Human Resource Management in Global Economy

This essay focuses on culture, workplace diversity, international performance management, and training and development in human resource management.

Running head: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN GLOBAL ECONOMY 1
Human Resource Management in Global Economy.
Name:
Institution

Human Resource Management in Global Economy 2
HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN GLOBAL ECONOMY.
Introduction
Organizational human resource is among the fundamental aspect of management of the
workforce in the organization. It involves operations that are developed to maximize the
performance of the workforce in order to arrive at the strategic objectives of the organization. It
entails the management of people within the organization in relation to the set rules and policies
that govern the operations of the organization.
Some of the aspects and processes involved in the human resource organization practice
include recruiting, selecting relevant workforce, provision of orientation services and inductions
and engaging in training and development of skills. Additionally, human resource practices
include the assessment of the workforce through operations such as performance appraisal,
provision of compensation services, motivation and encouragement of the workforce,
maintenance of good relations with trade and labor unions and taking care of the welfare of the
employees in terms of their safety and health.
At the different levels of the organization, human resource managers are actively
involved in the development of employee skills. For example, they advise the management on
how to assign roles in the organization. This is most evident in a flexible working environment
where the employees are in constant rotation to different functions and departments within the
organization as per the organization priorities and employee preferences.
Another fundamental aspect of organizational human resource is facilitating loyalty and
commitment within the organization. This starts by matching the employee skills and
qualifications with the right position. The team also develop a competitive advantage for the

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business through capacity building, so that the business can offer unique goods and services to its
customers. The human resource team can achieve this through hiring and management of talent
and facilitating employee commitment to their given task. Commitment may be achieved by
motivating the workforce through incentives like cash bonuses.
This essay will focus on culture, workplace diversity, international performance
management, and training and developments. It seeks to explain how these functions of human
resource management can be applied for effective workforce productivity. Also, theories that
seeks to address these functions will be discussed.
Diversity management and culture
Diversity is a common phenomenon in recent times in organizational operations and
practices. It is characterized by factors such as age, nationality, gender, religion, political
affiliation, ethnicity, social background, and race. Diversity is categorized as “workforce
diversity” in business management and has been studied in numerous scholarly articles. This has
resulted in intensive seminars on the subject and many consultancy firms provide advice on how
to deal with workplace diversity (Jiang, Lepak & Baer, 2012). Many advanced states such as
America, Australia, and Canada recruit a large number of employees who have migrated into
their countries. Additionally, they also recruit people of different gender, race, religion, and
people with diverse ideologies or beliefs (Horwitz & Horwitz, 2007). All this inclusion requires
conscious management to address each special group needs and develop them into an integrated
workforce with the purpose of improving productivity and gaining competitive advantage.
The concept of diversity has not been widely applied until the onset of the 20th century.
Managing diversity requires the facilitation of an appropriate environment for diversity to thrive

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and the development of program and policies that facilitate non-discrimination between
employees (Shen, et al., 2009). There is a need to ensure that each employee feels worth and
appreciated in order to increase work productivity.
Among the core issues in diversity management is dealing with the majority and minority
perspectives. There always exists a predominant group in any given organization. Some
researchers indicate that diversity management has its fair share of drawbacks. This includes low
employee satisfaction and the level of cohesion between teams. This results in difficulty in
communications and results in tension and conflict within the work environment. There is also a
lack of harmony between the employees and this impact negatively on the performance. These
issues have been seen in ‘No name’ organization whereby the employment decisions are highly
influenced by perceptions resulting in a strenuous working relationship. Managing diversity can
result in complications such as ambiguity in work, the inability of the organization to address
individual needs of the employees and difficulties in the formulation of procedures and policies
strategies that bring the workers together. However, the benefits supersede these disadvantages.
Diversity in the workplace is important because it results to lower labor and turnover rate,
increase creativity among employees, improve the image of the organization in the community
and increase the effectiveness of solving arising issues (Chen & Huang, 2009). Additionally,
diversity increases the potential of the organization to adapt to the environment and leads to the
acquisition of human resources from multiple cultural backgrounds.
There are four important theories that try to explain the fundamentals of diversity in the
workplace. They are psychology organizational theory, contingency theory, goals theory, and
learning theory. Psychology organizational theory provides a set of practices that are best suited
for the employees in order to develop simplified regulations (Youssef & Luthans, 2007).

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Contingency theory states that diversity management relies on the attitude of the organization in
areas such as strategies, culture and individual employee management. On the other hand, goals
theory address the goals and lack of clarity which may result in difficulty in acceptance by
employees. It requires the intervention of the management to clarify the goals through efficient
management of diversity.
In the ‘No name’ organization the senior workers developed an intolerance of working
with the apprentice this is in contrary to psychology organization theory which advocates for
inclusion. Most of the diversity issues arise out of gender parity especially in treating women,
and race. The ‘no name’ organization portrays this from their discrimination of people living in
disability in one of their subsidiaries in China. The attitude of ‘No name’ is captured in
contingency theory whereby ‘No name’ is discriminative of certain employees.
Organizational culture is among the major issues in organizational practices and
management operations. It is the central point where all the organization life is based upon. The
attitude, motivation, belief, values, and ideas of the organization are guided by the culture within
the organization. The human resource department is key in promoting organization culture right
from the recruiting process and selecting those individuals sharing organization beliefs. The
human resource department is also tasked with developing orientation and training programs that
reinforce the core values of the organization.
A strong culture is important for the success of any business entity. The top management
of the organization should be in constant communication with the workforce to enforce strong
cultural values. An ineffective culture can result in a disengaged workforce, high employee
turnover rates, lower profits, and poor customer relations (Linnenluecke & Griffiths, 2010). For

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organizational culture to improve the general performance, it must be strategic to result in
competitive advantage. A strong culture results in enhanced cooperation, trust and a more
efficient decision-making mechanism within the organization (Kang & Snell, 2009). Culture
consequently acts as an informal control system and offers a sense of identification for the
employees. The human resource department has the responsibility of ensuring they foster culture
management in the organization. The human resource managers need the work with the
organization top management to formulate how the culture of the organization should look like.
A good culture should extend past profit making and focus on the most important assets of the
organization-its workforce.
Edgar Schein model of organizational culture is a theory that explains the facets of
culture within the organization. Culture development in an organization is a process that is
developed over time. It requires the organization to learn an important lesson from past
experiences and integrate new measures to ensure profitability (Chew & Chan, 2008). According
to Schein, there are three levels of organizational culture. This is; artifacts, values and assumed
values. Artifacts are characters that can be viewed such as office furniture, the dress code of the
employees and mission and vision of the organization. All this go a long way in shaping the
culture of the workplace. Values involve the thought processes and attitudes of the employee.
The mindset of the workforce influences highly the culture of the organization. Lastly, Edgar
discussed assumed values. These are values which cannot be measured but have an effect on the
culture of the organization. They are the inner aspect of human behavior.
There is a gap in ‘No name’ organization regarding the concepts of Edgar Schein
organizational culture. The employees of the organization are disengaged and lack motivation,
thus the mantra ‘near enough is good enough.’ This implies they will resist making any

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meaningful change. The communication of the organization is also compromised. There is a lack
of cohesion among different departments within the organization leading to the compromise of
quality of the product. The values and assumed values of ‘No name’ organization are negative
and have greatly impacted the organization operations.
International performance management, training, and development.
Increasing operations and complexities of the organization have resulted in the
formulation of new concepts of business management. Performance management is part of
organization human resource management that deals with identifying, measuring, and developing
the work outcomes of the individual employee and aligning the performance with the goals and
objectives of the organization (Choi & Ruona, 2011). Performance appraisal is part of
performance management. Performance appraisal is the time when all the employee
performances are evaluated depending on the timeframe that is set (Huemann, Keegan & Turner,
2007). The management of workforce performance is important for an organization that regards
the employee as key assets.
Performance management can take different forms and it should be implemented in 5
cycles. The elements of this cycle include setting objectives, measuring the performance,
collecting feedback of performance results, a reward system based on performance outcomes and
amendments of objectives and activities.
The process of performance management is two-way traffic that involves the manager
and the employee and the human resource manager acts as the mediator. It is important that all
the parties involved in the process understand critically their responsibilities. The manager has
the responsibility of ensuring the management of the employees is free of biases and prejudices.

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Discrimination leads to attrition, de-motivation of employees and lawsuits against the company
(Choi & Ruona, 2011). The manager has in part to lead by example by following the policies that
guide the organization. This includes facilitating cohesion among the workforce and maintain the
quality of goods and services.
There are two main theories that underpin performance management. These are the goal
setting theory and expectancy theory. Proposed by Edwin Locke, goal setting theory suggests
that the employee individual goals motivate efficient performance. The employees are expected
to develop goals and align them with the organization strategies and objectives. The goals should
be reviewed and if they are not achieved, they should be modified to become more realistic.
Expectancy theory was developed by Victor Vroom in 1964. According to the theory,
individuals should modify their behavior in the organization based on achieving value goals set
for them. The behavior is set in such a manner that will result in attainment of these goals. In
terms of performance management, this theory attributes that performance is highly influenced
by future expectations.
The ‘No name’ organization failed on the above guidelines by not conducting
performance reviews in their subsidiaries. Additionally, most of the decision made by the
organization result in conflict among the subsidiaries. For example, the order of production of
parts in Singapore while there was a surplus of such parts in Australia shows a gap in
performance management. ‘No name’ does not have proper guidelines and policies for the
evaluation of performance. The organization also does not have a mechanism in place for
individual goal setting as portrayed by the goal-setting theory.

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Training and developmental interventions in the organizational human resource are
fundamental in an organization. It is the means through which the employees can achieve
organization objectives. Training is the polishing process done with selected individuals to
increase their skills and make them adaptable to the ever-changing working environment of the
organization. On the other hand, career development is the process where the employees undergo
a series of stages with different tasks and activities in order to enrich the needs of the
organization (Jackson, Schuler & Jiang, 2014). In an organizational setting, the lack of
development and training lower the commitment of the workforce and result in a shortage of
qualified individuals to fill open positions. Training and development programs develop the
career path of an individual, consequently reducing the employee turnover rate (Salas, et al.,
2008). Training and development motivate the workforce and enhances productivity for the
organization. When an individual employee is properly guided, they ultimately gain the
confidence and motivation for self-actualization (Haines III & St-Onge, 2012). The manager is
expected to be at the forefront of leading the employees in the right career path. This is because
the managers have information on any openings in terms of promotions or training and
development courses.
Behaviorism theory involves the use of positive or negative reinforcement to impact
learning. Employees under these theories are rewarded for positive behavior and punished for
negative behavior. This theory is important as a strategy to implement new policies. Cognitivism
theory is more on improving the mental process of the employee. It helps the workforce to
expand their knowledge (Kang, Morris & Snell, 2007). It needs activities that challenge
individual thinking capacity to improve problem-solving skills. Constructivism learning theory
states that employees practices actively in their own personal development. When individuals

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take responsibility for their development they increase their morale consequently leading to job
satisfaction. Connectivism theory involves taking advantage of opportunities such as free online
courses in developing new skills (Chen & Huang, 2009). This theory needs the individual to be
cognizant of the fact that learning is a process of connecting with diverse resources, opinions,
and information. Human resource managers should encourage information resources that
develop interpersonal skills and abilities.
The ‘No name’ organization has largely failed in promoting employee training and
development programs. There are no definite programs for the expatriate to integrate them into
the new working environment. The organization assumes that each employee has the same needs
and refers them to course materials in their site. They fail to acknowledge the basic individual
differences in human. Additionally, there are no set career development programs for the
employee and this highly limits career progressions of the employee. The senior management
also fails to guide the junior employee through developmental mentorship. All of these reduce
the morale and skills of the employees. The workforce lacks the much needed developmental
phase for self-actualization. There are certain theories that explain the learning and
developmental process
Conclusions and recommendations.
Workforce diversity in organization human resource management involves the non-
discrimination of individual differences. A theory such as psychology organizational model
provide the framework for incorporation of a simplified mechanism of decision making in
diversity issues. Organizational culture as a function of organizational human resource

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management involves the way of life in the operation of any organization. The organizational
culture model of Edgar Schein provides the attributes of measuring culture in an organization.
Similarly, models of goal setting and expectancy theory in explaining performance management.
Formulate ways of carrying out performance appraisals. Concerning training and development,
behaviorism learning provides positive and negative reinforcement for development training.
Connectivism involves making use of available resources for personal development.
This study has found Organizational diversity, culture, performance, and training as
important factors for the success of any organization. It is the responsibility of human resource
managers to ensure all these functions are well integrated into the organization.
While implementing these functions of organizational culture, it is imperative for human
resource managers to align their function with sustainability and engage in corporate
responsibility. Other function of the organizational human resource such as dispute resolutions
and ethical issues should also be considered for seamless operation of the organization.
Limitation of organizational human resource management may arise in cases where
organizational do not have enough funding to implement programs such as training and
development of the workforce.
I recommend that organization facilitate the continuity of their practice by ensuring
retiring or departing workers transfer their knowledge to the new workers. It is critical to
developing strategies to facilitate the transfer of such knowledge.

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