BUSINESS

Impact of Changes on Society and Business Practices

Impact of Changes on Society and Business Practices

Introduction

With the advancements taking place in the world, change has become inevitable. These changes have altered the manner in which our society and businesses operate. Gone are the days when conventional business practices were considered enough to make an organization profitable. The costs of running an organization were significantly higher and practices such as recruitment and hiring were one-dimensional in nature. The advent of technology changed the race to the top that businesses are engaged in. Societies have also witnessed changes with the world becoming smaller due to globalization. Technology has brought countries closer. Today, organizations can use communication technologies to interview and select candidates from all over the world. The functions of human resource have changed completely. Organizations also resort to social networking websites to search for potential candidates. The HR departments have become more active in the functioning (Haugen & Mach, 2010, pp. 301).

Modern day society has changed the way we look at the world. There seem to be no boundaries or limits to what one can achieve. Everything has come within our grasps. Countries are now operating on a rather level field of play and assisting each other for mutual gains. But there have also been drawbacks of these changes. We shall look at how change has impacted the society, the function of human resource and the competition on domestic and international fronts.

Literature Review

Technology and Changes in Human Resource Strategies

The competition among the companies is actually the competition of human resources, as the market reveals. A company, as a profit-pursuing organization, is always under the pressure of delivering new products to win market share. Without high quality human resources and its effective functioning, a company can hardly endure the profit pressure and pursue its long term business strategy. The past decades has witnessed the transition of employee becoming the most precious capital in the company and the ascent of Human Resource Management (HRM). The business world is becoming more and more demanding: the increasing competition and globalization in the world business, the requiring of developing capability for long-term survival, and the improving productivity to gain market share. Such demands have forced organizations to rethink how they can keep or attain their competitive advantage in the continuous changing market environment through making the best use of their people. Furthermore, there are other driving forces pushing organizations to reconsider their HR function to meet the strategic business demands and the future corporate success, such as business environmental change, customer satisfaction, management diversification, and development of knowledge and technology. These driving forces press the HR function to evolve under the pressure of environment and to avoid the downside of existing systems (Swanson & Holton, 2001, pp. 29).

Business Environmental Change

The fundamental changes in business world have forced the HR function to shift and put the HR function into an important status. These changes include the uncertainty of personnel management caused by the rapid business ...