The Context of Employee Resourcing
Contents
1.1 Introduction: The Scope of ER ..............................................................1/1
1.2 Our Focus on ER .....................................................................................1/3
1.3 ER in Context: The Changing World of Work and Organisations ...1/5
1.4 The Business Environment ....................................................................1/6
1.5 Globalisation and Changing ER Practices ............................................1/9
1.6 The Implications of Globalisation for Employee Resourcing in
Multinational Companies .................................................................... 1/18
1.7 Managing Diversity and Its Implications for ER ............................... 1/26
Learning Summary ......................................................................................... 1/36
Review Questions ........................................................................................... 1/37
Learning Objectives
When you have finished reading this module you will be able to:
 appreciate the scope of employee resourcing (ER) and its contributions to
strategic management;
 assess the context in which ER is conducted, and the changing world of work
and organisations;
 understand the changing business environment and its impact on ER, with
particular reference to globalisation, ICT, and workforce diversity;
 analyse the case of ER change in China as an example of ER in its context;
 analyse ER in Mauritius as a way of understanding ER in its cross-cultural
context;
 appreciate the distinctiveness of ER in international organisations;
 analyse the role of ER in developing international capabilities and diversity;
 appreciate the importance of managing diversity and equal opportunity, and their
implications for ER;
 devise a strategy for increasing employee diversity and managing diversity
effectively.
1.1 Introduction: The Scope of ER
Employee resourcing or ER or what is now termed by the Chartered Institute for
Personnel and Development (CIPD) in the UK people resourcing, as many people
who carry out work for organisations are no longer employees) is ‘that part of
personnel and development which focuses on the recruitment and release of
Module 1 / The Context of Employee Resourcing
1/2 Edinburgh Business School Employee Resourcing
individuals from organisations, as well as the management of their performance and
potential while employed by the organisation’ (Pilbeam and Corbridge, 2002). Taylor
(2002: 1) argues that ‘effective hiring and firing, attracting the best candidates,
reducing staff turnover and improving employee performance are fundamental
management functions. They are as relevant for a small family business as they are
for a major international plc’.
ER therefore involves ‘the range of methods and approaches used by employers
in resourcing their organisations in such a way as to enable them to meet their key
goals’ (Taylor, 1998: 2). Employee resourcing therefore involves staffing (i.e.
Recruitment, selection, retention and dismissal), performance (i.e. Appraisal and
management of performance), administration (policy development, procedural
development, documentation) and change management (the importance of the
resourcing function as a change agent).
However, while there is general agreement on what constitutes the areas of ‘re-
cruitment and release’, there is less agreement over the boundaries of the
‘management of performance’ dimension of ER. Leopold et al. (2005) include equal
opportunities and diversity management, assessment, selection and evaluation and
performance management, and exit management in ER, but also include a discus-
sion of reward management, often treated separately, as in this course.
Pilbeam and Corbridge (2002) include, in addition, such topics as HRD and
organisation development (OD), as well as employment relations and conflict
resolution, which most authors, including those involved in this course, would see
as ‘belonging’ to employee development and employee relations respectively. They
also include various areas that are not always treated in texts on ER, such as health
and safety, employee assistance, and the required ‘competencies’ in people resourc-
ing. The topic of ER in international organisations and absence management as a
core area of ER, as well as managing turnover and retention, are also included.
Here we shall explore turnover and retention in Module 4 on human resource
planning, and employee resourcing in international organisations will be discussed in
Module 8 on the changing context of ER.
Employee resourcing, however it is understood, has played a key role in many
influential models of HRM: for instance, it is seen as a crucial area of ‘policy choice’
in the early but still influential Harvard model of HRM, first proposed by Beer et
al. (1984). Here the ER ‘policy choices’ are seen revolving around human resource
flows: that is, the way people enter/move into, are placed in/move around, and
exit/move out of the organisation. How the organisation chooses to design and
implement its ER/HR flow policies is seen as dependent on how it assesses the
interests of its various stakeholders (and the weighting it gives to each), and on
various situational characteristics such as the nature of its workforce, its chosen
business strategy, its management philosophy (e.g. ‘family firm’ ethos, ‘up or out’
culture), its technology, the presence/agendas of trade unions, the state of the
labour market, and the legal regulations and societal values prevalent in the various
arenas in which it operates. We shall explore some of these issues and their implica-
tions for ER in later modules, and in particular in Module 2 on the strategic
significance of employee resourcing.