employees with
better professional and career development opportunities and gather best talents across the
globe. As the whole world becomes the market the companies acquire talent across the
nations. This way they are able to ensure that they have diverse talent and skills. The onsite
job opportunity also attracts talented workers and the existing workers can be retained