Emerging Role Of Human Resource Management

Dr. Shyam Bahadur Katuwal

Human resource management (HRM) has been given importance in the academic and professional fields because of the role it plays in enhancing organisational performance. Presently, organisations are successful on account of competent human resource. Thus, human resource management is a requirement in facing competition successfully rather than fulfilling the legal and mandatory requirements. The role of HRM in Anglo-American organisations is said to be action-oriented, individual-oriented and future-oriented. However, in the case of Nepal, although the scenario of human resource management has been gradually shifting from record keeping of employees and providing piecemeal solutions to HR-related problems, it has not improved to the extent desired. Hence, Nepalese organisations are unable to face HR-related challenges, achieve business strategies and make them competitive and advantageous.

HRM in NepalDeveloping and utilising human competencies for organisational effectiveness in Nepal has received low priority from people involved in managing HR. HR managers are happy performing routine work concerning personnel administration, record keeping, welfare, discipline, labour relations and other operational issues rather than developing and utilising human resources and integrating HRM activities as a part and parcel of the business strategy. Managing human resources, therefore, is preoccupied with the traditional functions of personnel administration. Even after the changes in the socio-eco-political and technological environment in the country, Nepalese organisations face problems of low productivity, poor motivation, morale and satisfaction, adverse labour-management relations and so on. Such problems are more serious in public enterprises because of the unstable political environment, short-term political vision and excessive political interference in the day-to-day affairs of the enterprises. As per the Public Accounting Report 1997, the government blames the top executives of public enterprise for only unpardonable inefficiencies of the public enterprises. Except in some forward-looking organisations, linkage of HRM, including human resource development (HRD), with organisational performance and corporate strategy is still neglected.

Factors for the slow pace of development of HRM in Nepal are centralised organisations, lack of trust between labour and management, frequent changes of executives especially in government organisations and public enterprises, over and understaffing due to lack of appropriate human resource planning, feeling of seniority complex and lack of budget for HRD. The other emerging problem for the underdevelopment of HRM in some organisations is the protective market. The organisations operating in a protective market environment do not feel any responsibility of developing the necessary human resources for competitive advantages. Although it is mandatory to hire a labour welfare officer, many large organisations prefer to appoint a personnel manager/officer to look into the recruitment of personnel, including managerial ones. Thus, innovative human resource practices that emphasise a people-oriented, participatory, progressive and committed approach to HRM is out of bounds for most of the Nepalese organisations.The growing internationalisation of business has its impact on HRM functions. In the contemporary business environment, Nepalese organisations are in a constant state of competition. As the intensity of competition increases, the need for organisations to continuously improve their performance is a compulsion for their survival. The significance of traditional sources of competition like natural resources, technology and economies of scale is decreasing because these resources are easy to imitate. Since HR is an intangible, irreplaceable and inimitable asset of an organisation, the importance of HR in global competition began attracting the attention of Nepalese organisations since the 1990s with the liberalisation of the economy.

Direct investment by multinational corporations for global competition has forced organisations to find effective means of developing and utilising quality manpower. This, being so, the effective management of human capital, not physical capital, may be the ultimate determinant of organisational performance. Competition from multinational and domestic companies has compelled many enterprises to resort to downsizing, acquisitions, mergers or divestitures. The reorganisation will have an impact on the employees. They experience anxiety and uncertainty about their job in the new organisation. Thus, retention of quality employees is another concern of present organisations.The growth of powerful trade unions after the advent of democracy in 1990, introduction of protective labour laws, and increasing value of professionalism in the field of HRM, increasing size of organisations and introduction of new technology have further given impetus to changing the traditional role of human resource management in Nepal.An important key to the success in the gobalisation of business is the management of HR. With the changing character of competition, changed expectation of the employees, interest of the weaker section of the society, demographic changes in the workforce (increasing number of working women, young employees and dual-career couples with increasing awareness and education among workers and decline of blue-collar employees), the role of HRM has been changing.

The role of human resource managers, as a line function, is to coordinate HRM policies, programmes, procedures and activities with the business strategies for the attainment of corporate goals. Consequently, in order to cope with changes in the business environment, innovative HRM practices like Internet recruitment, use of psychological and behavioural tests for selection of employees, participatory goal setting, team appraisal and 360-degree appraisal are required in the different organisations.Participatory career plans, job rotation, need based training, attitude and communication training, challenging job assignment, team rewards, performance linked bonus, family directed rewards, greater transparency, outplacement service, exit interview and retirement counseling make HRM proactive to the global changes. Evidences indicate that HR practices influence employee attitudes, behaviour, perceptions, organisational climate and other human resource performance measures, which in turn lead to human resource performance and thereby organisational effectiveness.

Skilled labourIn the changed economic structure and patterns of competition, managers including HR professionals are required to facilitate the process of organisational development in place of controlling people through traditional personnel management. They must work to develop specialised skilled labour, manage a flexible work environment, create organisational constellations and strike strategic alliances for regular exchanges of manpower and information among the constellations. Competitive pressure, changing social values and need of employees have encouraged organisations to bring innovative HRM. Except in some big private organisations, joint venture banks, multinational companies and INGOs, the role of HRM is not considered yet to be of strategic importance to attain organisational goals in Nepal. Yet, it is expected to play a strategic role in making Nepalese organisations competitive in the years to come.

Source: The Rising Nepal, May 19, 2007