Case Answers

Question 1:
Frequency of changes in an organization’s business and operating climate happens habitually,
in directly will also affect the role of human resources. In facilitating the process of change, the
HR department serves as a link between company management and employees. Influences in
HR will lead them into critical areas. The most prime resource of an organization is not
financial assets, land, machineries and building but is it the “HUMAN RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT”. The main achievement in an organization, that anything and everything
can be achieved is with well plan human capital. Causes of a business failure, there are many
definitions of a business that fail to follow the economic, social or legal approaches.
Economically, a business that receives less return on investment is considered a failure. This
definition measures the rate at which a business is closed and is only used when complete data
is complete, carefully collected. The definition of a failure of a business venture is a business
that stops or operates operations and is not necessarily bankrupt. One of the internal factors of a
business failure is the lack of goals in the business owner.
The aim in other words is "goal" or objective. Often, it will involve the use of time and effort.
An entrepreneur who wants to succeed must set goals that he wants to achieve in the short or
long term. This time period is to ensure that the focus of the business is not lost and that
everyone in a business plays their part in ensuring that it is achieved. The goal will be the
direction of a business. Without a clear goal, a business venture has the potential and
motivation to thrive
The changes are occurring in the business that affects Human Resource Management; the
company has been greatly affected by the slowdown economy and overall decline in revenue
growth by 10% over the 3 years. Besides, there are eight workers whose expertise in this line
might retire within 3 years. The other twelve workers are age of diverse. In addition to these
changes, Jeniffer believes they may be able to save costs by allowing some employees to
telecommunicate one to two days per week, which is reducing employee’s workforce at her
company. Jennifer also prefer to close down her physical company and focus on virtual
organization. This will in directly affect the close relationship among the staff’s in the
company. Another changes, she has considered to cutting benefits entirely and having her
employees work for her on a contract basis. This will create unsecured working environment
for the labour to confidentially work there for more years.

Question 2:
The fact that rapid development of this century face by many managers means they must
always be experienced in an environment outside of the ever-changing organization. Since
1980’s, Human Resource Management has been a topic of discussion. This idea is from the
United States (like IBM, Hewlett-Packard). To deal with change, tools and resource play a vital
role. The systematic approach and application of knowledge is identified as change
management. To overcome in external conditions and the business platform, defining and
adopting corporate strategies, structures, procedures and technologies will involves. The
validation organizational changes and involves leading the “people side”, functional change
management goes beyond project management and technical tasks. After changes in vision and
strategy, or in hopes of lowering cost by revitalizing process or neaten parts of the
organization, companies may embark on structures restructuring. When the new changes take
place, the business will face a contemporary organizational structure and transformation of
workforce. The lasting impact of the success such as job design, assignments and training will
create a brand new organizational structure. In another corner, sometimes the changes might
come up with negative situation as well. Employee resistance, failure to adequately prepare and
miscommunication lead to failure in most changes of restructure organization. Recent studies
shows that change factors are nearly twice as likely to wipeout as a consequence of
organizational resistance rather than technical or operational issues. As the balance of both, the
company management and human resource department should carefully take their step to run
across the organization without any failure or non-performance team. These are five major
human resource (HR) management challenges faced by organization before taking the step for
changes.

i) Managing the Globalization of Business

Changes in the world where we are moving forward from self-governing countries and
toward a more merged world as refer into globalization era. Globalization of business will
take place when a business build up to a company incorporated with a single country to one
that intervene in multiple countries. Globalization is an integration of markets, states, and
technologies that enables individuals, companies and countries to reach worldwide, faster,
deeper, and cheaper than ever before. This broad definition of globalization is a fact that
cannot be disputed.
The fact that globalization existed before the term globalization was introduced again.
The phenomenon of globalization can be described as a wave that hits the world. A
different view outlook which have to encompass on affected HRM activities from an
international business has moved from trade and investment to the integration of
international operations, management and strategic alliances. HR management practices
with a global perspective, as the workforce now consist of people from different countries,
cultures and languages. Another global challenge for international players is the threat of
terrorism which has since forced HR specialist to develop plans in response to terror threats.
Following with economic theory, foreign trade is in fundamental, advantages to any country
engaged. In term of long run, the economic welfare to all countries engaged in foreign trade
through the international division of labour. Besides, an organization face a number of
challenges and pressures when the companies take the risk of compete outside of their
country. The consumers do not evaluate marketing products or services as too expensive,
the main pressures and challenges occur to maintain competitiveness by reducing cost by
the companies. To reduce costing in product, the production facilities in places where
production costs are lower, and the creation of high graded products in most countries. The
management staffs must aim to be prepare for respond to local pressures to adapt products
follow the local market requirements in the context of reducing cost. Lastly, global
organizations may also face challenges in the availability of an unskilled and inexperienced
labour force which can be costly to train. From the above case, Jennifer need to look at the
part of closing down physical office and making virtual organization. This condition might
cause her loss her business through globally because virtual organization does not create
experience labour, market her products into global version or her company does not have
landmark of business production. The global investors would not support her business or
products because most of the virtual organizations does not create proper recognition or
trustable business while they will worked as a network of independent firms that join
together, often temporarily, to produce a service or product.
ii) Managing Economic and Technological Changes
The technology changes can be identified as primary source for economic growth and the
various technological changes will lead as a primary enlargement of underdeveloped
countries.
Economic development and technological advancement are truly related to each other.
In economic growth, the efficiency of a product or process that results in an increase in
output, without a boost in input will define on technological change. In another aspect,
invention or improving an existing product will be reward for the same afford of work. For
an example, products such as telephone, shift through technological upgrade in three stages:
 Invention - the origination of a new product or process
 Innovation - the application of the invention for the first time
 Diffusion - how fast others begin to adopt the innovation
Many analyze from many well grown companies, such as BCG, IMF and World Economic
Forum state that the aiming to heightening profits through cut back the investment into
technological upgrades will results in the opposite way, because of profits down beyond
one’s control and as a negative effect, GDP also down continuously. This incident will lead
into a vicious cycle begin with the lower of labour supply after a few years. In managing
their technology investment wisely, majority of the companies reducing back on significant
asset that will create the next rise wave and in other aspects, that investment could generate
big leverage, serving to lower costs and expenses much faster compare to technology
spending. Senior executives and HRM required new tactics and new visual of emerges to
apply in organization.
The measurement of the market economy is very significant, from the results of the impact
in technology economy through the market. Largest revenues in the market, known as Dow
Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) and the S&P 500, have changed. A few larger companies
such as tech powerhouse like Apple, Google and Amazon replacing larger industrial growth
in market.
The role of technological change in output growth has long been recognized. Only the
measurement methodology has evolved from seeing technology as a residual factor as in
Solow's (1956) economic growth theory or better known as exogenous growth theory to
 directly measuring technology factors and using them as one of the inputs in the production
function for estimating endogenous growth models. A more recent model approach
recognizes the importance of the input quality of labor or capital in contributing to the
growth of national or sector output. Rapid technological innovations are transforming the
world to speed, enabling businesses to move forward and rapid growth. Digitalization can
serve as a distracting and business enabler because with digital technologies such as data
analytics (BDA), artificial intelligence (AI), internet for everything (IoT) and cloud
computing, it helps businesses and individuals to improve their capabilities. Local
companies, especially Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are encouraged to adopt the
latest technology in every business as they are an important element of the current economic
development. Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said various efforts made by the government
at present include providing funding, as per the Budget 2019, as well as ensuring that
industry players can meet the requirements of the Industrial Revolution 4.0 market.

iii) Managing workforce diversity

When you think about fun at your workplace, what comes to mind?
Could it be that people of different races or ethnicities, or men and women are the
same?
There are many studies on different characters of different generations: Baby Boomers
(1946 1964), Generation X, Millennium Generation, and so on. Although some of the
categories mentioned above may seem trivial, it is true that groups of people with different
ages tend to have very different thoughts and experiences as well. The advantage of
diversity is that employees with diverse perspectives are more profitable in decision making
and innovation, having employees of different ages is also a great way of doing business.
Young workers are more aware of technological developments and can see the possibilities
that the older generation cannot answer. And senior staff are expanding the scope of their
business through experience, including their memories from time to time when "something
big" can collapse. The company's strategic mission and statement of value should reflect its
commitment to diversity. By sending emails, distributing newsletters and maintaining
websites, employers show customers, suppliers, partners and employees that they care about
diversity and respond to current trends. For example, Hewlett-Packard states on its Diversity
 page that it maintains a focus on increasing ethnic and gender diversity, as well as meeting
the needs of the aging workforce. People do business with companies that share their core
values.
Staying competitive in today's demanding global market means responding quickly to
industry trends. By reducing real estate costs, strategic managers can invest in more
profitable ventures. As workers work on more flexible schedules to support the demands or
global work of their home or mobile office to increase work-life balance, the need for
dedicated office space is reduced. By adopting a strategic approach to property management
and analyzing employee office space needs, employers can reduce overhead costs. For
example, Hewlett-Packard estimates that the cost of real estate associated with telecommute
workers is 87 percent lower than those working full-time on site.

iv) Managing Organization Restructuring and Cost Pressures.

Challenging and ever-changing environmental demands that organizations design carefully
and reasonable planning process. This requires finding and evaluating a variety of
alternatives through the best formulation strategies for realizing your point of view, mission
and objectives set. Strategic planning is a key aspect of this setting the direction of the
organization so that all strategies and services are provided constantly updated, relevant and
fulfilling current aspirations. When organizations are downsizing, their business operations
will implement the following actions:-
(a) Eliminate layers of managers
(b) Close facilities
(c) Merge with other organizations
(d) Out place workers.
The most effective use of human resources in an organization is when employees' skills,
knowledge and capabilities are applied. The main scope of redesigning job because it will
increase productivity, improve quality and reduce costs which affect employees
significantly. The impact from downsizing are workloads will increase and often leads to a
loss of employees and customers loyalty. Moreover, it will also affect the existing workers
performance to do much worst compare to previous performance. How can HR face this
changes? Cost pressures another factor that make organization loss their profit or revenue
 growth per annum. Overall, in order to respond to organizational restructurings and cost
pressure the use of technology knowledge will help to sustain the business.

v) Managing Equal Employment Opportunity

Perhaps the most vital position of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is the
enforcement of federal laws concerning non-discrimination in the workplace. The EEOC is
the primary line of defense for the operating frame politic. These legal guidelines prevent
corporation discrimination by ethnicity, spiritual affiliation, gender and sexual orientation,
sex, and different factors.

They act in cases of age discrimination, misuse of genetic information, and enforce legal
guidelines towards the retroactive punishment of whistle blowers. Any business with fifteen
employees or greater is difficulty to those statutes, although age discrimination legal
guidelines are implemented to companies employing 20 or extra individuals. Disparate
discrimination in care arises when an employer deliberately takes into consideration the
protected status of an employee while taking an adverse employment action, such as a
decision to terminate or layoff. Disparate impact discrimination, often known as adverse
impact discrimination, arises when an employer adopts a policy or procedure that on its
surface appears fair and non-discriminatory but has a disproportionately negative effect on
members of a protected class. Practices that have been shown to influence protected groups
differently include:
Specifications for minimum height. Those were found to affect women, Hispanics and
Asians overwhelmingly.
Tests in physical Strength. These can affect women differently.
Specifications for clean shaven. These have been shown to have an adverse effect on
African-American men who are disproportionately affected by a shaving-aggravated skin
condition.

Question 3
The most valuable asset of an organization in today's knowledge economy is its human
resources-its employees. Their skills and knowledge together relationships with key
 customers can often be irreplaceable, and can determine the success of an organization. In
conjunction with that, the planning of human resources is now an important part of the
strategy of an organisation. Think of the strategic plan for HRM as the main goals that the
company wants to achieve, while the strategy for HR consists of detailed plans to ensure
that the strategic plan is accomplished. The strategic plan is often regarded as just another
paper that needs to be prepared. It is better to give the proposal careful consideration, rather
than rushing in and writing it without much thought.

What are the phases in the process of planning human resources?

Phase 1: Assess your current human resource potential
Start with a look at the current state of play in human resources. This will include an
overview of your organization's HR resources through variables like numbers of staff,
abilities, credentials, experience, age, contracts, performance scores, titles, and
compensation. Assessing current human resources requires creating a workplace profile that
includes levels of workers, backgrounds, and skills (i.e., KSA or awareness, skills, and
abilities). CalHR suggests creating a profile of the current workforce, including an
assessment of core competences based on an evaluation process and using patterns and other
relevant data to make predictions about this workforce, including the effect of separations
and demographic changes. To collect and analyze data on human resources, you must first
understand why you are doing the job, what should be your deliverable and what steps you
should take:

Proposal- Provides the labor force plan data, using systematic research to identify the
workforce shortages in the department.

Deliverable- A comprehensive analysis of the staffing and competency gaps in the

department and a list of department classifications in order of risk level.
There are four main steps as follows:
 Build a profile of your current workforce that includes both staffing (composition
such as number of employees and demographics) and abilities (knowledge, skills and
skills).
  Use the Strategic Planning Phase outcomes to project future human resource needs.
Carry out an analysis of gaps to identify current and future staff and competencies.
 Build and prioritize a list of risks to human resources to advise the preparation of
workplace action.

Step 2: Forecast future HR requirements

Then you will need to look at the organization's potential HR needs and how human resources
will be used to achieve those organizational goals. Usually, HR executives would look at
business or sectorial patterns, emerging innovations that could simplify some processes, as
well as industry research to gage future needs. Professionals in human resources are
responsible for filling roles, training employees, providing benefits and managing any
conflicts or disciplinary actions that arise. Long-range planning will leave little flexibility to
the day-to-day tasks of managing the workforce. In order to fulfill the purpose of the
organization as it applies to the workforce, human resources must participate in strategic
planning.

 Be a part of strategic planning. HR is a part of the strategic planning team, and a partner
in evaluating the potential growth of the company. High performance, innovative
thinking and profitability are essential to hiring and retaining talented employees. Not
only do human resources experts conduct strategic plans for senior management; they
are now part of the planning phase. Since human resources have the expertise,
qualifications, and experience needed to fill vacancies, it can help with the budgeting
process and improve recruitment timelines.
 Determine the current level of staffing and expertise. Human resources ' employee
information and payroll data can create a picture of the company's current status. The
number of employees, their current training levels and needs, education and
performance levels give a picture of the strength of the workforce.
 Carry out an analysis of the distance. The difference between the current state of a
organization and its future strategic hiring plan will influence future HR needs. A
business with a manual accounting system can set a goal within the next three years of
 switching to an automated computer system. Human resources would review and
analyze the new systems, complete a job analysis for positions needed to implement and
maintain the new systems, create job descriptions for the new positions and determine
staffing needs for these positions. A disparity between the existing skills and potential
workforce needs is the number of vacancies and criteria for such positions.

 Strategic planning involves the review of the budget, estimation and determination
of the new mix of staff. With any transition, positions may not be required any more.
Human resources would then create a plan for fired workers and set a timeline for a
reduction in current positions, severance packages and career-transition tools.

Step 3: Identify HR gaps

A successful human asset arrange strolls the fine line between supply and request. By
surveying the current HR capacity and anticipating future necessities you ought to have a
clear picture of any holes that exist. Utilizing your HR estimate you'll be able superior judge
on the off chance that there will be a abilities crevice, for illustration. Ought to you upskill
existing representatives or enlist workers who are as of now qualified in particular ranges?
Are all current representatives being utilized within the right zones or would their abilities
be way better suited to diverse parts?

Step 4: Integrate the plan with your organization’s overall strategy

After evaluating the existing human resource capacity, forecasting potential HR demands
and defining the gaps, the final move is to incorporate your human resource plan into your
organizational strategy. On a realistic level, you will need a dedicated budget to recruit, train
or duplicate human resources and you will also need to buy-in management across the
business. To enforce the strategy and a collective approach from all agencies, you will need
support and the requisite funds to put it into practice. Know about the benefits of proactive
control of human resources.
Question 4:
Change management is an important concept which human resource majors need to
understand. It is a reality that the market environment is constantly evolving; to cope
successfully with these challenges, companies need to learn how to use change
effectively to their advantage.

WHY EXECUTIVES ARE IMPORTANT:

The Senior Leader's successful and noticeable engagement in Best Practices in Change
Management-2018 Edition was cited as the first contributor to change management
performance. Indeed the senior leader's position has been the first contributor to progress
since Prosci started researching change management in 1998. Employees want to see and
hear the contribution of the Executive to the transition. The authority they offer carries to
other positions in the management of transition. Strong patronage is an indicator of
project success or failure.

WHY THE MANAGERS AND SUPERVISORS ARE IMPORTANT:

The practice is similar to the managers and supervisors. It is their teams that need to
change the way they do their jobs to make the transition a success. Administrators are the
chosen source of transition messages regarding the personal impact of a change on
members of their team. There are two forms of transition continuously occurring in every
organization: top-down measures initiated by senior management (macro-changes), and
reactions to regular consumer and supplier demands (micro-changes). Managers and
managers use all forms of improvements to help their employees.
When Jennifer appointed me as in charge person of HR, my role in implementing will be
since the HR department is all about hiring, training and tracking the performance of
employees; it plays a key role in any change management programme. The HR
department must ensure the willingness of workers to pursue the transition and engage in
the change management system. They need to hire the right people who can think out of
the box and bring a fresh outlook to the table for that to happen.

Four primary roles in change:

Change the leader / owner, take full responsibility for organizing and executing their
own proposal for change. The most obvious of these would be an HR director changing
all or part of the HR system, but it could also be on a smaller scale, for instance a team
redesign or the introduction of a new intranet based service.
Change trainer, carry professional knowledge and expertise to help clients learn more
about the mechanism and method of implementing change effectively. This will often fall
to the core of specialist’s expertise and may include running seminars, developing
functional tools or making other resources available, such as reading materials or
theoretical models.
Change consultant, work directly with clients through the process of designing and
introducing change, educate and encourage them to get it right. In the case of major
organizational change, this task will often be the remit of the HR business partner, for
example in reforming the sales feature, or could be performed by the HR director too.
Change member, being a part of a change that directly affects them. In this position any
HR professional can use their change experience to set their process goals, troubleshoot
issues, and consider and handle the reactions to events of their own and others. Mastery
attainment requires first understanding the effective change architecture: having a clear
image of all the elements required for a sound operation, based on a solid foundation. HR
practitioners may add enormous value in changing situations by motivating the company
to pay attention to all the important aspects even when they are controversial and may
seem insignificant to those who are eager for swift action. We will also be able to use
skills, resources, methodologies and strategies as the transition continues, but their
 greatest value may be in the silent determination that enough time is spent laying the
foundations.

When we looks at Jennifer’s role, she as a successful CEO need to be carefully

implement all the changes step-by-step to avoid any future failures. Notwithstanding
these variations, our experience with dozens of major transformation projects combined
with the work that we have done over the past decade indicates that four key functions
collectively characterize the CEO's productive role in a transition:

 Enable effective change. People will go to great lengths for the causes they believe in,
and a compelling tale of change helps inspire and reinforce their engagement. The
ultimate impact of the story depends on the CEO's willingness to make the
transformation personal, to engage others openly, and to spotlight successes as they
emerge.
 Role modelling desirable acts and mind-sets. Successful CEOs typically set off on their
own path of personal transformation. Their actions are inspiring workers to support and
adopt the new behaviour.
 Building a strong, dedicated senior team. CEOs must make tough decisions about who
has the skill and drive to take the path and unlock the transformative power of the top
team.
 Pursuing the impact with relentlessness. When significant financial and symbolic value is
at stake, there is no substitute for CEOs rolling up their sleeves and getting personally
involved.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
It will change the practical act of doing the HR work. From these case study, some concepts
arise about how HR research will be regulated.

Deliverables more than doable: HR has concentrated on doing good work for decades through
the creation of projects affecting people and processes. The focus must be progressively on the
deliverables. Deliverables reflect the outcomes or effects of doing successful HR work. What
happens when creative hiring, preparation, or high-performance team programs have been
developed? How are the implications for organisation? These case study point to a number of
possible outcomes: making volunteers for workers, enforcing policy, building economy
interest, maintaining cultural heritage, balancing work / life needs for employees, globalisation,
etc.

Benchmarking: The theory of institutionalisation explores the mechanism of sharing ideas

across borders. This has been operationalized in the HR environment as the benchmarking and
best practices. Conferences, publications, consultants, and other forums exist where ideas are
quickly shared from one unit to another. HR practitioners have to become masters of
benchmarking by not falling into the trap of "if they did, then we will.
Measuring more and more accurately: Too often, HR works according to a CEO's personal
whim. When the CEO "takes a liking" for HR problems, HR gets attention; it doesn't, when she
or he doesn't. These case study call for and forecast a more systematic and challenging method
of calculating HR for the future. How do we know when HR does work?

Theory based vs. haphazard: A marvelous mosaic of HR ideas emerges from their origins in
these essays. Some of these ideas focus on individual growth (e.g., role of HR in leadership
development and well-being of employees). Some theories concentrate on organizations (e.g.,
the role of HR in organizing the work of diverse organizations and alliances).

Change and continuity: In the midst of predicting a dramatically different future for HR, some
of the essays thoughtfully demonstrate that much of what HR has done, it must continue to do.
Employees have always been hired, developed, and paid; and organizations have always had to
be processes to take care of employees. Much of the past will be found in the future, but
learning what of the past to keep and what to change maybe an ongoing governance issue.
Most HR work will be done in a different way at least. If an HR specialist arrives in the year
2000 from a previous 178 • HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, Spring 1997
WD5787.175-179 4/14/97 2:05 PM Page 178 decade, perceptions, abilities and results can
vary.