Subject: Human Resources Management

Case Study: The future of work: the journey to 2022

A team from PwC and the James Martin Institute for Science and Civilisation at the Said Business School in Oxford came together in 2007 to develop a series of scenarios for the future of people management. The result was three worlds of work, which provide a lens through which to examine how organisations might operate in the future. The forecasts are based on the results of a specially commissioned survey of 10,000 people in China, India, Germany, the UK and the US and a survey of almost 500 HR professionals across the world. The report predicts that competing social, political, economic and technological forces are likely to result in three future scenarios or worlds of work. They also suggest that most organisations are likely to be a mix of all three.

The orange world Small is beautiful

In this scenario, specialisation dominates the world economy. Companies begin to break down into collaborative networks of smaller organisations. The emphasis in the orange world is on maximising flexibility while minimising fixed costs. This is likely to take advantage of the rise of the portfolio career, hiring a diverse mix of people on an affordable, ad hoc basis.

The blue world Corporate is king

In this scenario, big company capitalism rules. Organisations continue to grow bigger and individual organisational preferences trump beliefs about social responsibility. Here the emphasis is on profit, growth and market leadership. Scale is the crucial differentiator in this world as it allows these megacorporations to reach out across the globe and compete for talent and resources constantly innovating and keeping pace with customer demands.

The green world Companies care

In this scenario, social responsibility dominates the corporate agenda with concerns about climate change, demographics and sustainability becoming the key drivers of business. The driving goals in these organisations are positive 3 social and environmental impacts. Ethical values are a key consideration and the employee value proposition in this scenario is worklife balance in return for loyalty to the organisation.

Question 1: Based on the case scenario, critically discuss what are the implications of ONE of the scenarios (choose one: Orange, Blue OR Green world) for HRM functions (choose any TWO (2) HRM functions below for your discussion):

Recruitment and selection

Compensation and benefit

Training and development

Career Development

Human Resource Planning

Performance management and appraisal

Occupational safety and health

Employees and industrial relation

Question 2: Talent management is the key success of any organizations to sustain and remain competitive. However, Malaysia is still facing difficulties in developing talent and those talented skilful individuals in Malaysia are gradually leaving. Simultaneously, the education system is producing graduates each year, but these graduates are unable to fulfil the skills demanded by the organization. Provide THREE (3) recommendations that can be included in the HRM functions (as chosen and discussed in item 1 above) to support talent management practices in the organizations.