HRM & OB 1

Running Head: HRM & OB

HRM & OB

HRM & OB 2

ContentsPreface........................................................3Aim and Objective of the Research..............................3Changing Landscape Of HRM......................................4Changing Landscape Of OB.......................................5Tools of HRM and OB............................................5Tools of HRM:.................................................6Tools of OB:..................................................6

Challenges for the HRM and OB..................................7Interventions..................................................8Cross Cultural Dynamics of Contemporary Organizations..........9Propagation of HRM and OB in Multinational Environments.......10Influence of Culture in Enactment of HRM Practices in MNCs. . . .12Conclusion....................................................13References....................................................15

HRM & OB 3

PrefaceIn today’s corporate and globalized business environment,

HRM (Human Resource Management) is one of the essential tools for

the business organizations that determine overall success of the

corporation’s (Harzing & Pinnington, 2010). In addition, HRM also

deals with a variety of tools, elements, strategies and processes

that plays significant role in the growth of organizations

effectively. At the same time, it is also observed that, without

human resource, any company or firm cannot fulfill their

strategic objectives and vision. On the other hand, the term HRM

defined as the soul of the whole organization. HRM handles all

the human resource within the organization and help to achieve

the objective and goals of the organization (Hayton, 2012). So,

it is clear that HRM is the important department for the

organization.

Additionally, in this research paper, the changing landscape

of HRM and OB (Organizational Behavior) in today’s business

environment would be discussed. On the other hand, the tools,

challenges and interventions related to the OB & HRM would also

HRM & OB 4

be presented in this paper in order to fully achieve the aims and

objectives of this research. Apart from this, a brief discussion

about cross cultural dynamics of contemporary organizations and

propagation of HRM and OB in multinational environments would

also be interpreted effectively in an effective and proper manner

(Bull, 2002). Finally, influence of culture in enactment of HRM

practices in MNCs will also be presented. In the other word, the

main objectives HRM to analyzed removing the cross culture

barrier by using different specific approaches and strategies

such as the induction and training process provide during the

training of the employees. The strategy to provide the training

and induction process by the HRM department helps to remove the

cross culture problem among the employees in the organization.

Aim and Objective of the ResearchThere are various objectives and aims of this research paper. But

the main objective of this research is:

To develop the new strategy for protecting the cross culture

problem and improve the adaptation process of changing role

HRM & OB 5

of HRM & OB, and conceptual framework of the Human Resource

Management at national and international level.

Changing Landscape of HRMIn recent time, the changing environment of human resource

management make able to the organization’s human resource

department to achieve the goals and objective of the

organization. This statement clearly indicates that, the

landscape of HRM is changing in today’s fast globalized business

environment. Job designation is one of the significant and

notable changes in the organizations. In the past, all the

designations were considered as functional. Head of personnel

department was known as industrial relations manager or personnel

manager. But, in today’s HRM era, they are known as: director,

vice-president or president (Cooke, 2005).

Generally, it is also analyzed that, the recent trends

changing the landscape of HRM directly or indirectly. These

trends are employee for rent, employer's social responsibility

related to organizational work, accounting for HR and employees

functioning from home (Pasquale, 2005). On the other hand, it

HRM & OB 6

should also be noted down that, the beginning of new techniques &

technology in the production and the increased responsiveness of

rights by the employees gave significance to personnel function.

At the same time, there are various elements/factors that are

responsible for changing the landscape of HRM. For instance,

participative management, globalization, cultural diversity, and

economic liberalization are the factors that increased the

importance of human resource management in today’s context

(Cooke, 2005).

By considering another example, in the starting of 1990,

the total quality management help to recognize the problem with

product quality and improve the quality of product which adopted

by the consumers. But, as per today’s context, HRM is integrated

by the business organization with the strategic management. Due

to change in the HRM, the organization improves the welfare

facility for the employee (Pasquale, 2005). At the same time, the

human resource manager helps to prepare the strategy to improve

the living standard of the employee. They also help to achieving

the objective and goals of the organization (Cooke, 2005). Hence,

it can be stated that, the modern HRM is totally different as

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compare to traditional HRM. Various differences can be found in

the policies as well as structures.

Changing Landscape of OBIn the current economy, there are various differences among

the traditional and modern organizational behavior. It means the

today the landscape of OB is changing. For example, in the

traditional time, the main objective of the business organization

was to increase more and more profits level and sales. But, in

the current, the main aim of the business organization is to

fully satisfy customers as well as employees effectively. In the

same manner, improving organization's effectiveness is one of the

main purposes of OB (Bull, 2002).

Additionally, in the past, there were no strategies related

to group thinking and feedback of employees. But, in today’s

context, organizations are focus on such types of strategies in

order to improve overall performance effectively (Gerber, 2010).

For example, today, each and every firm including private and

government, uses an effective evaluation system/process that

ensures that their worker are meeting necessary job standards.

HRM & OB 8

Hence, it can be stated that, globalization, technology,

planning, group thinking, evaluation systems etc. are the

significant factor that increased the importance of OB. So that,

in the modern era, the landscape of organizational behavior is

changing in the current business environment (Bull, 2002).

Tools of HRM and OB, their challenges and interventions

Training and skills development: As per Felstead et al., (2004)

continuous training and skills development are extremely useful

ingredients for creativity and competitive advantage at all the

three levels (operational, tactical and strategic) of

organization; hence employee learning and skills development have

evolved as favored terminology to replace employee training and

in broader perspective referred as human resource development -

HRD (Reid & Barrington, 2001). The main objective of training is

to attain organizational performance by improving skills,

knowledge and abilities (Adler, 2008) however recently there has

been a growing prioritization of softer social skills and

personal attitudes/attributes over technical competence, with

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some profound implications for recruitment training(Nickson et

al., 2004). Methods of employee training includes both on job and

off job learning with reflective perspective, secondment &

shadowing, job rotation and formal training by instructors

( Kolb, (1984); Beardwell & Claydon (2010, pp 294-299) as key

elements. Research shows that challenges with training and

development is that it is seen as cost rather than investment;

particularly in smaller organization (Boxall, 2003); many times

it is lack of fit with the business strategies, problems with

graduate educational system and poor graduate/employability

skills, government taking voluntary role, smaller firms less

interested in providing training then larger firms, part timers

and those in elementary occupation fair badly in receiving

training; with training heavily concentrated on key business

areas and to meet required norms and regulations. Importance of

segmentation and differentiation in competitive strategy between

firms within the same sector explains why a universalistic, ‘best

practice’ models of HRM and training are less widespread (Boxal,

2003). From arguments of Purcell (1999) and Scullion & Starkey

(2000) report, it can be concluded that resource based view

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(RBV) encourages dispersion of training across a critical group

whose skills are considered to be key in delivering competitive

success rather than those of the mass of front-line and/or

production workforce. These challenges can be mitigated by

interventions like open access to training for everyone, flexible

modular courses, accrediting prior learning, emphasizing

continuous learning based on employee needs, assessment of soft

and technical skills regularly with overall evaluation of

outcomes linking to profits and securing top level commitment.

Lifelong learning and modern apprenticeships schemes fitting

today’s need should also be embedded into culture (Beardwell &

Claydon, 2010, pp. 312-324). Strategically key competencies for

now and future should be established, competence levels assessed,

internal training plans developed, investment allocated on most

effective approach and effectiveness should be evaluated

regularly for becoming continuous learning organization.

Performance Management (PM): Performance management involves ‘a

cycle of integrated activities which ensures that a systematic

link is established between the contribution of each employee and

overall organizational performance’. The underlying conceptual

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foundations for PM lie in motivation theory, in particular, goal-

setting theory and expectancy theory. Goal setting theory

suggests that not only does the assignment of specific goals

result in enhanced performance but that, assuming goal

acceptance, increasing the challenge or difficulty of goals leads

to increased motivation and increased performance (Locke & Latham

(1984), Mitchell et al., (2004), Clark (1998)). Armstrong & Baron

(1998, p. 17) opines out the main value of PM is to communicate a

shared vision of the purpose and values of the organization,

translate corporate goals into team and individual goals, ensure

that people are aware of what constitutes high performance, how

they need to achieve it and how they will be measured, enhance

motivation, engagement and commitment by providing a means of

recognizing endeavor and achievement through feedback and enable

people to monitor their own performance, encourage dialogue about

what needs to be done to improve performance. As per Beardwell &

Claydon (2010) & Strebler et al., (2001) the challenges with PM

systems are often they are not used to measure right things, most

managers don’t have right skills in interpretation of statistics,

appraisal scheme fail mostly after 3 years as staff don’t receive

HRM & OB 12

useful feedback and after a while they don’t see it as genuine

aid and dislike them, sometimes delivers ‘patronage’ instead of

‘meritocracy’ especially if outcomes impact on pay and there are

difficulties in establishing tangible performance criteria. Grint

(1993, p. 63) and Bach (2000, p. 255) feels challenges with

performance appraisals are that many times they have conflict of

purpose between the two parties involved, some managers see it as

non value add and bureaucratic, effort and difficulty in

measuring meaningful data against metrics and can foster

distortions – ‘halo’, ‘horns’, cronyism’. Hence as an

intervention the performance management system should be designed

and appraisals conducted with aim of making right reward

decisions based on performance, encouraging performance

improvement by frequently having informal sessions focusing on

guiding and coaching approach, encouraging staff motivation,

succession planning, identifying key potential and promoting

dialogue (Townley 1990; 1989). The appraisal process should be

automated by investing in right information technology making the

job easier to continuously capture the right data, enhance

HRM & OB 13

monitoring and give training to managers on overall performance

management to increase employee and organization performance.

Employee Engagement, Motivation, Commitment & Empowerment:

It is imperative to develop satisfaction and a sense of

empowerment in employees by successfully engaging them resulting

in needed motivation, commitment and involvement. Without

involvement there will be challenge in achieving high performance

model and obtaining competitive advantage (Lawler, 1986; Leggie

1995). According to the report ‘Engaging for Success: enhancing

performance through employee engagement’, engaged employees have

a ‘sense of personal attachment to their work and organization;

they are motivated and able to give of their best to help it

succeed and from that flows a series of tangible benefits for

organization and individual alike’ (MacLeod & Clarke 2009: 7).

Engagement can be defined as ‘a set of positive attitudes and

behaviors enabling high job performance of kind which are in tune

with the organization’s mission’ (Storey, Wright & Ulrich 2008).

Within the report, Jackie Orme, former Chief Executive of CIPD,

HRM & OB 14

emphasizes the important role HR has in championing engagement as

‘HR can’t manufacture engagement, but we have a key role in

helping companies develop the kind of organizational culture

where engagement can thrive, and ensure that managers have the

skills to make engagement a reality’ (MacLeod & Clarke 2009:114).

Engagement

‘underlines the importance of HR engaging with business strategy

and goals, as well as ensuring that wider HR policies and

practices which impact on engagement, such as training and

development are in place (MacLeod & Clarke, 2009:114). To create

a high performance culture, it is important for organizations to

implement a thorough and inclusive policy of employee engagement.

Arnold Anderson (online) in her article ‘Challenges of Employee

Empowerement’ points that when employees are empowered there are

challenges like message disconnect as different employees will

communicate differently, in sufficient training in empowered

environment resulting in employees working on intuition,

reluctant managers not comfortable with empowered environment and

risk of breakdown of organizational structure. This challenges

can be intervened by employees/managers by conducting training

HRM & OB 15

regularly on common messages to be kept on internal and external

common situations, employees to check with managers for unique

situations, empowered employees to take responsibility to train

themselves continuously, managers to work closely with their

employees and gain the confidence necessary to allow empowerment

to be implemented and managers to make clear guidelines on

empowerment.

Diversity: It means understanding that each individual is unique.

There are various factors behind this such as race, ethnicity,

gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, physical

abilities, religious beliefs, political beliefs, or other

ideologies (Nicotera, Clinkscales & Walker, 2003). In his article

‘Diversity in the Workplace: Benefits, Challenges and Solutions,

Josh Greenberg highlights that when an organization embraces

diversity and take timely actions it will have benefits of

increased adaptability, broader service range, variety of view

points and effective execution resulting into increased

individual and organization performance. However there can be

HRM & OB 16

challenges of communication, resistance to change and

implementation of diversity in workplace policies. The challenges

can be mitigated by assessment of diversity in workplace,

development of diversity in workplace plan and its

implementation. Further to this change resistance should be

overcome by inclusion, attitude of openness fostered, diversity

in leadership positions promoted, conflict managed in

constructive way and diversity training regularly conducted.

Apart from this there are many other tools of HRM and OB like

recruitment & selection, retention; leadership, job satisfaction,

group dynamics and team work. They help to intervene challenges

like organizations effectiveness to meet competition, innovation

and change management, maintaining needed skilled staffing pool,

leadership quality development, succession planning(Pasquale,

2005), HR effectiveness measurement, ethical behavior,

development of positive work environment, globalization (Cooke,

2005) and increased importance of ethical responsibilities

Cross Cultural Dynamics of Contemporary Organizations

HRM & OB 17

In the current corporate sector, cross culture and globalization

are increasing in an effective way due to changes in the human

resource management and organizational behavior. In the

contemporary organizations, cross cultural interaction has taken

an important part to communicate with the customers and

stakeholders. Cross culture is important for the organizational

development, because it saves from the impact of the cultural

difference. For example, different cultural employees can solve

the problems related to culture and society. With cross culture,

employees can also improve their knowledge and skills in terms of

work and experience of the organization (Berger & Huntington,

2004).

Cross culture dynamics are also increased due to increase of the

workforce and the behavior of the contemporary organization.

These organizations are effective behaving with the different

cultures and providing opportunities to the employees, who

belongs from the different culture. In the global market,

dynamics of cultures are important for the organization to get

the advantages from the diverse workforce (McRae & Short, 2009).

In addition, contemporary organization has dynamic and

HRM & OB 18

multifaceted surroundings to influence the organizational

activities and actions. It is because; all the organizational

activities are affected by the social interactions and forces,

the inclusion of these interactions and forces increases the

intensity of the organizational performance and productivity

(McRae & Short, 2009).

Along with this, contemporary organizations also have a

bigger level of dynamic complexities by considering a cross

cultural workplace. To increase the environment of cross culture,

organizations are shaping the structure of the institution or

company as per the culture. It is good for the contemporary

organizations to consider cross culture in their workforce,

because it increases the respects, exercises and faith patterns

that are obtained from the different cultures (Nicotera,

Clinkscales & Walker, 2003). This type of cultural dynamics

improves the personalities and motives of the people, who belong

to the different culture.

Cross culture dynamics play both positive and negative roles

in the organization. In the positive aspects, it can be said that

cross culture is exciting, originative and generative for the

HRM & OB 19

organization. The employees of cross culture also want to

communicate with various cultures and have a desire to increase

their knowledge in several different ways such as language,

beliefs and attitudes (Scott, 2006). The workforce can also

reduce their misunderstandings related to a particular culture.

In addition, it also contains a mixture of different cultures

with their dynamics and attitudes. HR personnel also have a

benefit that they can easily manage the cross culture employees

in other countries.

In contrast, cross cultural dynamics also have some negative

factors that have a great impact on the HR personals’ decisions

and organizational activities. It is because; these cultures may

be stressful, puzzling, provoking and non-fertile to the

organization. The multi-culture also has employees with

aggressive nature that may be the reason of a reduction in

organizational growth and development (Berger & Huntington,

2004). It is because; it may create conflicts among the employees

due to difference in religions and beliefs.

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Propagation of HRM and OB in Multinational Environments

HRM and OB are propagating in the several multinational

environments to progress in the competitive environment. The HRM

practices are spreading across the nation boundaries to increase

the work boundaries. Organizations are increasing their roles and

responsibilities in the multinational environment to take global

experience. HRM and OB both are essential things to the

organization that improve the organizational success (Graen &

Graen, 2007). The difference in the HRM activities of one country

to another can be reduced by propagating these things in multi

nationals. It also enhances the knowledge and experience of HR

personnel due to differences in their cultures.

At the same time, multinational environments have different

laws and regulations that affect the HRM practices as well as the

behavior of the organization. Every nation has a different

employment law that affects the decisions of human resources. The

scope of HRM practices is increasing in the multinational

environments due to acceptance of these practices. The national

boundaries also included the international laws and practices of

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different nations due to increase the globalization. The

multinational organizations has been propagated the use of HRM

and organizational behavior and with the help of the

organizational culture and ethics in different nations (Hayton,

et. al, 2012).

The human resource problems are also rising in the

multinational environments due to legal insights, cultural system

and law of assumptions. HRM and OB are essential for the legal

requirements of company in the several nations. The multinational

organizations want to do their business with true corporate

culture as well as honest in the dissimilar culture (Adler,

2008). The HR managers must need to understand about the local

legal and employment requirements to survive and for good

practices. To surviving the MNCs must apply the local legal

organization law. It is because; all the legal and employment

requirements can be fulfilled through the appropriate law and

rules and regulations that are made by the company.

The organizational behavior is also propagating in the

multinational market to increase the effectiveness of the firm in

the corporate world. Organizations also changed their behaviors

HRM & OB 22

in the market, because they are taking risks by increasing the

market across the nation. The change in the organizational

behavior has also changed the knowledge, skills and experience of

the employees (Harzing & Pinnington, 2010). It is because;

multinational organizations are increasing the requirements for

recruitment and selection of the applicants that want to join the

organization. These people are selected and recruited on the

basis of skills and abilities that require in the international

market.

Apart from this, organizational behavior also changed in the

multinational market due to changes in the technology and

innovation of new technology (Graen & Graen, 2007). In the

current global market, organizations are using online HR

practices to hire the people from the international market. The

experienced human resources help to the organization to achieve

the goals and objectives. In current, organizations are using

latest and innovative technologies to obtain a better human

resource. It is very important for the organization that it

should employ right persons at the required job by using the

better recruitment and selection process.

HRM & OB 23

Influence of Culture in Enactment of HRM Practices in MNCs

Culture is an important factor that affects the performance

of the human resources in multinational corporations. All the

strategies and policies are made on the basis of cross culture,

because these cross culture included in the strategies. Culture

is varying from region to region, area by area and nation to

nation that has a big impact on the decisions of the HR personals

(Sparrow, 2010). The internal and external environment of the

culture also affects the human resources practices, because

internal environment is the organizational culture. On the other

hand, the external environment, the HR practices are affected due

to changes in the economic, social and political conditions of

the company.

At the same time, culture is considered as beliefs, norms

and behaviors of the employees in terms of the activities and

actions performed by them. If, the beliefs and norms of any

organization are different from local and international employee

then it would influence the enactment of HRM practices. In

addition, the beliefs of the managers depend on the

HRM & OB 24

organizational elements that are the tasks related to the human

resource management and the organizational people also. Both of

these organizational tasks deal with the character and behavior

of organizational people (Harris, 2008).

On the other hand, the human resource management practices

rely on both of the organizational task that vary from nation to

nation. It is because; every nation has different culture for

their employees to work in a different manner (Brewster &

Mayrhofer, 2012). The multinational corporations also change the

organizational culture due to changes in the national ethnicity,

traditions, rules and regulations.

MNCs have different organizational cultures than domestic or

national organizations, because they work only in a single

culture. All the MNCs work in cross culture or multi-cultures to

perform the tasks (Zheng, 2012). The change in the culture of the

organization, they also change the way of human resource

practices in the different countries as per their laws and acts.

Every nation also has a different culture from others that have

many changes in the culture such as traditions, language, trade

laws, employment laws and health safety regulations. Thus, it can

HRM & OB 25

be said that the culture has crucial influence on the HRM

practices that are performed in one country to another country

due to being a multinational corporation.

ConclusionFrom the above discussion, it can be concluded that, in the

current, there are various tools and elements of HRM and OB that

are used by the business organization in order perform various

function. In addition, it is also found that, these tools also

determine the total success of the organizations. In addition, it

is also interpreted that, multinational environment is

characterized by the different laws, regulations and procedures

that directly or indirectly affect organization’s productivity,

effectiveness and goodwill in the national or international

market. On the other hand, various challenges are also analyzed

effectively. Finally, it is concluded that, business

organizations should follow effective policies and practices of

HRM and OB in order to achieve competitive advantages

successfully.

HRM & OB 26

HRM & OB 27

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