Globalization and Human Resource Development: Theoretical Approach

Kumpikaite, Vilmante, Sakalas, Algimantas, European Journal of Management

ABSTRACT

Globalization is a non-stop economic process. Individuals, companies or governments are always on the lookout for new processes or innovations--and so the economic and power structure of the world is never stagnant. It is clear that in creation of innovations not only technology is important, but also people, culture and communication. Under going globalization process the necessity to investigate global human resource development and its differences from domestic human resource development appears. It this paper authors analyze factors impacting global human resource development, positive and negative influence of globalization on human resource, globalization's impact on human resource development process, migration process and its impact on unemployment rate in Lithuania. Mostly authors emphasize influence of culture and speak about opportunities of acculturization. The main aim of this paper is to explore the impact of globalization on human resource development.

Keywords: Human Resource Development, Globalization, Culture, Acculturization, Lithuania; European Union

1. INTRODUCTION

Globalization is not a new factor in the world but it is very important for all countries which were more involved in this process not far ago. Such countries are Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Cyprus, Malta and Slovenia, which entered European Union (EU) in 2004. Looking specifically at economic globalization, it can be measured in different ways. These centre on the four main economic flows that characterize globalization:

* Goods and services (exports plus imports as a proportion of national income or per capita of population);

* Capital (inward or outward direct investment as a proportion of national income or per head of population);

* Technology (international research and development flows; proportion of populations (and rates of change thereof) using particular inventions (especially 'factor-neutral' technological advances such as the telephone, motorcar, broadband);

* Labor/people (net migration rates; inward or outward migration flows, weighted by population).

It becomes very topically to response challenges of the globalization, referring to the experience of the West countries or creating and looking for individual ways. Increasing amount of the information form all around, importance of the technologies the topicality of the human resource development (HRD) in the organizations is more and more growing. And attention to the global human resource development should be paid in national organizations as well, even if they did not face directly globalization influence, but representatives of various nationalities work in them, and they first or last will face globalization impact. Also the attention must be paid promptly to global human resource development in international enterprises and enterprises having divisions in different countries of the world indeed. Therefore authors want to discuss one of the above shown characteristics--labor--as human resource and its development in globalization process.

The objective of the paper is to discuss globalization and human resource development process.

Methods of the research are analysis and synthesis of the scientific literature and statistical data.

This paper is organized as follows. First, factors influencing global human resource development are shown. Next, globalization's process in Lithuania is described. Then positive and negative aspects of globalization are given. Finally, discussion about the future of human resource development in the age of globalization and conclusion are presented.

2. DEFINITION OF GLOBAL HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

The perception of globalization among the European public and certainly as expressed by many voters in America's current election cycle is very different. Among large groups of the traditional middle classes on both sides of the Atlantic, globalization is rather perceived as a transfer of existing jobs, know-how, and wealth from developed countries to the new and rapidly growing economies, especially China and India. In other words, not an integrative process, which new participants join, but rather a zero-sum type process of transferring opportunities for an economically secure life from one part of the world to another (Kirkegaard, 2008).

According to McClean (2001), Bates (2003), Marquardt and Berger (2003), the HRD must include not only economic development and workplace learning, but it must also be committed to the political, social, environmental, cultural, and spiritual development of people around the world. Global success depends on utilizing the resources and diverse talents and capabilities of the broadest possible spectrum of humanity. While speaking to the broader context of research that explores concepts and theories of the field in a cross-cultural context, it is likewise important to look at a definition of HRD that may not fit in the context of a specific culture or in a specific national environment, but rather relates to how we understand the field when it is applied in an international or cross-national context.

Several definitions and frameworks of human resource development (HRD) were offered throughout the history. Nadler coined the term human resource development in 1970 and offered a model with three components: training, education, and development (Nadler and Nadler, 1991). Much of the published literature on the definition of the field has been focused in the west--originally, in the United States (Weinberger, 1998) and, increasingly, in Europe. However, human resource development is a discipline that is more developed in Western industrialized countries than the rest of the world. Therefore, defining HRD is not easy and up till now no single point of view or framework of HRD has been predominant (Dilworth, 2003). Weinberger (1998) explored the different HRD definitions in the United States and concluded that there is no one agreement on definition of the field and that HRD is rather a mosaic of multiple perspectives.

In discussion of divergence and convergence in HRD practices in different regions of the world, several scholars and international experts view different countries within a region as more homogeneous (European countries), others view them as more heterogeneous (Arab countries) (Ronen and Shenkar, 1985; Dirani, 2006). Globalization influences such homogeneous and heterogeneous countries and changes them. Therefore the implications of globalization include a need for the profession to better understand and integrate intercultural practices into global organization, rather than assuming or imposing a Western view on the people and culture of other countries.

More recently, there have been efforts to define the growing field of HRD from a broader perspective (McLean & McLean, 2001). As cultural and social contexts vary leading to varied HRD practices, HRD as a discipline needs to develop a globally accepted definition for international HRD to …

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Publication information: Article title: Globalization and Human Resource Development: Theoretical Approach. Contributors: Kumpikaite, Vilmante - Author, Sakalas, Algimantas - Author. Journal title: European Journal of Management. Volume: 8. Issue: 4 Publication date: Winter 2008. Page number: 1+. © 2008 International Academy of Business and Economics. COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale Group.

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