Managing Human Resources in Changing Business Scenario

The new economy has ushered in great business opportunities – and great turmoil. Not since industrial revolution have the stakes of dealing with change been so high. Organizations today are operating in a fast-changing environment where business practices are dynamic and economies are vulnerable to market fluctuations. Potential threats from the external environment require organizations to be much more dynamic in nature. In the process of survival, sustainability and growth, organizations are initiating planned changes by reorienting their systems, structures and processes.

 

Managing Human resources in this era of precipitous change poses one of the most difficult challenges and opportunities for the leaders. During the stable conditions, planning for the future often consists of extrapolating a direction from previous performance and adding fresh targets. Times of change make planning for the future difficult; vague and ambiguous sounding directions do not inspire confidence in employees who may be looking for clarity of direction. To be successful change agents, leaders must understand the cycle of Human Resource Development and how people adopt change. They must embrace a systems thinking perspective and develop strategic leadership skills to share a vision of what future will be. Some of these ideas will be explored during the course of this conference today.

 

Effective change managers and good leaders are better able to bring their companies and employees through tough times, and create the conditions that support superior performance during this time of rapid change.  To succeed in this rough business environment, organizations often undertake various strategic initiatives. However, poorly chartered and inadequately executed initiatives result in chaos, crippling the organization. In addition, when highly visible endeavors fail or fade away, people become cynical and more resistant to the next change effort.

 

The role of the HR managers is evolving with the changes in business environment and entrepreneurs are looking up to their HR leaders to design such HR systems and processes which will not only help them navigate through the challenging times but also generate significant business value. Therefore, in today’s global business context, the HR function is increasingly being expected to partner with the business and develop scalable solutions for business problems. Essentially, things seem to centre on the need for strategic global leadership and effective change management.