What are flexible HRM practices To what extent do such practices mark Essay

What are flexible HRM practices To what extent do such practices mark a break from Fordism and the era of mass production - Essay Example These negative features include hierarchy, standardization and an inward focus. This paper will discuss to what extent flexible HRM practices mark a break from Fordism and the era of mass production. The word flexibility itself means differently to different people. Having an employee-centered approach, not being authoritative, being anti-hierarchical, persuasive, or even empowering and considering the employees as equal stakeholders are some of the ways that ‘flexibility’ has been defined (Caldwell). Hence ‘flexible HRM is not a norm which firms follow. It is a state of mind, and the practice itself varies from firm to firm. Within an organization also, flexibility provokes mixed reaction. While some consider flexibility an employee problem, the senior management thinks of it as a cost cutting strategy. The flexible approach has also led to the evolution of self-managed teams who work closely together to achieve greater horizontal coordination across organizational divisions. Marlow (1997) contends that in the UK few HRM initiatives that are being adopted are aimed at raising employee productivity without the return of rewards. Marlow further cites that the destruction of traditional style industrial relations and the lack of industrial policy articulated by the state have led to neo-Fordism. Hence, the flexible HR practices are used to induce the labor into higher productivity. It does not form a part of the larger process of post-Fordism. Since these are not supported by technology and training, these practices become unsustainable. Further arguments arise that flexible HR practices arise due to market volatility and labour weakness, and not due to sophisticated approach to labour management. While the Fordist regime may have had structural deficiencies, flexible HR practices will lead to difficulties in attracting, gaining and retaining a skilled workforce (Fuchs, 2002). Although employees are considered to

International Rsk Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

International Rsk Management - Essay Example â€Å"All trading systems should be aligned with the big picture. People need strategies that take advantage of macro tendencies to make good profits† (Tharp 1996). Their ultimate purpose is to be free to produce, invest and distribute what they desire, where they need, exist as long as they prefer, can move capital, workers and goods at will. Subcategories of these important freedoms naturally contain massive privatisation of public services and publicly held companies. Nothing must be debarred a priori from the market, genetic material or human body parts; foods, water, seeds, forests or air, art, music or sport. TNCs can generally stay above the law, even when they cause grievous damage to people and the surroundings. TNCs compute their achievements by 'shareholder value' and profit rates, which means the market cost of the company's stock. Some companies even buy up their personal stock to reason the market cost to rise. Cost-cutting, particularly through huge layoffs, is an additional way to enlarge shareholder price and loyalty to workers or to the communities where they occur to is a bye gone idea. â€Å"The United Nations (UN) claims there are now about 60,000 TNCs with half a million affiliates, but the ones to watch are the top one, two or five hundred. Of the top 100 economic entities in the world, 51 are corporations, only 49 are state owned. General Motors or General Electric is much larger than Saudi Arabia or Poland, and so on† (George 2000). The TNCs are continually in search of better market shares which they can get more easily by buying up other companies than by making new ones. â€Å"The three major international economic organizations are the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Trade Organization (WTO). The WTO emerged out of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1995; it is an arrangement across countries that serve as a forum for negotiations on trading rules as well as a mechani sm for dispute settlements in trade issues† (Krueger 2007). Equity market means the market in which shares are issued and traded, also during exchanges. Also recognized as the stock market, it is one of the largely vital regions of a market economy for the reason that it gives company’s access to investors and capital a slice of possession in a company with the probable to realize profits based on its future performance. Following are the important role, Development of the business and commerce: It affects the financial system of the country to a large extent. It is the secondary market: it provides the stock exchange where institutional investors and retail investors buy and sell the stocks. Brokers of the stock market: Brokers really perform the buy and sell instructions of the investors and resolve the deals to maintain the stock trading alive. Derivatives are agreements and can be utilized as a fundamental asset. There are even derivatives founded on weather data, f or instance the quantity of rain or the quantity of sunny days in a specific region. Derivatives are usually used as a tool to hedge risk, other than can also be utilized for speculative reasons. Derivatives play a helpful and significant role in risk management and hedging, other than they also pose