Showing posts with label External Environment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label External Environment. Show all posts

Needs of Continuous Monitoring of Changing Forces in the Environment

Needs of Continuous Monitoring of Changing Forces in the Environment

HRM should anticipate and predict environmental changes, major trends should be identified through environment scanning. HRM environment consists of forces that influence HRM’s ability to achieve goals. Environmental forces greatly affect HRM. HRM should continually monitor the changing forces in the environment. It should be proactive by adapting to the anticipated environmental changes.

Elements of External Environment

Economic and labor market elements of the external environment greatly affect HRM.
  1. Economic conditions and its elements: The economic development of a country indicates that there is a high GDP growth, a number of business activities are ongoing, worldwide business networks are established, information technology is widely used, substantial investment in R and D is made, foreign direct investment (FDI) is increasing. The level of income, the stage of business cycle (i.e. prosperity, recession, recovery, inflationary pressures and fiscal policies of the government affect the compensation and benefit packages of employees. Economic groupings, such as European Union facilitate cross border mobility of human resources. This affects acquisition aspect of HRM. 
  2. Labor Market: A labor market is a geographical area within which people looking for work interact with employers looking for people. The supply of number of educated and trained workforce, number of employed and unemployed people, number of economically active population, increasing number of aging people etc. are some of the characteristics of labor market.

External Environment of an Organization Influence HRM

External Environment of an Organization Influence HRM

“HRM Environmental” is the process by which strategies monitor the environmental sectors to determine opportunities for and threats to their firm regarding human resource.

Environment refers to all external forces, which have a bearing on the functioning of business. The environment includes factor outside the firm, which can lead to opportunities or threats to the firm. The external forces are physical, technological, social, political and legal, labour market and economic elements. The internal forces or elements are unions, organizational culture and conflict, professional bodies.


External Forces

External forces include political-legal, economic, technological and cultural factors that influence of which on HRM is considerable.
1. Political-legal Forces: The political environment covers the impact of political institutions on the HRM department. In a democratic political set up, there are three institutions, which together constitute the total political environment. They are;

The legislature-also called parliament at the central level and Assembly at the state level is the lawmaking body. The plethoras of labour acts, which are in force, are enacted by the legislature. The executive popularly known as the government is the law-implemented body. The legislature decides and the executive acts. Above these two is judiciary, which has the role of a watchdog. The main function of the judiciary is to ensure that both the legislature and the executive work within the confines of the constitution and in the public interest.

The interface between political environment and labour takes place through an array of labour laws. All HR planning, recruitment and selection, placement, training and development, remuneration, employee relations, and separation are conditions constitutional provisions.

2. The Economic Forces: The current state of the economy, can affect how a company performs. The rate of growth in the economy is a measure of the over all change in demand for goods and services. Other economic influences include;
  • Taxation level
  • Inflation rate
  • The balance of trade and exchange rate
  • The level of unemployment
  • Interest rates and availability of credit government subsidies.
One should also look at international economic issue, which could include:
  • The extent of projectionist measurer
  • Comparative rate of growth, inflation, wages and taxation.
  • The freedom of capital movement
  •  Economic agreement
  • Relative exchange rate.
3. Technological Forces: With the advent of technology, jobs tend to become more intellectual or upgraded. A job hitherto handled by an illiterate or unskilled worker now requires the services of an educated and skilled worker. The introduction of new technology dislocates worker unless they become well equipped to work on new machines. This makes it obligatory on the part of HRM to train worker and to rehabilitate those who are displaced or cannot be trained. Those employees who pick up and acquaint themselves with new technology, the job will be challenging and rewarding. Worker class, in general, stands to gain through increased productivity, reduced prices and increased real wages all by-products of technological advancement.

Along with upgrading jobs, technology has its impact on Human relations. Technology lays down the requirements for much of the human interaction in organizations. The arrangement of production set up determines who will be near to whom. The workflow determines who need to talk to whom. And since interaction and activity affects sentiments, technology indirectly determines what individuals in large groups will fell and think about one another and about their work situation.

Jobholders will become highly professionalized and knowledgeable. An organization that has adopted the latest technology is flush with scientists.

4. Cultural Forces: Culture creates the type of people who become members of an organization. Culture trains people along particular lines, tending to put a personality stamp upon them. When people with different cultural backgrounds promote, own and manage organizations, they themselves tend to acquire instinct cultures. The attitudes of workers towards work are the result of their cultural background. HRM people in societies that focus on the present, care more for employees on the rolls. Employees are hired and maintained as long as they are useful to the organization and are dispensed with once they cease to be so. American society is an example of this.

Work ethics, achievement needs and effort-reward expectations, which are significant, inputs determining individual behavior, are the results of culture. In the context of an organization, ethics implies hard work and commitment to work. A strong work ethics ensures motivated employees whereas the opposite is true when work ethics is weak.

Achievement needs; too, have a behavioral implication. A person, with a high need to achieve tends to seek a high degree of perusal responsibility, sets realistic goals, takes moderate risks and uses personal performance feedback in satisfying his or her need to achieve.

Elements/ Components of HRM Environment

Elements/ Components of HRM Environment

Environment literally means the surrounding external objects, influences or circumstances under which someone or something exists. The environment of any organization is “the aggregate of all conditions, events and influences that surround and affect it”. In simple words, environment comprises all those forces which have their bearing on the functioning of various activities including human resource activities. Environment scanning helps HR (Human Resource) manager become proactive to the environment which is characterized by change and intense competition.

Human resource management is performed in two types of environments that is internal and external.
  1. Internal Environment: These are the forces internal to an organization. Internal forces have profound influences on HR functions. The internal environment of HRM consists of unions, organizational culture and conflict, organizational objectives, policies etc.
    1. Unions: Trade unions are formed to safeguard the interest of its members like recruitment, selection, training, compensation, industrial relations and separations are carried out in consultation with trade union leaders.
    2. Organizational culture and conflict: As individuals have personality organizations have culture. Each organization has its own culture that distinguishes one organization from another. Culture may be understood as sharing of some core values or beliefs by the members of the organization. “Value for time” is the culture of Reliance Industries Limited. The culture of the Nepal Tourism board is “Naturally Nepal once is not enough”. HR practices need to be implemented that best fit the organizations culture. There is often conflict between organizational culture and employed attitude. Conflict usually surfaced because of qualities such as personal goal Vs organizational goal, discipline Vs autonomy, right Vs duties etc. Such conflicts have their bearings on the HR activities in an organization.
  2. External Environment: External environment includes forces like economic, political, technological, socio-culture etc. These exert considerable influence on HRM.
    1. Economic Environment: Economic forces include growth rate and strategy, industrial production, national and per capita incomes, money and capital markets competitions, industrial labour and globalization. All these forces have significant influence on wage and salary levels. Crowing unemployment and reservation in employment also affect the choice for recruitment and selection of employees in organizations.
    2. Political Environment: Political environment covers the impact of political institutions on HRM practices. For example, democratic political system increases the expectations of workers for their well being. The total political environment is composed of three institutions.
      1. Legislature: This is called parliament at the central level and assembly at the country level. A plethora of labour laws are enacted by the legislature to regulate working conditions and employment relations.
      2. Executive: it is the government that implements the law. In other words, the legislature decides and the executive acts.
      3. Judiciary: This is like a watch dog above the two. It ensures that both the legislature and the executive work within the confines of the constitution and also in the overall interest of the people.
    3. Technological Environment: Technology is a systematic application of organized knowledge to practical tasks. Technological advance affect the HR functions in more than one way. First, technology makes the job more intellectual or upgraded. Second, it renders worker dislocated if they do not equip themselves to the job. Third, job becomes challenging for the employees who cope with the requirements of technology. Fourth, technology reduces human interaction at the work place. Finally, jobholders become highly professionalized and knowledgeable in the job they perform.
    4. Socio-Cultural Environment: Socio-cultural environment differs from country to country. It mainly comprises the customs, values and demographic characteristics, often reflected in laws, rules and regulation of a country. There are four dimensions of national culture which effect employee’s work-related attitudes.
      1. Power distance: Managers operating in such value systems feel powerful and remain distant from the subordinate employees.
      2. Uncertainty avoidance: In countries with a low level of uncertainty avoidance, people are encouraged to take risk and to work in ambiguous situations.
      3. Individualism-collectivism: In individualistic cultures, managers are very individualistic. They work behave from an individual perspective.

People in External Environment of Projects

People in external environment consist of people inhabiting areas surrounding the development projects. The considerations for these people by the projects should be:
  • Effective rehabilitation of people displaced by development projects. Promises should be kept. Compensation should be paid on time.
  • Providing employment opportunities to local people in the projects especially those displaced by the projects.
  • Safeguarding safety and health of the people inhabiting in project surroundings.
  • Protecting the natural environment of the areas surrounding the project so that people can carry on with their own way of life and livelihood.

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