The Changing Role of HR Management, Essay Example

Abstract

The paper discusses the changing role of HR management in organizations. Globalization, diversity, technology, e-business, and ethics are fairly regarded as the major drivers in the changing role of HR. The paper shows the new role of HR as the one, which goes beyond the boundaries of bureaucracy and administrative control and implies the need for HR to be a proactive element in the organizational progress and an effective support to the employees-as-the-greatest-asset-philosophy at all levels of the organizational structure.

Introduction

With the accelerating pace of organizational and environmental changes, the strategic role of Human Resources in organizations has dramatically changed. From being a strictly bureaucratic and document-based, HR in organizations has turned into a complex cluster of practices and approaches, which are well-integrated with the organizations’ strategic visions and facilitate the process of achieving the major strategic objectives in organizations. Under the influence of technological advancement, the growing diversity, globalization, and ethical shifts, HR is no longer limited to administrative duties but, on the contrary, contributes to the creation of sustained competitive advantage in organizations, and works to support employees-as-the-greatest-asset-philosophy at all levels of the organizational structure.

The accelerated pace of environmental and business changes, as well as the turbulence in present day business atmosphere bring in significant changes to the vision and function of HR in organizations. Under the influence of globalization, diversity, technology, and ethical shifts, HR has ceased to be a purely bureaucratic administrative element of organizational functioning and represents a new philosophy of organizational thinking, in which employees are being treated as the most valuable organizations’ asset. What is currently happening to HR can be fairly regarded as the transformation of organizations from being a social contract employer into an employer of choice – “a company that is highly attractive to potential employees because of HR practices that focus not just on tangible benefits such as pay and profit sharing but also on intangibles” (Daft & Marcic, 2008). These transformations actually reflect a two-fold impact of various external factors on HR and organizations: on the one hand, environmental changes and economic shifts make organizations adjust their structures and visions to the new conditions of performance; on the other hand, all these changes represent a challenge, which HR should meet to make organizations competitive. As a result, the role of HR in organization is gradually changing from being reactive to being proactive, and with everything HR professionals have at hand they can readily move organizations toward their strategic goals.

Globalization leads HR professionals to reconsider their practices. In the atmosphere of the growing international cohesiveness, the role of HR is to anticipate change and to develop practices that are consistent across all organizations’ departments worldwide. The top three challenges which HR practices face when going global include social/ political/ economic variations, resistance to cultural change, and the differences in the perceived value of HR function (Rioux, Bernthal & Wellins, 2008). These, in turn, also require taking into account the main demographic shifts and the growing diversity of workforce, for which globalization is also partially responsible. This diversity makes HR change its vision from being simply inclusive to being proactive in the promotion and acceptability of the new cultural practices and norms, which diverse workers bring into the organization. Based on these cultural differences, HR is expected to build approaches and strategies necessary to promote the sense of cultural comfort among diverse employees, to develop more sophisticated selection and recruiting systems, retention programs, and performance management competencies (Losey, Meisinger & Ulrich, 2005) – the functions that go beyond the conventional limits of administrative management in the workplace.

Certainly, technology and ethics have produced their significant influence on HR function – while IT makes it possible for HR to quickly and effectively process information about employees, organizations, too, require that HR professionals react to changes in the organizations more frequently. With HR becoming more technological, organizations find it easier to incorporate information about employee skills in their strategies, to quickly locate the best employees, and to re-allocate human resources at times of need (Anonymous, 2005). In this context, HR professionals are expected to possess at least the basic technology skills and to be able to process and utilize available information across multiple organizational locations. In all these fields and domains, the changing role of HR also implies the growing importance of ethics: and again, the two-side effects of ethical changes imply (a) the growing role of HR in organizational ethics and (b) the growing role of ethics in the HR function. When it comes to promoting ethics in organizations, the role of HR evolves to cover the four main elements: to ensure that ethics is the top organizational priority; to ensure that selection and development of leadership have an ethics component; to ensure that the right HR programs and policies are in place; and to stay abreast of ethics issues (Vickers, 2005). That means that HR will no longer be a purely administrative instrument of organizational functioning, but will turn into a proactive element of positive organizational changes, which works to support the employees-as-the-greatest-asset-philosophy and turns HR into a moving force of organizational progress.

Conclusion

Under the influence of globalization, diversity, technology, and ethical shifts, the role of HR in organization has significantly expanded from being increasingly bureaucratic and administrative to becoming a proactive element of organizational progress. HR professionals should be prepared to change. They must possess a broad vision of organizational problems and the place of HR in them. HR must expand its presence in all organizational initiatives in ways, which will support their employees-as-the-greatest-asset-philosophy and turn HR into the source of sustained competitive advantage.

References

Anonymous. (2003). IT and the changing role of HR. AME Info. Retrieved December 8, 2009 from http://www.ameinfo.com/61620.html

Daft, R. & Marcic, D. (2008). Understanding management. Cengage Learning.

Losey, M., Meisinger, S. & Ulrich, D. (2005). The future of Human Resource Management. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.

Rioux, S.M., Bernthal, P.R. & Wellins, R.S. (2008). The globalization of Human Resources practices. Development Dimensions International. Retrieved December 8, 2009 from http://www.ddiworld.com/pdf/ddi_theglobalizationofhrpractices_es.pdf

Vickers, M.R. (2005). Business ethics and the HR role: past, present, and future. Human Resource Planning. Retrieved December 8, 2009 from http://www.allbusiness.com/human-resources/employee-development-employee-ethics/394111-1.html