Introduction
Human Resource Management has been termed by scholars as a form of management whose paradigms are in continual transition. The environment in which Human Resources management operates is faced by new challenges as the world adopts new ways of doing business. Globalization has introduced new procedures such outsourcing and mixed demography in the workforce . Economic and technological changes have significantly altered the employment patterns and practice in the United States. Technology has since replaced agriculture and manufacturing as the leading employers in the market. Therefore adapting to this new environment is vital and necessary for the survival and the continued profitability of a company. This paper outlines the technological challenges faced by two companies, the responses of these challenges and the results of the said responses.
GE Fanuc
The first case under study is the merger of the General Electric Company and a leading Japanese manufacturing company to form GE Fanuc Manufacturing. The company is mainly involved in the manufacture of factory control and automation products. The HR department was at the headquarters situated in Virginia and its work was to provide support services for the entire 1500 personnel workforce. This centralization of service provision created a bottleneck in service provision to the employees. It took longer to hire employees as well as get the benefits and claim compensations due to the workforce. Furthermore, the department was too big and relied on older non-automated process that involved heavy paperwork and fillings .
Immediately after Donald Borwhat, Jr. took over as the Vice President of operation in the company, the first order of business was to decentralize the HR department and get an information system for the department . The proposed mode of decentralization was by having each department have its own HR department. For example, the manufacturing, sales and management departments would each have a HR manager. The responsibilities of the individual managers would have their roles tailored towards assisting the employees and the work they are involved. The HRs would to be fully automated as well as a database for the employees it was responsible for. Hammer & Champy (1993) explain that a network of the HR departments was to be implemented and the infrastructure would rely existing network facilities. The new model was likened to a ‘Computer Distributed System’, a web of some sort.
The results of these adjustments were soon evident. Promotions, hiring and transfers were soon expedited with near fairness. The new rules also granted the employees a share of the company’s profits. The revenue of the company also significantly increases by about 18% . Innovations in automated service delivery in the HR department have since become a major aspect in the company and have adopted HR IT products such as Oracle products. GE Fanuc is still one of the leading companies in the manufacturing industry.
Mercedes-Benz
The second company under study is the Mercedes-Benz Company when it decided to build the ‘M’ class plant in Alabama. While several companies such Nissan, Toyota and BMW had operation in the US much earlier, Mercedes had to also take the same move so as to remain competitive in the US market. Moreover, the cost production in the US had been found to be lower as compared to Germany, where they initially produced their product .
The challenge that company faced was staffing and HR management. In this state, several of the workers who turned had not worked in the automotive industry before. The situation was forger aggravated by the fact that the workforce was so large to train and work at the same time .
Therefore, the company decided to train others in the Germany as well as bring in expatriates from Germany to Alabama. The HR departments decided to invest in hi-tech technology that would guide the staff on improving its skills. New technology was also used in the entire assembly process and thus the staff had to get used to this new ways of working.
The results were impeccable with the company beating its own production targets. Today, Mercedes considers it transition in Human Resource Management a major factor in its success story.
In conclusion, HR management has swiftly adapted the use of new technology in business process. It will be detrimental for a firm not to provide keen support to its staff through technology.
References
Dessler, G. (2004). Human Resource Management. 10th ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Pearson/Prentice-Hall.
Hammer, M., & Champy, J. (1993). Reengineering the Corporation. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, Inc.
Myloni, B., Harzing, A., & Mirza, H. (2007). Japanese HRM: Inspirations from Abroad and Current The effect of organisational factors on the transfer of human resource management practices: European and US MNCs and their Greek subsidiaries,. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, vol. 18, no. 12, , 2057–2074.
