HRM ENVIRONMENT

 

An HRM program functions in a complex environment comprising several elements both inside and outside the firm. In order to have an effective HR program, HR managers must give careful attention to all aspects of the environment.
Rapid changes are occurring within society and therefore in the environment within which organizations operate. These changes present challenges that require early solutions if an HR program is to be successful and make its full contribution to the organization and to all its members.
One specific example is the declining number of middle-manager jobs, coupled with a growing number of baby boomers competing for those positions. Other issues such as unemployment, the influx of immigrants, the education and skills gap, the adoption of advanced technology, lifestyle adjustments for dual-career couples, and the like all have significant implications for HRM.
From the broadest perspective, HRM balances the needs of the organization with the realities of the internal and external environments. The HR Professional must consider the kinds of changes that are anticipated and their effects on HRM. How to improve an orga­nization’s internal environment is one of the major challenges confronting employers today. How can the internal environment be changed to improve the quality of work life?

 

Elements of an Organization’s Environment

The environment of an organization consists of the conditions, circumstances, and influences that affect the firm's ability to achieve its objectives. Every organization exists in an environment that has both external and internal components. The external and the in­ternal environment are composed of five elements: physical, technological, social, political, and economic.

Environment
The conditions, circumstances, and influences
that affect the organization’s ability
to achieve its objectives

        The five elements of the external environment influence how HR functions will be performed. The internal environment influences both HR policies and procedures and the indi­viduals who make up the workforce of the organization.
The HR functions also influence the external environment. For an increasing number of HR executives, their role goes beyond the sensing and interpreting of the impact of the environment on the firm. It is equally important to participate in and influence the environment.

 

An Organization’s External and Internal Environment
EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT Physical Techno-logical Social Political Economic
	Organizational Goals and Strategies	HRM FUNCTIONS Planning Staffing EEO Training and   development Performance    appraisal Compensation    benefits Safety and          health Labor          relations	Employee Skills, Needs, and attitudes	INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT Physical Technical Social Political Economic

 

The External Environment

The environment that exists outside the firm, the external environment, has a significant impact on HRM policies and practices. It helps to determine the val­ues, attitudes, and behavior that employees bring to their jobs. This is why many organizations engage in environmental scanning, which involves analyzing the environment and changes occurring within it.

External environment
The environment that exists outside
an organization

Environmental scanning
Analyzing the environment and
the changes occurring within it

       The purpose here is to determine the environment's possible impact on organizational policies and practices. An­other closely related practice is issues management, by which managers attempt to keep abreast of current issues. This may include bringing the organization’s policies in line with prevailing public opinion.

Issues management
Process by which managers keep abreast
of current issues and bring organizational
policies in line with prevailing public opinion

Physical Element

The physical element of the external environment includes the geography, cli­mate, and other physical characteristics of the area in which the organization is located. Physical surroundings can help or hinder a firm’s ability to attract and retain employees. Housing, commuting, and living costs can vary from one loca­tion to another and can have a significant impact on the compensation em­ployees will expect.
Geographic shifts in the population alter the demand for and the supply of workers in local job markets. Organizations that depend on scientists and engi­neers, for example, pay particular attention to geographic regions where they can recruit “knowledge workers.”

Technological Element

We live in an extremely competitive age. Only through technological innova­tion can firms develop new products and services and improve existing ones in order to stay competitive. Technology also provides a basis for an organization to attain the productivity and quality it needs to gain a competitive advantage.
Advancements in computer technology have enabled firms to take advan­tage of the information explosion. With computers, unlimited amounts of data can be stored, retrieved, and used in a wide variety of ways, from simple record keeping to controlling complex equipment.
In our everyday living we see bank tellers, airline reservation clerks, and supermarket cashiers using computers to perform their jobs. At the bank’s automated teller machine and at the library’s computerized card catalog we become computer operators ourselves.
Less visible are the systems that monitor employees’ speed, efficiency, and accuracy. Companies such as AT&T, United Airlines, Equitable Life Insurance, and American Express use sophisticated devices to measure employee work out­put. But while large businesses and computer firms tout computerized monitor­ing as an effective means of improving productivity, the computerized control systems used for this purpose have been linked to increased stress, loss of job pri­vacy rights, health risks, and job dissatisfaction among employees.
Supporters argue that such systems improve the consistency, clarity, and objectivity of per­formance measurement and so are an improvement over stressful, subjective evaluations by human supervisors.
The introduction of advanced technology affects the number of employees as well as the skills they need on the job. In particular, technological advance­ments have tended to reduce the number of jobs that require little skill and to increase the number of jobs that require considerable skill. In general, this trans­formation is referred to as a shift from “touch labor,” where employee responsi­bilities are limited to only physical execution of work, to “knowledge workers,” where their responsibilities expand to include a richer array of activities such as planning, decision making, and problem solving.

Knowledge workers
Employees whose responsibilities include
a rich array of activities such as planning,
decision making, and problem solving

In many cases, current em­ployees can be retrained to assume new roles and responsibilities. However, those employees who are displaced also require retraining. We thus experience the paradox of having pages and pages of newspaper advertisements for applicants with technical or scientific training while several million job seekers without such training register for work with employment agencies.
Because of the implications of advanced technology for HRM, the HR man­ager should play a major role in planning for its implementation. In the new era, employees are increasingly viewed as assets to be fully utilized, rather than costs to be minimized. Communication with employees clearly plays a crucial role, as management must demonstrate a real commitment to supporting change through staffing, training, job redesign, and reward systems.
HR can play an important role in helping line managers cope with the orga­nizational changes caused by new technology. HR can, for example, identify methods for introducing new technology that minimizes disruption and disarms the threat perceived by employees. In addition, HR can provide guidance to line managers in ensuring that the right technological skills are identified and sought in new employees, as well as in developing technology literacy training programs.
HR can also identify and evaluate the changes in organizational rela­tionships brought about by new technology. Finally, HR should work with line managers to develop new structures that use technology to improve service, increase productivity, and reduce costs.
Information technology has, of course, changed the face of HR in orga­nizations around the world. In the United Kingdom alone several companies have made significant changes in their HR systems. Smith Kline Beecham, for example, has developed a news service based on voice-mail technology that is available to all its employees. The London Underground has developed a computer-based training program to help staff with evacuation procedures in the event of fire.
The Miller Group, the largest privately owned construction com­pany in Britain, has automated its process for determining profit-based bonuses. British Gas has computerized their employee suggestion system to automatically log suggestions, check for duplicates, statistically analyze the database, produce letters, and manage other aspects of reporting. Finally, Britain’s North West Re­gional Health Authority has developed an information system that receives data from each health authority’s personnel databases and presents aggregated infor­mation for senior line managers.
In the United States, the impact of advanced technology is no less signifi­cant. For example, the U.S. Army’s Career and Alumni Program (ACAP) uses information technology to integrate all available federal and local transition activities for army alumni. Their computerized database matches the skills of army veterans with the needs of private industry. Other organizations such as AT&T and IBM have also begun to use relational databases to match up jobs and job seekers.
Each of these examples shows that technology is changing the face of HRM: altering the methods of collecting employment in­formation, speeding up the processing of that data, and improving the process of internal and external communication.

Social Element

Increasingly, employers are expected to demonstrate a greater sense of responsi­bility toward employees and toward society as a whole. Employees, furthermore, are expecting the same freedoms, rights, and benefits on the job that they enjoy as members of society.
Health care, retirement, and safety issues, for example, represent just a few of the important areas where orga­nizations must balance economic and social concerns. Employers who fail to accept this fact are encounter­ing difficulties with their employees. In addition, em­ployers are being constrained by legislation and court decisions that support their employees' rights in the workplace.
Many employees today are less obsessed with the acquisition of wealth and now view life satisfaction as more likely to result from balancing the challenges and rewards of work with those in their personal lives. Though most people still enjoy work, and want to excel at it, they also appear to be seeking ways of living that are less complicated but more meaning­ful.
These new lifestyles cannot help but have an im­pact on the way employees must be motivated and managed. Consequently, HRM has become more com­plex than it was when employees were concerned pri­marily with economic survival.
    
Political Element

Governments have a significant impact on HRM. Each of the functions performed in the management of human resources--from employee recruitment to termination--is in some way affected by laws and regulations.
Managers must follow all laws and government regula­tions relating to HRM. In the USA, while federal legislation and the agencies to enforce it have existed for many decades--e.g., the Interstate Commerce Commission (1887) and the Fed­eral Communications Commission (1934)--those agencies regulating the activities relating to HRM are relatively new. Unlike agencies overseeing particular industries, the newer agencies regulate a specific management function across several industries, such as equal employment opportunity, labor relations, and worker safety and health. Government regulation of employment is found in every country of the world.
Today’s manager must understand the regulatory system in order to function effectively in the face of what has been described as a seemingly inco­herent body of agency directives, inspections, reviews, regulations, and determi­nations. Regulation begins with social and political problems that prompt lawmakers to pass laws empowering agencies to take regu­latory actions that in turn trigger management responses. Finally, the courts oversee the process by settling disputes between the litigating parties.
Regulations in particular are made more complex by the different interpretations placed upon them. The agency charged with administering a certain law typically develops guidelines for its interpretation, which are openly published.This interpretation may differ from what the legislative body intended in passing the law. Furthermore, subsequent court decisions may provide still a different interpretation.

Economic Element

The economic environment has a profound influence on business in general and on the management of human resources in particular. Economic conditions often dictate whether a firm will need to hire or lay off employees. They also affect an employer’s ability to increase employees’ pay and/or benefits.
While economic recessions can force the curtailment of operations in the private sector, they may have the opposite effect in the public sector. Unemployment generated by a re­cession usually necessitates the expansion of agencies that provide welfare and other social services. Expanding programs to combat a recession may mean that these agencies need more employees to supervise the programs.
Economists have long argued that a critical determinant of economic growth is the quality and quantity of inputs such as labor, private- and public-sector capital, and knowledge. U.S. productivity growth has dropped from its 3.3 percent annual level in the 1960s and 1970s to its current annual level of about 2.5 percent. Put in perspective, this drop-off is significant. If the USA growth rate had been as high from 1970 to 1990 as it was from 1900 to 1970, the standard of living would be at least 25 percent higher than it is today. A large part of the drop in productivity growth is the result of technologi­cal change that has not yet paid off.
But for all the concern about growth, it is important to keep in mind that the United States still remains the most productive country in the world. Contrary to some suspicions, Japan’s productivity rate is less than 70 percent of that of the United States, and productivity in Germany is only about 80 percent of that of the United States. These comparisons are important, as we now live in a global economy.
Competition and cooperation with foreign companies has become an increasingly important focal point for business since the early 1980s. Indeed, nearly 17 percent of U.S. corporate assets are overseas. Nations such as Japan, Germany, France, Taiwan, Brazil, and South Korea represent both formidable ri­vals and important partners in our transformation to a global economy. In every country of the world, political leaders are under pressure to provide jobs for their unemployed--not just jobs, but “decent” jobs that will provide the standard of living to which their citizens aspire.
These jobs can be created only if employers are able to compete successfully in the domestic and foreign markets. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), for example, was created to estab­lish a free-trade zone between Mexico, Canada, and the United States. Proponents of NAFTA argue that the agreement will remove impediments to trade and investment, thereby creating jobs. But op­ponents of NAFTA fear that jobs will be lost to Canada and particularly Mexico where wages are lower.
When our economy is healthy, companies hire more workers to fill demand and unemployment rates fall. But the economic picture is neither simple nor completely predictable. Perennially successful corporations, such as Sears, IBM, and General Motors are undergoing profound change, restructuring to com­pete better in a global economy. Particularly in the manufacturing sector, where capacity utilization rates are only about 80 percent, job growth is projected to move slowly, around 1.5 percent.

 

The Internal Environment

The environment that exists within an organization is known as the internal environment, or organizational climate. Like the external environment, the internal environment consists of physical, technological, social, political, and economic elements. These elements affect and are affected by the policies, pro­cedures, and employment conditions that managers oversee. Therefore the pro­gram developed for managing human resources must take into account the internal as well as the external environment.

Internal environment (organizational climate)
The environment that exists
within an organization

 

Physical Element

The physical element of the internal environment includes such factors as air quality, temperature, noise, dust, radiation, and other conditions affecting em­ployee health and safety. One study of government employees revealed a high percentage of dissatisfaction with aspects of the physical environment of the workplace. Seventy-one percent of employees were dissatisfied with air quality and temperature; 54 percent with elevator operation; 46 percent with workplace appearance; 46 percent with maintenance and repairs; and 28 percent with washroom     cleanliness. These responses would seem to indicate that there is much room for improvement in such areas, and organizations would be well ad­vised to be attentive to these aspects of the internal environment.

Technological Element

The technological element of the internal environment relates closely to the physical element. It consists of the layout of the workplace; the process by which the work is performed; and the tools, equipment, and machinery used to perform the work. These factors in turn determine both the way work is processed and the requirements of the jobs performed.
The way in which work is organized affects interpersonal relations and in­teraction among employees within a work area. It influences the formation of in­formal work groups and the degree of cooperation or conflict among employees.
More and more, technological systems are being integrated with the social sys­tems of an organization, creating what is referred to as a sociotechnical system. Job design is based on human as well as technological considerations.

Sociotechnical system
Environment in which the technical and social
systems are integrated so that job design is
based on human as well as
technological considerations

Social Element

The social element reflects the attitudes and behaviors of managers and em­ployees, individually and in groups. Because of their influential place in the organizational hierarchy, top managers play an extremely important role in determining the quality of the social element.
The rules and regulations they devise, the concern they have for employees, the rewards and support they provide, and the tolerance they have for varying opinions are major factors in determining the organizational climate. In recent years there has been considerable interest in “the corporate culture.”

Political Element

Politics is an important social process found in all organizations. Organizational politics, of course, has the potential for being helpful or harmful to organizations and individuals.
There are several tactics used in organizational politics. These include attacking or blaming others, using (or withholding or distorting) infor­mation, building images, building support for ideas, praising others, creating power coalitions, associating with the influential, and performing services or fa­vors to create obligations. Which of these tactics an individual will use depends on that individual’s nature or disposition and on the particular situation con­fronting him or her.
Power is the capacity to influence the behavior of others. The degree of power that managers possess is determined in part by where they fit into the for­mal organization structure, the number of subordinates they supervise, and the authority delegated to them. Power may also be derived from personal expertise and from informal leadership skills.
Power is an important aid in HRM. It can provide a means of gaining the type of performance and behavior desired of employees.
HR departments must play a more active role in influencing change in their firms. This means having both the political power and leadership capabilities to overcome resis­tance to change. Companies such as AT&T, Exxon, and PepsiCo have designed programs to ensure that HR executives develop these types of competencies. The more power HR managers have in their organizations, the more successful they will be in getting other managers to carry out their own HR responsibilities and to comply with established policies and procedures.
In order to build a broad base of influence, HR managers should learn to adopt the perspective and language of business and focus on the bottom line. Too often HR managers view themselves as performing strictly a service func­tion. Once HR managers establish themselves as business partners, they become more involved in strategic matters shaping the business.

Economic Element

The economic element of a firm's internal environment reflects the organiza­tion's financial condition. The more favorable this condition, the more financial resources the organization will have to support its human resources, including employee compensation and benefits.
When the financial health of a firm is strong, there is a tendency to expand HRM activities such as training and development, employee assistance programs, and recreational activities. If the organization is growing, there is the possibility of expansion leading to em­ployee recruitment, selection, and orientation. Conversely, when financial re­sources are low, an organization tends to reduce its HR budget and to cut back the HR services it offers to its employees.

 

Changes That Challenge
Managers of Human Resources

In the preceding section we briefly mentioned some of the environmental changes that may precipitate changes in an HR program. Increasingly, HR man­agers are involved in issues management directed toward early identification of trends that may require adjustments in HR policies and procedures.
SHRM has identified five basic areas where change is rapidly occurring. These five areas are shown below.

 

CURRENT ISSUES IN HRM

Employer/Employee Rights
This is clearly an important and growing area of debate and concern. To some degree, it reflects the shift in employer/employee negotiations from the bargaining table to the courtroom, as organizations and individuals attempt to define rights, obligations, and responsibilities. Among the many specific issues covered in this broad area are
Job as an entitlement Employment at will Privacy (testing) Whistle-blowing Mandated benefits Smoking	Plant closing notification Right to know Comparable worth Right to manager AIDS

 

Work and Family Relations
There is a new and important perception that the individual at work is not “detached” from family concerns and responsibilities. Due, in part, to the rapid increase of women in the workplace, as well as a growing interest in and concern with the family, there is increasing demand for recognition and support of family-related employee concerns. Among the issues in this area are
Day care Child care leave Alternative work plans Elder care	Parental leave Cafeteria plans Mandated benefits

 

Education/Training/Retraining
As organizations trim personnel and gear up for the tough competition within the global economy, the skills and competence of the available pool of employees are becoming a pivotal issue. This issue spans the range of skill development from the earliest stages of the education experience to the challenges of retraining an aging workforce. If “human resources are our most important asset,” it is here that the investments must be made if that asset is to be productive. Among the key issues in this area are
Literacy Employee education/training Management development Plant closings	Dropout prevention Retraining Industry obsolescence

 

Changing Demographics
The next 20 years will bring a constant aging of the workforce. This has major implications for all aspects of human resource management as it alters traditional experience and expectations regarding the labor pool. Among the issues in this area are
Shrinking pool of entry-level workers Retirement health benefits funding Increasing number of “nonpermanent/ contract” employees	Social Security “Plateauing” and motivation Elder care Pension fund liabilities

 

Productivity/Competitiveness
The calls for increased productivity, quality, and competitiveness will only grow in intensity over the coming years. A persistent trade deficit and continued successes in the global market of our international competitors will serve to intensify the quest for a more productive workforce. Among the issues in this area are
Productivity improvement Worker participation Foreign competition Mergers	Quality programs and measurement Incentive/performance pay Globalization Downsizing

 

Demographic Changes

Among the most significant challenges to managers are the demographic changes occurring in the United States. Because they affect the workforce of an em­ployer, these changes in population growth, in age and gender distribution of the population, and in education trends are important topics for discussion.
Although these trends (and others) are USA figures, the rest of the Western developed economies often show similar trends.

Population Growth and Ethnic Background

Population growth is the single most important factor governing the size and composition of the labor force. The U.S. civilian labor force totaled about 125 million in 1990 and is expected to reach approximately 151 million in the year 2005. Though this projected increase of 20 percent for the fifteen-year pe­riod sounds quite high, it is substantially lower than the 33 percent increase for the period l975-l990. This difference represents a slowing in both the number of people joining the labor force and the rate of labor-force growth, which is now projected at 1.3 percent per year.
Of course, American workers will continue to be a diverse group. In the year 2005 minorities will make up an even larger share of the U.S. labor force than they did in 1986. Although white males will still constitute approximately 38 percent of the labor force, blacks will increase their share from 10 to 13 percent, Hispanics from 7 to 16 percent, and Asians and others from 3 to nearly 6 percent. These nonwhite groups are expected to account for about 65 percent of the labor-force growth between 1986 and 2005. In cities such as New York, Houston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Detroit, minorities currently represent more than half the population.
The arrival of immigrants also has significant implications for the labor force. Between 1980 and 1990, immigrants accounted for 39 percent of total population growth in the United States. Too often these individuals are of working age but have different educational and occupational backgrounds from those of the U.S. population as a whole.
To accommodate the shift in demographics, many organizations have increased their efforts to recruit and train a more diverse workforce. Kathleen Alexander, vice president of personnel services at Marriott Corporation, argues, “Companies have a great need to include all the talented people they can find. So we want to use personnel policies not to discriminate but to attract and retain.” In this regard, a group of 600 firms such as Chevron, AT&T, and Monsanto, has developed an organization called Inroads, which for the past twenty years has identified promising minority students during their senior year in high school and offered them summer internships. Chevron alone has tripled its spending on minority recruitment.

Age Distribution of the Population

Past fluctuations in the birthrate are producing abrupt changes in the makeup of major U.S. labor-force groups. The number of younger workers (16 to 24 years of age) will decline until the mid-1990s, then turn upward as the children of the “baby boom” generation enter the workforce. From 1990 to 2005, this sector of the labor force is expected to grow at 13.2 percent, and concerns about the lack of entry-level workers should ease somewhat.
The number of older workers (55 and above) will start to rise sharply as the baby boomers themselves approach retire­ment age. By 2005, older employees will constitute about 15 percent of the labor force, approximately the same proportion they did in 1970. Declining labor-force participation of older persons will largely offset the increase in the number of persons in this population group.
The youth share of the labor force is projected to drop to only 16 percent by 2005, down from 24 percent in 1975. Many firms with a primary interest in this younger age group--such as fast-food restaurants and other retail establishments--can expect to see the population from which they draw part-time workers, as well as customers, shrink.
Despite the fact that the pool of younger workers is shrinking and labor shortages loom ahead, public policy can discourage the employment of older workers beyond traditional retirement age, regardless of substantial evidence of the value of their training and experience. Some employers, however, are making positive efforts to attract more older workers, especially those who have taken early retirement, by expanding the number of part-time hours available and of­fering sabbaticals and job sharing.
McDonald’s, for example, places a great deal more emphasis on hiring retirees and other older workers as an alternative for dealing with the coming youth shortage. John Snodgrass, president of the Days Inn hotel chain, argues that “Corporate America is walking past an unbelievable resource of talent--reliable, trained, educated.”
But there are a number of barriers to overcome before firms can succeed in making continued employment attractive to older workers. The economic disin­centives of the Social Security tax for wage earners between ages 65 and 70 need to be reduced, and discriminatory pension arrangements must be eliminated. Also, many employers fall victim to the myth that older people don’t want to work or are incapable of it. There is a continuing need to counteract this and other inaccurate perceptions of the older worker.
Older workers, for example, have significantly lower accident rates and ab­senteeism than younger workers. Further, they tend to report higher job satisfac­tion scores. And while some motor skills and cognitive abilities may start to decline (starting around age 25), most individuals find ways to compensate for this fact so that there is no discernible impact on their performance.
Imbalance in the age distribution of our labor force has significant impli­cations for employers. At Bethlehem Steel, for example, the average age of em­ployees is almost 46 years, with an average service record of 22 years. Before the year 2000, close to 50 percent of Bethlehem’s current workforce is likely to re­tire. On the other hand, those who constitute the population bulge are experi­encing greater competition for advancement from others of approximately the same age.
This situation challenges the ingenuity of managers to develop career patterns for members of this group and to motivate their performance. In addi­tion, providing pension and social security benefits for this group when they reach retirement age early in the next century will present a very serious prob­lem for employers and society.
Because of the drop in the birthrate following the baby boom, the labor force available to support the retirees will be smaller. The solutions to this and other problems created by the imbalance in the age distri­bution of our labor force will require long-range planning on the part of both or­ganization and government leaders.

Gender Distribution of the Workforce

According to projections by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, women will continue to join the U.S. labor force, but at a slower rate than between 1975 and 1990. Women made up only about one-third of the labor force in 1970; by 2005 they are expected to account for over 47 percent. The increase of women in the labor force is a trend that organizations continue to recognize.
Employers are under constant pressure to ensure equality for women with respect to employment, advancement opportunities, and compensation. They also need to accommodate working mothers and fathers through parental leaves, part-time employment, flexible work schedules, job sharing, telecommuting, and child care assistance. More and more, benefit programs are being designed to meet the needs of the two-wage-earner family.
Because more women are working, employers are more sensitive to the grow­ing need for policies and procedures to eliminate sexual harassment in the work­place. Some organizations have special orientation programs to acquaint all personnel with the problem and to warn potential offenders of the consequences. Many employers are demanding that managers and supervisors enforce their sexual harassment policy vigorously.
Typically, sexual harassment involves one individual taking advantage of another. However, instead of a single individual being charged with harassment, there are an increasing number of cases in which the whole environment is seen as the source of sexual harassment. Characteristic of the “whole environment” syndrome are risqué jokes, pornographic magazines, slides in video presentations, and pinup posters.

Rising Levels of Education

In recent years the educational attainment of the U.S. labor force has risen dra­matically. Between 1972 and 1990 the proportion of the labor force age 18 to 64 with at least one year of college increased from 28 to 47 percent, while the pro­portion with four years of college or more increased from 14 to 26 percent. The emphasis on education is expected to continue. The average payoff in monthly earnings from education is directly related to the number of years of education earnings.
For the past few decades, the most secure and fastest-growing sectors of em­ployment have been in those areas requiring higher levels of education. For ex­ample, three of the four fastest-growing occupational groups are (1) executive, administrative, and managerial occupations; (2) professional specialty occupa­tions; and (3) technicians and related support occupations--occupations that generally require the highest levels of education and skill.
On the other hand, opportunities for high school dropouts will be increas­ingly limited. In 1990, for example, the unemployment rate for dropouts was more than twice that of individuals with a high school education. At the same time, college graduates may find that to be employed will require taking a job that does not fully utilize the knowledge and skills they acquired in college. To compensate their employees for this lack of parity, employers must try harder to improve the quality of work life.
It is important to observe that while the educational level of the workforce has continued to rise over the past several decades, the United States still grants the smallest proportion of science and engineering degrees of all industrialized nations in the world--and could face a deficit of 700,000 scientists and engi­neers by the year 2010. Although women now make up nearly half of the labor force, less than 30 percent of them are engineers and scientists. Even further, while minorities are expected to make up approximately one-third of the labor force by the turn of the century, they account for less than 2 percent of the doc­toral degrees awarded in science and engineering.
There is a widening gap between the educated and noneducated. At the lower end of the educational spectrum, many employers are having to cope with individuals who are functionally illiterate--i.e., unable to read, write, calculate, or solve problems at a level that enables them to perform even the simplest tech­nical tasks. David Kearns, chairman and CEO of Xerox Cor­poration, said, “The American work force is in grave jeopardy.  We are running out of qualified people. If current demographic and economic trends continue, American business will have to hire a million new workers a year who can't read, write, or count.”
Clearly, there is much work to be done. Modernization makes basic skill de­ficiencies that much more noticeable, and many believe that without immediate action, we are running down a path toward a national crisis. To rectify the situ­ation, both private- and public-sector organizations are working together. Gen­eral Motors, for example, spent nearly $2 billion from 1984 to 1990 on education and training, making it the largest privately funded educational institution in the United States.
Many other organizations and educational institutions are establishing much-needed partnerships to ensure that future employees have the skills they need for work. Sears and IBM, for example, have begun developing apprenticeship-type programs that combine academic and vocational instruc­tion with on-the-job training.
Another related problem is technological illiteracy. In Ottawa, Ontario, a coalition of high-technology businesses and educators launched the Partners Summer Institute for high school teachers as part of a larger program that is en­couraging students to pursue technologically oriented careers. IBM alone has spent more than $60 million since 1982 working with Canadian educational in­stitutions to help bolster technological skills.
While estimates vary, U.S. organizations spend over $50 billion a year on employee education. Unfortunately, only about 12 percent of the workforce re­ceives any formal on-the-job training. Many of the larger employers have insti­tuted programs in basic skills.

 

Job and Occupational Trends

 

Government studies show that as incomes and living standards have risen, the desire for services has grown more rapidly than the desire for goods. As a result, employment in service-producing industries has increased faster than employ­ment in goods-producing industries. Furthermore, imports of foreign-made goods have been limiting the growth of goods-producing industries in the United States.

Increase in Service Jobs

Employment is expected to continue to increase much faster in service-producing industries than in goods-producing industries. By 2005, the largest projected change in employment is in services (34 percent); retail and wholesale trade (16.2 percent); and finance, insurance, and real estate (20.6 percent). In addition, the growth rate of government employment is expected to rise as state and local governments respond to issues such as education and road repair and other elements of the nation's infrastructure.
Employment in the goods-producing industries peaked in the late 1970s and has not recovered from the recessionary period of the early 1980s. Construction is the only goods-producing area expected to show an increase in employment between 1986 and 2005 in response to projected economic conditions and demographic trends. Nevertheless, this growth rate is less than one-half that of the previous fifteen years.
Employment in manufacturing is expected to continue its decline. Employment in this sector reached its peak at 21 million in 1979 and is projected to drop to 18.5 million by 2005. Most of the jobs that will disappear will be production jobs. The number of professional, technical, and managerial positions in manufacturing firms will actually increase.
Since there are proportionately larger numbers of clerical and service jobs at the lower pay levels, special effort may be required to attract and retain employees in these jobs. Career ladders will be needed to enable the more capable employees to advance and to provide greater psychological rewards for those unable to do so.
On the other hand, for professional, technical, and managerial jobs, employers will have to develop recruiting and selection programs appropriate to the type of applicants being sought. Effective HR planning that involves career ladders and development programs will be essential to help employees reach these positions through internal promotion.

Jobs in High-Technology Industries

High technology is often touted as the source of new employment opportunities to help replace jobs lost in declining “smokestack” industries. Although they are growing faster than the average for all sectors, and particularly for the manufacturing sector, high-tech industries such as computers, bioengineering, and telecommunications are expected to account for only a small proportion of new jobs.
Employment in high-tech industries accounted for 6.1 percent of all wage and salary jobs in 1972, increased to 6.4 percent in 1984, and is pro­jected to reach 7.0 percent by 1995. The greatest increases in high-tech indus­tries are projected to be in computer and data processing services.
Despite changes and fluctuations in various industries and occupations, most jobs that become available through the year 2005 will be through replace­ment needs. Replacement openings occur as individuals leave occupations--through transfer, promotion, retirement, and the like. As a consequence, basic industries will continue to be an important sector in the American economy.
HR managers are interested in these job trends because of their effects on all of the HRM functions. For example, given that minorities and women are increasing their share of the labor force, HR managers frequently analyze how each group is represented in both fast-growing and slow-growing occupations.
Women, for example, are fairly well represented in fast-growing occupations such as health services but are also represented in some slow-growth occupations such as secretarial, computer processing, and financial records processing. For blacks and Hispanics, the data are less encouraging. Hispanics are poorly represented in all high-growth occupations, and blacks and Hispanics are heavily concentrated in several of the slow-growth and declining groups. Given these data, a number of efforts have been undertaken to encourage minority recruitment, selection, and training.

Use of Contingency Employees

 

Many organizations are using more contingency employees--temporaries, part-timers, contract labor, and the like--to effectively handle extra workloads without committing themselves to providing permanent employment or benefits. By using contingency workers and dealing with agencies such as Manpower, Thomas, Olsten, or Kelly Services, organizations can have the benefit of finding individuals who have been screened and trained.
The fact that the number of people employed by temporary-help agencies in the United States increases an­nually is an indicator of their value to employers. More specifically, temporary or part-time jobs accounted for 20 percent of the 18 million jobs created since 1983. In fact, over the past decade, the number of people employed by a temporary-employment agency has increased over 240 percent (from 470,000 to 1.6 million).
Manpower, with 600,000 employees, is now the largest private employer in the United States--with 200,000 more employees than General Motors and over 300,000 more employees than IBM. Estimates are that nine out of ten businesses have used the services of a temporary agency, and North American organizations now spend in excess of $12 billion a year on temporary help.
The use of contingency workers is not restricted to low-level clerical jobs. Many of these workers are scientists, bankers, lawyers, and executives. On any given day, there are an estimated 125,000 interim executives working for organi­zations on a temporary basis. Some of these individuals are eventually hired full-time, but most are employed for several months and then move on to some other work. In many cases, the assignments can be helpful in making contacts, gaining new experience, and getting a lead on future openings. This trend toward contingency workers is not common to other economic developed countries.

Telecommuting

One of the more recent changes and potentially the most far-reaching is telecommuting. Telecommuting is the use of microcomputers, networks, and other communications technology such as facsimile (fax) machines to do work in the home that is traditionally done in the workplace. As technology becomes both more sophisticated and user-friendly, employees can hook up with their of­fices and perform their tasks while still remaining miles away.

Telecommuting
Use of microcomputers, networks, and other
communications technology such as fax
to do work in the home that is
traditionally done in the workplace

        The number of telecommuters and corporate homeworkers increased from 14 million in 1990 to 16 million in 1991. Projections are that over 25 percent of the workforce will be telecommuting either full-time or part-time. Since, accord­ing to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 75 percent of new jobs are in the sub­urbs, but 57 percent of blacks and Hispanics live in the city, telecommuting holds promise of closing the rather serious geographic gap between jobs and the people who can fill them.
Not all jobs lend themselves to at-home work, but many do: travel agent, architect, writer, salesperson, data entry clerk, insurance agent, real estate agent, bookkeeper, accountant, computer programmer, word-processing secre­tary, engineer, and others. Numerous organizations have developed some sort of telecommuting policy. Among them are Bell Atlantic, Control Data, J. C. Pen­ney, American Express, International Banking Corporation, Blue Cross/Blue Shield of South Carolina, Chevron Chemical Company, Pacific Bell, and Trav­elers Insurance.
What potential benefits do HR managers see in telecommuting? In a recent USA survey, the most common responses were decreased production costs, increased employee satis­faction, and increased productivity. Yet despite the increasing use and value of telecommuting, managers may not feel comfortable supervising a telecommuting employee. Managers of telecommuters must be innovative thinkers and risk tak­ers.
According to Jack Nilles, who coined the term “telecommuter,” “The major obstacle to telecommuting in the last 15 years has been conservative manage­ment with industrial revolution mind-sets.” Many employers have been reluc­tant to consider telecommuting because they fear they will lose control if employees are not physically present.
When Continental Corporation rolled out a series of programs including telecommuting and job sharing, many were skepti­cal. However, within fifteen months of initiating the program, the company found that productivity jumped 15 percent and that the voluntary employee turnover rate had been cut to less than 5 percent, better than a 50 percent improvement.
Ironically, many employers now report that there is a tendency for telecom­muters to become workaholics. In choosing telecommuters, organizations should try to fill the positions with people whose jobs have not required interaction with others, who have been with the organization for some time, who have the appropriate psychological characteristics to work at home, and who above all are self-starters.
Preparing managers to supervise employees who are not physically present is a special requirement for success. Managers have to work harder at planning and communicating with their telecommuting subordinates, and they have to be clearer about their objectives. Ultimately, the key to putting together a successful telecommuting program is to have quality HR leadership guiding and managing the process.

 

Cultural Changes

The attitudes, beliefs, values, and customs of people in a society are an integral part of their culture. Naturally, their culture affects their behavior on the job and the environment within the organization, influencing their reactions to work as­signments, leadership styles, and reward systems. Like the external and internal environments of which it is a part, culture is undergoing continual change. HR policies and procedures therefore must be adjusted to cope with this change.

Employee Rights

 

Over the past few decades, legislation has radically changed the rules for management of employees by granting them many specific rights. In the USA, among these are laws granting the right to equal employment opportunity, union representation if desired, a safe and healthful work envi­ronment, a pension plan that is fiscally sound, equal pay for men and women performing essentially the same job, and privacy in the workplace.
An expanded discussion of the specific areas in which rights and responsibilities are of concern to employers and employees, including the often-cited employment-at-will doctrine, vary greatly in different countries of the world.

 

Concern for Privacy

HR managers and their staffs, as well as line managers in positions of responsi­bility, generally recognize the importance of discretion in handling all types of information about employees. Since the passage of the federal Privacy Act of 1974, increased attention to privacy has been evident. While the act applies al­most exclusively to records maintained by federal government agencies, it has drawn attention to the importance of privacy and has led to the passage of pri­vacy legislation in several states.
Employer responses to the issue of information privacy vary widely. IBM was one of the first companies to show concern for how personal information about employees was handled. It began restricting the release of information as early as 1965 and in 1971 developed a comprehensive privacy policy. Cummins Engine Company, Dow Corning Corporation, Avid, and Corning Glass Works are among other employers that have developed privacy programs.

Changing Attitudes Toward Work

Changing attitudes toward authority have become prevalent in today's labor force. Employees increasingly expect to exercise certain freedom from manage­ment control without jeopardizing their job security or chances for advance­ment. They are more demanding, more questioning, and less willing to accept the “I’m the boss” approach.
Another well-established trend is for employees to define success in terms of personal self-expression and fulfillment of potential on the job, while still receiving adequate compensation for their efforts. A greater proportion of the workforce now strives for challenging jobs. More people are also seeking rewarding careers and multiple careers rather than being satisfied with just having a job.
Workers also seem to value free time more than they did in earlier decades. Many polls report that people feel they have less free time than they once did. Contrary to their reported feelings, however, a use-of-time project at the Survey Research Center at the University of Maryland found that Americans to­day actually have more free time than ever before. Men have forty hours of free time a week and women have thirty-nine hours. (“Free time” is defined as what is left over after subtracting the time people spend working and commuting to work, taking care of their families, doing housework, shopping, sleeping, eating, and engaging in other personal activities.)
According to the report, free time has increased because women are doing much less housework than they did several decades ago and because the number of actual work hours that workers record in their daily diaries--not the number of “official” hours of work--has fallen sig­nificantly for both men and women. The findings, however, do hide much indi­vidual variation. Working parents, especially, are under severe time pressures. On balance, though, more people are gaining free time than are losing it.

Personal and Family Life Orientation

HRM has become more complex than it was when em­ployees were concerned primarily with economic survival. Today’s employees have greater expectations from society and from their employment.
In many cases, having time to develop a satisfying personal life and pursue cultural and other nonwork-related interests is valued by workers today as much as having a full-time job. Employers are thus being forced to recognize the fact that as individuals strive for a greater balance in their lives, organizations will have to alter their attitudes and their HRM policies to satisfy employee desires.
Work and the family are connected in many subtle and not-so-subtle social, economic, and psychological ways. Because of the new forms that the family has taken--e.g., the two-wage earner and the single-parent family--work organizations find it necessary to provide employees with more flexibility and options. “Flexibility” is a broad term and may include uncon­ventional hours, day care, part-time work, job sharing, pregnancy leave, parental leave, executive transfers, spousal involvement in career planning, assistance with family problems, and telecommuting.
These is­sues have become important considerations for all managers. Some of the most progressive companies such as American Express, Levi Strauss, NationsBank, PepsiCo, and Schering-Plough promote flexibility throughout their organizations. In general, these companies calculate that accommodating individual needs and circumstances is a powerful way to attract and retain top-caliber people.
Aetna Life and Casualty, for example, has cut turnover by 50 percent since it began to offer six-month parental leaves, coupled with an option for part-time work when employees return to the job. NationsBank provides up to six weeks of paid leave for fathers. Further, NationsBank en­courages all its employees to spend two hours each week visiting their children's schools or volunteering at any school on company time.
Arthur Andersen has developed a flexible work program that allows new parents to lighten their workloads for up to three years. There are acknowledged costs, however. In professional firms, such as accounting and law, career paths and promotion sequences are programmed in a lockstep manner. Time away from work can slow down--and in some cases derail--an individual’s career advancement.

 

Human Resources and Total-Quality Management

In absolute terms, the United States remains the world’s most productive nation. However, of major concern to most Americans is the fact that the United States now ranks twelfth among the top thirteen industrialized na­tions in “growth in output per worker.” U.S. annual growth in output per worker averaged 1 percent for the period 1981-1985.
In recent years productivity in basic manufacturing operations has improved slightly. Following a cycle of downsizing, the forging of new union agreements, and the closing or modernization of obso­lete plants, the U.S. manufacturing sector recovered from the 1970s slowdown and was back on a 3 percent growth track in the late 1980s. More recently there have been periods of decline, but prospects for the future are encouraging.
Intense international competition has forced U.S. organizations to enhance quality, as well as productivity, to regain their competitive edge. Total-quality management (TQM) is a set of principles and practices whose core ideas include doing things right the first time, striving for continuous improvement, and under­standing customer needs.

Total-quality management (TQM)
A set of principles and practices whose core
ideas include doing things right the first time,
striving for continuous improvement, and
understanding customer needs

Through TQM initiatives, companies such as Motorola, Xerox, Ford, Corning, General Electric, 3M, Hewlett-Packard, Boeing, A. 0. Smith, Cummins Engine, Maytag, and Allied-Signal have substantially im­proved productivity and bolstered their competitive advantage. However, quality programs are certainly no panacea. Unfortunately, too many organizations view quality as a quick fix.
As a consequence, 75 percent of all quality programs begun in 1982 had been discontinued by 1986. Further, the number of applications for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award peaked in 1991 and has fallen sharply ever since. If quality initiatives are to work, an organization must make major changes in its philosophy, its operating mechanisms, and its HR programs.
A survey asked 307 executives from Fortune 1000 companies and 308 execu­tives from smaller firms (twenty-plus employees) to rate the importance of eight quality-improvement techniques. Those techniques that stressed human fac­tors--employee motivation, change in corporate culture, and employee educa­tion--received higher ratings than those emphasizing processes or equipment.
Organizations known for product and service quality strongly believe that employees are the key to that quality. They believe that proper attention to em­ployees will naturally improve quality and productivity.  In other words, they believe that HRM is the most promising strategy for reversing the productivity slide.
The fact that many organizations in the United States have found it dif­ficult to compete successfully with those in Japan has stimulated interest in uncovering differences between the two countries. Cultural and sociological differences between Japanese and American workers may explain to some extent why workers in Japan are credited with being more productive and more dedi­cated to their work.
For example, the Japanese tradition in the larger companies of providing lifetime employment and avoiding layoffs, even at a financial sacri­fice, has generated a sense of loyalty and commitment to employers among Japa­nese workers. In addition, evidence suggests that Japanese workers tend to identify more than American workers with their employers and their employers’ goals. However, they tend to be very similar to American workers with respect to their dedication to the work ethic or to doing a decent job.
One of the keys to the increased productivity of Japanese workers lies in the coordinated efforts of individuals--through interdependence, collaboration, and teamwork. Teamwork has also become one of the mainstays of work organi­zation in the United States, both in manufacturing and service firms.
Levi Strauss, for example, has converted its entire Roswell, New Mexico, facility from assembly lines to modular manufacturing teams. Sewing machine operators, rather than acting as “living extensions of their machines,” now work as a self-managed team to coordinate scheduling, maintenance, and trouble shooting. As a result, Levi Strauss has reduced the time it takes to get out a sixty-pair bundle of jeans from six days to one. Equally important is the concern for quality, and here Levi has lowered its defect rate from 3.9 to 1.9 percent.
Another philosophy borrowed from the Japanese is employee management, which rests on respect for the worker's intelligence and need for self-esteem. Some Japanese subsidiaries, such as Nissan in Smyrna, Tennessee, and GM-Toyota in Fremont, California, have been able to apply this philosophy to the management of their American employees. These companies have translated the philosophy into action by encouraging their American workers to participate in decision making and to identify with company goals.
Many American organizations have adopted certain aspects of Japanese management practices to their advantage. It should be observed, however, that the Japanese business and management system is undergoing significant changes. Lifetime employment, seniority-based promotion systems, and company-wide unions--all characteristic of Japanese-style management--have recently been called into serious question.

 

Quality of Work Life

Improving a firm’s external environment is, to a large extent, beyond an employer’s control. However, improving the organization’s internal environment is definitely within the realm of an employer’s influence. A major challenge confronting employers today is that of improving the quality of work life (QWL). This challenge stems not only from the need to meet foreign competition but also from the demographic and cultural changes that have just been discussed.

Quality of work life (QWL)
The extent to which work is rewarding
and free of anxieties and stresses

        Many of our largest private and public organizations are making changes to try to improve the QWL of their employees. These efforts consist of looking for ways to make work more rewarding and reduce anxieties and stresses in the work environment.
Several different approaches are being used, including restructuring work organization and job design, increasing employee involvement in shaping the organization and its functions, and developing an organizational culture that will encourage members to behave in ways that will maximize productivity, strengthen human relationships, meet employee expectations, and sustain desired attitudes and beliefs.

 

Work Organization and Job Design

If quality is to be improved, there is no better place to start than with the way work is organized and the way jobs are designed. Since each industry and its jobs present special problems to be solved, it is only possible to present some general prescriptions. Jacquie Mansell and Tom Rankin of the Ontario (Canada) Quality of Working Life Centre have developed criteria for designing organizational structures and processes, including jobs, for high QWL. Other aspects of job design and such work arrangements as job rotation, flexible working hours, and job sharing also contribute to QWL.

 

Empowerment and Participative Management

Essential to TQM is employee empowerment and the development of participa­tive management. By involving employees in decisions relating to their work and employment conditions, firms can create a solid psychological partnership with employees. Unfortunately, at times efforts to provide a more participative en­vironment are resisted by managers and viewed with suspicion by employees. Nevertheless, empowerment and participation are realities of today’s business environment.

Participative management
A system of management that enables employees to
participate in decisions relating to their work and
employment conditions, thereby creating a
psychological partnership between
management and employees

Enlightened organizational leaders recognize that basic changes in relation between employers and employees are essential. Many are also convinced that bringing workers into the decision-making process offers the best opportunity to improve quality and productivity. If only for reasons of survival, both sides must recognize that they have a mutual interest in working together to reduce cost and avoid becoming victims of foreign and domestic competition.
Thus there is strong incentive to work jointly to reduce costs and improve quality. Caterpillar, Champion International, and General Motors, through their QWL programs, are making substantial progress in providing avenues for employee input.

CRITERIA FOR ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES AND PROCESSES

Decisions are made at the lowest level possible. Self-regulation for individuals and groups is a primary goal. Individuals or integrated groups of workers are responsible for a whole job. People do not work on fragmented, meaningless tasks. The potential (technical and social) of individuals, of groups, and of the overall organization is developed to the fullest. Hierarchies are minimized and artificial barriers do not exist between people or between functions. Quality and quality control are built directly into the primary production system. Safety and health are built directly into the total system. Support systems and structures promote and support self-regulation, integration, and flexibility. For example, information systems provide immediate feedback directly to those who need the information in order to perform their job; information is not used to retain power or to police others. Problems are resolved on the basis of joint control and shared responsibility between all groups. Structures and processes for the sharing of decision-making powers are guaranteed at all levels in the organization.

Supportive Organizational Culture

Over the years much has been written about firms such as 3M, Procter & Gamble, and Hewlett-Packard that are noted for the quality of their products and services and their relationships with people both outside and inside the organization. These companies are well known for the attention they give to HR and the work environments they have created and nurtured. The credo of Johnson & Johnson, reproduced below, conveys the attitudes characteristic of these companies.

SOCIAL OBJECTIVES OF JOHNSON & JOHNSON

  

 

In the past decade, organizational culture has been viewed as an intangible but real and important factor in determining the organizational climate. The conventional wisdom about culture is that it is “the glue that holds the organi­zation together.” Organizational culture is defined as the shared philosophies, values, assumptions, beliefs, expectations, attitudes, and norms that knit an or­ganization together.

Organizational culture
The shared philosophies, values, assumptions, beliefs,
expectations, attitudes, and norms that
knit an organization together

It may also be defined as “the way things are done around here.” For example, everyone at Hewlett-Packard knows that employees are ex­pected to be innovative. Everyone at Mary Kay Cosmetics knows the philosophy of the chair emeritus of the board, Mary Kay Ash:

People come first at Mary Kay Cosmetics--our beauty consultants, sales directors and employees, our customers, and our suppliers. We pride ourselves as a "company known for the people it keeps." Our belief in caring for people, however, does not conflict with our need as a corporation to generate a profit. Yes, we keep our eye on the bottom line but it's not an overriding obsession. To me, P and L doesn't only mean profit and loss--it also means people and love.

We do find an increasing number of larger American firms receiving wide­spread acclaim for their supportive cultures, including Wal-Mart, Herman Miller, and others that have been recognized in a series of Fortune articles. While each of these companies has its own unique culture, team spirit is a characteris­tic they all share.
In addition to what observers have noted about these and other companies, the findings from two research studies of employees show a positive correlation between employees’ perception of being valued and cared about by the firm and (1) conscientiousness in carrying out conventional job re­sponsibilities, (2) expressed emotional involvement in the organization, and (3) innovative work for the organization, even in the absence of anticipated re­ward or personal recognition.

 

Elements of culture. Terrence Deal and Allan Kennedy made an exhaustive study of the organizational literature from the 1950s to the early 1980s to under­stand better the elements that make up a strong culture. They found five ele­ments, which they describe as follows:

• Business environment. Each organization carries on certain kinds of activities--e.g., selling, inventing, conducting research. Its business environment is the single greatest influence in shaping its culture.
• Values. These are basic concepts and beliefs that define “success” in concrete terms for employees--e.g., “If you do this, you too will be a success.”
• Heroes. People who personify the culture’s values provide tangible role models for employees to follow. Organizations with strong cultures have many heroes.
• Rites and rituals. The systematic and programmed routines (rituals) of day-to-day life in the organization show employees the kind of behavior that is expected of them and what the organization stands for.
• Cultural network. Through informal communication the corporate values are spread throughout the firm.

 

        A strong culture not only spells out how people are to behave, it also enables people to feel better about what they do, causing them to work harder.

 

Keeping culture contemporary. There are many changes taking place in our society that affect HRM. Organizations with strong cultures must be able to adapt to these changes and at the same time retain their basic philosophy. And organizations must find ways to keep their cultures current—that is, support efforts to adapt to changes in the competitive environment.
IBM, for example, is making feverish attempts to reinvent itself to be more flexible and responsive to compete with foreign and domestic competition. When Louis Gerstner was brought in as the company’s new CEO, he noted that fixing a “broken culture” is the most crucial—and difficult—part of a corporate transformation. To revamp the culture, Gerstner is working to encourage cooperation among divisions, as well as to foster trust and teamwork. Left unchecked, managers and employees over time may become risk-averse and turf-conscious. To stay on top, Gerstner argues that he must eliminate unnecessary bureaucracy and infuse the firm with “china breakers,” employees with innovative ideas who challenge the status quo.
Along these lines, other organizations have also pushed hard to encourage employees to become entrepreneurs, or innovators on the job. Since they remain in the employ of the firm but are given freedom to create new products, services, and production methods, these innovative workers are referred to as intrapreneurs. This people-based approach to innovative management is defined as allowing “entrepreneurs…freedom and incentive to do their best in small groups within large corporations.” Often the results of such activities lead to the organization of a new division or subsidiary.

Intrapreneurs
Employees who remain in the organization but are
given freedom to create new products, services,
and/or production methods

        Employers are beginning to recognize that if the spirit of intrapreneurism is to exist beyond the life span of a fad, it must be nurtured. Not only should intrapreneurs be given special recognition, but incentives and rewards should be customized on an individual basis. To quote one writer, “A major roadblock to the nurturing of intrapreneurs is often the compensation manager whose traditional interests are control and consistency.”
The challenge for management in the coming decades will be to maintain a balance between the fact of rapid change and the need for stability. Since the focus of managers is on human performance and everything that affects it, they should not lose sight of their responsibility to keep the culture open and flexible.

 

SUMMARY

The internal and external environments of an organization can have a significant impact on the productivity of its human resources and on their management. For this reason managers must be aware of the impact these environments--and the changes occurring within them--may have on their programs. The failure of management in many organizations to anticipate and cope effectively with these changes is one of the principal causes for the declining rate of productivity growth in the United States.
Technology influences both the number of employees needed as well as the skills they require. This has the effect of reducing the number of jobs for “touch labor” and increasing the number of jobs for “knowledge workers.” HR must take a leadership role in helping managers cope with technological change, identify­ing the skills needed of employees, training new employees, and retraining cur­rent employees.
Technology has also changed HRM by altering the methods of collecting employment information, speeding data-processing efforts, and im­proving the process of internal and external communication.
The regulatory system begins with social and political problems that prompt lawmakers to pass laws. These laws then empower agencies such as the EEOC, OSHA, and NLRB to ensure compliance. These agencies make certain that management has initiated actions that bring their practices under compliance with the law. In those cases where compliance is not met, courts oversee the pro­cess of settling disputes between the parties involved.
While changes are taking place in many areas that affect HRM, those re­lated to demographics include the rising number of minorities and immigrants, the aging workforce and decreasing number of 16- to 24-year-olds, the influx of women in the workforce, and the education and skills gap.
To improve quality and increase productivity, many organizations have be­gun to rethink their approaches to human resource management. These efforts include an emphasis on teamwork, job design, empowerment and participative management, and the building of a supportive organizational culture. All of these efforts reflect the increasing responsiveness of employers to the changes that affect the management of their human resources.

KEY TERMS
Environment Environmental scanning External environment Internal environment (organizational climate) Intrapreneurs Issues management Knowledge workers	Organizational culture Participative management Quality of work life (QWL) Sociotechnical system Telecommuting Total-quality management