Globalization Has Its Fair Share of Advantages and Disadvantages

Question: How To Globalization Has Its Fair Share Of Advantages And Disadvantages? Answer: Introduction Human Resource Department of different organizations face many challenges . Some of these difficulties are continuous, and they happen on a daily basis during the running of business. Some of the problems are periodical, and they occur irregularly. Its important for organizations to be always prepared to handle these problems when they arise. The projection of difficulties in the human resource department is core to risk management in an organization (Torres, 2009). Risk management in human resource involves identification of possible changes in the internal and external environment of an organization that may affect the performance of the human resource function of the Organization. This essay identifies Coles Supermarket as the company for the case study for this assignment. The first section of the paper discusses the background of the organization that is being used as a case study and then identifies potential future challenges that the company may face in future. The second section analyzes these challenges to determine whether this problem is real or perceived using the strategic human resource management model. The essay also proposes and discusses the possible solutions to these problems. The objective of this dissertation is to evaluate how the human resource management model can be used to identify challenges in organizations and to help to solve these problems. History and background of Coles Supermarkets Coles is an Australian chain of supermarkets which is owned by Wesfarmers conglomerate. The company was established in the year 1914 in Collingwood, Melbourne by a man named George Coles. The company operates more than 750 stores throughout Australia. The company has a workforce of more than 100,000 workers. The company also owns online stores where customers can shop from the comfort of their homes and the delivery is done by the corporation. Coles has several private label brands. Examples of these brands include; Coles smart buy table salt, coles green choice, and Coles organic. The company deals with all types of consumer goods including fruits, vegetables and electronics. One the challenges that Coles is expected to face in future is that of globalization. Globalization refers to the process of integration of different aspects of human live such as social activities, economic and political activities of people living in different geographical places to across the world. It involves an integration of products, ideas, culture and views to help people come to a shared platform on various aspects of life. In most cases, the word globalization is mostly associated with trade. Globalization regarding business and commerce means the removal of trade barriers and other restriction on trade among world countries to promote free trade. Free trade refers to the freedom to carry out cross-border trade without any restrictions (Thomas, 2013). The supply and demand between countries, in this case, is determined by the free market forces. Globalization has had its fair share of advantages and disadvantages. Globalization began many centuries ago but has faced significant challenges especially in the 20th and 21st centuries. Some of the benefits of globalization include increasing the variety of choice for consumers (Perkins, 2006). Globalization also helps in countering inflation in cases where there is a shortage, products from countries experiencing surplus can be bought to supplement the deficit. Globalization is expected to be a major challenge for large enterprises such as Coles supermarkets. Despite the fact that globalization has also brought numerous advantages to businesses and other organizations across Australia and globally, it's difficult to ignore the challenges it brings to businesses especially when it comes to human resources. Globalization advocates for free movement of products, services, currencies and even human resources across the boarders (Armstrong, 2012). The flow of people has been a very controversial topic of discussion over the years among the stakeholders in business and trade. This is because of the sensitive nature of human resource compared to all other factors of production. Coles Supermarkets is going to face a major challenge in globalization because free movement of human resource will make human resource management even more complicated. As the workforce from outside countries increases, it will become more difficult fort the human resource managers of organizations like Coles supermarkets to build a more productive, cohesive and well-integrated workforce. This is because the human resource managers of the organization will have to surmount the challenge of creating integration between people of very diverse culture compared to the diversity that exists between people from the same country but who have different cultures and traditions. The culture of people in the organizations in future will, therefore, consist of people from various countries, regions and even continents. Human resource managers, therefore, have to come up a formula to integrate all these groups of individuals into the organization and make them feel accepted and recognized to max imize their productivity. Globalization will also cause significant challenges when it comes to recruitment of workers for the company. The problem in recruitment will be brought by the fact that there will be an enormous number of people applying for the already limited positions available in the company. It becomes difficult therefore for the individuals in charge of recruitment to analyze all the applications and make a short list of candidates based on merit and qualifications (Kramar, 2012). Due to this reason, some of the highly qualified and talented candidates may miss out on the available job opportunities. Globalization of human resource will lead to the compromise in quality especially on matters of training. This is because different countries follow different programs of education. Higher education training is also different from country to country. This, therefore, means that the various countries produce differently trained graduates. The teaching methods used differ from country to country (Paauwe Wright, 2013). The levels of experience will be also different, and this may complicate matters for the people in charge of human resource. For example, a person who has been working in an industry in an underdeveloped country for two years will not be the same as a person working in the same industry in a developed country. This is because of the different levels of technologies used in these countries. Employing the person in this country will be a challenge because it means that the person may need time to adapt to the new working environment. Globalization will, therefore, most lik ely make it difficult to control and regulate human resource especially regarding qualifications. Using the strategic human resource management model, it is clear that the challenge of globalization is real. This is because the problem relates to most or all the approaches of strategic human resource models. Globalization may affect the productivity of the workforce especially when the culture of the people working in the same organization is very different and conflicts with one another. This will make it tough for employees to work and achieve maximum productivity (Dowling Engel, 2008). One of the principles of the high-performance management models is that of maximizing the productivity of each and every employee. Anything contrary to this, therefore, poses a challenge to the organization (Dhar, 2008).Globalization is a real problem because it may affect the quality of workforce available in the labor market. A dip in quality of workforce will, therefore, mean that the employees will not be highly involved in the activities of the organization and productivity will reduce. The challenge of globalization on human resource management in future can be solved through the following ways. The first thing that human resource managers should do is try to understand the changing dynamics in a global workforce. This will help the managers to put in place measure that will contribute to making sure the organization recruits only the most qualified and talented individuals whether they are citizens of the country or from abroad. This will help in making sure that Coles has the most skilled and experienced workers who will help the company to achieve its goals and objectives. The issue of integration of multiple cultures will be solved by the organization adopting an organizational culture that is global in nature. This is a long and challenging process since most of the workers in the organization are expected to resist this change. The management of Coles needs to build an organizational culture that caters for people from different countries and continents. This can be done by eliminating or reducing behaviors and practices that are associated with local populations from the organization (Philips, 2013). The management should impact to its employees the global nature of the Coles brand, and this will help people from different countries working in the company feel part of the organization and therefore motivate them to work more. Through this, productivity is maximized. The company should put in place legislation to govern the composition of its workforce regarding nationality. Such a move will help in controlling the number of foreigners working in the business. Too many foreign workers may mean that the organization loses touch with the customers. This is because the customers may relate better to the local workers. This may lead to a decline in the performance of the company. The morale of local employees will also receive a boost when they realize they get priority when it comes to recruitment and promotion. The second challenge that I expect Coles to face is that concerning the demographic composition of the workforce as well as diversity. The demographic composition of workforce refers the classifications of the organization's workforce according to age and age and gender. The composition of an organization workforce is very crucial in determining its productivity (Erhnert Harry, 2015). The composition of the workforce is different among organizations depending on the industry in which an organization is operating in as well as the needs of the organization. The physical nature of work required to be done in a particular Enterprise also determines the composition of an organizations` workforce. An example is that of a mining company which requires a lot of manual labor, the number of men working in such a company is expected to be enormous compared to that of women. Such an organization is also expected to employ young people. Recent trends show that the youth population in developed countries is reducing at a very fast rate. This has been caused by many factors such as increased popularity of family planning methods in these countries. The decrease in youth population is expected to continue in future. This trend will have a huge effect on organizations. This is because; many organizations depend on young people for their labor needs, both skilled and unskilled. This, therefore, means that labor is going to become very scarce in the years to come. Due to this issue, the organizations such as Coles may be forced to depend on old people to perform the roles that should have been carried out by young people (Battaglio, 2015). This will be a big problem because the energy levels among old people are very low. The levels of creativity and innovation among old people is also little. This will be very challenging since the modern world of business depends to a vast extent on innovation and technology to improve efficiency and effectiveness. Another advantage of having a significant portion of young people in an organization is that it is easier to motivate young people as compared to motivating an old person. The trend of reducing young population will, therefore, force organizations to rely more on older employees. The consequences of this will be decreased productivity per employee. The levels of creativity and innovation will also reduce. Organizations are also changing the composition of their workforce by gender. Many companies, especially in developed economies like Australia, are employing more women. The number of women in higher levels of management in large organizations has also been increasing and is expected to grow further in the future. This is driven by the realization that women are as capable as men when it comes to management (Ulrich, 2005). Women who have been given leadership roles in organizations have worked hard to justify their appointments, and this has resulted in more companies willing to appoint women in top leadership positions. This is a real human resource challenge because it has direct effects on the fundamental pillars of human resource management. The fact that changes in the composition of the workforce from more young workers to older ones will negatively affect the productivity of the organization. The change in demographic composition is a real challenge for managers in future because it may affect the quality of goods produced and the services offered to clients. The above problem can be solved by the organization depending more on imported labor. Companies should train people from countries that have a surplus of young energy and bring them to work in their countries. This may be costly, but it is justified compared to the other available options. The government can also put in place policies that regulate the population composition considering the labor requirements of the country. Conclusion There are very many challenges that organizations face today relating to human resource management. These hurdles are expected to change in future depending on changes in the external environment. It's important for organizations to determine these challenges and try to find a possible solution so as to avoid the effects that they may bring in future. Globalization is expected to have a tremendous impact on human resource management in future. This is because, the workforce will become more diverse and complex and therefore, managers must come up with strategies to ensure all the workers feel to be part of the organization. The challenge of dwindling youth population will also have a tremendous impact on organizations especially those that are labor-intensive References Armstrong, M., Armstrong, M. (2012). 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