Challenges Facing 21st Century Human Resource Managers example essay topic

One of the most essential activities of an organization today is the management of its human resources. As organizations become more global and as changes occur at an increasingly rapid rate, human resource development managers are faced with many challenges. These challenges involve both compensation and non-compensation related issues. Some challenges include globalization, cultural diversity, legislation, the emerging roles of women and minorities in the workplace and values in age differences. Globalization has and will continue to have a large impact on human resource management. More employees are engaged in a global life style due to technology, trade and travel.

Corporations are looking at the world as a single market and they will structure their employees and their services accordingly to meet the needs of a global market. To survive in a global economy, organizations must be able to resolve labor cost issues and be able to provide a compensation program that is equitable to all of it's employees. Global competition has forced executives to recognize that they must think differently about management. The only way to be successful as a global company is to develop an effective human resource management system with employees who can implement international business strategies (Adler, 1990). Managing globally, requires a great understanding of cultural differences in interaction patterns and in attitudes towards time, influence, and problems solving styles. An example is that the North American approach of arranging very closely managed schedules for meetings with time allotted for each topic according to it's financial impact is incompatible with some non-North American cultures.

In Europe or Asia, executives allow more time in the beginning for associates to get to know each other (Chase, 1998). Socio-cultural acceptance, religious beliefs, customs and trends are all challenging issues that human resource managers must face when dealing with globalization. Human resource development is the primary tool for leveraging a single global vision as well as integrating local cultural differences (Marquardt & Engel, 1993). As employees from different cultures enter the United States workforce and as companies continue to transfer into the global market, human resources mangers need to very conscientious of cultural diversity. Many organizations are providing formal training on cultural diversity for their employees. Training on ethics and how different cultures have different ethical values is also an important topic for organizations.

The Center for Business Ethics at Bentley College in Massachusetts has found forty-five percent of the largest U.S. companies now have ethics programs or workshops (Marquardt & Engel, 1993). In regard to compensation, human resource managers have a lot to consider when dealing with cultural differences. For example, one benefit for most employees is that they are compensated and not expected to come to work on certain major holidays. For most people in the United States, this would include, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, etc.

Do organizations give Muslim employees compensation for time not worked during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan? Human resource managers must examine these issues and determine if it is fair or not to recognize and compensate one culture's religious holidays and not another's. Another challenge is that there are so many different religions and once you make an allowance for one, the same treatment may be expected by other groups. Legislation continues to be an area where human resource managers must be aware of the changing laws and how they effect employee compensation. In recent years, since the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, many organizations have been faced with employees taking extended leave for stress-related conditions. In most cases, they employee claims that the job has caused their stress and their doctor has given some type of written documentation that they should take time off from work.

In a lot of these cases, co-workers perform the duties and job assignments of the worker who is on leave. Some doctors or employers may feel that they do not want the risk of a lawsuit so they will accommodate the request for the stressed out employee to be off work. Some cases may be legitimate, but many of these cases have raised questions. Is it then fair that the co-workers must work extra hard to complete work assignments for another employee who is off work because they are feeling stressed? Should their compensation be the same? Are these types of situations lowering the morale of employees?

These are all questions and issues that human resource managers need to be mindful of. With an increasing number of women, African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians and other races in the world and in the workforce, the term "minority" seems obsolete. However, many agencies are still very "white-male" dominated at the top levels. Minorities have faced many difficulties as they have entered the workforce. These include the glass ceiling preventing few from emerging into senior management roles.

Women, especially have faced difficulties with sexual harassment, childcare and now, finding eldercare. The female style of leadership may be what is needed most to run a global corporation in the twenty-first century (Naisbitt, 2000). The reason for this is that the dominant principle within future global organizations has shifted from management in order to control an enterprise to leadership in order to bring out the best in people and to be able to respond quickly to change. Human resource managers must realize that woman are emerging as dynamic leaders in organizations and in order to keep them, organizations may have to provide such benefits as: child care facilities, elder care, flexible hours, telecommuting, etc.

Characteristics of Age differences in the workforce need to be looked at by human resource managers. The major working class of baby-boomers which has been working and which is starting to reach retirement now is very different from the evolving and future generation-xer workers. Baby-boomers have always been loyal to their company while generation-xers are loyal to their skills. A baby-boomer would be very proud to say that he / she worked for the same company for thirty years.

A generation-xer is loyal to themself and they will move from job to job, wherever they see a better opportunity to enhance their skills or move up the corporate ladder. They are not as interested in investing in the company's pension plan. They will invest in mutual funds on their own. For this reason, it is more important now than ever, for human resource managers to provide incentives to retain good employees.

There is a lot of competition for skilled employees and in order to keep people, human resource departments need to be aware of the values for the current workforce. The benefits / compensation package that kept baby-boomers in an organization for many years may not be as appealing for generation-xers. Managing human resources in the twenty-first century may be the most challenging aspect of running an organization. The world and the way organizations conduct business has changed dramatically and continues to change rapidly. Managers should keep in mind that today's workers are very different from previous workforces.

Today's workforce is filled with people of different cultures, races, and genders that have different values. In addition, competition is greater and human resource managers must strive to acquire and retain the best quality of worker by providing both compensation and non-compensation components that are attractive to the employee.

Bibliography

Alder, Nancy J. "Globalization and Human Resource Management", Journal of Human Resource Management, 34, p. 4-8 (1990) Chase, Mackie.
Strategic International Human Resource Development", Journal of Human Resource Management, 5, p. 53-67 (1998) Marquardt, M & Engle, D.
Global Human Resource Development, Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, Inc. 1993 Naisbitt, John.
Mega trends, New York: Avon, 2000 Ulrich, Dave.
HR Tomorrow's Management, Canada: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 1997.