IRJMSH Volume 5 Issue 1 online ISSN 2277 – 9809

EMERGING CHALLENGES IN HRM: WORKFORCE DIVERSITY

Ms. Neha Sagar

Assistant Professor
University Of Delhi.

Abstract

The challenges of HR managers today is to recognise talent and nurture the same carefully and
achieve significant productivity gains over a period of time. The enterprise is nothing but people.
The role of HR manager is shifting from a protector and screener to the planner and change
agent. In present day competitive worlds, highly trained and committed employees are often a
firm’s best bet. In this research paper i will be discuss about the challenges faced by the
organizations and HR professionals. HR professionals can help an organization select and train
employees for emerging roles. Only people who are involved and intelligent can make a
difference. In future, the principal issues will be how the HRM function can transform its
outlook from a traditional to a modern one. Increasing globalization and technological revolution
have been identified as two primary factors that create a new competitive landscape.

Keywords : HRM, Changing Role of HRM, Challenges of HRM in modern era, Workforce
Diversity, Way to overcome the challenges.

INTRODUCTION

HRM is planning, organizing, directing and controlling of the procurement, development,

compensation, integration, maintenance and reproduction of human resources to the end that
individual, organizational and societal objectives are accomplished. As human resource
management is concerned with the people dimension in organization, at first, we should know
organization in detail. Organizations are human associations in which two or more people seek to
achieve a common goal or set of goals. In other word, organizations are established by the people
and for the people. It consists of people working together through interrelationships and
interactions. Organizations are created to achieve different goals. To achieve goals it should run
various activities. Therefore an organization must consist of a structure, which defines jobs and
relationships. In organization, different levels and division of jobs are defined to achieve

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specialization through division of labours. Organization design and job descriptions are the part
of organizational structure, which limit the behaviour of the members in organizations.

Organizations depend on people to make them operate. An organization is nothing without

resources. If we remove the employees from the organization, there is nothing but a pile raw
material, machines, and physical commodities. Organization consists of the combination of
different resources, among which human resource is the superior. But how did these people come
to be employees in the organizations; how were they found and selected? Why do they come to
work on a regular basis? How do they know what to do on their jobs? How does management
know if the employees are performing adequately? It they are not, what can be done about it?
Answers of these questions lie in the subject of human resource management. But before we
attempt to understand how and organization should manage its human resources, we need to
answer the generic question, what is management?
Management is the process of efficiently getting work activities completed with and through
other people. An organization consists of goals and limited resources. To achieve goals, different
activities are to be done. As there is limited resources, to get activities completed, the resources
should be allocated properly. Simply, management is the act of allocating scare resources to
achieve goals and getting required activities completed with and through other people. The
management process includes the planning, organizing, leading and controlling activities that
take place to accomplish objectives.

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Managing people in an organization is human resource management. Since every organization is

made up of people, acquiring their services, developing their skills, motivating them to high
levels of performance and ensuring that they continue to maintain their commitment to the
organization are essential to achieving organizational objectives. This is true regardless of the
type of organization-government, business, education, health or social organizational objectives.
This is true regardless of the type of organization-government, business, education, health or
social welfare. Organizational effectiveness depends largely on the performance of people
working in organizations. Management concerned to increase in performance of human
resources is human resource management. It aims at achieving organizational goals through
improvements in the productive contribution of people. It is concerned with philosophy,
principles and practices related to human aspects of management. It keeps balance between the
goals of organization and the goals of the individual.

DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT TO HUMAN

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Prior to the twentieth century, there were unorganized and sporadic efforts at improving the
management of people at work. In some instances, personnel specialists' positions were
established in private industries to assist with hiring, safety, training and health issues. After
industrial revolution, there developed a greater need for planning, recruitment, selection and
placement. The theme "the right man in right job" became familiar and popular. And it was
during this same period that one of the most important movement in management was taking
place: scientific management. Taylor, an industrial engineer, advocated separate responsibilities
for workers and management. Utilizing time studies toward the scientific determination of a
proper job design, Taylor proposed methods and standards for performing each job, for training
and supervising employees in the proper use of tools and equipments and for evaluating each
worker's performance.
After II world war managing employees became the most concerning matter for every
organization. Realization that workers were human beings, not just mere pieces of equipment,
promoted the humanism movement. Focus was placed on employee participating especially on
those decisions that directly affected the employees. Attention were focused on reducing or
eliminating the boredom, fatigue and stress that many behavioural scientists believed were
primarily caused of worker alienation and reduced job productivity. It was felt that
organizational objectives could not be achieved until and unless employees were satisfied and
motivated toward works. Much of our current knowledge on motivation and reward system came
out of this period.
Upto 1970 the management of employees was called personnel management. There was a great
movement. The narrow view that human resources are something managed from within the
personnel department changed to the wider recognition that the management of human resources
is the responsibility of every manager. The opinion that all the managers in an organization must
be familiar with human resource management concept in the same way that they should
understand marketing and accounting concepts, was widely accepted. Currently, human resource
management has grown into matured profession.

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CHANGING ROLE OF HRM

While there are still many companies operating under the tried and true, traditional human
resource management theories and practices, the role of HR in today’s businesses is changing.
While the Human Resources Department has typically been known to deal with
the issues of policy or administration, today, HRM requires a more interactive approach than
ever before. The average Human Resources Department is learning to work more closely with
individual employees, assisting in training, and helping workers to better meet the corporate and
business goals. It’s no longer just the economic issues that drive the department, but also the
behavioural ones.
In general, HR is becoming more a part of the team than it once was. Rather than being the folks
who sit in their closed offices and interview applicants then allow department managers and
executives to handle day-to-day operations, HR is now getting involved in decision making, and
making a contribution to the company as a whole, rather than only the HR department. Many of
these changes come as a result of management’s change in focus, going from a distinct hierarchy
where top level managers are the only ones whose voices matter, to a team approach to
organizational management that recognizes the importance of every team member. Some of the
more involved aspects of the HR department may include employee training, both in the realm of
selecting what’s needed and providing for the delivery of content, as well as evaluating the
results.
In addition, a closer relationship with managers at all levels in the company is making it easier
for the HR department to take part in other aspects of business operations, including aiding in the
implementation of many of the policies they once only created.
There are initiatives also to spread the knowledge within the organization, down to the most
ordinary members. The best way to empower them is to give out Human Resources software that
provides an orientation and comprehensive discussion of organizational policies.
With the changes in HR laws, the department is also becoming more adept at providing the
ground rules for hiring, firing, discipline and interaction with employees, as well as
compensation and benefits, an area they’ve pretty much managed all along. And as laws continue
to evolve and change, the HR Department is expected to become increasingly important in the
management and policies required to remain in compliance of each one.
The changes in Human Resources Management is taking further into the department to the realm
of doing what its name has always implied… managing the most vital resources to any company,
it’s human resources.

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CHALLENGES FOR HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

With rapid globalization and with more businesses going international, we need for managers to
deal with employees from varying backgrounds and cultures are also increasing. Managers are
required to understand that employees from various cultures and backgrounds are bound to have
similarities and differences. From all these discussions, we came to know that passing through
different stages employee management has gained current name human resource management. It
has undergone extraordinary changes in the past. We can predict that the next generation will
bring changes of similar magnitude. The past quarter century has seen significant changes in our
society brought about by technological advancements, social alternations, economic influences
and political pressures. These changes has directly affected the human resource practices and the
changes that era likely to occur furthermore will also make affect on it. In this situation the role
of human resource management has got more crucial. Specially, the following changes in the
environment can be considered as the factors for rising interest in human resource management.

 Increasing cut-throat competition: - Currently, organizations are facing increasing

internal and external competitions. Due to this, product life cycles are getting shorter. It
one starts to produce a new product, in no time, the same kind of product, produced by
another company will be found in the market. Beside this, the size and complexity of
organizations are increasing day by day. To face these growing challenges of
competition, innovative human resource management and practices are needed.

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 Globalization:- Globalization is the tendency of the firm to extend their sales or

manufacturing into new market abroad. It has facilitated trade without borders.
Globalization of markets and manufacturing has vastly increased international
competition. In global competition, some firms are doing well while others are failed.
Those firms who have been successful have highly focused on their human resources
activities in selection, training and compensation policy. Due to this fact many firms are
paying their interest in human resource management. At a political and economic level,
globalization is the process of denationalization of markets, politics and legal systems i.e.
the use of the so-called global economy. Globalization refers to an extension beyond
national borders of the same market forces that have operated for centuries at all levels of
human economic activity (village markets, urban industries, or financial centers). It
means that world trade and financial markets are becoming more integrated.Growing
internationalization of business has its impact on HRM in terms of problems of
unfamiliar laws, languages, practices, competitions, attitudes, management styles, work
ethics etc. HR managers have a challenge to deal with more functions, more
heterogeneous functions and more involvement in employee’s personal life.

 Technological changes:- Technology is changing rapidly. Organizations must keep up

pace with technological changes and implement them in the workplace. Technology is
only the mean to increase productivity. To utilize this mean needs the skilled man power,
who can handle it easily and efficiently. Due to this fact, there is the need of human
resource management. Besides, information technology has brought a change in
organizational structure. The pyramid shaped organizations are now flattening. The
hierarchy has fallen down to flattened. In the changing condition, to adjust with these
changes, new job has to be written in a new way, new organization structure is needed to
be designed, evaluation and selection method is needed to be changed. This all
necessities have increased the interest in human resource management.

 Changes in political and legal environment :- Changes in political and legal

environment means changes in political parties and rules regulation due to which new
laws are come and you have to follow all laws while doing business. Many changes
taking place in the legal and political framework within which the industrial relation
system in the country is now functioning. It is the duty of human resource and industrial
relations executives to fully examine the implication, of these changes and brings about
necessary adjustment within the organization so that later utilization of human resource
can be achieved. It is the responsibility of Human Resource manager to anticipate the
changes and prepare organization to face them without any breakdown in its normal
functioning

 Changes in the Economic Environment:- This includes examination of the impact of a

number of factors on production. Some of the key factors are the scarcity of raw materials

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and other inputs including power and electricity, encouragement of the culture of
consumerism, increasing consumer awareness and demand for quality products,
continuing upward trend in the inflationary pressures with decrease in the purchasing
power of rupee and its spiralling effects in the ever increasing aspirations of workers for
higher wages and other material benefits and mounting costs on the employee welfare
and other benefits. In an inflationary economy, the resources tend to become scarce and
the costs of machine, materials and labour multiply. These push up the capital and
running costs.

 Revolution in Information Technology: - Information technology has influenced HRM

through human resources information systems (HRIS) that streamline the processing of
data and make employee information more readily available to managers. More recently.
there has been and in the future there will be impact of revolutionary computerized
information system in the management it covers two primary areas Application of
computer in the managerial decision making process
Use of electronic computers managerial decision making process
In future computerized information system will have increasing impact at the
coordinate and strategic levels of organization.

 Mobility of Professional Personnel:- one of the interesting facts will be increase in the
mobility of various managerial and professional personnel between the organizations. As
individual develop greater technical and professional expertise, their services will be
greater demand by organization in the environment.

WORKFORCE DIVERSITY

Workforce Diversity refers to the similarities or differences that exist among employees in terms
of their gender, age, ethnic background, physical characteristics and abilities, mental abilities,
race and sexual orientation. Diversity means different. In human resource management context,
different regards in the sense of sex, colour, age, caste, creed, culture, religion and language etc.
Moreover, different also regards in the sense of highly educated, mid-educated, highly skilled,
mid-skilled, low-skilled etc. Today composition of work-force has been quite diversified.
Different people have different need and interest. They have different perception, experiences,
learning habit, personality etc. To understand the need of different people, to manage them, to
create organizational climate and culture, to develop the feeling of team-work, human resource
management plays the important role through its activities. it is human resource management
which brings all the people of different nature under the same umbrella of organization. It is the
most significant task done by human resource management, which other management cannot
perform. This has played a vital role in rising interest in human resource management.

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According to Thomas (1992), dimensions of workplace diversity include, but are not limited to:
age, ethnicity, ancestry, gender, physical abilities/qualities, race, sexual orientation, educational
background, geographic location, income, marital status, military experience, religious beliefs,
parental status, and work experience. The future success of any organizations relies on the ability
to manage a diverse body of talent that can bring innovative
ideas, perspectives and views to their work. The challenge and problems faced of workplace
diversity can be turned into a strategic organizational asset if an organization is able to capitalize
on this melting pot of diverse talents. With the mixture of talents of diverse cultural
backgrounds, genders, ages and lifestyles, an organization can respond to business opportunities
more rapidly and creatively, especially in the global arena, which must be one of the important
organizational goals to be attained. More importantly, if the organizational environment does not
support diversity broadly, one risks losing talent to competitors. This is especially true for
multinational companies (MNCs) who have operations on a global scale
and employ people of different countries, ethical and cultural backgrounds. Thus, a HR manager
needs to be mindful and may employ a Think Global, Act Local approach in most circumstances.
With a population of only four million people and the nations strive towards high technology and
knowledge-based economy; foreign talents are lured to share their expertise in these areas. Thus,
many local HR managers have to undergo cultural-based
Human Resource Management training to further their abilities to motivate a group of
professional that are highly qualified but culturally diverse. Furthermore, the HR professional
must assure the local professionals that these foreign talents are not a threat to their career
advancement. In many ways, the effectiveness of workplace diversity management is dependent
on the skilful balancing act of the HR manager.

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WAYS TO OVERCOME THE CHALLENGES

 Cross cultural training of HR personnel so that they understand other cultural people.

 Motivate Professional personnel more and more so that do not change organization more
frequently financial motivation is not always required you can motivate through non
financial motivation like encouragement, training of employee, job satisfaction.

 Technical changes in the workplace often require the implementation of additional

training for workers. As training and development is generally the realm of the HR
Department, this creates yet another challenge for human resource managers. HR must
first determine what training is necessary and then implement training measures to ensure
all workers can keep up with technical changes. Human resource managers must also
determine when it may train existing employees, and when it must search for new
workers to fill technical positions within the organization

 Training of HRIS – Human resource information system should be given to the HR

managers or HR professional so that they can overcome Information Technology
challenges.

 Proper performance evaluation system and proper career development plans should be
used in the organization to reduce professional mobility.

 Shifting HR strategy with changing economy – strategy of HR should be agile, capable of

flexing and adaptive to changes in the economy.

 Ensuring that the executives and managers are personally committed.

 Encouraging openness among employees and respecting everybody’s opinions and

inputs.

 Involving as many employees as possible in the formulation and execution of diversity-

related plans.

Workforce Diversity in Tata Group

Cyrus Mistry wants more women in leadership roles in Tata group:- Stressing on the
importance of harnessing talent of women workers, Tata Group chairman Cyrus
Mistry has batted for the fairer gender taking up more leadership roles in the over $100
billion salt-to-software conglomerate. In his first address to shareholders as the chairman

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of Tata Global Beverages Ltd (TGBL), Mistry said women have been and continue to be
an integral part of the company across the world. "I look forward to seeing women in
important roles and positions of leadership in the years ahead, as our company grows,
prospers and transforms itself. I am also confident that this initiative will be increasingly
embraced by other Tata companies in the years to come," he said in the annual report of
TGBL for 2012-13.

Mistry, who took over as the chairman of the group after Ratan Tata retired last year,
lamented that when women are insufficiently represented in the workplace, "we lose out
on 50 per cent of the talent pool".
"In an environment where human capital makes all the difference between success and
failure, this is a massive loss," Mistry said. Underlining the importance of the role played
by women, he said: "Women bring rich and diverse perspectives to the workplace. Often,
they bring management styles which are quite complementary to those of men.
Workplaces that celebrate women naturally benefit from better decisions."

Mistry also talked about the need to support women workforce and need to retain talents.
"It is true that many talented women drop out of the workforce in several countries
including India, creating a porous pipeline of talent. Therefore, companies need to do
much more to retain, develop and grow their women."

The Tata group already has quite a few women who are at different leadership positions.
For instance, Avani Davda, CEO of Tata Starbucks Ltd, is the youngest CEO in the Tata
Group under the TGBL umbrella. Other women at top positions in the group include
Kavery Nambisan, Chief Medical Officer of Tata Coffee Ltd; Margaret Campbell,
Director of Plant Operations at Landrover Factory in US; Amy Holdsworth, Marketing
Director, UK and Ireland Tata Global Beverages and Katy Tubb, Director, Tea Buying
and Blending, TGBL. Mistry said in order to promote gender diversity, the Tata Group
had launched initiatives such as the Tata SCIP (Second Career Internship Programme) in
2008. The programme allows women professionals who have taken a long break in their
working lives to re-enter the professional space.
"It provides opportunities for such women to undertake flexi-hour assignments, and thus
builds a bridge back to the workplace," he said, adding "this is only a small beginning,
and there is much more to be done".

Cyrus Mistry calls for openness, synergy among Tata Group:- Acknowledging that
the business environment continues to be uncertain and volatile, Tata Group chairman
Cyrus Mistry has called upon the employees to re-look at some of the group's strategies,
recalibrate business models and fine-tune their execution capabilities.

In a year-end letter to the employees, Mistry who on December 26 completed a year at the helm
of affairs at the $100-billion conglomerate has been candid in stating, "Stagnant or sluggish

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economic growth across some of our key markets such as India and Europe has impacted the
performance of several Tata companies."

To overcome these, the chairman called for a culture of openness and pooling of resources across
companies and focus on innovation and remain agile.

"To succeed in an uncertain and volatile environment, it is critical that our businesses evaluate
alternate scenarios of the future while crafting our strategies. Our organisations will need to
embrace agility, powered by teams with the aptitude and capability for continual learning,"
Mistry has said.

Underlining the distinctiveness of every Tata enterprise, he has said "each needs to be viewed in
a manner that is appreciative of its uniqueness".

Spelling out key factors to remain relevant in an increasingly competitive world, he said: "We
shall put innovation capability at the core of each of our companies' operating structures and will
invest in R&D and grow top talent".

Calling for more synergy among the over 100 operating companies of the group, Mistry said:
"As a group, we must also continue to seek opportunities for our companies to pool resources to
co-create shared value. There is so much that collaboration between our companies can offer, be
it in areas like innovation, management of technology, or identifying the emerging needs and
wants of consumers."

Highlighting factors that will influence on how successful the group will be in achieving its
goals, he said, "Principal among these will be our ability to foster a culture of openness across
the Tata Group, and develop a performance oriented framework that values each colleague's
contribution as well as cultural fit with the group. This requires significant investment in people
development and in encouraging diversity in the workplace."

CONCLUSION

To conclude that it can be said that HR practice is becoming more ad more challenging day by
day, they have to face lot of problems like retention, attraction of employee, dealing with
different cultural people, managing work force diversity, technological and informational
changes to overcome with these challenges training (Cross cultural training and technological
and informational training) is necessary of HR people. To reduce mobility of professional

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personnel HR people have to motivate them from monetary and non monetary techniques. Proper
performance evaluation system and proper career development plans should be used in the
organization to reduce professional mobility.

REFERENCES

1. Definition and Meaning Human Resource Management By Dr. P G Aquinas.

2. Human Resource Management By J.S Chandan, Professor, Medger Evers College, City
University of New York.

3. Human Resource Management By C.B Gupta, University Of Delhi.

4. Human Resource Management By Robert.I.Mathis and John.H.Jackson. Tenth adition

5. Changing role of HRM http://www.coursepark.com/blog/2011/07/the-changing-role-of-human-

resources-management/

6. Challenges for HRM http://risings.150m.com/project/marketing/hrm.htm

7. http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-06-24/india-business/40165012_1_cyrus-
mistry-ratan-tata-tata-global-beverages-ltd

8. http://www.indianexpress.com/news/cyrus-mistry-calls-for-openness-synergy-among-tata-
group-cos/1213919/

9. www.citehr.com

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