Document 6524009

ASSIGNMENT COVER SHEET
A. Student to Complete
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Student Number
z3091427
Date Received
Title
First Name
Family Name
Mr
Joel
Judge
Class No.
Course
Assignment No.
Due Date
03-281
Strategic People Management
1
1 September 2003
Class Facilitator
No. Pages (incl Appendices)
No. Words (excl Appendices)
John Holt
10
2150
Comments
Subtracted all in-text references (Smith 1999, etc..) to roughly estimate word length.
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copied from other sources except where this is clearly acknowledged. (Note that the University provides for severe
penalties in the case of plagiarism. See http://www.student.unsw.edu.au/studentguide/misconduct.htm.)
Signed (if submitting electronically, enter your full name in place of signing)
Date
Joel Judge
31 August 2003
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IROB5690 - Strategic People Management - 03-281
Assignment 1
Impact of Change On People Management Strategies
Technology, Diversity and Globalisation
Student: Joel Judge
Length: 2000 (2150 actual)
Due Date: Monday 1 September 2003
The external environment in which business organisations operate has changed
dramatically in recent years. These changes in turn have had, and will continue to
have profound implications for people management strategies. Rapid advances in
technology, particularly information technology and telecommunications, have
required businesses to re-evaluate the types of work performed by staff and the ways
in which staff performance is managed and measured. The move towards
globalisation and tighter integration of national economies has also demanded
changes to staff management policies and practices. Similarly, the increasingly
diverse nature of the workforce requires innovative people management policies to
ensure diversity is harnessed and utilized. This paper will focus on these three
external trends of technology advancement, globalisation and workforce diversity,
and will consider how these trends have impacted on people management strategies in
businesses.
The ‘information revolution’ and continued advances in telecommunications are
changing both the way in which organisations do business and the types of business
they undertake. (Harpaz 2002, p.74) Exponential growth in high-speed computer
networks, telecommunications software and hardware, integrated computer databases
and the continued growth of the Internet have fundamentally changed the nature of
‘work’. These changes have opened up new possibilities and created complex
challenges for those concerned with people management (Greengard 1994, 70). The
information revolution is changing the way organisations are structured, the ways in
which employees and employers interact, and their respective levels of responsibility
(Greengard 2000, p.38). To give an indication of how pervasive the growth of
technology in the workplace has been, one report claims that, “in 1991 for the first
time American firms spent more money on IT and communications equipment than
on industrial, mining, farm and construction equipment combined”(Adams 1998, p.
8). Technology is also playing an important role in the Australian context. The
Commonwealth Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, reports that Australia’s
investment in information and communications technology is the third largest in the
OECD as a percentage of GDP (http://www.dfat.gov.au/facts/innovative/fs03.html).
Australia is ranked 8th in the world for percentage of total population connected to the
Internet. As at November 2000, Canberra was ranked ahead of every American city
in terms of the number of adults accessing the Internet, and all of Australia’s capital
cities were ranked within the top 25 American cities
(http://www.dfat.gov.au/facts/innovative/fs04.html).
Technological advancement has allowed organisations to implement more flexible
employment practices. A good example of this is the increase in the number of
people who now “telecommute” (Verespej 2001, p230.). Telecommuting or telework,
is defined as “work performed away from a central organisation, through the use of
computer and communications technologies” (Whitehouse et al 2002, p.257). There
are a number of perceived organisational benefits associated with telecommuting
including, ‘increased productivity, decreased absenteeism, telecommuters working
longer hours, reduced office space required, improved ability to attract high quality
staff, lower staff turn-over and improved staff morale’ (Cote-O’hara 1993, p.106;
Ilozor 2002, p.80; Helms and Raisadeh 2002, p.242). It is has also been suggested
that telecommuting directly benefits employees through promotion of ‘flexible
working hours, improved time management, increased autonomy and independence,
improved work/life balance and savings in commuting time and travel expenses.’
(Harpaz 2002, pp.74-76). Businesses must, however, be aware of the potential risks
associated with telecommuting, both from an organisational and individual
perspective. Such risks include the problem of ‘physical isolation, the blurring of
work and home life, the lack of support that is available at the office, the need for
self-discipline, the belief that telecommuters are contactable at all hours, the
difficultly in supervising telecommuters and the cost involved in implementing a
telecommuting scheme’ (Harpaz 2002, pp.74-76). From a people management
perspective, strategic consideration needs to be given to how best to facilitate
telecommuting and provide support for the ‘virtual worker’. New human resource
models, training and management techniques are being developed which address
these issues. Organisations need to consider which staff are best suited for
telecommuting, as not all employees are suited to this type of work. Ahmadi et al
(2000, p.84), advise that successful telecommuters are “good planners” and are “self
directed”. In advancing telecommuting as an option, human resource professionals
need to provide adequate support, clear guidelines, focused training, communication
strategies and clearly define the manner in which telecommuters will be supervised
(Helms and Raizadeh 2002, p.240). For a telecommuting policy to be effective it
must not only focus on the technical training but must also cover the issue of how
interaction across the organisation and amongst telecommuter and non-telecommuters
will occur. Greater time and effort needs to be given to establishing clear
communication lines between telecommuter and their managers (Watad & Will 2003,
p). Likewise different models for ‘measuring performance’ are also required. The
focus should be on the measurement of outcomes and the quality of work (Fowler
1996, p.35).
While a number of surveys point to the real benefits for employers and employees that
telecommuting offers, it must also be noted that much more detailed research across
industries, professions, age groups and gender are required to gain a clearer picture of
the costs and benefits of telecommuting (Orlikowski 2001, pp.156-158). With a
greater understanding of telecommuting, organisations will be able to establish
telecommuting policies and select and manage telecommuters, while ensuring
strategic imperatives are met. One of the major difficulties in studying
telecommuting is the lack of reliable data on the number of people who telecommute
and the level of employer and employee satisfaction and organisational benefit
achieved.
Technology is also breaking down traditional management hierarchies and flatter
management structures are being established. As staff now have access to far greater
amounts of information, the need to give employees greater and “shared”
responsibilities has increased. In this regard people strategies need to ensure that
candidates with the required skill sets are recruited and are able to deal with the
demands of the information age (Griffiths & Lloyd-Walker 1999, pp.47-48)
Information technology is also impacting on the way in which Human Resource
Management (HRM) departments perform their duties. (Greengard 2000, p.30) In
particular, ‘HRM software’ is allowing HRM professionals to spend less time on
administrative work, allowing greater focus on strategic people management than ever
before. In this regard, HRM is shifting from an “administrative to strategic role”,
driven on by technology. (Sparrow and Marchington 1998 in Sawyer and Parker
2002, p. 39). For example, over 500,000 IBM employees are linked to a corporate
HRM system. This database enables IBM to ‘analyse staff skills’, show where
specialist staff are located around the globe, identify potential ‘skills gaps’, identify
national and cultural backgrounds and indicate what training is being undertaken by
which staff. Such information is invaluable as it allows management to have a
stronger strategic focus on staff skills and allows greater alignment of people
management strategies with corporate strategies (Gonzales et al, 2000 pp.13-15). The
importance of technology enabled ‘knowledge management’ with regard to strategic
people management cannot be over-emphasised. With more detailed information on
staff experience, educational qualifications, projects completed, age, gender, language
skills, etc… organisations are now in a better position to give detailed strategic
consideration on how best to align there employment practices, recruitment and staff
development, with the organisations overall mission and strategic focus. (Sawyer and
Parker 2002, p.43-46)
The growth of Workplace diversity is a major trend in Australia. Kramar (1998, p.
134) postulates that there are two categories of diversity, “primary (observable) and
secondary (non observable)”. Primary diversity covers such characteristics as, “age,
gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation” while secondary diversity refers to such
characteristics as “education level, religious beliefs, martial status, work function
background, etc…” Examining the Australian context, it is useful to provide some
figures as to the level of diversity. With respect to cultural diversity, figures from the
Australian Bureau of Statistics show that cultural diversity within Australia is
increasing. In 1970, 47% of settler arrivals were from the United Kingdom and
Ireland. In the five years to June 2000 this had dropped to only 12% of settlers. Of
great significance is the percentage decline in immigration from the United Kingdom
and Europe and the corresponding percentage increase in immigration from Asia.
(http://www.library.unsw.edu.au/cgi-bin/access.cgi?url=http://www.abs.gov.au/).
Furthermore, by 1995 the Industry Task Force on Leadership and Management Skills,
the Karpin Taskforce (http://www.equityresearch.org.au/md1.htm ) reported that
nearly a quarter of Australia’s population were either born in a non-English speaking
country or had a parent who was born in one. The gender balance of the workforce is
also continuing to change with more women in the workforce today in a greater
number of roles and with higher levels of responsibility. Likewise, the average age of
the workforce is also increasing. All these factors lead to a more diverse work
environment.
The diversity of the Australian workforce is a fundamental issue for strategic people
management. Diversity differences, if not managed appropriately, can lead to
‘interpersonal conflict’ (O’Flynn et al 2001, p.34). To ensure the strategic
management of a diverse workforce, Kramer (1998, p.137) suggests that nothing short
of an organisational cultural shift is required. He argues that organisations need to
focus on diversity at three levels, these being:
· ‘The strategic level’– Need to recognise the critical importance of diversity for
organisational success.
· ‘Managerial level’ – policies and structures to ensure effective diversity
management.
· ‘Operational level’ – effectively delivered diversity initiatives in the
workplace.
(Kramer, 1998, p.137)
The development of diversity management programs is now viewed as an important
part of maintaining ‘competitive advantage’ (Whittenburg et al 2001, p.82). Many
companies, and the Public Sector, in Australia, are increasingly recognising the
importance of effective diversity management policies. For example, several
companies have broadened their selection criteria’s and no longer rely heavily on
technical measures, which have tended to favour the recruitment of qualified males.
Instead, firms such as Hewlett-Packard are placing greater importance on areas such
as, “analytical, communication, and management skills”. Such changes in selection
criteria have seen dramatic increases in the number of female applicants. (Teicher &
Spearitt 1996, p.124).
With respect to cultural diversity, improved recruitment practices are also important.
To ensure equal opportunities for people of non-English speaking background
(NESB), it is important that recruiters and interviewers understand the challenges
faced by NESB applicants. Unfortunately many recruiters are ‘not aware of
techniques’, which may assist when interviewing applicants of different ethnic
backgrounds (D’Netto & Sohal 1999, p.532). Greater advertising in ethnic
newspapers can also assist in increasing the level of workplace diversity.
In the United States many companies have taken to performing “cultural audits” with
the aim of identifying strengths and weaknesses in diversity management. This is
seen as a way of identifying gaps, which in turn assists in developing more effective
diversity programs (http://www.hrpress-diversity.com/audits.html). The key to
diversity management is ensuring that human resource strategies address diversity
issues. This can be achieved through the development of ‘shared corporate cultures’,
promotion of ‘diversity policies’ supported by senior management, establishment of
diverse work teams and appropriate training and knowledge management (O’Flynn et
al 2001, p.35-36). A survey undertaken by the Australian Centre for International
Business, demonstrated that diversity management practices in Australia are
inadequate. For example, “Information on the ethnicity of workers was not collected
in 73 per cent of firms, 60 per cent had no data on language skills, and 35 per cent had
no data on the age of workers.” (O’Flynn et al 2001, p.35). Without adequate data
collection and analysis firms are incapable of establishing meaningful and
representative diversity programs.
Another problem that has been identified is the lack of development opportunities for
women. The Australian public service has recognised this challenge and one measure
that has been taken is to establish the Senior Women in Management Program
(SWIM). Twenty to thirty senior female public servants participate in SWIM each
year. The Program incorporates ‘course work’ with ‘targeted work placements’ and
‘group work’, aimed at further assisting with the development of women in
management positions within the Australian Public Service
(http://www.apsc.gov.au/swim/).
Globalization is perhaps the most significant trend affecting work practices and
people management strategies. According to one study, “there are at least 53,000
multinational companies with 450,000 affiliates worldwide (Wellins & Rioux 2001,
p.26). One important aspect of globalisation is the growth of the multinational
organisation (MO). When considering MOs the types of strategic people management
strategies which may be adopted depends largely on organisational structure,
management philosophy, and strategic needs. Kidger (2002) distinguishes between
“multidomestic” and “global orientation” models. The multidomestic model
promotes the need for “local” decision-making and greater “autonomy” while global
orientation focuses more on issues of overall “efficiency” and the need for
consistency in policy determination and implementation (Kidger, 2002 p.70). With
the steady march towards globalisation, strategic people management becomes far
more complex and even more critical. While internal diversity within an organisation
located in one nation is complex enough, diversity management across nations adds
another level of complexity. Strategic people management issues which need to be
considered, include:
· Determining how to employ and promote local staff into leadership roles;
· Deciding on the roles of expatriate staff, their selection criteria, conditions of
service and reporting requirements;
· Considering how best to communicate between international posts;
· Knowledge management and knowledge sharing – across regions and cultures;
· Legal considerations, labour laws, occupational health and safety
requirements, cultural differences; and
· Corporate wide and localized training requirements.
Rowden (2002) emphasises the need for Human Resource departments to develop and
promote a “corporate culture” which defies national boundaries and focuses global
staff attention on core strategic requirements. “A corporate culture may be defined as
the sum total values, virtues, accepted behaviours, (good and bad).” (Bliss 1999, p. 8
in Rowden 2002, p.156).
In conclusion, technology, diversity and globalisation have changed most facets of the
work environment and have brought to the fore, the need for strategic people
management. By establishing policies that promote diversity and provide effective
integration of technology, work processes and staff management, organisations will
be able to acquire and maintain competitive advantage. Likewise, with globalisation
comes the need to focus on the development of ‘global corporate cultures’. This
requires that HRM professionals understand and develop policies that incorporate
both local needs and multinational requirements. Only through a strategic focus on
people management will organisations be able to meet these numerous challenges.
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