MANAGEMENT

Human Resource Management

Human Resource Management

What are the consequences of negative downsizing and outsourcing and the implication of HRM?

Downsizing is used by companies that want to decrease the total costs and size of the organization and it is commonly done by reducing the number of employees. When market conditions are tough and companies find it difficult to sustain themselves, downsizing is eventually used. Outsourcing is the situation as when one part of the operations of an organization is delegated to a third party. A company may use this strategy to save costs or to just focus on their core operations. Some functions of the business can be better performed by other companies and this provides an opportunity to make the overall operations better.

Downsizing leads to anxiety and job insecurity amongst those employees that are not laid off. When the employees see their colleagues being laid off, it may lead to feelings of unfair organizational conduct and lack of trust in the top management. These negative perceptions decrease the motivation and the quality of work (Travagione & Cross, 2006). Human resource practitioners have the difficult job of getting the message across to the employees that have to be terminated. Human resources have to arrange for adequate compensation for the employees that are laid off as they have to be paid for their services. Human resource has to make sure that they communicate the message in an effective manner as if it is not done so; it will lead to rebel from trade union that can cause serious damage to the operations of the business.

An implication of outsourcing for HRM is the limit to which the HRM function itself is growingly outsourced (Cooke et.al, 2005). The Human resource department may have to train the employees of the outsourced function and bring them in line with the organization's level. The Human resources has to make sure that all the people related to the organization in any way have to be on the same level of understanding. The impact on the organizations operations of outsourcing differ from company to company and can range from transferring employees to other departments or laying them off. It is the role of HR to see what has to be done with the employees. The savings of the cost in this case have to be compared with the additional expenses and long term consequences.

In the case of both downsizing and outsourcing the HR has to make sure that the staffing needs of the organization are studied and realized. The decisions in both these cases have to be correct and fair as it can lead to mistrust of the employees on the organization. The right message has to be sent across both the retained and terminated as it can lead to negative consequences for the organization.

Training and Development is core to comprehensive human resource management strategy but the development of workforce skills is often considered of secondary importance. Discuss this by using examples from different sectors/production processes?

Training and development ...