HRM Specialism Assignment Sample

Introduction of HRM Specialism Assignment

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This study aims to assess the important learning challenges, themes, and controversies in the Human Resource Management discipline while also presenting a personal, reflective perspective on the instructive and helpful nature of the HRM Specialism. Understanding and evaluating strategic HR policies and practices, as well as the overall contribution they make to achieving organizational performance, is the ultimate learning result of these workshops. In addition, in this specialization's competition, I will be able to analyze, identify, and assess significant HRM challenges that may develop in the global workplace.

Week 1 reflection- Circumstances and Altercation of IHRM

The first week of the IHRM workshop was mainly focused on the essentiality of cross-cultural management from the perspective of Human Resource Management. This introduced the concept of 'culture' and the need of recognising cultural parallels across borders. Recent studies such as 'Hofstede's National Cultural Framework' and the 'Project Globe have demonstrated this. Due to Hofstede's continued popularity among HRM researchers and professionals, it was especially vital to comprehend his cultural parallels (Dundon and Raffert, 2018).

The questioning of the extent of management styles set up culturally brings forth the commonness in Human Resources despite the diversity. This week the seminar established a discussion on relocation research and the essentiality of minimizing the disorientation witnessed by individuals when they suddenly experience a kind of unfamiliar culture (Oak, 2018). This week’s discussion has been able to bring into light the feeling of unease and distress that is being exposed while one gets into a foreign culture which happens mostly for the first time. It is basically a discussion on the actual expression of shock used while describing the complete process involved in an international encounter. The discussion has been able to make realization in me that the process of adaptation or adjustment generally begins with euphoria over the host culture's foreignness. Everything is fresh and exciting, and the sojourner is acting like a tourist taking in the sights of a distant land. After the exhilaration, there emerges a crisis, the Culture Shock. As the seminar involved the case study from Japan, I have been able to able to understand the extent to which a culture shock might impact people. For example, Japan's collective labor is overwhelmingly male-dominated, with a high Masculinity score, but the United Kingdom takes a more personal and modest approach to culture and society. Till then, I was unaware of the negative effects that 'cultural shock' may have on an expatriate and their company, such as decreased work performance and job satisfaction, which can lead to a decrease in overall quality of life (Moonan, 2021). While being able to get involved in this workshop, it was delightful to gain insight into the essentiality of attaining culture consciousness, primarily in a professional setting. For instance, many big multinational corporations, such as BT and Vodafone, use a large number of foreign workers, emphasizing the necessity of cultural knowledge among HRM professionals in preventing cultural disputes. Such knowledge of cross-cultural management and concerns for a skilled workforce might improve my capacity to make effective future HR choices with foreign employees and expatriates in the future (Baafi, Xin-Ying and Mills, 2021).

Hence, this week’s discussion has been able to fill me with a deeper knowledge of the values and norms of cultures around the world. I could ensure of attaining consideration for other cultures as that of my own from now.

Week 2: Leadership extendibility

This week’s discussion was aimed at introducing two traditional theories related to Global leadership. They are transactional leadership and transformational leadership. Leadership is the ability to influence people's behavior in order to achieve corporate goals. Authoritarian, Laissez-faire, Transactional, Transformational, Paternalistic, and Democratic leadership theories have been proposed by many management professionals based on behavior, attributes, and nature. Transactional leadership, also known as management leadership in this week, is a type of leadership that focuses on the interaction between the leader and his or her subordinates (Ma and Jiang, 2018). On the other hand, the discussion of this week has been able to provide an understanding of transformational leadership, as a style of leadership in which the leader becomes the catalyst for change in the subordinates. In this technique, the leader collaborates with subordinates to determine the desired organizational transformation. In addition to the introduction of these two sides of leadership, the discussion has been able to definitely explain the difference between these two terms. I am able to understand that transactional leadership emphasizes the leader’s relationship with the followers which is a kind of bureaucratic style. On the other hand, in transformational leadership, I learned that the leader puts emphasis on the needs, morals, ideals, and values of the followers. I could assume from the learnings in this week that transactional leadership suits best only within a settled environment. However, transformational leadership is suited only within a turbulent environment. I have also been able to learn how transactional leadership works for developing the existing culture within an organization, while transformational leadership is essential for changing the existing culture of an organization. Their difference lies in understanding developing and changing the culture (Alrowwad and Abualoush, 2020). The motivational tools for both kinds of leadership are also different. As in transactional leadership, I learned that it is motivated by attracting followers while putting the self-interest, prioritizing own self in the first place. On the other hand, for transformational leadership, their motivational tools seem to stimulate the followers by establishing the group interest as one of the priorities (Top, Abdullah and Faraj, 2020). A case study analysis of both leadership styles in International Management was part of the workshop portion of this week's program. I had no idea that Bill Gates and Steve Jobs had such different leadership styles that led to their respective success, despite the fact that they were both inventors. For example, Bill Gates' transactional leadership style at Microsoft monitors employee responsibility and rewards their efforts and performance, whereas Steve Jobs' transformational leadership style at Apple focuses on collectively driving change through the inspiration and motivation of the workforce. This week's class session also included a discussion of Apple's transformative leadership style and its worldwide suppliers' behavior. Although Apple prides itself on employing transformational leadership to create 'Value' and 'Recognition,' we looked at the leadership traits of Apple's main suppliers and manufacturers to motivate their workers.

Week 3- The least spoken area of Global Management

The idea of sustainability was presented this week, as well as how leaders may incorporate sustainability into global management. Although most sustainability rules are optional, since the early 2000s, there has been an increasing interest among businesses in implementing such management. Furthermore, we discussed the dark side of sustainability in Global Management by addressing incidents of Greenwashing, which is the practice of using deceptive communications to portray an ecologically responsible image (Martinez et al., 2020). However, this particular issue has been able to grab my attention primarily this week since it was the first time ever I came across the term Greenwashing. It is surprising how a term that refers to a mystery aspect of management was not so common to be noticed earlier. I have understood that it is basically being taken into use when institutions and companies try to change their pace of aims, policies, and products to become environment friendly (Ferrón?Vílchez, Valero?Gil and Suárez?Perales, 2021). However, just because the term is Greenwash and it might be something mysterious, it might not always serve the purpose of attaining increased sales. For example, the three goals of Polman in 2020 in Unilever were to provide sustainable sourcing for all the raw materials from agriculture for Unilever. Another goal that proves their right motive behind the same was that their aim at reaching a billion number of poor people with the aim to improve their well-being and health. For example, I have realized that I would easily fall for images that imply an impact of green such as drawings of flowers, plants, animals, trees, or even water. I have realized that most skincare products use the term cruelty-free with the image of a rabbit in the image, which evokes me to purchase that product while I barely know if they really do as such because cosmetic and skincare products do require testing before they get launched (Torelli, Balluchi and Lazzini, 2020). After discussing the relevance of sustainability to management, I've realized that HRM practitioners must take a strategic approach to develop and support organizational sustainability and responsibility. This understanding of corporate sustainability will be useful to me as a future HR practitioner because it is critical that management not only considers what is best for the shareholders but also considers the societal ramifications of their actions.

The BP oil leak incident in the Gulf of Mexico was the topic of this week's seminar activity, which included a case study analysis and group discussion. By adopting the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) paradigm to this case study, I was able to see the economic, environmental, and societal consequences that a company's lack of commitment to sustainability may have. The economic effect of the accident astounded me the most, with the oil leak costing around $42.4 billion and BP's stock price plummeting by 55 percent.

Week 4: Work flexibility-HRM

Week four of the HRM specialization focused on HR Organizations and Workplace Flexibility. More specifically, we looked at the idea of organizational flexibility and the characteristics that come with it. For example, in order to thrive in unpredictable and tumultuous settings, a company must be able to adapt, manage, and change quickly (Davidescu, Apostu, Paul and Casuneanu, 2020). I didn't realize at the time how much-interconnected flexibility might be used as a strategic method to attain company goals. For example, a firm may manage its workforce based on demand by adopting numerical flexibility and adjusting the number of hours worked by employees. Due to the present issues that the COVID-19 epidemic has generated for HRM professionals, such as a shift in working hours, I felt that knowing organizational flexibility was quite crucial, as well as extra assistance for employees' well-being, as well as preserving a healthy working environment. We also looked into the significance of organizations and the need of aligning HR strategy with overall company goals. The Matrix Structure technique was utilized to demonstrate this. This allows enterprises to be more flexible in their resource allocation as needed. I was ignorant of this method and the function that such a structure may serve at the time. I now realize the value of matrix arrangements in larger, more complicated organizations, as well as the benefits they may provide, such as a more united, collaborative staff (Brandl, Kozica, Pernkopf and Schneider, 2019). This week's seminar activity was a group discussion of the four articles that had been presented, which were based on pertinent case studies. The goal of this effort was to better comprehend the HR profession's relevance and future orientation, as well as to assess the HR function's usefulness in younger organizations. The Business partnership strategy, for example, is concerned with the value of the human resources department and the alignment of HR activities, such as people resourcing and compensation, with business goals. I thought the story about the BBC's uneven pay judgment was a great illustration of how to analyze organizational structure mismatch. The organizational mechanism for compensation rates, for example, was unclear among BBC HR experts. This is what permitted them to file a successful unequal pay lawsuit against them. I now see the necessity of structure inside companies, as well as the need to periodically examine overall organization design to ensure that it remains relevant to overarching strategic objectives.

Summary

The purpose of this report was to evaluate the major learning difficulties, themes, and debates in the field of Human Resource Management. The first week of the IHRM program was primarily devoted to the importance of cross-cultural management from a Human Resource Management standpoint. This introduced the term "culture" as well as the importance of recognizing cultural connections across boundaries. The goal of the second week's discussion was to introduce two conventional perspectives about global leadership. Transactional leadership and transformational leadership are the two types of leadership. The capacity to influence people's behavior in order to achieve business goals is known as leadership. In the third week, the concept of sustainability was discussed, as well as how leaders may incorporate sustainability into global management. HR Organizations and Workplace Flexibility were the subjects of week four of the HRM specialty.

References

Alrowwad, A.A. and Abualoush, S.H., 2020. Innovation and intellectual capital as intermediary variables among transformational leadership, transactional leadership, and organizational performance. Journal of Management Development.

Baafi, M.A., Xin-Ying, J. and Mills, E.F.E.A., 2021. Critical diversity dimensions influencing effective diverse workforce: a grey-DEMATEL approach. International Journal of Applied Decision Sciences, 14(5), pp.498-517.

Brandl, J., Kozica, A., Pernkopf, K. and Schneider, A., 2019. Flexible work practices: Analysis from a pragmatist perspective. Historical Social Research/Historische Sozialforschung, 44(1 (167), pp.73-91.

Davidescu, A.A., Apostu, S.A., Paul, A. and Casuneanu, I., 2020. Work flexibility, job satisfaction, and job performance among Romanian employees—Implications for sustainable human resource management. Sustainability, 12(15), p.6086.

Dundon, T. and Rafferty, A., 2018. The (potential) demise of HRM?. Human Resource Management Journal, 28(3), pp.377-391.

Ferrón?Vílchez, V., Valero?Gil, J. and Suárez?Perales, I., 2021. How does greenwashing influence managers' decision?making? An experimental approach under stakeholder view. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 28(2), pp.860-880.

Ma, X. and Jiang, W., 2018. Transformational leadership, transactional leadership, and employee creativity in entrepreneurial firms. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 54(3), pp.302-324.

Oak, V., 2018. TLP for Global HRM 2015-2016.

Martínez, M.P., Cremasco, C.P., Gabriel Filho, L.R.A., Junior, S.S.B., Bednaski, A.V., Quevedo-Silva, F., Correa, C.M., da Silva, D. and Padgett, R.C.M.L., 2020. Fuzzy inference system to study the behavior of the green consumer facing the perception of greenwashing. Journal of Cleaner Production, 242, p.116064.

Top, C., Abdullah, B.M.S. and Faraj, A.H.M., 2020. Transformational leadership impact on employees performance. Eurasian Journal of Management & Social Sciences, 1(1), pp.49-59.

Torelli, R., Balluchi, F. and Lazzini, A., 2020. Greenwashing and environmental communication: Effects on stakeholders' perceptions. Business Strategy and the Environment, 29(2), pp.407-421.