The Role of Human Resources as Global Leaders

Linda Gravett, Ph.D, SPHR

Human Resource professionals certainly have no shortage of challenges as the new century is dawning. Technology is moving at warp speed, and HR must ensure employees are current in order to meet business demands. Companies must develop ways for virtual teams to form and communicate because geographic dispersion makes face-to-face meetings nearly impossible. Two younger generations, "Generation X" and "Generation Next" are trying to coexist in the workplace with "Baby Boomers" and "The Silent Generation." Almost half of the workforce is women, many of whom are in nontraditional roles, a fact that results in miscommunication and conflict between men and women. Human Resources must help employees find a balance between work and family life so that the organization can compete in the marketplace for quality employees. Yet with all these challenges, one more must be included in the mix: serving as organizational leaders in a global environment.

In his book, Global Literacies: Lessons on Business Leadership and National Cultures, Robert Rosen suggests that today's environment makes it "impossible for a company to survive and not scan the world for competitors, customers, human resources, suppliers and technology." A recent study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that 29 percent of the Fortune 500 firms surveyed had "nowhere near enough global leaders and 56 percent said they had "fewer than needed." It's time to get moving! Human Resources is not only responsible for helping to educate the workforce; Human Resources professionals must also model global leadership skills.

I believe that Human Resource professionals should take a hard look around their environment and establish some objectives with regard to the knowledge and expertise we need to acquire in order to be global thinkers. To begin with, I suggest we need to:

• Look beyond the U.S. and see challenges in an international framework
• Build a Human Resources team that focuses on the world as a potential source for employees, ideas, perspectives and suppliers
• Expand our ability to understand different cultures throughout the world
• Enhance our language capabilities

This is true even though we may currently be employed by an organization that is headquartered in the heart of the Midwest with customers dispersed within a small geographic area. Competition that was at one time across town is likely to soon be across the country or halfway around the world. With the advance of computer technology, our customer base does not have to be limited to a small area. However, if we want to be prepared to service diverse customer needs, we must have the expertise among our employees and within Human Resources to respond to a variety of approaches and perspectives.

Being a global HR leader may take many forms over the next few years. I believe that one form this concept is already taking is that of leadership of virtual teams. An organization with branches throughout the country or around the globe must find creative ways to harness the talents and energies of various groups of people, even when it's not feasible to be in the same room. Technology comes to our aid in the form of electronic bulletin boards, online chat rooms, e-mails with attachment capabilities, and instant messaging. A virtual team, however, must still possess some of the critical characteristics of teams that meet face-to-face in order to be effective. Clear expectations must be established. Roles must be well defined. Even though they're online, "meetings" must be facilitated to ensure and maximize participants' input. HR leaders must find ways to adapt the skills required to lead on-site teams to leading teams that may not ever actually meet one another. This will require the ability new create new approaches and new systems to replace existing ones.

Being a global HR leader means that we must develop the capacity to deal with ambiguous situations and uncertainty. For example, if our company is acquired by a German organization, we may be responsible for orienting and training colleagues from a different company, from a different part of the world, who have a different culture and language. The "rules" for this contingency aren't likely to be printed in a handy play guide. We may need to prepare our employees and their families for temporary duty in a branch office that's located on another continent. Not only must we coordinate education for different laws, another language, and a different currency, it's likely that we must research the ethical constructs of the other culture to help prepare ex-patriots to navigate the uncharted waters of another world view.

Finally, I believe that being a global HR leader will mean that we must be prepared to execute all Human Resource activities better, faster and smarter than ever before. The status quo won't be effective as we speed into the 21st century because potential employees, competitors for labor and customers, and technology are a constantly moving target. The HR professionals who will be in demand are those who are willing to take risks and not sit back and wait for others to take the lead. Just as companies that want to survive beyond the first decade of the century must be flexible enough to "turn on a dime", global HR leaders who aren't entrenched in one way of operating can create their own destiny.