Thesis Statement
Globalization refer to those processes operating on a global scale, which cut across national boundaries, integrating and connecting communities and organizations in new space time combination making the world in reality and experience more interconnected. (Hall, 1992).
The globalization of business has shifted from trade investment to the integration of global operations, management and strategic alliance, which has significantly affected the management of human resources. International sourcing brought about by human resource globally has made it possible for human resource management to be involved so as to ensure that appropriate considerations of various laws, cultural factors and other issues as looked into. (Mathis & Jacobson, 2006).
Global security and terrorism is a big challenge for international employers hence human resource management must respond to such concern as part of transnational operations. Firms around the world have had to develop terror response and security flaws. (Kim, 1999).
Technological shift and the Internet have led to globalization. Globalization and economic shifts have been accelerated by technological changes with the Internet assisting. The growth in information technology has driven changes in jobs and organization. Technology make people to be available and can work from home and during weekends, which is resulting in more weekly hours worked and more stress on balancing works and personal lives. Organization can have employees working from different countries, which has enabled them develop human resource policies regarding electronic sexual harassment and inappropriate Internet usage. (Jackson, Schuler, 2006).
Organizations have established e-learning programs whereby employees can access training programs through web-based systems. Many human resource management practices, for instance, employee benefit enrolment, performance appraisal documentation, job posting and recruiting have become web-based systems. Capitalism has a global reach and the scope and pace of global integration has greatly increased in recent years and multinational or transnational company is one of the major agents of globalization process. Trade, finance and employment are increasingly organized on a transnational basis. (Mabey, Salaman & Storey, 1998).
The corporate climate today is better than yester years, which was restrictive and time consuming. Nowadays business decisions are made on scrap second judgments and are not limited to or hindered by the physical geographical boundaries of a country. Geographical barriers that once limited the business sphere have been broken. Today with the aid of globalization organization can conduct business in any part of the world by simply sitting at home in a personal computer and deals are done, contracts are negotiated and outsourcing of employees can be from anywhere in the world. (Dowling, Schuler & Welch, 1994).
Globalization has made organizations effective and efficient as it is more streamlined and modernized and organizations can now share trade secrets, which were limited to only those who could afford. The corporate sector has become more receptive and reactive as old business methods now give way to new and innovative ideas and opinions such as the outsourcing of labor.
Outsourcing has totally altered the way business is done nowadays. Cheaper labor, more skills expertise, a more flexible working environment and more effective use of staff have made outsourcing a global phenomenon. Today organizations from all over the globe now outsource work and save money by getting specialists to work at more affordable rates. By doing this, companies utilize their resources better for more productive human resource management ventures.
The top challenges the human resource faces in the globalization process are coordination of activities in different locations, understanding the continual change of the global competitive environment, building a global awareness in all human resource departments and creating a multicultural human resource team.
International companies face many challenges when trying to make human resource practices such as, variation in social, political and economic circumstances, different locations and offices have their own way of doing things and are resistant to change and the perceived value of the human resource function varies across offices and countries. (Adler, 1991).
Organizations operating globally have to have human resource practices, which are applicable anywhere in the world. This is made possible by the organization developing a long-term human resource plan, which ensures alignment of human resource strategies or objectives with corporate objectives, create centralized reporting relationships around the globe, standardize assessment, development and compensation practices, introduce practices to regions around the globe as well as allow the human resource function in each region the freedom to do its job, share human resource best practices used in certain location with all other locations and create global policies for data management, performance management, compensation and development. (Dowling, Schuler & Welch, 1994).
Organizations should realize that their global human resource function can help them utilize their existing human talent from across multiple geographical and cultural boundaries. International organizations need to assist and incorporate human resource functions to meet the challenges they face if they want to create a global workforce.
Market differences, exploiting economies of global scale and scope, trapping optimal locations for activities and resource and maximizing knowledge transfer across locations and countries are important issues for multinational corporations wishing to gain a global competitive advantage, which is also important for human resource management.
Decentralization leads to the duplication of back office functions, slowness in responding to technology change, difficulties in dealing with pressure, lack of shared resources to respond to emerging needs. The difficulties of decentralization often lead firms to try a more centralized approach.
Technology has now created the possibility and even the likelihood of a global culture. The Internet, fax machines, satellite are sweeping away cultural boundaries. The key to effective globalization is the minds of people. Managers must frame problems in a way that recognizes the global nature of the firm, that is, they must adopt a global mindset. (Jackson & Schuler, 2006).
Many firms competing globally are being pushed in contradictory strategic directions. In order to survive and prosper in the new global competition, companies must embrace close regional and global integration to cut cost and improve efficiency and still meet demands for local responsiveness to increase local acceptance, flexibility and spend. Some companies are international by following mega-national strategy. (Evans, Pucik & Barsoux, 2002).
This approach needs the whole company to run in a centralized way across national boundaries. Worldwide facilities are centralized in the mother country, products are standardized and oversea operations are used as delivery pipelines to serve international markets. In such a firm there is tight control of strategic decisions, resources and information. As a result the competitive strength of the firm is its global integration. (Mathis & Jackson, 2006).
Globalization influences a country economy and free flow of trade among countries. Globalization influences the number and kinds of jobs that are available and requires the organizations balance set of issues related to managing people in different geographies, culture, legal environment and businesses. The human resource function such as staffing, training, and compensation have to be adjusted to take into account the difference in global management. (Jackson & Schuler, 2006).
Advanced technology has reduced the number of jobs that require little skill and increase the number of jobs that require considerable skill. This displaces some employees and requires that others be retained. Information technology has influenced human resource management through human resources information systems that reduce the processing of data and make employee information more easily available to managers.
Globalization has led to the diverse workforce and organizations are doing more to address employee concerns and to maximize the benefits of different kinds of employees globally. Demographic changes, social and cultural differences and changing attitudes towards work provides a rich source of variety for organization, which is taken into consideration when dealing with employees in a global context to make sure that their relationship is of mutual beneficial.
Globalization is characterized by increasing worldwide competition and accelerating economic change that brings unpredictable outcome to ensure a country’s competitiveness both the public and private sector has taken steps to be knowledge intensive and knowledge enable with emphasis on its human resource development strategy. Globalization fosters rapid change in the information and communication technology, which makes the world economy more interdependent. It brings about the free flow of trade and investment among the nations. The process results in higher efficiency increase in productivity, better products and lower prices. For developing countries, the inflow of funds, new technology and management skills has led to rapid development of their economies.
Robert Reich (1991) notes that competitiveness will be decided on a country’s or an enterprise’s capacity to add value to global economic products, services and processes and a key contributor in this regard is knowledge and skill of workforce.
The remuneration system of an organization is an important part in the human resource management strategies and initiative to achieve the organization goals and objectives hence it should take into consideration the vision and aspiration of the organization, the labor market, national economic performance and its competitiveness in international economy. By this the organization attract high caliber employees from all over the world with the necessary skills. (Adler, 1991).
Training and development is an important aspect of human resource development in an organization. Globalization has led to improvement of technology and employees of an organization can improve their knowledge through e-learning programs. It is necessary for an organization to maintain and improve the capability and capacity of its workforce for effective delivery of their services. Continuous staff training through these programs, which takes into consideration on the training needs adopts skills for future organizational needs, improve individual job satisfaction, enhance career and employment prospects hence takes advantage of technological progress. Hence it can tackle the changing environment brought about by globalization. (Kim, 1999).
In conclusion, in a highly globalized environment that is characterized by rapid change, the role of leadership in bringing about national transformation to achieve global competitiveness is of utmost importance. Therefore, it is important that organizations give more attention on developing leaders who are capable of harnessing the forces of change to ensure the nation can compete effectively in the era of globalization.
References
Adler, N. J. 1991. International Dimensions of Organizational Behaviour. 2nd Ed. Boston: Kent Publishing. PP.150.170.
Dowling, P. J., Schuler, R. S. & Welch, D. 1994. International Dimensions of Human Resource Management. 2nd Ed. Belmont, California: Wadsworth. PP.43-63.
Dr. Christopher Maley, Dr. Graeme Salaman, John Storey. 1998. Human Resource Management: A Strategic Introduction. Blackwell Publishing. PP.110-120.
Kim, Pansuk. 1999. Globalization of Human Resource Management: A Cross Cultural Perspective for Public Sector. PP.20-50.
Robert L. Mathis, John Harold Jackson. 2006. Human Resource Management. Thomson South Western. PP.40-60.
Susan, E. Jackson, Randall S. Schuler. 2006. Strategic Human Resource Management: Text & Readings. Blackwell Publishing. PP.89-109.
