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Technology and Organizational structure:

Technology, particularly information technology, is having a major impact on the

structure of organizations and on the nature of managerial work. Enterprise software systems
have been implemented to integrate the major areas of business: manufacturing, sales, finance,
supply-chain management, and human resources. These information systems have enabled
companies to gain numerous benefits such as efficiency gains, quicker response times, better
inventory control, enhanced coordination, and improved decision making. Companies now spend
$23 billion a year on enterprise software such as Oracle, SAP, and PeopleSoft, compared with
only $1 billion in 1990.1 Information systems such as these and others have eliminated the need
for many middle management positions. Because much of middle management involves
coordination and dissemination of information, many of its functions have been computerized.
With this removal of a level of the organizational hierarchy, a valuable training ground for top
executives has been eliminated. Further, the context in which much work is currently being
performed is changing.

The era of the “smart machine” and the skilled professionals who operate such machines
probably will produce conditions in which there is less need for supervision or a very different
type of supervision. Human resource strategists will need to consider changes in the nature of
managerial work that will result from the accumulation of knowledge power in nonmanagerial,
technical positions.

Managers who can be effective in such environments require new skills. Not only the
number of managerial positions has changed, but also in many settings the nature of management
has changed as well because of other developments. Thus, in information-based, lean and flat
organizations, alternative job assignments and opportunities are needed for the development of
tomorrow’s high-level managers.

Although the need for middle managers and low-skilled employees has been lessened by
information technology, it is useful to reflect on these developments before concluding that the
jobs of human beings are being eliminated.

There is nothing new about the prediction that labor will become less important as new
technology replaces human labor with machines—this prediction has been heard repeatedly since
the beginning of the industrial age. It can be asserted with some confidence, however, that this
forecast is no more true today than it was a century ago.

Another impact of increasing technology is that skill and managerial educational

requirements tend to increase. Although managers in advanced technological environments
cannot have detailed knowledge of all aspects of the technology with which their subordinates
work, they must have a conceptual understanding in order to provide effective support and
direction.
Another impact of technology is that manufacturing is moving toward much shorter
developmental cycles. New product development approaches based on concurrent or parallel
engineering avoid the delays of sequential developmental processes. In parallel processes,
engineering, design, purchasing, marketing, software, hardware, field support, and manufacturing
specialists work together, beginning with the earliest product development phases.
 The availability of highly trained specialists who have the skills to work effectively in
such environments cannot be taken for granted. Training programs and developmental
assignments must be planned to ensure the availability of such workers.

HR Outsourcing
Human resources are the most critical assets of any organization as the organization's success lies in their
hands. But in order to ensure that its employees remain satisfied, the company has to have a specialized
human resources department that most of times proves to be a costly affaire. That is why most companies
today; decide to outsource their human resources management functions to offshore destinations.

What is HR Outsourcing?
HR outsourcing is a process in which a company uses the services of a third party to take care of its HR
functions. A company may outsource a few or all of its HR related activities to a single or combination of
service provides located in offshore destinations like India, China, Philippines, etc.

In this sense the HR outsourcing service providing firms or hr outsourcing company can be divided into four
categories depending on the services they offer as, PEOs (professional employer organization), BPOs
(business process organization), ASPs (application service providers), or e-services. In these categories the
PEOs are the ones that assume full responsibility of a company's hr functions where as others such a
BPOs, ASPs and e services provide web based hr solutions like database maintenance, HR data
warehousing, maintaining records, developing and maintaining hr software's etc.

Advantages of HR Outsourcing
HR outsourcing including personal outsourcing case studies have indicated that managing human resources
involves specialized activities such as training, payroll administration, employee database management,
employee retention, employee benefits and a lot more that many companies either don't have the proper
resources or time to manage on their own. By outsourcing their HR functions companies can save huge
amounts of money and be free of complications that are otherwise involved in maintaining an internal HR
department. By doing so, companies can concentrate on their core competencies saving their valuable time
and resources.

To sum it up, human resources outsourcing that includes hr recruiting outsourcing helps cut costs, helps
concentrate on core business and most importantly helps in ensuring employee satisfaction.