Trends in Human Resource Management
Teaming across organizational boundaries appears to be a hallmark of companies in transformation. In fact, a number of companies these days have eliminated many of the traditional organizational boundaries entirely. Project teams instead of traditional managers organize work, and workers are even able to join teams based on their competencies and interest. These are just some of the changes being made as the United States quickly transforms from an industrial society to a service society. Instead of the boss being the CEO the boss is now becoming the customer. As our company structures change thus does the roles of our Humane Resource departments. In the following paragraphs we will discuss some of these changes as they pertain to globalization, technology, diversity, e-business and ethics.
Globalization
In today's highly aggressive global market companies are finding it necessary to expand internationally to gain competitive advantage. To meet these challenges, U.S. businesses must develop global markets, keep up with competition from overseas, hire from an international labor pool, and prepare employees for global assignments (Trends page 46). Many of the United States most successful global competitors do this by operating on the belief that people are the company's most important asset. Placing this value on employees requires the companies to emphasize human resource practices, including reward for superior performance, measures of employee satisfaction, careful selection of employees, promotion from within, and investment in employee development (Trends 46). Technology is another important factor in globalization. The Internet and improved, more reliable telephone service ...