Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Management: A Contemporary
Perspective in Bangladesh
EXECUTIVE SUMMERY
Today in the world, global competition is the basic element to define firms strategies as a result
industrial economy has been experienced to pass toward to knowledge economy. At an age
where total quality is of primary importance, efficiency can only be achieved by the successful
utilization of human resources. Human resource management is one of the necessary needs of
todays business. Human resource management department has a very important role for supply
of the human being to main resources of companies. Human resource management department
has fundamental role for personnel recruiting, orientation and performance appraisal and so on.
Human resource management issues to be addressed at the highest level in the organization and
management of strategic decisions are required. Impact of human resource management practices
has been a widely researched area for years. But unfortunately, very insufficient number of
studies has been conducted on this area in the context of Bangladesh and other developing
countries. This study explored the history of human resource management in a global
perspective. From where the idea has been raised up and how it has covered its importance over
the world. This study explored adoption of new HRM practices in the public and private sector
organizations of Bangladesh. Employees in the private sector organizations appeared to be more
satisfied than public sector organizations with organizational HRM. The research includes,
literature review, history of HRM in global view, history of HRM in Bangladeshs view and
recommendations too.
1. Introduction
1.1. Concept of Human Resource Management
According to Byars and Rue (2006), human resource management is the system of activities and
tactics of an organizational managers who triumphantly managing all levels of the employees to
accomplish the organizational goal. Again, a widespread and logical approach that the people
who are working as a part of the organization are individually and collectively contributing their
achievements that are the most value assets for an organization are known as human resource
management (Armstrong, 2006). Fisher, Schoenfeldt and Shaw (2006) said that HRM involves
all management decisions and practices that directly affect or influence the people or human
resources who work for the organization. When philosophy, policies, procedure and practices
these terms are related with an organization where the management of the people is working
together is known as Human Resource Management (French, 2003). Milkovich and Boudreau
(1997) described HRM as a series of decision which affects the relationship between the
employer and employees, affects many constituencies and planned to manipulate the usefulness
between them. There is an explanation of the whole HRM term and that is showing below:
Human: refer to the skilled workforce in the organization.
Resource: refer to limited availability or scarce.
Management: refer to maximize or proper utilization and make best use of limited and a scarce
resource.
Altogether, human resource management is the process of proper and maximizes utilization of
available limited skilled workforce. The core purpose of the human resource management is to
make efficient use of existing human resource in the organization. Every organizations desire is
to have skilled and competent people to make their organization more effective than their
competitors. Humans are very important assets for the organization rather than land and
buildings, without employees (humans) no activity in the organization can be done. Machines are
meant to produce more goods with good quality but they should get operated by the human only.
There is a great quote of Kenned (1965) where he says that The human mind is our fundamental
resource. This indicates that how important the HR practices are and how crucial it is to
maintain it properly.
So from all these definitions, it can be assumed that, human resource management is the process
of recruiting, selection of employees, providing proper direction and introduction, providing
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appropriate training and development skills, providing proper compensation and benefits,
motivation, maintain proper relationship with labor and with trade unions, informing them about
the performance appraisal and maintaining employees safety, welfare and health by complying
with labor laws of particular countries.
2. Literature Review
In 1920s, the term Human Resource Management was known as Welfare (Armstrong, 2006).
He also mentioned that in 1940s, it has been upgraded by labor management and finally it
formed as Personnel Administration or Management in 1920s. Personnel management was
defined that the technical aspects of hiring, evaluating, training, and compensating employees
and was very much of "staff" function in most organizations. The lack of this field was that it did
not focused on the relationships of distracted employment practices on overall organizational
performance and the systematic relationships among them. Torrington and Hall (1987) defined
personnel management as a series of activities that include a mutual agreement about the
objectives and the nature of the working relationships between the employees and their working
organizations and the second part is that they have to ensure that the agreement has been
fulfilled. Elton Mayo (1933) has replaced the human relationship approach by his research
project named as Hawthorne studies where the member of this school believed that job
satisfaction and productivity are directly related with one another and if the respected people can
increase the interest of those working people, their output will be very high (Armstrong, 2006).
The term human resource management and personnel management shows a significant different
images and the difference is captured in a table below:
Factor
Personnel Management
Approach
Traditional
managing
Focus
approach
people
organization
PM focuses
on
administration,
in
Human
Resource
Management
of Modern approach of managing
the people and their strength in
the organization
personnel HRM focuses on acquisition,
employee development, motivation, and
and
satisfied effectiveness,
culture,
2
employees
Assume
participation
people as a input for achieving People as an important and
desired output
valuable
resource
for
Decisions
undertaken
for
employee's undertaken
for
goal
with
strategic
function
functions
made by the top management decisions
are
made
employee's
authority,
participation,
decentralization,
Concerned with
Personnel managers
Evaluation
Cost minimization
to bottom
Maximum utilization
Source:http://accountlearning.blogspot.com/2013/01/difference-between-personnel management.html
So, employee satisfaction by improves way can reduces the cost of employee turnover, construct
brand loyalty for the organization and position for attracting more talented people toward the
organization (Mahmud & Idrish, 2011). In one word, it works like grabbing talented people suing
talent management by satisfying the existing customers. It is also very important for managers to
upgrade their knowledge about the ways of employee motivation tools because sometimes
monetary incentives or using motivational tools may create employees working competencies as
a challenge. According to Werther and Devis (1996), providing competitive advantages to the
organizations for humanizing the dynamic contributions are the principles of human resource
management. Most of the developing countries circumstances of human resource management
are quite unimposing except South Korea and Taiwan because those countries have excelled in
industrialization (Budhwar & Debrah, 2001). Historically, Bangladesh is an agro-based country.
More than 50% of its population is employed in agriculture (Ministry of Finance, GOB 2007). In
1971, Bangladesh started its journey as an independent and sovereign nation. During that time
only 4% GDP came from industrial sector, most of which were mainly small scale industries
(Ahmed & Patan 1979). the public and the private sector industrial enterprises of Bangladesh
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need to adopt sound human resource management practices. Weeratunga (2003) argued that
technological advancement and organizational change have progressively led employers to the
realization that success depends on the skills and abilities of their employees, which can only be
ensured through effective human resource management practices.
The main objective of our paper is to find out the history of human resource management is a
global and Bangladesh both sense. We have also HRM practices by public and private sectors
organizations in Bangladesh and made some recommendations how it could bring benefits for
them in the long-run.
Resources did not exist at that moment, but the new factories required people, who could take
care of the workforce. The first HR practices and the basic HR processes can be found in ancient
China. The Chinese government introduced first rules and procedures for the selection of the
government employees. The rules were straightforward, but they were working well for the
ancient society. HR had evolved before ancient Rome was ruling the known world. However, the
real revolution started with factories, which employed thousands of employees. Wages were
extremely low, and the labor force was cheap. The managers and owners simplified the
production and steps in production to reduce the induction time of the new worker. The working
conditions were terrible. The work and safety was nonexistent.
The large factories and industrialization were the foundation of the basic management of Human
Resources. The people were cheap, and they were easy to replace. They were far cheaper than
the machinery in the factory. The usual length of the working day was from 12 to 16 hours, at
least 6 times a week. The wage was low and allowed to fulfill just the basic needs of the worker.
The specialized function was not a basic requirement of the quickly growing factory. The salaries
were low, and the calculation of salaries was easy. The only worked hours were paid; no
overtimes or other salary items existed. Many factory owners used fear as the main motivational
tool. The factory was hiring tremendous numbers of new employees, and it fired everyone, who
was a troublemaker. No complaints were allowed. The employees were not motivated
positively; they were motivated to avoid certain behaviors. In the second phase of the
industrialization, the government stepped in the process. The basic health and safety laws were
introduced. The factories had to introduce basic safety standards for employees. The working
hours were shortened and employees got a right to have a break during the day. The smart
factory owners noticed the positive effects of the employees satisfaction on the productivity and
performance. They noticed first signs of the potential competitive advantage. The smart factories
started to introduce the new social programs for employees. The factories started to contribute to
social life and started to support communities essential for workers. Human Resources of the
modern age have begun as the social care of the employer. The factory invested into social
programs, because the programs had a positive return in the productivity. The roots of Human
Resources are purely economical.
Organizational Design
Engagement of employees
Change Management
Social Media
HR Process Management
HR Information System
HR Roles and Responsibilities are a prerequisite for a successful modern HR Organization. The
advanced HR Management sets boundaries to managers; they have no freedom they used to
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have. HR Business Partners are required to agree with managers the approach towards
employees in the department. The roles and responsibilities make it clear to line managers how
they should interact with Human Resources Department. The strategic imperatives for the
advanced HR Management are diversity in the organization and the leadership development.
Diversity is an imperative as most organizations employ a wide variety of employees with
different cultural backgrounds. Diversity management helps to introduce policies and practices
which enable smooth cooperation among employees and values all employees. Leaders are the
essential part of the success, and each organization has to prepare itself to grow. Most
organizations fail because they do not have a proper succession plan in place. The advanced HR
Organization runs succession plans and designs leadership development programs.
3.8. The future of HR Management
The future of Human Resources is backed by the advanced technology and the return of the
human approach to our management practices. The small and nimble start-up companies show
the future of HR. They do not implement robust HR processes; their approach is agile. The agile
HR is the right approach for the near future. Most upcoming trends require HR that is flexible,
and that will shape the HR Organization of tomorrow. The simplification is a trend that cannot
Human Resources ignore in the near future. Running a complex organization is expensive; the
sophisticated HR processes and procedures are expensive; the long decision-making process
makes organization uncompetitive. The company can become quick, lean and competitive if it
simplifies its processes. HR has to focus on the simplification of its complex processes.
Simplification hurts, but it is a part of the future of Human Resources Management. Moreover,
the simplification is closely linked to another future issue of Human Resources - the
globalization.
The globalization is a genuine challenge for Human Resources. The real global team is not just
about one centralized Head Quarter which sends out global policies. It is about the ability of the
company to manage the rest of the team from any place in the world. HR has to develop new
leaders who will act globally. They can operate from any place on the Earth, and they can lead
and manage global cross-cultural teams. They have to find the cost effective way to manage the
organization globally. One of the trends to build a sustainable competitive advantage are
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the private sector industrial enterprises has not also achieved ultimate success (Aowrangazab
2005; Khan & Alauddin 1995; Sikder, 1996). The public and the private sector industrial
enterprises of Bangladesh need to adopt sound human resource management practices. Beardwell
and Holden (as cited in Weeratunga 2003) opined that some countries such as Japan, Germany,
and Sweden have immensely developed themselves through emphasizing on human resources
properly. They also argued that technological advancement and organizational change have
progressively led employers to the realization that success depends on the skills and abilities of
their employees, which can only be ensured through effective human resource management
practices.
4.1. HRM practices in Bangladesh
The concern for policy and action planning guideline for human resources development in
Bangladesh stems from the recognition that the economic progress of the past several decades,
notable as it has been, has not led to the eradication of widespread poverty in the country. This is
due, in part, to the limited attention paid to human resources as a crucial means as well as the
ultimate end of development. In Bangladesh, development programs touch on virtually all
aspects of human resource development, but the integrated approach has not yet been generally
adopted. There has been a tendency to emphasize either economic-dominated or social welfaredominated strategy -- the human capital approach or the human needs approach. In several cases,
a strong commitment to social development concerns has encountered serious budget constraints
associated with disappointing performance. Where there has been a strong human capital
orientation, failure to address the critical quality-of-life issues have contributed to manpower
bottlenecks, low productivity growth and social instability (Source: The Daily Star, 2015).
Human resources development activities were recognized to be most effective in the following
types of social environment: (i) when the impulse for individual or collective self-development
received stimulation under a favorable social estimate, such as in the aftermath of the war; (ii)
when the national leadership was responsive to the majority needs; and (iii) when the interest of
various sectors converge with overall development needs. The quality of human resources in
Bangladesh remained very low despite the fact that policy and planning infrastructures existed
and certain facilities were available. That suggested the necessity for a demand-oriented human
development strategy. It was necessary to ensure that the socio-cultural constraints on human
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appraisal
system
and
similar
percent
of
organizations
had
system
of rewarding the good employees. The least prevalent practice among the surveyed organizations was
employee pension plan. Islam (2003) in a study on the HRM practices of small businesses of Bangladesh
found that small businesses did not offer reasonable salaries and benefits, training and
development opportunities to their employees. The author mentioned that due to outdated HR practices,
the productivity and motivation level of the employees of small businesses of Bangladesh were very low.
A research study (Mamun & Islam 2001) examined the human resource management (HRM) practices of
the readymade garments (RMG) enterprises. The study emphasized on improving productivity of
garments workers through proper HRM practices to face challenges of globalization. They
discovered the reasons for the low productivity of laborers such as unsystematic recruitment and selection
of workers, unavailability of training facilities, inadequate financial facilities, and low motivation level of
workers. Two recent studies (Billah & Islam 2009; Billah, Prince and Islam 2009) found that HR practices
have significant association with employee turnover and organizational commitment.
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Employees are the most important assets of an organization. In todays competitive global
business environment, hiring good professionals have become not only a difficult but an
expensive process as well. Training them about the values and skills they need to succeed,
ensuring they understand the organization's mission and strategy, and keeping them productive is
the most important priority of any management institution. Human Resource Management
involves recruiting personnel and their training, salary administration and handling union
management relations. Because of such a dynamic scope in any organization, Personnel
management or Human Resource management surfaced as a lucrative career option for those
qualified in managing the human resources for any organization. The concept of HRM is
relatively new in Bangladesh. This is only practiced in the multinational company and some
large local companies. In the governmental organizations there is no separate HRM department.
Some of the HRM practices are performed by few Governmental bodies. Therefore, though some
studies have been carried out in HRM fields, studies regarding career prospects of HR graduates
in comparison to other majors have not been done yet.
Public awareness concerning the people's participation as an aspect of human resources
development is relatively new in Bangladesh. Almost all government and non-government
agencies operating in the social development sector are currently organizing people at the
grassroots and even competing in their effort to enhance their delivery of service. This
competition is not necessarily promoting the people's welfare or self-reliance. In Bangladesh,
most of the development projects are financed through external assistance, so the role of
international support for human resources development is significant in terms of both funding
and of introduction of new ideas and strategies. Internal human resources development has
already made an important contribution to national capacity in realizing the potentials of human
resources (Kalam 2010).
5. Recommendations
Bangladesh is a developing country with significant socioeconomic development opportunities.
To maximize the outcome from those opportunities, business organizations need to attract, retain
and manage their human resources effectively by managing their expectations effectively.
Studying HRM practices in Bangladesh and how cultural and contextual issues affect them can
benefit MNCs in two different ways. First, it will help to identify and understand the impact of
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these contextual factors on the Bangladeshi workforce. At the same time, the study may also
enable the MNCs HR managers to find out which HR practices lead to better individual as well
as firm performance in the Bangladeshi context. This will help the MNC top management in
implementing management practices in other South Asian countries with a similar cultural
orientation. Hofstedes (1980) study did not include Bangladesh; however, two significant
neighbors, India and Pakistan, were included. Despite some differences, Bangladeshi culture is
quite similar to Indian and Pakistani culture due to historical and religious bindings amongst the
people of these three countries.
The main objective of this report is to complete the course requirements but there are some other
objectives too. First, to identify the source of HRM from where is has been started its journey.
Second, the report findings would help the public and the private sector industrial enterprises of
Bangladesh in realizing the status of their HRM practices. The report findings would be also
useful for the academicians, researchers, policymakers, and practitioners in recognizing HRM
practices in a developing country context such as Bangladesh. The study highlighted the
following specific objectives:
Tracing the overall status of adoption of new HRM practices in the public sector industrial
enterprises of Bangladesh
Tracing the overall status of adoption of new HRM practices in the private sector industrial
enterprises of Bangladesh.
Exploring the difference between public and private sector industrial enterprises of
Bangladesh with respect to overall status of adoption of new HRM practices.
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