Organizational Strategy in Global Companies

Organizational Strategy in Global Companies

Managing Diversity

• The workforce is growing increasingly diverse in terms of not only age but also gender, ethnicity, background, education lifestyle and other variables such as health, sexual orientation and so on

• Employees have a variety of needs and demands that HRM must consider

• We also cannot ignore the impact that globalization has had on the workforce

• In your opinion, what impact has globalization had on the workforce?

• As they prepare themselves for the 21st century, human resources departments must adapt to their changing role within an organization.

• Moving from a traditional to a strategic approach, human resources management in the 21st century will be much more dynamic than in the past.

• The basic personal functions that characterized traditional human resource management, such as maintenance of personal files and records and the processing of documents, will be replaced by a focus on promoting the abilities, skills, and knowledge of employees.

• HR departments can best prepare for their changing role by adopting a "human investment perspective" that is more active than reactive and that no longer relies on the hierarchical organizational structures of the past.

• Instead, the focus will be on – catering to the needs of consumers – and employees and – Using private sector values/strategies in human

resources policies and practices.

• HR must consider the differences in expectations, values, demands from the multigenerational workforce

Managing Workplace Diversity

• Understanding and Appreciating Diversity– Is critical to effectively marketing to ethnic and minority

groups– Is promoted by having a diverse workforce at all organization

levels– Helps ensure that hiring and promotion decisions are

unbiased by person differences• Diversity Management Programs/Initiatives

– Must be integrated with organization’s mission and objectives– Help key decision makers identify diversity’s benefits to the

organization

Multi-Generational Workforce• One major challenge human resources departments

face is serving multiple generations within a single workforce.

• The challenge in worker motivation is the dealing with the growing diversity in the workforce.

• Today, Baby Boomers, Baby Busters or Generation X, and Generation Y staff members may work in the same organization, often with differing needs, expectations, and strengths.

• Ice Breaker Exercise and Understanding Generational Differences Exercise

Here we go!Oklahoma City

BombingWatergate July 27th Coup

(Trinidad and Tobago)

First Man on the Moon

Black power movement

Trinidad and Tobago

Clinton/Lewinski Scandal

George Chambers

Ronaldo (Brazilian Footballer)

Noor Hassanali

Eric Williams Independence Day Speech

USA vs Trinidad and Tobago

(Prequalifier for the World Cup

Italy)

September 11th (New York)

The Berlin Wall Fell

Hurricane Gilbert

(Jamaica)

Diego Maradonna

33-3 Election results

AnswersOklahoma City

Bombing1995

Watergate1973

July 27th Coup (Trinidad and Tobago) 1990

First Man on the Moon

1969

Black power movement

Trinidad and Tobago 1970

Clinton/Lewinski Scandal

1998

George Chambers

Ronaldo (Brazilian Footballer)

First Muslim President

Trinidad and Tobago

1962Independence Day Speech

USA vs Trinidad and Tobago

(Prequalifier for the World Cup

Italy)1989

September 11th (New York)

2001

The Berlin Wall Fell1989

Hurricane Gilbert

(Jamaica) 1988

Diego Maradonna

(Argentinian Footballer)

33-3 Election results 1986

What was the purpose of the game?

• This allows us to break down the generations that are in the workplace today: The Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y

Generation X• The generation following the post-World War II

baby boom, especially people born from the early 1960s to the late 1970s

• Generation X (1964 – 1980)now between 33 and 49years old

What makes them tick?

• They are usually motivated by the prospect of independence, the lack of corporate structure, a lack of rigidity, and the latest technological advances

The Myths surrounding Gen X

• They’re materialistic.– Many are struggling to make ends meet. – This generation is probably the generation that

probably will not replicate or improve on their parents’ lifestyle.

– They worry that they will not have the money to pay for a house and children’s education.

– They want to get out of debt. While money is important to them, material wealth and status items are largely scorned.

» Adapted from Claire Raines, Beyond Generation X (Menlo Park, CA: Crisp Publications, 1997)

The Myths surrounding Gen X

• They’re whiners.– Gen Xers face some rather daunting challenges –

college loans, skyrocketing health care costs – yet most are philosophical about the problems they are inheriting.

» Adapted from Claire Raines, Beyond Generation X (Menlo Park, CA: Crisp Publications, 1997)

The Myths surrounding Gen X

• They have a “you owe me” attitude.

– No more so than any other generation.

» Adapted from Claire Raines, Beyond Generation X (Menlo Park, CA: Crisp Publications, 1997)

The Myths surrounding Gen X

• They’re not willing to work hard.– In interviews, Gen Xers consistently tell us they are

willing to work very hard. – They don’t want to be taken advantage of, though.

– Many believe it’s unfair to expect a seventy-hour

week for forty hours of pay. – And, as a generation, they’re committed to having

a life beyond work.» Adapted from Claire Raines, Beyond Generation X (Menlo Park, CA: Crisp

Publications, 1997)

Baby Boomers

• Baby boom 1946 - 1964

Baby Boomers

– In excess supply in middle management ranks– HR challenge is to manage “plateaued” workers

• Causes of employment plateaus for Baby Boomers• Declining engagement, employee burnout and lack of

opportunities are some of the major causes of employee plateaus, Southern Arkansas University professor James W. Clerk asserts in his 2005 retail industry analysis. These factors often overlap, too.

• For example, Clark notes, many managers never advance. By contrast, fast-track candidates reject opportunities that require additional work but lack the higher pay and benefits to make the leap worthwhile. Either way, the outcome leads to stress and frustration with the employer.

• Early Indications• An organization’s attitude toward the employee will

indicate if he/she is stuck in a career rut. • Getting passed over for promotions is one red flag,

especially if a co-worker moves ahead of another colleague, "Forbes" magazine advises in its March 2011 article, "Top 10 Signs It's Time to Leave Your Job."

• “If nobody's challenging your skills anymore, your development is no longer on the organization's internal radar”.

• The “Graying” of the Workforce• Negative Aspects of Older Workers– Perceived resistance to change by older workers.– Increased health-care costs for senior workers– Blocking advancement opportunities for younger

workers– Higher wage and salary costs for senior workers

• Positive Aspects of Older Workers– As productive or more productive than younger

workers– Have more organizational loyalty than younger

workers– Possess broader industry knowledge and

professional networks

Generation Y and beyond

Generation Y

• They're young, smart, brash. They may wear flip-flops to the office or listen to iPods at their desk. They want to work, but they don't want work to be their life

• This generation — whose members have not yet hit 30 — is different from any that have come before, according to researchers and authors such as Bruce Tulgan, a founder of New Haven, Conn.-based RainmakerThinking, which studies the lives of young people

• Gen Y has been pampered, nurtured and programmed with a slew of activities since they were toddlers, meaning they are both high-performance and high-maintenance, Tulgan says.

• They also believe in their own worth.

• Generation Y is much less likely to respond to the traditional command-and-control type of management still popular in much of today's workforce," says Jordan Kaplan, an associate managerial science professor at Long Island University-Brooklyn in New York.

• "They've grown up questioning their parents, and now they're questioning their employers. They don't know how to shut up, which is great, but that's aggravating to the 50-year-old manager who says, 'Do it and do it now.' "

• They have financial smarts. • After witnessing the financial insecurity that

beset earlier generations stung by layoffs and recession, today's newest entrants into the workforce are generally savvy when it comes to money and savings.

• They care about such benefits as retirement plans, work life balance, flexitime.

• Work-life balance isn't just a buzz word. Unlike boomers who tend to put a high priority on career, today's youngest workers are more interested in making their jobs accommodate their family and personal lives.

• They want jobs with flexibility, telecommuting options and the ability to go part time or leave the workforce temporarily when children are in the picture

• •Change, change, change. Generation Yers don't expect to stay in a job, or even a career, for too long — they've seen the scandals that imploded Enron and Arthur Andersen, and they're skeptical when it comes to such concepts as employee loyalty, Tulgan says.

• They don't like to stay too long on any one assignment. This is a generation of multitaskers, and they can juggle e-mail on their BlackBerrys while talking on cellphones while trolling online.

• And they believe in their own self worth and value enough that they're not shy about trying to change the companies they work for. That compares somewhat with Gen X, a generation born from the mid-1960s to the late-1970s, known for its independent thinking, addiction to change and emphasis on family.

• "The millennium generation has been brought up in the most child-centered generation ever. They've been programmed and nurtured," says Cathy O'Neill, senior vice president at career management company Lee Hecht Harrison in Woodcliff Lake, N.J. "Their expectations are different. The millennial expects to be told how they're doing."

• Conflicts over casual dress • In the workplace, conflict and resentment can

arise over a host of issues, even seemingly innocuous subjects such as appearance, as a generation used to casual wear such as flip-flops, tattoos and capri pants finds more traditional attire is required at the office.

• Recruitment and Perks• Employers are examining new ways to recruit

and retain and trying to sell younger workers on their workplace flexibility and other qualities generally attractive to Gen Y.

What makes them tick?

• They love a challenge• They function well as team members – a bit

different from their older siblings in Gen X• They want to be heroes• They want to be surrounded by bright,

creative people• They want it – right now

How do you teach, train, and orient them?

• Allow plenty of orientation time• Create a clear, realistic picture of the work

environment – good and bad• Spell out expectations and goals• Take the time to find out their goals and help

them define a strategy for meeting them• Take note that gender roles of the previous

generations do not apply

• Discussion:

• What expectations would we expect from Generation X

• Generation Y• Baby Boomers at this stage in their life?

Baby Boomers vs Generation Y vs Baby Busters

• Baby Boomers – conservative, reinforce tradition, more authoritative– Value seniority, experience, performance, tradition

• Baby Busters – priorities shifting, welcome change but familiar with traditional personnel management– Welcome flexibility, fairness/equity– Expectations: demand recognition based on

performance, academic achievement, and objectivity

• Generation Y– Expect rewards, benefits, independence, control,

input into the decision making process (whether requested or not), recognition based on performance, innovation, academic achievement

– Value freedom do not like confinement– Want the ability to climb the organization’s ladder

comparatively quickly unlike Baby Boomers who know the importance of seniority, years of experience

• They want to be treated as individuals and they want to know what their job duties are and how performance will be measured

• They want to be paid fairly, based on their contributions to productivity and compared with the salaries of other employees

• They want their individual skills sand abilities to be fully utilized in ways that contribute to productive agency and to their own personal career development

Change looming

• As babyboomers retire, the 21st century will see extreme changes in workplace expectations and environment.

• For the incoming workforce, the "hired for life" mentality of the past will be obsolete as workers increasingly change employers after 3 to 5 years of work.

• Placing more emphasis on proper work-life balance, they will be motivated by learning opportunities and positive feedback. To retain these employees, human resources departments must be ready to respond to these needs.

Strategic Human resources planning

• Human resources planning is a process that identifies current and future human resources needs for an organization to achieve it goals.

• Human resources planning should serve as a link between human resources management and the overall strategic plan of an organization.

• Aging worker populations in most western countries and growing demands for qualified workers in developing economies have underscored the importance of effective Human Resources Planning

• Effective human resources planning strategies are those that include having sufficient staff, with the right mixture of talent, and who are in the appropriate locations, performing their jobs when needed. It moves beyond the traditional role of human resources as primarily an administrative control function.

• In today’s corporate environment, it is viewed as a valuable component for adding value to an organization. Both employees and the organizations will often realize many benefits of planning over the long-run.

Strategic human resource planning

• Strategic human resource planning is essential to identify critical human resource gaps, that is, areas within the agency where downsizing is needed and those in which there is a need for employees (GAO 2001; OPM 2006, p.46).

• In addition, it calls for the identification of deficiencies in leadership, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as, performance, which maybe caused by organizational changes (Crumpacker & Crumpacker 2007; GAO 2001, 80) such as the crisis in human capital.

• In this way, the shape of public sector agency would be more proportioned instead of lopsided as agencies facing the crisis in human capital appear to be (Walker 2007, p.319).

The importance of strategic human resource planning

• Retention• Recruit• Qualified employment– Competent employees– Able to adapt to changing environment

HR’s Role and Responsibility

• Their role, human resources management, includes the hiring of new employees, the administration of benefits, and the monitoring of regulation compliance.

• To best prepare themselves for the changing face of human resources management, HR departments must rise to the challenges of retaining and building a talented workforce.

The “Crisis In Human Capital”

• It can be defined as a crisis in human resource management occurring

• a. when the demand for employees far exceeds its supply (Klingner et al 2010; Voinovich 2000)

• b. when the need for qualified and skilled employees is high (Hays & Sowa 2005 ).

• It refers to the growing necessity to recruit efficient, competent and effective employees as the number of experienced, knowledgeable and skilled public sector employees is diminishing and is clearly manifest in the public sector,

• (Klingner et al 2010, p. 184; Voinovich 2000, p.5; Hays & Sowa 2005, p. 98 ).

• It also refers to the impending deficit in talented, experienced employees in the public sector if government employers are unable to recruit younger, competent, knowledgeable and capable new employees to replace an unprecedented number of employees who will be eligible for retirement or would be retiring soon or in a couple of years (Klingner et al 2010, 184; Voinovich 2000, p.5).

• The likely deficit in human capital would mean that government agencies face a serious problem of having an “inexperienced and ineffective workforce” (Voinovich 2000, p.2).

Compensation And Benefits

• Public sector employees’ compensation and benefits have also been identified as a cause of the crisis in human capital resulting in a decrease in the “quality of new hires” (Hays & Sowa 2005, p. 98).

• Unattractive and non-competitive compensation packages have been argued to have deterred potential highly skilled, technologically advanced and competence employees from working in the public sector (Hays & Sowa 2005; Voinovich 2000, p.2 ).

Workforce Planning

• Workforce planning as a key to strategic HRM

• - the need to plan, and to anticipate and react and even to control trends

Workforce planning

• Recruiting and retaining young employees• Avoiding a brain drain by meeting mid-career

challenges• Transcending age bias to leverage mature

workers• Embracing flexible work arrangements• Filling skills gaps and mastering training

challenges

Recruit, retain, and develop a skilled and diverse workforce

• Recruiting top-notch specialists and managers has become increasingly difficult but very necessary

• Problem also to retain these experts

Redefining public service careers and promoting public service

• Need to promote public service work– showing the importance/value of a ‘government job’ – Showing how government jobs can tap into a

person’s public service motivation– Public servant as the Samaritan – Public service as equated to civic duty and civic

responsibilities– Honour to be a public servant and develop country

especially developing/young state

• Also the need for employee and family friendly workplace policies

• Aligning compensation, benefits and other attractors

• Anticipating demographically driven labour shortages

Leadership and Knowledge Management

• Knowledge management (KM) comprises a range of strategies and practices used in an organization to identify, create, represent, distribute, and enable adoption of insights and experiences.

• Such insights and experiences comprise knowledge, either embodied in individuals or embedded in organizations as processes or practices.

• Results-Oriented Performance Culture –high performing workforce & effective performance management system

Strategies for Organizational planning

• Job Descriptions– Traditional job descriptions did not help

employees manage their career• Because they only gave a brief outline of duties• Employees must wait to find out about working

conditions and performance standards after they have been hired

• Evaluating employees without giving them clear performance standards is a sure way to increase anxiety and frustration

• Traditional job descriptions limit and stereotype– Difficult to establish or use qualifications or

credentials

• Improving job descriptions– Identify task

• What work duties are important to the job– Conditions:

• what things make the job difficult or satisfactory– Standards;

• What objective performance levels– Competencies:

• What skills, knowledge abilities– Qualification

• Education, training, experience

Value of Job Analysis

• The process of recording information about the employee’s job

• It is done by monitoring the employee – Talking with employee– Observations– Corroborations

• It results in job specifications and job descriptions

Non Standard Work Arrangement

• Flexible employment– Job description important here– Employee motivation a major consideration– Employee demands, expectations, perception

important

• Notes

• Two problems / major concerns are identified here. • The first being that government agencies have

experienced a shortage in well qualified employees (Hays & Sowa 2005; Walker 2007, 318)

• and the second being that the competition to recruit such highly qualified employees is immense (Walker 2007, 318; OPM 2006), particularly in “mission-critical occupations” (GAO 2001, p.83).

• Mission critical refers to any factor of a system/organization whose failure will result in the failure of business operations. That is, it is critical to the organization's 'mission'

• Employees or human capital must be viewed as a “strategic asset” by public sector leaders and state governments

• HRM must appreciate the value that a well-qualified workforce can add to the agency’s capabilities which can be adversely impacted with a crisis in human capital (GAO 2001, 72; Green 2007).

Traditional Public Service Systems

Public Service Systems for the Twenty-first Century

Single system in theory; in reality multiple systems not developed strategically

Recognize multiple systems; be strategic about system development; define and inculcate core values

Merit definition that had the outcome of protecting people and equated fairness as sameness

Merit definition that has the outcome of encouraging better performance and allows differentiation between different talent

Emphasis on process and rules Emphasis on performance and results

Hiring/promotion of talent based on technical expertise

Hire, nurture, and promote talent to the right places

Job for life/lifelong commitment Inners and outers who share core values

Treating personnel as a cost Treating human resources as an asset and an investment

Protection justifies tenure Employee performance and employer need justifies retention

Performance appraisal based on individual activities

Performance appraisal based on demonstrated individual contribution to organizational goals

Labor-management relationship based on conflicting goals, antagonistic relationship, and ex-post disputes and arbitration on individual cases

Labour-management partnership based on mutual goals of successful organization and employee satisfaction, ex-ante involvement in work design

Central agency that fulfilled the personnel functions for agencies

Central agency that enables agencies, especially managers to fulfill the personnel functions for themselves

What Challenges Face Human Resources Departments in the 21st Century?

With the 21st century underway, nonprofit, government, and private organizations seek to

adapt to an ever-changing professional environment. Within these organizations, human

resources, HR, departments face particular challenges.

• State the challenges that face the human resource management model

• Why is equal opportunity important?

• What problems as a result of equal opportunity?