Challenges for human resource management (HRM) in competitive world

Continued from May 21 :[Link]

Diluxshy.M Eastern University, Vantharumoolai.

From Solitary to Collective Activity:

Teamwork is supplanting individual activity. The old emphasis on individual efficiency (on which the total efficiency of the organization depended) is being replaced by group synergy. It’s a matter of multiplying efforts, rather than simply adding them. We are used to individualized, isolated work; we need to change to high-performance teamwork.

From Specialization to Multitasking:

The traditional division of labuor with its consequent fragmentation of activity is evolving toward more varied and integrated work. Compartmentalization is changing to a systematic holistic vision, unified rather than separate. We are used to dealing with division of labour and task specialization.

We need to become accustomed to working in teams and with holistic organizations, from a Focus on Products and Services to a Customer Orientation. In the past, the product or service was the most important element.

Now, the customer to whom this product or service is targeted has become fundamental. Before, an internally focused vision based on the product or service prevailed. Now, an externally focused vision for the customer who is going to use that product or service predominates.

In the past, the product/service was the goal. We’re used to working with the products and services we produce or offer. We need to shift toward looking after the customer’s needs.

From Full-time to Part-Time Work: Work carried out with total and exclusive dedication to a single company is coming to an end. It is being replaced by work carried out at any time, and at any place, to the extent that workers are becoming suppliers for various activities and various companies at the same time.

The old concept of a job with a single schedule and a formal job description, dating back to the Industrial Revolution and the main feature of the Industrial Age, is being supplanted by a new concept of work that typifies the digital age.

Part-time work, remote work, and virtual work constitute these new forms of human activity we are used to the old concept of a single job for life, exclusive and full time. Now, we need to become accustomed to work as it is defined in the digital age.

From Followers of Orders to Entrepreneurs: The old concept that people are hired workers who hold certain positions according to fixed schedules and following internal rules and regulations is being supplanted by a new concept that rewards internal entrepreneurship. In the past, performance evaluation emphasized things like absenteeism, punctuality, and personal discipline.

Now, it focuses on vision, goals and results, and especially on personal contributions to organizational objectives. Rather than being conservative bureaucrats, workers are becoming innovative and creative.

And the new generation of workers (the networked generation) created by digital technology is leaving the older generation behind. We are used to working by following rules and regulations, external controls and standards; now we need to become goal-oriented and mission driven.

From Human Resources to Business Partners:

In the past, human resources were considered passive agents of the company. Now, employees are considered active and proactive agents of the business they manage together. In the past, workers were considered an organizational resource. Now, they manage the company’s organizational resources. We are used to talking about organizational resources.

But a resource is a thing. People are human beings with minds, talent, motivation, and the proactive capacity for decision-making. They can no longer be considered only as objects.

From Agents to Leaders:

The old autocratic, authoritarian, people-controlling bosses are becoming democratic leaders and people promoters. Formal hierarchical authority is being replaced by such modern concepts as motivation, leadership, communication, interpersonal relationships, and development of high-performance cohesive work teams.

We have been used to bosses who give orders to subordinates based on their linear hierarchical authority. Now we need to become accustomed to working with leaders who move, motivate and stimulate workers - leaders who are communicators and visionaries.

From Financial to Intellectual Capital:

Emphasis on money as the most important organizational resource is shifting to knowledge as the unlimited and fundamental input for business success. Traditional accounting, centred as it is on physical assets convertible into financial currency, is being questioned for not involving such intangible aspects as internal systems, customers, and intellectual capital.

This happened as researchers began to perceive that investments in people provided such intangibles as company image, organizational climate, respect, job satisfaction, customer service, creativity and innovation, competitiveness, and much more.

They also, undoubtedly, cause other intangible changes that traditional accountants don’t include in their reports, which are essentially numerical and quantitative, based on the past rather than the future.