Lecture 1

Understanding Human
Resources & Environments

PREPARED BY:
MS.KOMLAVATHI
SCHOOL OF BUSINESS MARKETING
LECTURE 1: Understanding Human Resource and Environment

Understanding Human Resources

Why is it important to manage HR?

• to satisfy multiple stakeholders
• stakeholders include: owners and investors, customers,
organization members, society and other interdependent
organizations

How does understanding the applications of HR important to

you?
gain and sustain competitive advantage
1. Employees who are sources of added value
2. Employees who are rare talents
3. A unique culture, one of the kind

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LECTURE 1: Understanding Human Resource and Environment

Understanding Human Resources

Framework of managing HR consist of:

External environment (local, national, multinational conditions)

• Local conditions:
economic globalization, political landscape

• National conditions:
industry dynamics, labor markets

• Multinational conditions:
country cultures, legal institutions

The above will be further discussed later on.

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LECTURE 1: Understanding Human Resource and Environment

Understanding Human Resources

Activities for Managing HR

1. HR Planning for Alignment and Change
2. Job Analysis and Competency Modeling
3. Recruiting and retaining qualified employees
4. Selecting employees that fit
5. Training and developing competitive workforce
6. Conducting performance management
7. Developing approach to compensation management
8. Using performance-based pay to achieve strategic
objectives
9. Providing benefits and services
10. Promoting workplace safety and health
11. Unionization and collective bargaining

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LECTURE 1: Understanding Human Resource and Environment

Understanding Human Resources

What are the key roles of HR Professionals?

• Business partners
• consultants
• innovators
• monitors
• change management

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LECTURE 1: Understanding Human Resource and Environment

Understanding Human Resources

Managing HR has few themes that encapsulate most of the HR policies and
functions:
• Managing teams
• Managing multicultural workforce
• Managing globalization
• Managing ethics
• Managing with metrics

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LECTURE 1: Understanding Human Resource and Environment

Understanding Environments
What are the common elements of an environment?

Economic globalization
• how open is the environment to imports/exports, whether to compete on
cost vs. competing on knowledge
• how far is the business expansion, globally
• regional trade zones affected

Political Landscape
• International labor law/regulations
• Social accountability
• world trade organization

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LECTURE 1: Understanding Human Resource and Environment

Understanding Environments

Industry dynamics
• Industry life cycles, where are the industry standings in the era/zone/graph
• mergers & acquisitions, who are the winners and losers, leaders or followers
concept

Labor markets
• growth rate, population vs demand
• skills shortage, HR related issues
• competition, who are the rivals
• immigrants, foreign labor markets

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LECTURE 1: Understanding Human Resource and Environment

Understanding Environments

Country cultures
dimension and consequences of country cultures, cultural dimension in
different countries affect the HR activities in different views due to issues such
as power distance, gender differentiation, performance orientation.

Technologies
process of making and using tools in HR; mass production, computer
technologies, virtual workforce, HRIM

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LECTURE 1: Understanding Human Resource and Environment

Understanding Environments
Company culture
• patterns of shared assumptions, values and norms
• consisted of leadership styles, vision, mission and values
• also consisted of company subcultures, sub-leveled by benefits and
challenges

Business Strategies
• planning to encompass total quality, costing, level of customer service,
innovation

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LECTURE 1: Understanding Human Resource and Environment

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