HR AND EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS

HR plays taking into consideration the changes in external environmental factors?



Table of Contents

Table of Content2

Introduction3

Human resource management4

Human resource management in the context6

Research question and framework8

Iranian social context9

Political environment10

Economic environment10

Culture11

Methods and data13

Competitive Advantage16

Staffing16

Compensation18

Training and development20

Appraisal21

Conclusion23

References25

Appendix32

Figure 133

Figure 233

Figure 334

Table I35

Table II36

HR plays taking into consideration the changes in external environmental factors?

Introduction

Review of literature reveals that while most of studies in the area of human resource management (HRM) are devoted to industrialized world, there is a dearth of research about developing countries, which account for a considerable portion of planet. By recognizing the gap in literature, this paper aims to shed light on particularities of human resource management in a developing country such as Iran. Choosing Iran for the purpose of this study has important implications at theoretical and managerial levels. Iran represents an important regional economy with a strategic location in Persian Gulf and Central Asia, a relatively large population, and tremendous resources, which require heavy investment. Furthermore, Iran is a complex country with an ancient cultural heritage, which has not been explored.

The current study aims to analyze HRM practices in Iran by referring to underlying social factors. The paper is organized in three major parts. The first part deals with HRM concept and Iranian social context. The second part presents methodology and data analysis. Finally, the third part discusses results and illustrates HRM practices in Iranian organizations.

Human resource management

The field of HRM has undergone considerable change over time depending on social and contextual circumstances. The evolution of HRM once called “personnel management” has followed the history of business in the USA ( Brewster, 1995). The shift from personnel management to HRM took place in the 1980s and organizations came to emphasize their employees as valued resources. The concept of HRM is essentially American but nowadays it can be considered an international concept (Brewster, 1995), which can be applied to other countries. Ferris (1995) gave a very exhaustive definition of HRM as follows: “Human resource management is the science and the practice that deal with the nature of the employment relationship and all of the decisions, actions, and issues that relate to that relationship”.

Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) has determined that every organization must deal with the following basic human-oriented functions: human resource planning, staffing, maintaining HR information systems, training and development, organizational culture, development, change management, employee performance, compensation and benefits, legal compliance, labor relations, health, safety, and security. Mondy and Noe (1993) suggested that activities and practices of HRM can be classified into six domains:

Planning and recruitment.

Development and appraisal.

Compensation and reward.

Safety and health.

Labor relations.

Human resource research.

Based on a strategic perspective, Schuler and Jackson (1987) proposed a menu for HRM practices which included six major practices: planning, staffing, appraisal, compensating, training and development choices. Similarly, Fombrun (1984) developed a model based on four interrelated HRM functions: staffing, rewards, training and appraisal. The model called “human resource cycle” is depicted in Figure ...