Navigating 21st Century Competitive Business Environments

2. Chapter 1 Human Resources in a Globally Competitive Business Environment

3. 21st-Century Corporations • Global • The timeline for the globalization of companies: • Early days: a company that sold goods overseas • Middle period: a company that manufactured and sold goods in other countries • 21st Century: a company that is able to call on talent and resources around the globe, just as it sells its goods and services around the globe • Speed • Speed in the 21st century company is a business strategy built on a virtual network of suppliers, manufacturers, and delivery firms

4. People-Driven Enterprises • The successful 21st-century company is one that realizes that it is the people that make up the business • Some key challenges for managers of 21st-century enterprises: • Understanding the challenges the enterprise faces • Seizing opportunities • Managing frustration

5. Managing People • Responsibilities of all managers: • Staffing • Retention • Development • Adjustment • Managing Change

6. Key Features of the Competitive Business Environment • Globalization • Technology • E-Commerce • Changing demographics • Increasing cultural diversity

7. New Competitive Realities • Emergence of smaller companies with fewer employees • Decline of management hierarchies, with an increase of networks of specialists • Increase of technicians to keep networks operating • Decline of the importance of seniority in compensation • Overall worth based on performance plus the market value of a given position

8. Competitive Strategies • Competitive strategies of the 21st century company • Innovation • Quality Enhancement • Cost-Reduction • Speed

9. HRM Requirements of Competitive Strategies • Innovation Strategy Requires • Highly Skilled Employees • More Employee Discretion • Greater Investment and Risk • Quality-Enhancement Strategy Requires • Repetitive and predictable behaviors • Long-term focus • Modest amount of cooperative, interdependent behavior • High emphasis on quality, modest concern for quantity

10. HRM Requirements of Competitive Strategies • Cost-Reduction Strategy Requires • Tight fiscal and management controls • Minimization of overhead • Pursuit of strict economies of scale • Speed Requires • Highly skilled employees who are time-focused • Managers and employees must support change • Company culture must support the fast-pace

11. The Importance of Productivity • Companies must give employees a higher stake in their success • Companies must convince employees that rewards are derived from productivity • Companies must recognize that no productivity problems have a “quick fix” • Companies must embrace the philosophy of constant learning and improvement

12. The Emergence of QWL • Quality of Work Life is Driven By: • Employee understanding of company practices, democratic supervision, and employee involvement • Employees’ perceptions of their overall satisfaction and safety

13. Business Trends and Human Resource Competencies • Human Resource Managers must play four key roles that are consistent with current business trends: • Strategic Partners • Innovators • Collaborators • Change Facilitators