The four HRM activities don't exist in isolation. Rather, they are highly affected by what is occurring outside the organization. It is important to recognize environmental influences because any activity undertaken in each of the HRM processes is directly, or indirectly, affected by these external elements. For example, lets say that when a company downsizes its workforce, does it layoff workers by seniority? If so, are an inordinate number of minority employees affected. Although any attempt to identify specific influences may prove insufficient, one can categorize them into four general areas - the dynamic environment, governmental legislation, labor unions and current management practice.
The Dynamic Environment of HRM
It's been stated that the only thing that remains constant during our lifetimes is change (and paying taxes!). We must, therefore, prepare ourselves for events that have a significant effect on our lives. HRM is no different. Many events help shape our field. Some of the more obvious ones include globalization, work-force diversity, changing skill requirements, corporate downsizing, total quality management, reengineering work processes, decentralized work sites, and employee involvement.
Globalization reflects the worldwide operations of many businesses today. One is no longer bound by continents or societal cultures. Work-force diversity includes the varied backgrounds of employees that are present in the companies today. Homogeneity of employees, and their needs, no longer exist. The work today is more complex, requiring employees with sophisticated skills. Without them, many employees will lack the basic abilities to successfully perform in tomorrow's organizations.
Corporate downsizing, total quality management, and reengineering all relate to one another. As the world changed, U.S. companies had to compete harder to maintain their leading industrial status. This meant doing things differently. In an effort to become more productive, organizations downsized to create greater efficiency by eliminating certain jobs. Of the jobs and work processes remaining, total quality management (TQM) looks at ways of improving job effectiveness. By continuously improving on methods, techniques, processes, and the like, companies made constant efforts to better what they produce. But what if what they produce, even if it's better, still doesn't satisfy the customer? In those cases, reengineering is necessary. Whereas TQM looks at new and improved ways of producing goods and services, reengineering looks at starting the processes over again from scratch. That is, instead of improving on an existing product, the organization would analyze what should be done and how they should do it. Searching for answers would not be constrained by current business practices.
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