Hrm in Todays World

To understand the range of challenges that organisations are likely to face during the next decade, it is necessary to appreciate current as well as historical factors which have shaped and are shaping such relations.

This paper examines industrial relations (IR) trends and developments in Asia and the Pacific, particularly in terms of the challenges employers and their organizations are facing and will face during the next decade. The paper does this against the background of an explanation of the changing nature of IR, how IR are developing in the global context, as influenced by the forces of globalization and liberalization, and the particular historical and current factors which are influencing those relations in the region. The paper then identifies a range of issues which employers and their organizations will need to consider in developing appropriate strategies to respond effectively to the challenges they now confront.

During the 1990's, the new demands of international competition and dramatic advances in

technology the forces of globalization have changed substantially the nature and operation of the "market place", and how production is organised, in many industries across the world. These requirements are placing considerable demands on managers to implement new strategies, structures and processes. There is an increasingly strategic role for

organisations as much of what has to be done involves significant changes to traditional practices in this and the related area of human resource management (HRM). The result has been that the nature of IR is changing in many enterprises. A new approach is emerging, relying on a broader concept of employment relations.

This new approach is based on a range of IR and HRM practices directed to improving the flexibilityand skills of the workforce, within an environment which emphasises communication, cooperationand trust between managers, workers and their representatives. Adoption of this approach,...