HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

ENVIRONMENTS

C H A P T E R O N E – PA R T I I

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 A DIAGNOSTIC MODEL IN HRM
FRAMEWORK
• Is a framework that can be used to help managers focus on a set of relevant
factors to analyze and solve HRM related problems.
• It is based on the assumption that HR activities are all related to each other
and have a combined effect on people.

• Example:
Factors - properly designed job, performance evaluation system, relevance and
attractiveness of benefits and organizational values.

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 A DIAGNOSTIC MODEL IN HRM
FRAMEWORK
• The management must have a deep understanding and appreciation of the
internal and external environments.

• It is desirable that managers know what the environment is and how it

influences HRM functions in an organization.

• Managers must always be aware of the environmental forces influencing their

decisions; at the same time, they must be aware of how their decisions may
affect the environment.

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 REFLECTION

• What is the difference between internal and external environment?

Give examples.

• How does the environmental factors affect HRM practices of an

organization?

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THE ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS AFFECTING HRM

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 HRM ENVIRONMENT

• Environment is the totality of factors that influence an organization and its sub-
systems such HRM.

• External Environment - forces external to a firm that affect the firm’s

performance but are beyond the control of management.

• In order to adapt to the external environment, constant monitoring of the

external environment for opportunities and threats is important.

• Internal Environment- are concerns or problems internal to the organization.

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THE DIAGNOSTIC MODEL

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STRATEGIC ISSUES (CHALLENGES) FACING HRM

Globalization Trends

Technological Trends
Changes and Trends in
Human Resource
Management
Trends in the Nature of Work

Workforce Demographic Trends

(Source: Adapted from Robbins & Coulter, 2007)

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 STRATEGIC ISSUES (CHALLENGES) FACING HRM

• Invest on HR professionalism and professionals;

• Understanding and Managing people;

– How to find, motivate , nurture, develop and keep them.

• Learn and adapt to evolving role of HRM;

• Discern, create and adapt organizational culture;

• Availing Skilled and motivated workforce;

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 STRATEGIC ISSUES (CHALLENGES) FACING HRM

• See HR as a decision science and bring discipline to it;

– HRM is not a random set of events, but a disciplined set of choices.

• Responding strategically to changes in the market place;

– Requires continuous monitoring for pressing competitive issues of the

organization.

• Advancing HRM with technology;

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 STRATEGIC ISSUES (CHALLENGES) FACING HRM

• Managing knowledge workers

• Maintain cost while retaining top performing employees

• Managing workforce diversity

• Globalization

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 THE HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGER’S PROFICIENCIES

• New Proficiencies
– HR proficiencies
– Business proficiencies
– Leadership proficiencies
– Learning proficiencies
• Managing within the Law
– Equal employment laws
– Occupational safety and health laws
– Labor laws
• Managing Ethics
– Ethical lapses
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 READING ASSIGNMENT

• Read about International Human Resource Management (Armstrong, 2006: 99)

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 INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT (IHRM)

• IHRM is the process of employing, developing and rewarding

people in international or global organizations.

• IHRM is ‘human resource management issues, functions and

policies and practices that result from the strategic activities of
multinational enterprises and that impact on the international
concerns and goals of those enterprises.’

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 WHY STUDY IHRM?
• Effective HRM is one of the major determinant of success or failure
in international business.

• The availability of internationally experienced managers has

significant contribution for the successful implementation of global
strategies.

• Expatriate failures continue to be a significant problem for many

international firms.

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 HRM POLICY ISSUES

▪ From where to hire people with the right competence for the
international operations.
▪ Whether to use local nationals or expatriates.
▪ Expatriates are people who are the nationals of the parent
company or who have third-country nationality.

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 LOCAL NATIONALS OR EXPATRIATES

LOCAL NATIONAL
EXPATRIATES
• Are familiar with local markets,
communities, the cultural setting and • Provide the experience and expertise
the local economy. that local nationals lack.
• Speak the local language and are • Cost three or four times local
culturally assimilated. nationals.
• Can take a long-term view and
• Have short term perspective.
contribute for a long period.
• Do not take the patronizing (neo-
colonial) attitude.
• Relatively cheaper labor.

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 HRM POLICY ISSUES
1. Recruitment and selection issues
• Specifying role requirements: behavior’s required for those who work
internationally.
Examples:
• Tolerate and adjust to local conditions.
• Gain acceptance as a representative of one’s company abroad.
• Inform and communicate effectively with a foreign environment about the
home company’s policies.
• Take into account the foreign environment when negotiating contracts
and partnerships.

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 HRM POLICY ISSUES
• Providing realistic previews about the job assignment such as:
– About the overseas operation
– Any special features of the work
– How to adjust to local conditions
– Career progression options
– Re-entry policy on completion of the assignment
– Pay and benefits
• Cultural familiarization sessions

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 HRM POLICY ISSUES
2. Training
– Need analysis (in terms of skill and cultural requirements of the
assignment).
– Set training goals
– Develop training course
– Evaluate success

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 HRM POLICY ISSUES
3. Performance management issues
– Assimilations review – to assess the potential and ability of
individuals to cope with overseas conditions.

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 HRM POLICY ISSUES
4. Pay and allowances policies
4.1 Home based pay
• The value of the salary of expatriates is the same as in their home country.
4.2. The host-based pay
• Expatriates are paid salaries and benefits that are in line with those given to
nationals of the host country in similar jobs.
• Allowances can be hardship, housing, school fee, holiday, company cars, etc.

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 HRM POLICY ISSUES
5. Should we have the same HR policies for all firms?(Global /local dilemma)
• ‘Converge’ worldwide to be basically the same in each location, or
• ‘Diverge’ to be differentiated in response to local requirements.

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HRM STRATEGIC OPTIONS

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 Local factors that influence strategic choices
Local Conditions Pa re n t - C o m p a ny S t r a t e g y

• The workforce doesn’t enjoy much power • Ethnocentric

• Unskilled and uneducated workforce • Global
• Scarce job opportunities
• High unemployment rate
• Employees are young with little or no experience
• No well established organizational culture
• Subsidiary located in a developing country and less
advanced in technical & professional management
issues.

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 Local factors that influence strategic choices
Local Conditions Pa re n t - C o m p a ny S t r a t e g y

• Highly skilled and educated workforce • Polycentric

• Employees are aware of their rights
• Pro-workers rules and regulations
• Low unemployment rate
• Economic boom
• Subsidiary located in a technically and
professionally advanced industrialized
country.

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HOW TO DEVELOP INTERNATIONAL APPROACH

An explicit recognition by the parent organization that:

• Its own peculiar ways of managing human resources reflect some of the
assumptions and values of its home culture.
• Its foreign subsidiaries may have other preferred ways of managing people that
are neither intrinsically better nor worse, but could possibly be more effective
locally.
• Genuine belief that more creative and effective ways of managing people could
be developed as a result of cross-cultural learning.
• Acknowledge, discuss and make useable cultural differences.

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THE LEGAL ASPECTS OF HRM

Understanding and complying with HR law is important for three

reasons:
• To do the right thing

• Realize the limitations of firm’s HR

• Minimize firm’s potential liability

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 EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY (EEO )

• Is the condition in which all individuals have an equal chance for

employment, regardless of their race, color, religion, sex, age,
disability, or national origin.
• The treatment of individuals in all aspects of employment in a fair
and nonbiased manner.

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 EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY …

• EEO demands the practice of reasonable accommodation.

• Refers to an attempt by employers to adjust, without unnecessary

hardship, the working conditions or schedules of employees with
disabilities or religious preferences.

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 DISCRIMINATION IN THE WORKPLACE

• Discrimination is defined us the making of distinctions among people.

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 DISPARATE TREATMENT

• One sign of discrimination is disparate treatment - differing

treatment of individuals, where the differences are based on the
individuals’ race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age or disability
status.
Example:
• Hiring or promoting one person over an equally qualified person
because of the individual’s race.
• Failing to hire women with school-age children but hiring men with
school-age children.

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 TO AVOID DISPARATE TREATMENT

Evaluating interview questions and decision criteria to make sure

they are job related.

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 AFFIRMATIVE ACTION
• A strategy intended to achieve fair employment by urging
employers to hire certain groups of people who were discriminated
against in the past.
• An organization’s active effort to find opportunities to hire or
promote people in a particular group.
• Taking extra effort to attract and retain minority employees.
• Affirmative action measures are temporary interventions.

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 AFFIRMATIVE ACTION AND ETHIOPIAN LAW

❖Article 35
• The historical legacy of inequality and discrimination suffered by women in
Ethiopia taken into account, women, in order to remedy this legacy, are entitled
to affirmative measures.
• The purpose of such measures shall be to provide special attention to women
so as to enable them to compete and participate on the basis of equality with
men in political, social and economic life as well as in public and private
institutions.

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 AFFIRMATIVE ACTION AND ETHIOPIAN LAW
• Proclamation 515/2007
In recruitment, promotion and deployment preference shall be given to:
• Female candidates
• Candidates with disabilities; and
• Members of nationalities comparatively less represented in the government
office, having equal or close scores to that other candidates.

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 HARASSMENT IN THE WORKPLACE
Sexual Harassment

• Unwelcome advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal

or physical conduct of a sexual nature in the working environment.

• Sexual harassment includes any type of behavior, comments,

gestures, and actions of a sexual nature that create a hostile work
environment for an employee.

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 ACTIVITY
• What can you do as a human resource manager to deal with
harassment in the workplace?

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 HOW TO DEAL WITH HARASSMENT
• Have clear well communicated harassment prohibiting policy
– Definition of sexual harassment (physical conduct, verbal conduct & non-verbal
conduct)
– Training and refreshment training programs
– Compliant procedure
– Disciplinary measures (from warning to dismissal)
• In place effective complaint procedure
• Guard against retaliation
• Quickly investigate all claims
• Take remedial action to correct past harassment
• Follow up to prevent continuation of harassment
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READING ASSIGNMENT

• Read about job analysis (Scott, S. A. & Bohlander , G. W., (2012). Managing Human Resources).

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