Theoretical Issues Related to Human Resources :: Human Resources Essays

This essay will discuss the theoretical issues related to human resource management strategies, human resource planning, employment relations, diversity management and recruitment and selection. The essay will compare the differences in human resource management between two airlines, American Airlines and Southwest Airlines. Finally the essay will put forward recommendations to the two airlines in the human resource area. The human resource needs of today’s organisation need to be continually analysed due to constant changing conditions. This analysing is known as human resource planning (HRP) and it ensures that the right number and type of people are available at the right time for the organisation (Dessler et al 1999). There are many factors that contribute to HRP and trends that influence the organisation’s external environment. These factors are workforce diversity, outsourcing, globalisation, technological development, new organisational structures, casualisation and the shift from manufacturing towards service and knowledge-based work (Dessler et al 1999). Workforce Diversity Workforce diversity is divergence from an assumed norm or set of expectations. The government have created legislations confirming the right of all members of society to experience comparable life and work opportunities, irrespective of difference of sex, age, sexual orientation, religion, physical abilities or whether they belong to the dominant culture or language group (Human Resource Management Study Book). The reasons that these legislations were introduced were due to the changing of the workforce. More women joined the workforce as did people of differing ethnic origins. The workforce has become older because of the legal ruling of voluntary retirement age (Human Resource Management Study Book). Due to these changes and legislations employers have had to re-think their employment policies and procedures in areas such as selection, training and promotion (Human Resource Management Study Book). Some forward thinking organisations have looked beyond the government’s requirements and have used the changes to benefit themselves in the long term. These organisations have taken this opportunity to better understand and serve the wider community, to gain a competitive advantage over more traditional organisations. They have also tried to gain more knowledge of the needs and preferences of specific groups in society and discovered the things that might help to make the workplace more productive and satisfying for all their employees (Human Resource Management Study Book). Outsourcing. Outsourcing is where organisations use external providers for those activities that are either non-essential or demand an injection of management resources and capital. This allows the organisation to focus more on the core of the business operations (Dessler et al 1999). Outsourcing is extremely important where HRP is concerned. It can be used as a strategy when skilling of resources will be expensive and time consuming and it can also make forecasting easier if the