Human Resource Management & Entrepreneurship Education in a Changing World

AuthorSimona Nicolae; Ana-Maria Neagu
Pages322-331

Simona Nicolae. Lecturer, Ph.D., “Politehnica” University, Bucharest, Romania (e-mail: nsim2005@yahoo.com).

Ana-Maria Neagu. Lecturer, Ph.D., “Politehnica” University, Bucharest, Romania.

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Introduction

Nowadays it becomes a common place to say that the human resource is the engine of any modern business. At least in the most developed countries, the importance of the human resource as a human capital and not as a labour force doesn’t need to be demonstrated.

The quality of human resource that can transform a human being, as an economic tool, into human capital gives power to all those employees that can be much more than simple executors.

The power of a key – employee is huge and has determined lately a phenomenon known as job hunting.

The resignation of such an employee can destabilize all the activities in a firm and this is the reason for what efficient companies have developed programs and strategies for maintaining these employees.

The globalization itself gives power to a good employee who wants to develop a career in an open organization. Incentive systems and in particular salary scales vary widely depending on the nationality of the firm and the national regulatory environment (labour agreements, labour laws). The most flagrant differences show up in the remuneration for successful patents and in fact these differences cause equity problem among organizations and transnational team.

Despite a supposed homogenization of HRM practices resulting from globalization, in much way these practices still reflect national diversity.

As long as a key employee has the alternative to be better – remunerated and to obtain a solid development of this career, he will leave all those organization that cannot offer as much as he desired. This situation affects each of human resource management functions starting withPage 323 planning, recruitment, and selection, career planning and ending with the organizational reward system.

In conclusion we intent to show the way in which changes appeared in human resource approach affect the functions of HRM.

Even these changes are reflected in all function of HRM we’ll stop only at 2 of them, the most affected in our opinion and, also, the most linked to the relation between the quality of human resources and the long term eficiency of any firm: Career planning and The reward System.

Edward de Bono, says opening a conference that as competition intensifies, it is no longer enough to do the same thing better... no longer enough to be efficient and solve problems. Now business has to keep up with changesand that requires creativity. That means creativity both at a strategic level and also on the front line, to accompany the shift that competitive business demands... from administration to true entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurship in the educational field, is often understood within a narrow meaning of the term and it suffers from a certain image problem, which mainly results from falsely narrowing down “entrepreneurship” to running a business, being an employer/self-employed”, that is also used for management.

The paper will present the substance of the entrepreneurship as it is seen in the European Union approach and in the United States approach of this subject.

Literature Review

The world of work has undergone profound change in recent years. Technology, the employer/employee relationship, skills requirements, immigration, offshore employment, employee benefits - especially health coverage and pensions - and global competition have had a significant impact on the workplace. (CERIDIAN)

Bridges tells us, "Today's workers need to forget the concept of jobs completely, and look instead for work that needs doing - and then set themselves up as the best way to get that work done....The future is going to be very different from what we grew up expecting, and most of us

are no more ready for it than eighteenth-century English villagers were for jobs in nineteenth century English factories"."Workers need to develop a mindset, an approach to their work and a way of managing their careers, that is more like an external vendor than the traditional employee(Bridges, CEE)

Most knowledgeable observers in the field of human resource management (HRM) would agree that its major development as a profession came during the half century or so between the end of World War II and the early 1990s. As organizations employing as many as hundreds of thousands became dominant influences in the world of work and as questions about selection, training, work motivation, and compensation practices became more challeng ing in a growing, dynamic society, the need for professionally trained, skilled personnel became great. (Kraut & Korman, 1999)

Nowadays, the concept of knowledge management is more and more emphasized in any organization as a key factor to succes in confronting changes.

Knowledge management is the process of getting the right information from the right source to the right person using the right vehicle at the right time in the right format so that people can make the best decision or take the wisest course of action. The decision or action may require different levels of knowledge. Data consist of basic facts. Information is contextualized data or concepts and ideas made up of related facts. Knowledge is processed information or causal relationships between interrelated elements of information.(Bellingham, 2004)

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The perfect combination of intellectual capital and competitiveness involves from the infrastructure that must have an organization to sustain its own economic activity, leadership capabilities and adaptation in case of changing the owners, to the application of tehnology in an efficient and creative way, always focused more on innovation than on qualified workforce. It is not a matter of workforce skills, but, of maintaining a positive atitude, open to change with the need for further increase of knowledge acumulation, information and experience in an organization that vary substantially from the traditional one. (Pablo Calderon, 2008)

Human Resource Management & Entrepreneurship Education in a Changing World
1. Human Resource Management confronting changes

Today's world of work is much different from yesterday's. Change and uncertainty is the law. It is most likely that a person will be changing jobs six to eight times in his/her life. Having the skills to navigate in this changing world is crucial. It is important. Companies will expect employees to be continuous learners and skill builders in this environment. But, the companies also will realize the importance of maintaing inside the firm all that human resources that can adapt rapidly to these changing world. The human resource may need to simultaneously pursue career education and employment. To expect a path of formal education, followed by one career in an established discipline, followed by retirement, is no longer realistic.

As we have mentioned we’ll stop only at two functions of the HRM that we consider are more linked to the performance of any firm in a changing world: career planning and the reward system.

1.1. Career Planning

The concept of organizational loyalty has faded in the decades since World War II. In the 1980s, the average 20 year-old employee could be expected to change jobs approximately six or seven times during his or her lifetime.

The accelerated rate of change in today’s world has significantly increased employee mobility. Even when an employee desires to remain with the same organization, changes in its environment may make this choice unfeasible. This environmental forces plus changes within the individuals make career planning important for today’s employees.(Byars &amp...

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