Human resource management's role in organizational environment and culture

¶ … HRM Issues Research Report

An organization has several departments such as finance, marketing, logistics, administration and human resource. Human resource management or HRM is responsible for the management of organizations' employees. The prime function of HR is recruitment, training, evaluating and rewarding of staff. Moreover, HR also manages the overall culture and environment of an organization.

Environmental forces play a vital role in determining the success or failure of an organization. An organization has internal and external environment. The internal environment of an organization consists of elements in the organization itself, such as its workforce, management, and particularly the culture, which determine the workforce behavior. Even though, various elements influence the entire organization; others only affect the manager of an organization. Managers have their own philosophy or leadership styles. The leadership style of a manager directly affects employees. Some traditional managers provide explicit orders to employees; while some managers authorize the employees to make their own decisions. A nice organizational environment is enduring investment. Employees appreciate the environment that presents opportunities for achievement and healthy livelihood. It also maintains a good relationship between employees with same goals. The workforce enjoys working in an organization that is successful; that obtains better results in every period and let them be a part of that achievement; knowing that employees are the most valuable asset of the organization. An organization with such an environment, it becomes easy to predict that the level of engagement will boost and accomplishment of results can be guaranteed. HRM plays important role for developing the organizational environment, as it is the employees who make the organization run, who hold and build up a particular environment in the organization, any desired transformation in the environment of an organization is made by the people working in the organization.

Over the last twenty years, there have been major changes in the organizational environment that mainly includes sociological, political and technological development. In recent years, the entry of women into the workforce, significant changes in consumer behavior, preferences along with an increase in wealth of consumers and market saturation unprecedented. An increasing globalization and cultural exchange and the rapid development of new and improves technology is not only changing the habits and lifestyle but it is also changing how individuals work and interact with each others' within or outside the organization.

The fundamental HR functions like selection, recruitment and training has an effect on the overall performance of an organization. These functions influence the behavior of employees and they play a major role in determining the organizational environment and culture. The behavior of employees refer to how they act or conduct themselves, if practices of HRM could affect the behavior of employees positively, building a positive environment and thinking among the employees of an organization can help a great deal to create value for strategies and it yield positive outcomes for the organization. In this rapidly changing environment, HRM is one of the important sources of an organization to get competitive advantage. According to Caliskan (2010), HRM can give persistent competitive advantage to an organization through assisting the improvement of competencies of a firm and managing the overall environment of an organization. Strategic HRM plays an important role in designing a connection among the HR strategy, the strategic aim of an organization and the implementation process. The system of an organization to manage its human resource has an important relationship with the performance of organization (Caliskan, 2010).

Every organization goes through change; it can be in the form of its environment, structure or hierarchy, technological change, or workforce. Boyne & Kenneth (2009) argued that organizations are always under pressure to the external environmental forces. These forces may be permanent and can be impulsive. When organizations introduce new product or service in the various sectors of the market, there is always an uncertainty due to the fact that each and every sector of the environment is constantly changing. Thus, the new product or service must fulfill the requirements of changing environment, particularly if an organization is operating in a competitive environment. These changes within or outside the organization presents a tough challenge to managers. However, proper planning and strategies to cope with the changes can simplify the things and it makes the life of a manager easier.

To become a successful organization and to cope with the changes, managers must identify types of changes required in the organization. For instance, organizations can enhance and develop improved or latest technologies, improves techniques of production, identify need of new products in the market, implementation of new and effective management system within the organization, and upgrading skills of their workforce (Boyne & Kenneth, 2009). Successful organizations adapt changes that are both profitable and admirable.

Discussions

Aging Workforce and Human Resource Management

Aging workforce is a reality and organizations have to face it at some stage. The number of senior employees working in an organization grows because of multiple reasons; they might be having financial need, the absence of pension plans and sufficient health reimbursement (Feinsod & Davenport, 2006). However, senior employees in an organization typically transmit several vital assets to their team members, such as their experience of life, good attitudes, flexibility towards work and eagerness to learn new things.

On the other hand, the HRM has to consider various issues regarding their aging workforce, when it comes to the success and smooth running of an organization. Some of the factors that the HRM has to think about such as, the first thing that the HRM has to consider are the number of aging employees working currently in the organization. They compare the figure with the past records and find out the average age of employees working in their organization. They are well-known of the fact that the aging of workforce is natural phenomenon.

The HRM has to determine the retirement plans of employees. The organizations make certain policies to make the life of their employees easy after their retirement. The HRM should consider the health issues of their employees. After the age of 55, the chances are high that the employees fall in this category of age might suffer from some health issues. The HRM has to make sure that the aging employees are healthy and there is no issue regarding their health so that they can work freely in the organization.

Other thing that the HRM has to judge is the allocation of health remuneration for their employees. The cost of health program for aging workforce might be high if they are suffering from certain health issues. So the HR has to make sure that proper budget is assigned to the health program of their workers.

The HRM has to consider the age discrimination among the employees when they are assigning a certain project or task to a particular team of employees. They have to consider the balance between the aging workforce and young employees so that the project or task can be accomplished without any conflict among the employees. When an employee retires, HRM has to make sure that they have a perfect backup to fill the gap of that senior employee. Although, it might take some time to fill the gap as there is no replacement for experienced employee who is working for years in the organization. The young employee who takes the position of retired employee might bring some enthusiasm towards work and positive energy in the organization.

The aging employees are generally considered as major trend in the market. Most of the organizations suffer loss because of the departure of baby boomers and also the increase in the ages of their labor force. Majority of managers agreed that aging workforce could cause shortage of labor therefore, distracting the stable supply of labor workforce. The sectors such as: healthcare, energy and construction are likely to suffer the most from their aging workforce. As a result of aging workers, there is a possibility that the organizations could suffer decline in their production. Above all, the aging of workforce of labor could be a concern as it would affect the growth of an economy.

Recommendations for Aging workforce

The role of HRM becomes very important to handle aging workforce in an organization. As an HR consultant, following are the recommendations to handle aging workforce:

1. Retention of Key employees

It is very important for organizations to keep their aging workforce who have comprehensive understanding and expertise in their field. The organization should design their policies to retain their valuable employees.

2. Flexible Policies and Strategies

Strategies like workforce expansion, flexible workforce policies can be put into practice to preserve the valued senior employees of an organization. The flexible policies such as increase in their retirement age, alteration in retirement incentives and old age pension funds agreement.

3. Avoiding discrimination between employees

Strategies should be made to avoid age discrimination and conflicts between young and senior employees. Strategies such as: making a team of employees of same culture or making legal efforts to ensure friendly atmosphere in the workplace.

4. Training and Development Program

Proper training and skill development programs should be conducted to make sure that there is no labor shortage in the workplace after the retirement of aged employees.

5. Relationship between Employer and Employee

The employers should keep a good and healthy relationship with their aged workforce to make them feel comfortable and that they are still values and important asset of the workplace.

6. Addressing Health issues of Aged workforce

Aged workforce should be given rest breaks and managers should not give them stressful tasks. The health issues in the age's workforce are likely to increase therefore, organization should take care of the health issues of their senior employees. Good medical incentives should be given to senior members. Health awareness programs should also be conducted such as importance of physical activity, eating healthy food, avoiding tobacco use and timely health visits.

Recommendations for Technological changes

In today's world, technological changes have increased rapidly. The use of technology is the way to go for every organization. Businesses use technology to make easiness to access the information, exchanging the information and facilitating knowledge. The effective use of technology is in the hand of its user. Therefore, organizations must make sure to their employees are fully trained to use the new adopted technology effectively. Following are the recommendations for organizations, which are facing technological changes:

1. Assessment of Current Employees

The new technology should only be adopted after the assessment of the skills and capabilities of employees. Organizations must make sure that their employees have capability to handle new technology.

2. Training and Development

Training is a major part of technological change to achieve optimum output of the investments made and maximum productivity from the employees. The absence of training strategy, new technology is useless rather than efficient. Without proper training and expertise for using the technology, organizations are likely to suffer productivity loss and it will create negative impact on employees' morale. On the other hand, professional training for using technology can ensure minimum input and maximum output.

3. Retention Strategies

Organizations should design retention strategies to keep their skilled employees who have expertise to use the technology. This strategy is important to avoid labor shortage. The loss of key employees can have a negative impact on the whole organization. However, proper planning can avoid such circumstances. Organizations can create pipeline of skilled employees, which will be handy in case of certain mishap.

4. Anticipating the Technological Changes

Technology will change and it will continue to change. Therefore, the it department of an organization should be capable enough to anticipate new versions of technology and plan accordingly. The it department should explore how newer version of technology can benefits the workplace, its pros and cons, its adaptation process and requirements. Reliance on one type of technology can be disadvantage because of its changing nature and can limit the options. The organization should diversify their technology to ensure better results.

Conclusion

There are certain environmental forces that play a major role in determining the success and failure of an organization. Organization must handle these forces effectively to survive in the market. Aging workforce is a reality that every organization has to face at some stage. The number of aged employees in an organization increases because of various reasons such as financial needs, pension plans and sufficient health reimbursement. It is also a fact that aged employees typically provide certain benefits to their co-workers, such as their experience of life, good attitudes, flexibility towards work and eagerness to learn new things.

The role of HRM is vital in various issues regarding the aging workforce, when it comes to the success of an organization. HRM has to think about the number of aging employees working currently in the organization and their valuable senior employees that are considered to be an asset of their organization and they cannot afford to lose them. Certain policies and strategies have been presented to manage the aging workforce that can be helpful if they are implemented properly.

To survive stiff competition in the market, organizations should be aware of the latest trends and changing nature of advanced technology. Technology can be divided into three types: automation, computerization and robotics. The use of technology is the priority of every organization. Technology ensures easiness to access the information, exchanging the information and facilitating knowledge. The effective use of technology is in the hand of its user. Therefore, organizations must make sure to their employees are fully trained to use the new adopted technology effectively. Finally, recommendations are given that can be considered in the process of adoption of new technology.