Human Resource Management in the 21st Century

Human Resource Management in the 21^st Century: Challenges for the Future

Human resources management (HRM) has remained indispensable in the 21^st century, mainly because of the business climate fluctuations resulting from escalating globalization and technological advancements. The human resource (HR) manager’s role has shifted from the traditional personnel managers to strategic business partners following the increased demand for sustainable plans to maintain high workforce effectiveness, aligned with the 21^st-century business developments. However, the transformation has resulted in several challenges, including difficulties in integrating the emerging shift in business operations within the workplace culture and finding common ground for a diversified workforce. This paper looks at the future challenges HR managers face emanating from the business environment’s constant shifts. HRM’s future success in the 21^st century relies on HR managers’ ability to implement organizational changes and manage multi-generational workforces to maintain a productive labor force and attain a sustainable competitive advantage.

Organizational change has become unavoidable and paramount in the current economic environment following the increase in technological advancements and globalization. According to Raeder (2019), inexperienced HR managers in change management and leadership are increasingly finding it challenging to shift their employees from the 20^th-century status quo to 21^st-century procedures, systems, attitudes, beliefs, and values. It is challenging to execute structural and operational adjustments in an enterprise without triggering workers’ rebellion or bleeding funds. For example, the United States Postal Service (USPS) incurred approximately $19 billion in losses between the 2007 and 2018 financial years after persisting with their old business model that was only sustainable in the 20^th century (Mnuchin, 2018). In this case, the USPS HRM department failed to incorporate change in its operations and company structure to remain profitable and competitive. Therefore, the HR department’s ability to successfully execute change management and leadership has become vital in maintaining profitability, workforce effectiveness, and competitive advantage.

Another emerging challenge for HR managers is the complexity of creating a conducive and all-inclusive organizational culture for a multi-generational workforce. The current workplaces are highly diversified, consisting of employees from up to five generations, with distinct backgrounds, cultures, work styles, beliefs, and expectations. Any HR manager’s success in improving the current workforce’s efficiency and productivity lies in their knowledge of the generational differences among the employees and their ability to tailor their work strategies to accommodate each generation’s unique needs (Moore, Everly, & Bauer, 2016). Successful HR managers will reap all the benefits of having a diverse workforce, including maximizing the workforce’s potential and gaining competitiveness. Those who fail risk facing workplace conflicts, reduced productivity, low employee satisfaction, and retention rates. Graystone (2019) adds that HR managers in the 21^st century must learn how to nurture interprofessional cooperative practice to create mutual respect, shared values, and autonomy when dealing with multi-generation employees. This approach will help HR managers capitalize on generational differences and develop a positive work environment that supports teamwork and improves staff engagement and collaborations across all departments. Therefore, the HR manager’s capacity to lead and manage a diverse workforce will promote cohesion and overall institutional growth.

In summary, the HR managers confront a difficult task in implementing and managing organizational change and a multi-generational workforce arising from technological advancement and globalization, witnessed in the 21^st century. The HRM is at the core in executing change management and leadership to enhance the employees’ capabilities to deal with the turbulence and uncertainty of change resulting from the transformational 21^st-century business environment. Besides, they ensure efficiency, cooperation, and productivity of a diverse workforce. Hence, the HR manager’s ability to fruitfully execute organizational change and create a positive multi-generational work environment will guarantee higher employee productivity and sustainable competitive advantage.

References

Graystone, R. (2019). How to Build a Positive, Multi-generational Workforce. JONA: The Journal of Nursing Administration, 49(1), 4-5. doi:10.1097/nna.0000000000000698

Mnuchin, S. T. (2018). United States Postal Service: A Sustainable Path Forward Report from the Task Force on the United States Postal System (pp. 1-69) (the United States, Task Force on the United States Postal System, DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY WASHINGTON, D.C.).

Moore, J. M., Everly, M., & Bauer, R. (2016). Multi-generational Challenges: Team-Building for Positive Clinical Workforce Outcomes. Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 21(2). doi:10.3912/OJIN.Vol21No02Man03

Raeder, S. (2019). The role of human resource management practices in managing organizational change. Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation. Zeitschrift Für Angewandte Organisationspsychologie (GIO), 50(2), 169-191. doi:10.1007/s11612-019-00465-1