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ABSTRACT ?

In the current scenario, globalization has a major impact on the management of human resources in
developing Countries like ours. With picking up the velocity of globalization, organizations have to
adapt the significant changes and new trends in all aspects of management including the management
of human resources. An innovative and effective management of human resources has an imperative
role to play in the performance and success of organizations. Moreover, competitive pressures on the
organizations have encouraged them to be proactive in diagnosing HR problems and to adopt more
innovative HR practices since these were no longer a matter of trend, but rather of survival. Hence the
corporate have started formulating and adapting innovative HR strategies in the areas such as
attracting and accessing the talented, developing and growing the potential, engaging and aligning the
best, transition, etc. In this paper the authors have discussed some of the key HR functions where and
how innovative strategies need to be developed for ensuring the organizational excellence. ?

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 competitive advantage, HR out-sourcing,loyalty interview, intellectual capital, re-

engineering, etc ?

INTRODUCTION ?

Today in this globalised world organizations must tackle with revolutionary trends accelerating product
and technological change, globalizes competition, deregulation, demographic changes and trends
towards a service society and the information. These trends have dramatically increased the degree of
competition in virtually all industries, while forcing firms to cope with unprecedented product
innovation and technological change. Companies in such an environment either become competitive
high performers or they die. Hence, innovation is recognized vital for firms to remain at the forefront
in the situation, where rapidly integrating global economy, technological change and shifting consumer
preferences are together increasing competitive pressures for the firms. The critical dimension in
today's world is the speed with which knowledge is transformed into economic activity. Moreover, the
global market for the companies increases their potential return from the development of new
products and processes. As a result, the incentive for firms to invest in innovation is much greater
than when the focus was on smaller, largely domestic markets. Firms now face greater competitive
pressures to make better use of knowledge, technology and human resources to realize benefits from
intangible investments and to respond to new demands from suppliers and customers. Consequently,
firms are forced to rethink their business strategies, production processes and management practices
to improve their functioning and adapt to a changing business environment in the new economy.
Knowledge-intensive industries face a dynamic and fiercely competitive environment. Products in the
high technology industry are more complex, with shorter life cycles that need constant innova tion in
order to meet changes in market conditions and customer expectations (George, et al., 2001). In high
technology firms, technological innovation becomes critical in responding to rapid changes; innovation
depends heavily on acquiring new knowledge. An organization must therefore fully utilize its resources
and capabilities in order to remain competitive. Individual innovativeness contributes to an
organization's renewal, survival and growth in today's turbulent and competitive business environment
through the performance of OCB (Amabile 1988). Leveraging intellectual capital as a sustainable
competitive advantage depends upon a firm's ability to use existing knowledge and to generate new
knowledge. Human resources can be instrumental in meeting the challenges in the formalization of,
and access to, experience, knowledge, and expertise that create new capacities, superior performance,
and innovation (Beckman, 1999). Human resource practices can play a critical role in supporting and
contributing to the creation, integration, and utilization of knowledge. ?
INNOVATIONS IN KEY HR FUNCTIONS ?

Innovative HR practices build competencies and capabilities for superior and winning performances
today and simultaneously create long term fertility for innovation of business ideas and strategies for
future. The innovative strategies are formulated by the companies in the following significant
functions of HRM such as Recruitment and selection, Learning and development, Rewards and
recognition, Career planning, Compensation and benefits, Performance management, Leadership and
development, etc in order to ensure their organizational Excellence. ?

Some of the areas in the Human Resource Management where challenges are being faced by the
managers due to globalization and in which innovations are needed are discussed as follows:

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·Workforce Diversity· refers to policies and practices that seek to include people within a workforce
who are considered to be, in some way, different from those in the prevailing constituency. Diversity
today not only is referred to a person's gender or ethnic group but also encompasses differences in
age, tenure in an organization, educational background, sexual or affectional orientation or preference,
physical abilities or qualities and social status, economic status, lifestyle, ethnicity, etc among many
other characteristics.?

Very few companies in India have started to focus on workforce diversity; however, there is a long
way to go to make the workplace more diverse. Managing a diverse workforce is no longer a choice
but an imperative. In an age of cultural pluralism, multiculturalism is needed to manage diversity
effectively. One of the dangers that must be avoided in grasping a proper understanding of
multiculturalism is bashism. Bashism is the tendency to verbally and/or physically attack another
person or group based solely on the negative meaning given to group membership due to biological,
cultural, political or socioeconomic differences (such as gender, age, race/ethnicity, political party,
class, education, values, religious affiliation or sexual orientation) without regard for the individual.
The motivating factor for bashism is fear, arising out of ignorance of the other. These differences have
the potential of giving rise to conflicts, but if managed well can result in a synergetic unity, where the
effect of all working together is greater than the sum total of all the parts working independently.
Today's diverse population pool and workforce is simply going to increase. The direction of the future
is: 1. Multicultural 2. Multiethnic 3. Multilingual communities ?

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Some of the steps to manage diversity in organizations are summarized as follows:?

a? Recognition
a? Respect
a? Acknowledgement
a? Valuing the differences among the people ?
a? Clarifying Motivation
a? Clarifying Vision
a? Expanding Focus
a? Auditing Corporate Culture
a? Modifying Assumptions
a? Modifying System
a? Helping People Pioneer
a? Continue Affirmative Action

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Political changes, external competitive forces, increased open trade, and frequent moves of MNCs
around the world are forces working toward convergence in labor system. Convergence occurs as the
migration of management and workplace practices around the world results in the reduction of
workplace disparities from one country to another. This occurs primarily as MNCs seek consistency and
coordination among their foreign subsidiaries, and as they act as catalysts for change by ·exp orting·
new forms of work organization and industrial relations practices. It also occurs as harmonization is
sought, such as for the EC countries, and as competitive pressures in free -trade zones, such as the
NAFTA countries, eventually bring about demands for some equalization of benefits for workers. It
would appear that economic globalization is leading to labor transnational's and will bring about
changes in labor rights and democracy around the world. In East European societies in transition to
market economies, for example, newly structured industrial relations systems are being created.
Trends in industrial relations, such as the flattening of organizations and decline in the role of trade
unions are viewed by many as global developments pointing to convergence in labor systems.

Other pressures toward convergence of labor relations practices around the world come from the
activities and monitoring of labor conditions worldwide by various organizations. One of these is the
International Labor Organization (ILO) - comprising union, employer, and government representation -
whose mission is to ensure that humane conditions of labor are maintained. Other associations of
unions in different countries include various international trade secretariats represen ting workers in
specific industries. These include the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) and the
World Confederation of Labor (WCL). The activities and communication channels of these associations
provide unions and firms with inform ation about differences in labor conditions around the world. One
result of their efforts to provide awareness and changes in labor conditions was the pressure they
brought to bear on MNCs operating in South Africa in the late 1980s. The result was the exo dus of
foreign companies and the eventual repeal of apartheid laws. Now there is a rapidly growing labor
union movement there, thanks to the prounion African National Congress - In fact, the AFL-CIO opened
an office in Johannesburg and assists the South African unions.
Political and cultural shifts are also behind the new labor law in South Korea, as the country moves
from a system founded on paternalism and authoritarianism to one based on more liberal values.

It is highly unlikely that China, for example, would accept Western practices which threaten their
political ideology. And in the EU, where states are required to maintain parity in wage rates and
benefits under the Social Charter of the Maastricht Treaty, there is still a powerful defense of cultural
identity and social systems and considerable resistance by unions to comply with those requirements.
Managers in those MNCs also recognize that a considerable gap often exists between the labor laws
and the enforcement of those laws - in particular in less developed- countries.

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Organizations follow a growing strategic trend, thus entering foreign markets and create multinational
workforces. The manager faces many issues with multinational workforce, and such issues may affect
the organization's ability to adapt in the foreign market. Multinational workforces face many barriers,
which include language differences, creating difficulty in communication. Communication difficu lties
will affect reporting, evaluating, negotiations, and. The employees throughout this multinational
organization may find themselves segregated by the language barrier. The issues caused by language
barriers has the potential to hinder the success of the organization, therefore, management must use
caution when working with those who speak another language.

Another issue faced when managing a multinational workforce is cultural differences. The individual's
basic assumptions, values, and behavioral norms often vary across the multinational team. These
differences can affect the management's perceptions of the individual's work performance, value in the
company and ability to adapt to the organization's needs. The management of the multinational team
may show bias towards their own culture, giving higher performance ratings and showing favoritism.
This bias can reduce the effectiveness of the manager's ability to lead the team and cause a high
turnover rate in employees from a different culture. The manager may also attempt to create a work
culture that favors their own culture, which may create difficulty for members of other cultures to
adapt.
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Globalization has an effect on employment patterns worldwide. It has contributed to a great deal of
outsourcing which is one of the greatest organizational and industry structure shifts that change the
way business operates (Drucker, 1998). According to Clot (2004) the basic idea about outsourcing is
that if a firm does not specialize in a certain function which it does not consider core, it will outsource
the work and therefore be able to offer better cost and quality. Global outsourcing has altered the
work in companies. Initially outsourcing was only done for the p eripheral services such as janitorial
services, but now outsourcing has been extended even to the core functions such as final product
assembly, customer service, financial services and technological services (Clot, 2004).

It is an important rationale of out-sourcing that it, on the one hand, enables an enterprise to
concentrate on its core competencies, and on the other hand, it makes service work more productive.
For example, in the USA, outsourcing of functions in hospitals not directly related to the wo rk of
doctors and nurses (care of patients) has substantially increased the productivity of the hospitals, and
provided new opportunities for service employees.

Outsourcing is needed not just because of the economics involved. It is required equally becaus e

a? It gives opportunities, income and dignity to service work and service workers
a? Gives more opportunity for more part-time and temporary work (especially among women, the
elderly and students)
a? Introduction of new technology
a? Pushing for a more deregulated and flexible labour market
a? More emphasis on productivity and quality
a? Greater employee involvement in the design and execution of work
a? Shifting the focus of collective bargaining from the nation/industry level to the enterprise level.

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Globalization is also seen as changing organizational structures where expenses can move up or down
as the business climate dictates (Garr, 2001). In terms of organizational design and human resource
management, globalization means that there is need for more 'responsive' and 'flexible organizations'.
Globalization has led to global division of labor. Most organizations now especially from the Western
nations are making new site selection decisions which are driven by business needs and opportunity
exploitation.

Companies from the US have especially closed production plants in the US and created offshore
professional and operations centers and relocated them to where labor is cheap. For example IT
industries have moved to India's Bangalore City popularly known as the Silicon Valley. The employees
in India are highly skilled yet they demand pay which is a fraction of what a similarly skilled person in
the U.S would demand.

The service sector comprises three different sorts of work: highly skilled, 'professional' and 'knowledge
work' (for example, Research and Development experts, investment analysis, dvertising, IT
consultancy amongst others). The other group is the traditional professions which include, semi skilled
workers who comprise of routine back office work which is heavily reliant on operating IT packages
(for example call centre work, data inputting in financial services). The last category is the semi or
low-skilled front line customer or client facing work (for example, holiday reps, care workers,
hairdressers) which involves a high level of personal skills and emotional labor (Legge, 2005).
Globalization has led to the desirability to maintain flexible and lean organizations. Puick (1992) notes
that leading edge global competitors, irrespective of their national origin, share one key organizational
design characteristic. Their corporate structure is simple and flat rather than tall and complex. Simple
structures increase the speed and clarity of communicati on and allow the concentration of
organizational energy and valuable resources on learning rather than controlling, monitoring and
reporting.
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The spread of economic competition and shareholder activism has motivated large firms to embrace
the 'lean and mean' conception of control and thus implement downsizings. A conception of corporate
control allows top managers in large firms to control their environments by specifying how such
resources such as personnel should be distribute d in order to ensure that directives are executed
(Flingstein, 1996).

One important response has been the introduction of flexibility in the employment relationship to
increase the capacity of enterprises to adapt rapidly to market changes. This has involved measures
such as

a? flexible working hours

a? part-time work
a? Different types of employment contracts to the standard ones familiar to collective IR
flexibility in functions, so that employees who are multi -skilled are not confined to the
performance of only one task. They can cover up for absenteeism, and make some jobs
redundant.
a? Flexible pay which involves some component of pay being dependent on performance, whether
of the company, a group or the individual.

Globalization has, through technology diffusion, substantially increased the introduction of new
technology. These, as well as the need for flexible adaptation to market changes, have led to the re -
organization of production systems and methods of work, such as the following:
Reduction of narrow job cl assifications and demarcation lines between managers and workers,
accompanied by skills enhancement needed to perform jobs with a broader range of tasks.

a? Increasing areas for worker involvement in the conception, execution and control of work.
a? A greater focus on workplace relations and policies and practices conducive to better motivation
and performance such as information-sharing and two-way communication.

The above responses have increased the necessity for employers to make more investments in skills
training, to offer incentives to employees to improve their skills, and for workers to take upon
themselves some responsibility for their own development. The competition generated by globalization
and rapid technological changes accompanied by shorter pro duct life have, while destroying countless
jobs in industrialized countries, created opportunities for multi -skilled and easily trainable workers, and
for the most significant group of emerging employees - the knowledge worker. Knowledge and skills
have become the most important determinants of investment, employment opportunities, productivity
and quality and of flexibility. ?

INNOVATIVE HR STRATEGIES ?

Some of the innovative HR strategies that can be followed by the corporate in meting the
current global challenges are discussed as follows:

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In the current scenario there is a shortage of talented people, and hence there is a need
to find out new ways to attract them to the organization. However, talented work force is
not necessarily attracted by something as simple as a salary, so the most sensible
strategy is to find more interesting ways to attract them. Some of the ways through
which talented people can be attracted include stock options, more time off, learning and
training programs, or the chance to work in other countries or try different roles. The
companies also design good reward system and provide better career development
opportunities so that companies can retain good people.

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Nowadays organizations need to recognize the aspirations of employees and focus on

their growth and development. Many organizations provide job rotation opportunities to
high ± performing employees from operations division. This gives them broader
understanding of the business. Also many corporate create opportunity for the
employees to develop themselves through training and development programmes and
assure them good career building.

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Employee engagement has retained the focus of organizational leadership and many
companies keep launching new practices to engage their employees. They are using
innovative practices like ·Loyalty Interview·- to find out what is it that makes its
employees stay on, the feedback from loyal employees often reflects on the leadership
style and is seen to work as a great motivation. Many companies use engagement as a
strategy to retain talent workforce though which they can gain the competitive
advantage in the global business. ?

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Movement of talent within the organization and outside of the organization sends strong
signals to the employees about the organization's care and concern. Right from the
induction, which is often the first impression the employees carries, to the exit interview,
the sensitivity displayed by the organization has a lasting impact on all employees ?

CONCLUSION?

In the present competitive world, the companies are facing lot of skill shortage, talent
crunch and attrition those reached historically height ever, that made the companies feel
the internal customer also more important equally with external customers, so every
company try to devise innovative HR practices to attract best talent , giving them nice
environment to work with, that enables the company to retain talents, the above said
practices are conceived and implemented and found successful by the leading companies
in India. It is found that convergence of practices of different companies in different HR
areas, if any company wants to apply those practices that will benefit for the company to
become more competitive in the global market. ?

REFERENCES ?

1. Dr. Sengupta Nilanjan & Chaudhari Ray Manodip (2002) ·Managing

Multiculturalism and Diversity In Organisations·,HRM Review

2. Gary Dessler, Human Resource management, Pearson Education(Singapore)

pre ltd., Indian branch, 8th Edition.

3. http://www.citehr.com/107855 -innovativehrpractices.html

4. ttp://www.jigyasaconsulting.com/services/employee_motivation.htm

5. ttp://Awww.expressindia.com/fe/daily/20000308/faf05055.html

6. http://www.diversityworking.com
7. http://www.indianmba.com

8. http://www.wikipedia.com

9. http://www.ritesite.com/sitemap/sitemap.htm

10. Singh K Manjeesh and Dutta Andrew (2003) ·Understanding and Managing
Workforce Diversity·, HRM Review?