Role of Human Resources in the Workplace, Research Paper Example

Introduction

It is common that the main production factors are land (natural resources), capital stock (human-made factors of production) and of course labor. With the development of economy as a science, entrepreneurship capabilities and information have been added. Depending on the historical period, various production factors were considered to be the key ones. In the times of ancient Greece and Rome slaves were critical. In the Feudal Europe Land gained importance, but later on, with the progress of the industrial revolution, working capital started being viewed as the key production factor. With the emerging new technologies, many suppose that information is now the key resource that can gain competitive advantage.

Underestimating the role of capital stock, information or natural resources is definitely a mistake. However, I suppose that none of them is the most important one. The most vital, perspective and precious resource of any company are its employees. Any market, product or company have their own lifespan and depend on a life cycle greatly. Talent has no cycles or downturns: it is always valued very highly. A brand may loose the loyalty of the customers, the natural resources might be drained, and capital will eventually wear out. Employee loyalty and talents, on the other hand, will not likely disappear that easily.

Consequently, we come to a conclusion that people are the most important strategic asset of any business. This fact makes HR management perhaps the most essential activity of the company. Human capital has the greatest potential, but the trends in the people’s behavior tend to change very fast. In order for organizations to position themselves competitively for the global marketplace, a thorough understanding of the Human Resources function and its evolution to date is essential.

History of Human Resource Management

Management of the workforce is becoming a more and more complex matter as the time goes on. A great number of factors is influencing the evolution of the workforce management and is very closely linked to the changes of the attitude towards work, sociological shifts and improvement of the legislation that regulates the matter. Human Resource management dates back to the first employee-boss relations. Medieval craftsmen and their apprentices are the best example of the early HR approaches. Their relations were regulated by the laws and customs, supposing that the student received all the insights of the profession in exchange for helping and serving the craftsman. Slavery in ancient Greece and Rome can not be viewed as the relations between employers and employees, as slaves were simply exploited and no laws regulated their usage. Such approach limited the master-slave relations to exploitation without any concerns of raising productivity.

Personnel administration movement

With the fast pace of the industrial revolution, mass production became extremely popular. This longed for a dramatic increase of the number of people employed by on enterprise. Working conditions were indeed terrible in those days. Payment was extremely low, working hours could rise up to 13 hours a day and the working places were rather unsafe. These factors made it hard for the plants and factories to find new people.

Most employers realized that direct connections between the productivity of work and employee’s satisfaction existed. This was the time when first functions of the HR management emerged. In the late 18800s and in the beginning of 1900s first attempts to reduce the employee turnover were made (Losey, 1998). Separate departments, responsible for selection, compensation, and recruitment and training were crated. Separate companies, which realized the need for better relations with the employees showed serious attempts to improve the compensation systems. For example, Ford Company doubled the wages for the assembling workers, though the previous level was relatively fair from the market point of view.

In 1935 the Congress passed NRLA – National Labor Relations act, or the Wagner act. This piece of legislation made the so-called “yellow-dog” contracts (agreements prohibiting the employees to engage in the union activities) illegal. It also granted the workers right to organize any labor unions and use collective bargaining. Employers clearly realized a growing need in the professionals that would act as middlemen between the regular workers and the company owners. These people supposed to find solutions that would satisfy both sides of the conflict to the maximum extent and makes sure strikes do not interrupt the normal activities of the business.  Therefore, the first attempts to establish the HR departments were driven by the need to bargain with the dissatisfied employees rather than improve their actual productivity. However, it is a beginning of the acknowledged HR management practices.

Human relations movement

This approach is a logical extension of the personnel administration movement. It emerged in the late 1920s and due to the fact that increases in productivity were needed on most of the US plants and factories. In order to improve the performance of employees a number of material motivators were used. These included medical benefits, paid holidays, vaccinations and a list of other benefits.

In the early 1940s a first HR theory was actually formed. It was created by Mayo, now called the father of the HR. His researches vividly demonstrated direct connections between the productivity per employee and amount of attention from the supervisor(Losey, 1998). Previously, only the material motivators and strict control were considered to be effective in making people work. Mayo, however, showed that simple personal attention from the manger and positive feedback could motivate people to achieve greater results.

Human resource movement

Gradually, and idea that non-material motivators are of a great importance penetrated the entire structure of the HR practices. Compensations and bonuses are obviously vital, but the connection is rather straightforward here: the more the person gets for the job, the harder he/she will work. However, even this basic assumption was proven wrong in 1970s, when the human resource movement gained supporters. The substitution effect was first described, it stated that at some level the employee will be earning what he/she considers fair for the job. Further increases in salary will not be declined, but will not increase productivity either. As a matter if fact, a person may start receiving too much and will no longer be efficient.

A new wave of educated managers that emerged in 1970s realized that and wanted something bigger for their efforts. These people dreamed of interesting and challenging tasks, rather than simple jobbing. Great number of employees transferred from the factories to offices and intellectual activity is definitely more effective than physical work. It is clear that managing an office worker is harder that a simple industrial one. The power of HR managers expanded beyond the     HR department and included forming the corporate culture, policy and strategy (Losey, 1998).

HR today

A great number of problems and issues remain to be solved by the contemporary HR professionals. The moral views inside the society as well as strict employment legislation have to be dealt with. Modern HR managers are expected to have a food worldview and thorough knowledge of economics, as well as local specifics. Senior HR managers actively participate in forming the corporate strategy and often predetermine it to a great extent.

Preparations to become an HR professional

Professional training

Preciously, the employee managers did nit have any special education and were considered regular technical supervisors. Concerning the past approaches to human resources as regular manufacturing tool, such views were rather logical. No special skills were necessary for the successful activities in the sphere. However, as the business environment started getting more complicated, special skills were needed to successfully manage the diverse workforce with growing needs.

Today in order to become a successful HR manager, a college education is definitely necessary. It may take from 4 to 6 years in the college or university to become a specialist in employee control. In order to climb up the career ladder, a Masters degree in HR administration is highly desirable.

Certifying boards – SHRM, GPHR

“SHRM serves the needs of the human resource management professional by providing the most essential and comprehensive set of resources available. In addition, the Society is committed to advancing the human resource profession and the capabilities of all human resource professionals to ensure that HR is an essential and effective partner in developing and executing organizational strategy” (SHRM official website).  This organization is relatively new, being founded in 1948 by a group of HR professionals with a goal to represent the entire profession and assist the practicing HR managers in developing their professional skills. Today it is an organization with over 30 specialized departments that provide access to all the necessary resources concerning the field.

There is a set of specialized professional qualifications that certify the eligibility of the HR professional. Three levels of proficiency correspond to the real abilities of the HR manager:

• PHR – Professional of Human Resources – the basic stage. Certifies that this functional manger is capable of performing the basic functions required from regular human relations professional. It is confirmed by an exam. The exam is to be taken after 2-4 years of regular practice as an HR manager.
• SPHR – Senior Professional of Human Resources – is a second (after PHR) step in the certification. Is also confirmed by special examination and in case the applicant meets the requirements the certificate confirms that the manager has not only mastered the basics of the employee control, but is also capable of successfully using the acquired knowledge in order t solve relatively complex real problems. This certification is highly useful for the further career. The certifying board advises to take the exam after 6-8 years of practice.
• GPHR – Global Professional of Human Resources – is the final stage of the Hr manager evolution. It is the highest possible level of proficiency in the field. The exam taken after special training certifies that the manager is capable of managing all the problems concerning human resources in the global market. Knowledge of the strategic HR is also required, as well as the long-term value added cost.

Modern HR trends

HR and Technologies

In order to make sure the business practice is effective, certain metrics have to be used. In the case of the HR program, it is very hard to establish any numerical connections. The returns of the investments for the HR programs are very hard to calculate, although they are obviously present.

A certain pattern of actions has to be determined before activating any program aimed to improve the HR diversity. Six Sigma approach is the basic method to plan and mange diversity programs. The main steps of this methodology are called “DMAIC”( Dreachslin, J. L., & Lee, P. D. 2007) or:

• Define – select the problem that needs to be solved (e.g. create a larger pool of suppliers, diversifying them)
• Measure – quantify the problem (decide how many suppliers are currently present)
• Analyze – understand the real causes of the problem (understand how many more partners are needed and from which regions)
• Improve – take certain actions to face the challenge and deal with it effectively (find new suppliers representing different scales, regions, etc.)
• Control – constantly monitor the new situation, standardize the solutions (make sure the new contacts are maintained) (Dreachslin, J. L., & Lee, P. D. 2007).

This way, the six sigma method, common for manufacturing calculations may also be used for the HR sphere, via introducing slightly different metrics.

HR outsourcing

Outsourcing is a very popular practice for most modern businesses today. Experience and common sense have demonstrated that a company striving to achieve high results should develop maximum expertise in the field it is functioning and not pay much attention to the rest of non-profile activities. In other words – do what you are very good at and let the others do the rest for you. This postulate is common for a number of business activities, and companies often outsource logistics, accounting, software development and other not-key parts of the business. At the same time, a relatively new tendency is being observed lately – since the year 2000 some large companies started outsourcing human relation task. This indeed is an extremely interesting issue, as HR function has always been considered one of the most closely-integrated into the business environment.

Therefore, in order to realize the true necessity of outsourcing, we should first understand what exactly is outsourced and what benefits it might bring. The reason for outsourcing HR is the same as for outsourcing any other business activity – cost saving, efficiency and capitalizing on expertise (HR Focus, April 2007). These are the activities to be usually outsourced:

• Pension benefits administration
• Employee assistance programs
• Background checks
• Healthcare benefits administration
• Payroll administration
• Employee relocation assistance

As it can be noticed, of all these activities, none is actually very closely related to the strategic missions of the HR department (corporate culture development, forming strategic HR perspectives and development directions). Though outsourcing HR is a relatively new practice, some significant trends may already be observed. The main, common and most popular reason for outsourcing some activities is the cost reducing. At the same time, empiric experience of some large businesses that have already used the outsourcing strategies shows that after some HR practices are relied upon the outside firms, the costs for the HR are not reduced dramatically. Employees cannot be simply fired even if their functions are already successfully performed by the outsiders (Enlow, S.; & Ertel, D. 2006). Therefore, HR outsourcing provides a much greater benefit – ability to reorganize and reallocate the resources. In the result, more attention can be paid to the strategic goals.

Deciding to outsource some of the current HR practices is a very important step, which changes the inner structure of the company, its established traditions, structure, etc. Moreover, outsourcing deals are not among the cheapest ones Unilever signed an HR outsourcing contract worth $1,1 billion (Enlow, S.; & Ertel, D. 2006). So, before taking this decisive step, all the pros and cons are to be first estimated. Enlow and Ertel argue that an outsourcing project might increase the corporate productivity by 15%, as well as decrease it by the same 15%.

Success is usually determined by higher customer satisfaction, delivery of project on time and on budget, quick response time to requests, innovation and good leadership, free inner resources to more important strategic practices. At the same time, lack of thought-over outsourcing practices may lead to the following malfunctions: greater need for outsourcing/audit, frequent conflicts with the outsourcing-providing firm, low internal customer satisfaction, ineffective execution, lack of understanding in the roles and responsibilities, decision made based on irrelevant information or with lack of information (Enlow, S.; & Ertel, D. 2006).

Another potential problem for the company that has decided to outsource some its HR practices is the great challenge to the corporate culture. It is well-known that employee loyalty is one of the greatest intensifying factors in the HR. When some activities are handed to an outside firm, the workers that used to fulfill these tasks often become unneeded and unwanted in the company, being a heavy burden anyone would want to get rid of. As the corporate executives claim, not firing the workforce that has been freed of their duties is one of the hardest tasks in the entire outsourcing procedure (HR Focus, 2007).

Employees of the company might also feel uncomfortable that the information about their compensations, salaries and other important data is being processed by the outside firm. In case the calculations, such as the payments to pension and social security funds, are performed with mistakes, the employees will not know whom to address with the problem, as the company they are employed in is not responsible for the process anymore.

The final ethical issue that is closely related to the HR outsourcing programs is the policy-creating by the outside firm. Corporate standards and procedures are mostly predetermined by the HR department and this important function is not really ethical and logical to give up to an outside business.

Outsourcing brings positive and negative effects, may turn out to be a tremendous gain, as well as the major loss. In reality, it is rather hard to predict the consequences of the step, but in the long run one fact has to be taken into consideration – the global market forces press onto the firms to cut costs and strive to maximum efficiency. Rather often, maximum efficiency means outsourcing. This is especially true for the US firms. Great technologic advances have lead to the decrease of labor input into the unit produced from 30% to 15%, thus making current high salaries economically unreasonable and forcing businesses out of the country (Mullen, P. M. 2007).

This way, it is becoming increasingly popular to outsource call centers, IT departments and HR functions overseas. Emerging counties such as India, ex- Soviet Union countries and China are rather poplar among the companies due to their low wages. These solutions have however proven to include a number of systematic problems themselves. Ex-Soviet Union Countries prove to generate low quality of the services provided, central-European states experience increases in the wag levels themselves and are therefore loosing competitive advantages, Indian and Chinese employees often struggle with the English language (Burman, R. 2006).

Some companies even consider rather unusual steps, such as creating “floating IT labs” abroad the ship in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, with the employees from India (traditionally strong in math and computers) to calculate the payrolls. This way, the worker in these ships will not be a subject to extra taxation and still remain close to the US territory for easier accessibility and control (Blyth, A. 2006).

Some firms, with a strong corporate culture, well-developed IT departments, might choose not to outsource at all and rely on the inner resources. Schneider Electric North America may be a role model in this case – this company is following the outsourcing trends very closely, but only to be aware of the trends and update their own HR department accordingly. This firm prefers investing into itself, searching for more efficient management techniques rather than relying upon others. In a result, the company keeps all it secrets inside, provides extra comfort to the employees and has a constant access to all the data for analysis.

Advocating for Employees

Union History

Throughout the 19^th and 20^th centuries the relations between the employees and employers have become more and more complicated – the workers were often abused, neglected and treated with little respect. This exploitive attitude has certainly leaded to a powerful reaction – as people started self-organizing, which has lead to a powerful union movement. At some times in history unions gained immense power and were a significant force for bargaining.

Any successful manager should have ideas over how the unions are organized, which way they usually behave and what are possible consequences of their actions. In order to run the company efficiently, it is necessary to understand all the four sides participating in the labor relations – unions, government, employers and employees.

Unions and Employees

How does the membership in the union influence the life of a regular worker? It is obvious that the company is larger, more powerful and has more leverage for influence than a sole person. At the same time, if a number of employees unite to achieve a certain goal – they have far greater chance to succeed. Membership in the union means having a powerful supporter, able and eager to fight for your rights. In 1935, when the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) was passed, the US employees gained a powerful tool to fight for their rights – an official permission to strike. (Schwartz, R. 2007). The next year unions held more strikes than in the previous 9 years combined. The positive sides for the employees are obvious – they have a chance to fight for bigger salaries, more days-off, better working conditions, larger social packages. This can be easily proven: unionized workers always gain larger salaries and the difference might be rather significant – from 33,5% increase for machinists and up to 100% increase for personal athletic coaches (AFL-CIO, America’s Union Movement website). Moreover, the members of the unions gain additional support in case of the accidents, illnesses, etc.

Despite all the benefits, the membership in the union might also create some problems for the employees. First of all, the union is a large bureaucratic machine, not always able to react fast. At some times, the employee is forced to coordinate his/hers actions with the union representatives, when the acting alone could have been faster and more efficient. Sometimes, some workers are satisfied with the conditions at work and some are not. In case the union starts a strike, the happy workers are supposed to strike with the rest, loosing potential salary, good relations with the management and sometimes even the workplace.

Unions and Employers

Initially, unions were created as force to oppose the large employers, so it is quite clearly expected that the major influence of the unions on the businesses is to be negative. With the development of the union movement and more staff being involved in the bargaining, the companies were often supposed to retreat, increasing salaries and thus lowering the profit margins. Manufacturing has often been jeopardized by multiple strikes. As a matter of fact, some companies were unable to remain competitive, collapsing under the heavy weight of the requirements of the unions. It has become harder to fire an employee, or even control the workers. Any extra work was considered an abuse and the employee filed for the union support immediately.

At the same time, the existence of the labor unions made certain improvements for the employers. On some levels, the labor force became more organized. An employee had to coordinate his/hers behavior with the union and became more predictable. Secondly, it has become much easier to negotiate – it was no longer necessary to lead lengthy and useless fights with the workers demanding improvements in labor conditions – the process became much better organized, there were certain people to negotiate with and the final agreement could sometimes be reached faster. And finally, yet another opportunity arose – it was impossible and senseless to bribe the striking workers, but it was fairly easy to bribe the union leaders. As a result, strikes could be stopped faster, if the union representatives were corrupted.

Unions Today

NRLA changed the labor relations a lot, a number of large businesses suffered the pressure of constant strikes and reported losses or even filed for bankruptcy. IN 1938 the U.S. Supreme Court issued its notorious Mackay Radio decision, sharply changing the situation. (Schwartz, R. 2007) Large businesses were allowed to substitute strikers with the permanent workers, which in fact meant firing the members on the union on a strike. Throughout the next decade the large corporations often manipulated these tools, threatening the employees. This leverage has not been intensively used, as it remained hard to find the substitutes for the qualified people. Still, in 1981 President Reagan used the legislation of 1938 and replaced 11,000 strikers of the airline industry with the permanent workers, proving even the most narrow-specialized professionals can be substituted.

Throughout the 20^th century the power of the unions kept declining fast, as more and more pieces of legislation were passed, cutting the rights to strike. In 1946 it became illegal to conduct solidarity strikes, government officials are at all deprived of the right to strike and the legislation of 1984 made it obligatory for the unions to make suppliers and clients of the business respect the picket lines. (Schwartz, R. 2007)

The tendency in the decline of the union’s power can still be observed in the new century – the number of people involved in the union activities has declined, reaching the historically-lowest level of 12% in 2006. (AFL-CIO, America’s Union Movement website) More and more US workers are deprived of the right to strike or even to be involved in a union activity. The list of categories of employees which the law fails to cover is growing – all the supervisors in the private sector lost their rights. Surprisingly, this includes the university professors that are members of the board and consequently might be considered supervisors and are not be unionized. The list goes on with post-secondary teachers, inspectors, editors and reporters, etc. (Acuff, S. Friedman, S. 2006, August)

Unionizing was an important period in the history of labor in the US. Eventually, it played its role, increasing corporate responsibility, salaries and improving labor conditions. At this point, the role of unions decrease, as more and more employees gain personal contracts and the companies pay more attention to the HR practices, motivating the labor force without the help of unionizing.

HR in The Changing World

Dealing with M&A issues

Mergers and Acquisitions are a frequent practice in the modern business world. A number of goals is usually pursued when a merger occurs: the companies hope to benefit from scales, synergy effect and share technologies and qualified staff. However, M&A activities often turned out to be unsuccessful, as the business looses customer loyalty, corporate culture and motivation of employees. Recent studies have vividly proven that human resources are the most vital part of the effective merger of two enterprises. Integrating all layers of managers and simple employees from different backgrounds is the key factor to a successful deal. In such a complicated state human resource department gains more importance than ever before.

The guiding principles for the HR management in the transition period may be described this way(Bramson, 2000):

• Take ultimate actions and make any decisions fast
• Be honest with employees and treat them with proper respect. Make sure they know that the new, merged company will be a better organization.
• Whenever possible, use ownership of the company as represented by stock options and stock grants to get everyone pulling in the same direction.
• Be honest about the people decisions that must be made.
• Treat those leaving with the same respect and attention as those staying.

Managing Diversity

As the time comes by, diversity becomes a more a more vital issue for the businesses. Professionals argue that diversity “has to be fought for – at all the organizational levels”( Garcia, T., & Schmelzer, 2006). Any modern company with a view into the future, willing to acquire strategic advantages in operations tries to solve a set of high-priority issues: how to create collaborative stable working environment, how to gain a wide and diverse range of clients, how to avoid any lawsuits regarding discrimination, etc. Statistics indicate that in about forty years (by the 2050) there will be no such term as ethnic majority in the US. This way, being able to address the multicultural society, in which virtually all the existing nations and cultures are presented, will be the main task for any corporation (Garcia, T., & Schmelzer, 2006).

Taking the given information onto consideration, it becomes obvious that a large shift in the entire way the business operates has to be done. Anyone should realize that the old structures are to be reformed fast. In the nearest future, the main asset will be not money, real estate or even technology, but the ability to build up a culture with the diverse thinking pool and diverse client base. The businesses, which will prove to be able to generate these factors, are likely to succeed. The rest may very likely fail.

We should note that the situation has improved significantly in the past decades – more and more businesses realize the importance of the diversity issues in their HR programs. Almost any executive in a company is aware of the questions and demonstrates (at least verbally) the intentions to take actions to improve diversity. Quite surprisingly, in most cases these intentions remain on paper and are rarely implemented in the real life. In general sense, the improvements are obviously seen, but in reality difference is rarely made.

As a matter of fact, only 305 of all the organizations were able to provide the officially stated definition for the term “diversity”, 52% of the mangers claimed they realize the true importance of the HR diversity measures, but only about 40% had a clear vision over how to implement practices to improve the issue. 75% of the HR mangers said the strategic importance of the diversification of both the employee’s thinking and the client base cannot be underestimated, but all of the respondents also stated they expected more attention towards the diversification practices from the top management.

However, there are a number of examples of the successful applications of some diversity programs in the various corporations. In this case, we take one aspect of the diversity question – the race and gender diversity. Employing the females form the racial minorities has become increasingly popular. As a matter of fact, the number of hired colored females has become if not the only criteria to measure the tolerance inside the company.

Such companies as Bank of America, Procter and Gamble, CITI, IBM and many others publish information about the total number of employees, number of colored females and number of colored female leaders. For example, of all the hired employees in 2006, Colgate employed 22% of racial minorities’ females, 36% for the American Express, 36% of the PepsiCo colored women held management positions. These statistics demonstrate that applying diversity is not an impossible task at all – it can be (and is) widely practiced today. This of course creates a set of competitive advantages for the business, such as wider pool knowledge, avoiding fines for the discrimination, creating a positive corporate image, etc.

However, at the same time all the diversity practices have to be carefully considered and weighed before applying to the real life. Hiring diverse workforce is undoubtedly an important part of the? HR program, but not the only one. All by itself, data about the number of minority representatives hired cannot justify the adequateness of the measures taken.

HR managers ought to look deeper into the issue – select and recruit the best professionals, able to benefit the company. The main diversity challenge in the case is to hire the best-suitable professionals and not to look at their age, race, religion and sexual orientation. Hiring people in the pursue for some numbers – percents of colored people at work or any other is discriminatory by itself. Professionalism and suitability are to become the main criteria.

The diversity issue is relatively complicated and sometimes, a number of collisions might happen. It is quite obvious, as any person is striving for maximum freedom, and inside the organization which advocates for diversity, freedom is suppose to be maximized. Unfortunately, the freedoms of one person may collide with the rights of the others, and that is the very moment the freedom stops.

Religious issues are among the most complicated and potentially dangerous ones. Any organization should pay attention to two relatively new pieces of legislation that regulate the rights of the employees on the working place. One is the so-called ENDA (Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2007) and the other WRFA (Workplace Religious Freedom Act) (Ritter, B. 2008).   Both of these laws aimed to avoid discrimination and provide greater freedom of self-expression at the working place. ENDA states that homosexual and bisexual people should not be discriminated in any way, no matter if they are employees or clients of the company. At the same time, WRFA allows people with strong religious beliefs to freely express their feelings. Christianity, for example, considers homosexuality a terrible sin, and the Christian person might refuse to work with gay clients. This is theoretically acceptable according to WRFA, but absolutely not according to ENDA. The freedom for a Christian turns into discrimination for a homosexual person.

Even despite the constant fight for maximum freedom of choice and right to demonstrate ones beliefs, unfortunate examples of misunderstanding still remain. For example, in Florida city officials advocate for diversity, but fired a city manager, who announced he was going to conduct an operation, aimed to change gender (Ritter, B. (2008)). On the one hand, it is an example of inequality, as sexual orientation of the person cannot be a reason to terminate contract or tenure. On the other hand, a transsexual city manger might be insulting for the believers. In order to avoid such problems, simple steps can be taken by the company. First of all, the humanistic approach is to be implied – both sides have to be tolerant and willing to solve the problem, common sense should be able to resolve the disagreement. (Ritter, B. 2008)

Other collisions might also take place. Stereotyping racial minorities is also an issue to be closely observed. Following formed ideas of what this or that racial group is good at, means declining the potential efficiency of the employees. For example, Asian employees are traditionally considered to be good at math and not strong at building up relations with customers or becoming leaders. Such attitude disregards the real potential abilities of this group of people. Asian persons tend to be very participating in the lives of the employees, able to establish long-lasting relationships with the customers, based on mutual respect and trust. Condemning these people to work as IT professionals, mathematicians only automatically means destroying their professional growth and human development together with the potential profits of the business (Hastings, R. R. 2007).

As it has been demonstrated, diversity management has a lot of facets and a number of potentially dangerous collisions. In order to create and manage a diverse environment, several principles are to be to be used (Dominguez, C. M. 2007)

1. Educate – be aware of the changes in the industry and inform both the government officials and local HR managers.
2. Exchange – create the opportunities for the customers and workers to communicate their thoughts and ideas.
3. Engage – ones the problems are indicated, be able to take actions to solve them.

The most important asset, however, is the ability and wish to think out of the box; not simply following numbers how many colored, gay, female or religious employees are employed and promoted, but creating a comfortable environment with maximum competitiveness and efficiency.

Conclusion

As it can be seen in the paper, HR management is of great strategic importance. It involves all of the areas of the company’s operations. Managing is employees is sometimes way harder than controlling financial department or any other one. It is extremely hard to predict the problems that might arise, as the nature of human character is extremely complex. A complicated set of internal and external motivating factors influences behavior of the employees.

Gradual progress of HR as a science proved that people are the most significant and precious resource that the company can acquire. Using this potential effectively and retaining it requires years of practice and experience in the real business world. HR management evolves together with the entire economy and now concerns managing the employees during crises and mergers and acquisitions, making sure the diverse workforce is effectively used and decisions concerning outsourcing some of the HR practices. In order to remain competitive, the company has to follow all the trends in HR management very closely.

References

Anonymous (2007, April). “Outsourcing and Shared Services Star in Cost Savings, Expertise, and More Time for Strategic HR”. HR Focus, 84(4), S1,S3-S4.  Retrieved May 31, 2009, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 1248853381).

Enlow, S.; & Ertel, D. (2006, May). Achieving Outsourcing Success: Effective Relationship Management. Compensation and Benefits Review, 38(3), 50-55,5.  Retrieved May 31, 2009, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 1045888971).4

Burman, R. (2006, July). “Thinking of Outsourcing to India? Think Again”. Workspan,42-44.  Retrieved May 31,2009, from ABI/INFORM Trade & Industry database. (Document ID: 112343664)

Blyth, A. (2006, May). A sea change for outsourcing. Director, 59(10), )39, 41.  Retrieved June 1, 2009, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 1042683751)

Garcia, T., & Schmelzer, R. (2006, December). “Diversity from the top down”.  PRweek, 9(49), 14-16,19-20.  Retrieved May 31, 2009, from ABI/INFORM Trade & Industry database. (Document ID: 1184563061).

Dreachslin, J. L., & Lee, P. D. (2007). “Applying Six Sigma and DMAIC to Diversity Initiatives”. Journal of Healthcare Management, 52(6), 361-7.  Retrieved May 31, 2009 from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 1393370921)

Ritter, B. (2008). “Collision of religious and gay rights in the Workplace”. The Humanist, 68(1), 5-7.  Retrieved May 31, 2009 from Research Library database. (Document ID: 1410177161).

Marquez, J. (2007, March). “Limits of diversity program revealed”. Workforce Management, 86(5), 1,3-4.  Retrieved May 31, 2009, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 1239030361)

Hastings, R. R. (2007, July). “The forgotten minority”. HRMagazine, 52(7), 62-67. Retrieved May 31, 2009 from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 1305554161).

Bramson, R.N. “HR’s Role in Mergers and Acquisitions” – Human Resource Management. Retrieved June 1, 2009 from:      http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m4467/is_10_54/ai_66499153/

Losey, M.  “HR comes of age – history of human resource management” HR Magazine,  March 15, 1998. Retrieved June 1, 2009 from:                                                         http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3495/is_n3_v43/ai_20514399/pg_5/?tag=content;col1

Miller, L. “HR Involvement Is Key To Merger Success – Brief Article”. HR Magazine. FindArticles.com. Retrieved 01 Jun, 2009.          http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3495/is_7_46/ai_77197972/