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SHRM ASSIGNMENT # 1

Submitted to Submitted By

: Dr. Ajmal Waheed : Usman Baig

M. Phil

: 2nd Semester

Quaid-i-Azam School of Management Science, Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad, Pakistan

Q. Asian cultures are fundamentally different to those in the west therefore management writings and philosophies based on Western values and practices have limited applicability, if any Asian businesses managers. Does this have relevance for Pakistan?

Introduction:
In todays age there are two types of HRM practices that are followed by the whole word. One is the western HRM practices and he other is the Modern or Japanese Managemnt Practices. Both the Western HRM Practices and JMP are producing high quality products but the the difference lies in the prices of both products. All this is because of the modern HRM practices which allows the Japanese to produce the high quality products at low cost. However, an important question here is wether the JMP are applicable in Pakistan or not? It has been a hot topic for debate wether JMP practices can be implemented in Pakistan or not. There are some JMP that can be implemented in Paksitan and rest of the practices are not.

1. Employment Practices
It is not possible to implement the life time employment in Pakistan due to the different attitude of Pakisatni people as compared to Japanese. Japanese people are more loyal towards their organization. As soon a pakistani get better oppurunity, he/she may leave the organization for his/her own sake. Pakistani people are more materialistic in nature. The company on its part should offer Life Time Employment to only those people who have stayed for a significant period with them and performed really well. They should offer attractive benefits to the Life Time Employees which would motivate the other employees to show greater organizational loyalty Seniority base promotion is applicable to some extent in Pakistan. A promotion of an ineffecinet senior worker may become a discourging factor for others. People in paksitan generally have jealousy for other if some one get promoted.. However, such a system can bring more demerits than merits as promoting an employee just for the sake of being senior would discourage the good performers and they would stop working hard. People in Pakistan are less patient and adopting seniority based promotion than performance based can result in a great percentage of employee turnover.

In Paksitan as compared to Japan, turn over rate is very high (Waheed, 2001). It is very difficult to reduce the turn over rate in Pakistan. People here leave the jobs for better salaries and benefits. In Japan people do not get the better opputunty. Japanese organzations usually avoid recruiting trained emloyees. In contrast to Pakistan, companies hire experiencesd employees wether Japanese sompanes hire fresh graduates. They give them company/task specific training. Enterprize union is suited in Pakistan. The internal emplyees have more understading of organzational matters than external. Continous training, it has been implmented is by a 60 yers old company named Honda Atlas located in Lahore, Punjab. There are separate training programmes for ach and every employees. Honda Manager Learning Program is devised specifically for the Deputy Managers and above. Job rotation is very difficult to apply in Pakistan. As Pakistani employees tend to be specialists than generalist, they face a lot of difficulty in this phenomenon.However, the job rotation should be done more often in the junior management andthen the employee should be kept into his own field.

2. Manufacturing Practices
Just in Time approach is almost impossible to be applicable in Pakistan, at least for another decade. The basic reason behind this is the poor infrastructure of Pakistan. There areno chances of a remarkable improvement in it within the near future. Hence, thePakistani companies need to rely on the Just in Case approach. People in Pakistan do not believe in working hard and making continuous improvements. They rather want to work for the time that is sufficient enough to getthe job done. Japanese are hardworking people while Pakistani people are looking for shortcuts. The different psychology of the two nations forbids the continuous improvement here in Pakistan. Japanese believe in error free production. They are struggling to achieve their goal that is 100 percent accuracy of their products. It is very difficult to implement in Pakitan because people attitude is not to atttain the perfection. It is very difficult to examine the prodeuct at each step and also time consuing, while people of Pakistan are looking for shotcuts.

It is traditional decision-making process in Japanese firms. In pakistan context it is very dificult to get 100% consesus. Pakistani may differ in opinion in many circumstances. People are selfish, they look after their personal interests first than their joint interests.

3. Cultural Practices
Groupism and can be adopted if the influence of western culture is eliminated and we follow our traditional culture and our religious practices. Confucian ethics can be followed to some extent but not completely as in Japan due to changed perception of the young employees at present. Respect for elders is a part of our religion and culture but people now are looking for shortcuts and hence, they become undisciplined and do not concentrate on workinghard. Homogenous society cannot be brought into Pakistani culture in near future.The only way to bring it into practice is through inter marriages, i.e. people of aspecific region should be married with the people of other regions. However, this iseasier said than done and will take decades to see Pakistan as a homogenous society In order to adopt nationalism, the first step is to be taken through the higher authorities. They need to show that they care for people and the country and setthemselves as the role models. The people on the other hand, should change their attitudes and recognize that their work is going to benefit their country. Instead of working and becoming an asset of other countries, why not work hard for your owncountry? The attitude of the people can be changed by offering them the same livingstandards they get while working in another country. Harmony and Company Loyalty will take a lot of time to be practically seeninto the Pakistani system, as Pakistani people are naturally more keen towards their personal interests and thus, less loyal to the company. Company Loyalty can beachieved if the employees are given appreciation and a share in the credits for thesuccess. Such non-monetary rewards and recognition of employee's work serve as amotivational tool for an employee's loyalty to his company. In order to have uniform education, the Ministry of Education needs to setcertain rules and regulations making education to a certain level compulsory for everyPakistani and ensure that the rules are being followed. As receiving education is never for free, so Government should finance the education of the poor citizens of thecountry who are living a hand to mouth lifestyle. People should also realize that beingeducated is in their best interest as well as the interest of

their country. Incentivesshould be given to the educated citizens which would motivate the other people to geteducation. Achieving uniform education in Pakistan too tough a task and would take alot of time to be achieved Q. Modern HRM strategies seem to pose a threat to trade unions. Agree, give logic/not agree, give argument. Trade unions are the volantary organizations formed by workers to fight for the improved working conditions of thier members at work. According to Armstrong (1999), Trade unions have existed to redress the balance of power between empleyers and emplyees. Trade unions try to protect and promote the intersests of their members through collective bargaining. Sometimes, When negotians are failed trade unions can go for a strike, boycotts, exerting political presure to achive their aims. Reserch repoerts have shown mixed results about HR practices and trade unions. Decline of trade unionism has been a feature of many countries in recent years (Verma et al. 2002) . Coinciding with the decline in trade unionisms has been an increase in the use of human relations practices and new forms of work organization. The increased adoption of HRM practices has been presented as providing the basis for a new relationship between workers and managers. If it is indeed the case that these modern HRM methods enhance workers' satisfaction, they might be expected to reduce the demand for trade unions. Since 1979 aggregate union density has trended downward so that, by the end of the 1990s, less than 30% of workers were members of trade unions. (Cully and Woodland, 1998). According to Guest, HRM could not exist at high levels of unionization. (Guest, 1989). Armstrong argued that decline in the unionoism is not only dut to the HRM practices, it is also due to the structural and economic changes i.e., a shift in the econmy from large scale manufacturing in dustury which were heavily unionized to sevice industries which were traditionally non unionized. Uninization has been replaced by Human Resource Practice at the work place has been a hot topic for debate. Decline in the membership of trade union is due to the rising interest of human resource pracrices. While some HR practices may potentially hinder the trade union influence. But the claim that HRM emerged as a subsitutue of trade union is unwarranted and misleading.

Machin and wood (2005) concluded that increased use of HRM practices is probably not an important factor underpinning union decline in Britain. There are many reasons that posed to challenege to Trade unions. Frirst of all individualization is a crucial feature of human resource practices. Deeply enshrined in trade union practice is collectivism, which is made obvious in their collective bargaining procedures. Trade union is all about the collective voice of workers and if HRM is resorting to individualized pay, individualized performance, and individualized contract related compensation packages, then it is become difficult for trade union for any meaningful bargaining. Finally, what may be the grievances of some may not apply to all. For example, if an individual enters in to a contract to work five years with the firm, how can trade unions come into negotitaite for a secure tenure of employment? Also, the commitment of the worker means that they will not complain if they have to work more hours to meet the organizational targets. Is is also means that the worker is also content with their wages and will not complain about anything since management would keep them informed about the firms financial state and thay have received other compensation packages rather than moneatry gains. Finally, the main funstion of trade unions such as rasonable work hours and wages, if a worker do not see thae need for that, trade unions are irrelevent. Flexibilty in all its forms as practiced under HRM also renders trade unions impotent. Trade unions traditionally look to protect their members against wage exploitaion, and HRM with its associtaed wage flexibilty means employers can adjust and readjust the wages of workers based on their performance. This situation suggest that trade union sholud stay away from the discourse of wages. Also inherent to HRM is the increse employee paticiaption. With it, workers are given the oppurtuinity to speak communicate with management. Workers can communicate their grievances or suggestions directly to management. Management also on the other hand keep workers informed about the issues of the organization. If one can freely communicate with the managemnt directly and be heared then why one should go trade unions and lose the trust of management?

Team work is also a threat to trade union in that sense that workers are more likely to identify with and be loyal to their teams at the expense of trade unions. Team work is also closely linked to worker antonomy and assertiveness, which in a way, suggest that workers are independent of trade unions.

References:
Armstrong, M. (1999), A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice, London: Kogan Page. Cully, Mark, Stephen Woodland, Andrew O'Reilly, and Gill Dix. 1999. Britain at Work: As Depicted by the 1998 Workplace Employee Relations Survey. London: Routledge. Guest, David E. 1989. "Human Resource Manage-ment: Its Implications for Industrial Relations and Trade Unions." InJohn Storey, ed., New Perspectives on uman Resource Management. London: Routledge, 41-55. Machin, S. & Wood, S. (2005), Human Resource Managemet as a Subsitute for Trade Unions in British Workplaces. Industrial and Labour Relation Review, 58(2) Verma, A. Kochan, T. A. & Wood, S. J. (2002). Union Decline and prospect for Revival: Editors Introduction, British Journal of Industrial Relations, 40(3):373-384 Waheed, A. (2001). Modern HRM Practices: Contours, Characteristics and Relevance toPakistan. Peshawar: Pakistan Academy for Rural Development

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