How does context influence employment relations issues for HR practitioners in local government?
Human resource management is managing people as they work in organizations. The Human Resource Department plays a very significant role in an organization. This is so because it caters to the most important resource – people.
The department is responsible for the selection and retention of employees who will help achieve the goals of an organization. This selection is crucial as this would predict the kind of workforce an organization would have. Once potentials are seen as congruent to what the organization needs, employees are considered potential assets and are retained in the organization. The role of the Human Resource Department doesn’t stop in the selection and retention process. It guides the employees toward being competent in achieving the organizational objectives. This is done through skills development trainings and seminars extended to the employees with the intention of helping them maximize their potentialities. Moreover, diversity is also managed by the HR Department. Employee behaviour is critical in the accomplishment of organizational goals. Employees with different orientations may come into a clash if not properly managed. This is a role of the department that caters to the emotional and psychological dimensions of human resource. Employees have to adapt to the working environment. Although HR acknowledges individual uniqueness, managing diversity is not removing this uniqueness but instead, integrating this for a more cooperative working environment.
There were already changes in the way human resources are managed (Farnham, 2010). These changes on how the workforce is managed can be attributed to the desire of the organizations to have a competitive edge (Paine, 2009). The human resource practitioners are expected to be more proactive to cope with these changes.
Organizations do not operate in a vacuum. They are affected by external contexts that call for realignment of their strategies in order to stay competitive. In every change, employees are the very first ones being affected. It serves as a challenge to HR practitioners as they have to understand the changes and assist both the administration and the personnel to manage these changes.
Socio-cultural Context
Looking at the organization in a socio-cultural context is considering what happens outside the bigger society. What transpires in the social arena influences how HR practitioners perform their roles. As organizations become dependent on the resources available in the bigger society, their hiring processes is dependent on the characteristics of the human resource available. The choice of who will be hired depends on whatever the bigger society could offer.
Moreover, the strategies employed by the HR practitioners may be influenced by the society’s demographic characteristics. Since the organization operates to meet a basic need of the society, a change in the society could entail a change in their needs and may result to a different organizational thrust. A product that is in demand before may no longer be in demand in a certain period of time due to changes in population. With these, HR practitioners are confronted with how to align the specializations of the workforce to a possible change of product that will suit the need of the bigger society. This may pose a problem of misfit since the employees were hired for a specialization that may no longer be needed due to change in the society’s demographic characteristics.
Employees are not exempted from being affected by the workings of the bigger society. There may be changes in their family structures, priorities, needs, and interests that may be in conflict with their life within the organization. This poses another employment relations issues as employees may no longer be productive for they may be into situations that are not fit to what they are doing in the workplace.
As caretakers of the welfare of its constituents, local government units are expected to know the social and cultural conditions of the community where they operate. Doing this will give them an idea of what they need and how they can address the needs. Whatever the problem of the bigger society, the organization is affected. The same is true with how organizations are affected by the culture of the bigger society.
Technological Context
In this fast changing world, technology seems to be an answer to the many problems faced by societies. The needs of people grow drastically and the level of technology has to cope with this growth. The proliferation of new means of communication may bring an employment relations issue for the HR practitioners. It is a common thing that communication plays a vital role in organizations. Employees are trained to communicate face-to-face to develop in them closeness and camaraderie. With the advent of the social media and other means of communication, employees create their own way of managing communication. High reliance on technology as a medium of communication may create an environment where relationship is impersonal which may lead to absence of oneness among employees. Furthermore, technology changes how employees perform their work. Doing a work done in a shorter period of time may be seen by many organizations as efficiency. However, for the HR practitioners who are responsible in the hiring process, this may reduce the number of employees needed to work in a particular job. Though this may seem beneficial, but this may result to higher unemployment rate. The effect therefore goes back to the bigger society.
Economic Context
Globalization opens the doors for a more competitive economic activity. Economies are controlled by big corporations and competition rises tremendously. As the demand for highly specialized people increases in these multinational companies, potential and the best workers in the local government may grab opportunities offered to them. Expertise of these employees will be utilized by multinational companies and the HR practitioners are left with a group of employees who may be less competent. Consequently, the quality of work or service being extended by the local government units may suffer. Although HR practitioners may still recruit new hires, however, if highly effective people are offered high pay in other businesses, there will be limited choice of personnel available.
The social exchange theory takes into account the benefit that one can receive in a partnership built on mutual trust (Brunetto et al, 2014). If employees’ expectations are not met and when they felt that what they give is not reciprocated well, loyalty to the organization will be put at stake. The presence of greener pasture will serve as an escape for these employees because they will feel that the organization is the only one benefiting from their services.
Political Context
Looking at the HR employment relations in the context of politics will lead to the conclusion that the local government does not operate independently but is controlled by national or central government units (Bestzer, Ackers and Hislop, 2015). Although local governments are expected to work on their own as they know best the needs of their constituents, they are governed by national policies. Policies are made in the national government and local units implement these policies. Processes and strategies utilized by HR practitioners in the local government units conform to that of the national level. Although those in the local units are the ones more knowledgeable as to the needs of their employees, they apply what is being practiced in the higher-ups. This poses a problem in employment relations as HR practitioners in the local government cannot address problems of employees based on what they see because they are governed by policies which may not be applicable in the local setting. This results to employees’ needs not adequately met. Following what the national level dictates is ensured by local units so that they may gain support from those who are on top. Moreover, national units maintain connection with the local units for political motives. The conflict that may arise because of political intentions may place the HR practitioners into a dilemma of not satisfying a human resource role which is addressing the needs of employees in order to cultivate in them the motivation the organization needs in attaining its objectives.
The HR practitioners in the local governments may be path dependents. This happens because of not suitable policies that are applied in the national government. HR practitioners just base their practices to previous experiences and may not necessarily be the best way in dealing with employment problems. This being the case, employees may feel that the cause of inappropriate solutions to their problems is due to politics and may point that the head of the organization is liable for he/she has a discretionary power in the organization (Xerri et al., 2016).
Human resource management as practiced today is very much different from what was being done before. In cases like employee dissatisfaction, the usual scenario before is the presence of union to fight for the rights of the employees (Lewin et al., 2006). This problem may pose a big concern for HR practitioners in the local government units if in today’s time, unions are still recognized. The control the national government has over local government units may, in a way, controlling the functions of the HR practitioners putting them in a dilemma for they are the front liners in an organization.
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