challenges and opportunities of business education

SAMEEHA ASLAMHuman Resource Management

The changing external environmental forces are having an increasingly important effect on the

performances of organizations. Whether it be globalization, competition, technological

innovations, the changing nature of work and workforce demographics or the economic

challenges and trends; these factors are forcing organizations today to not only attract effective

employees but to retain them and motivate them enough for high performance. Now the question

arrives of why do we emphasize on the human resources? And the answer is that the human

resources of an organization are the most important drivers of high productivity. Therefore it is

imperative to establish the modern practices of HRM .In order to do so we need even more HR

graduates and professionals in this nation and this paper attempts to analyze the challenges and

opportunities that HR graduates and HR personnel in general face at present ( Dessler &

Varkkey, 2011).

Firstly it is important to understand that the concept of HRM is new to Bangladesh and it has

been only in the last decade or so that companies have started organizing a separate HR

department. A recent study strives to analyze the job market for fresh HR graduates. It compares

the graduates of HR, marketing and Finance. According to the study, HR graduates (87 days)

take longer than finance (56 days) and marketing (38 days) graduates to find their first job

(Mahmud, Tarannum & Chowdhury, 2014, p. 34). This basically happens because as mentioned

the HR departments themselves are new concerns so they have a flatter hierarchy and also

because most people don’t advertise for entry and mid level HR jobs. Most firms don’t advertise

online or in papers for HR positions and the ones that do require at least 1 to 2 years experience.

However once they get the job, it is very easy for them to switch to another job after a few years

experience because there is a lack of experienced HR people at the mid-level (Mahmud,

Tarannum & Chowdhury, 2014).

Perhaps the most disappointing factor is that of getting promotions because it seems as if HR

people need to work for 3 or more years before they get one promotion whereas marketing

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The Challenges and Opportunities of Business Education: A Reference to HRM practices


people generally have to work for 2 or less years. However 70% of HR professionals are fully

satisfied with their current job compared to 44 % in marketing and 25% in Finance (Mahmud,

Tarannum & Chowdhury, 2014, pg 35). Finally the study said that HR personnel get a moderate

amount of training and the starting salary is quite high however salary growth is quite low

compared to that of marketing and finance because it is very hard to get promotions and move up

the ladder. The study concluded by saying that HR graduates are better off applying to the

service sector rather than the manufacturing sector because they employ for HR personnel since

they require more qualified people capable of providing quality service rather than the

manufacturing sector where they emphasis is on marketing. (Mahmud, Tarannum & Chowdhury,

2014).

Organizations need to understand that in order to remain competitive in the liberalized

environment; they have to invest heavily in HRM practice. Bangladesh has a population of about

160 million and a huge work force but these workers are better termed as humans and not human

resources. So how does one develop a nation’s human resources? They start by investing in the

education, training and nutrition of the workforce (Hasan, 2014).

Investment in the heath sector is important issue. We need to look at the infant mortality etc

rates to ensure that we have a healthy workforce because it is the human resources which fuels

economic growth. Some like Beximco have started recognizing the importance of proper

nutrition to an effective work force. They have their own farms and orchards from where they

feed their workers the best quality food and make sure that the working environment is

beautifully set up with gardens etc.

As people have said health is wealth so after ensuring a healthy population, the next step is to

invest properly in the education sector. In Bangladesh there has a meteoric increase in the

number of universities but the question remains about whether they are effective educational

institutions. Bangladesh is perhaps on the right track because among the LDS, Bangladesh has

distinguished itself by promoting high levels of primary and secondary education by ensuring

gender balance. However the issue still remains at the tertiary level. Managers’ feels that

business graduates and especially HR graduates just have textbook knowledge hence we need to

revise the curriculum of the business programs. Hence the challenge now is to link the business

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education with the business world. Institutions need to incorporate “leadership, globalization,

communication skills, critical analysis and self awareness in the business education (Garwin &

Datar, 2008).”

Also we have a large number of unemployed graduates. This is happening because there needs

to be more structured and planned career development seminars and better cooperation between

university and industries. The HR departments need to seriously coordinate with the educational

institutions to set up an wider and more efficient network of alumnus so that issues such as

searching for jobs and networking becomes easier. They also need to communicate to the

universities about the gaps that they see in the performance of the graduates so that the

institutions can give the graduates competency based technical skills courses. This is only

possible once the HR departments themselves have been formally established because at present

their recruitment and selection process is very inefficient. So this means that most of the times

the companies end up attracting and hiring the wrong workers. At times the training needs are

not considered when planning training programs or the references are checked informally, and

there is a lack of long term incentives to retain employees. Organizations don’t have any proper

employee reward and recognition programs and that performance appraisals are conducted using

the cheap MBO method but is still rated using functional and not behavioral metrics. Further

issues of nepotism, bribery etc shows us that the Bangladeshi institutions are yet to fully

incorporate and understand the importance of sound HR practices which would of course begin

with having properly trained managers (HR practices pick up: study, 2014).

One would think that as a developed nation USA economy depends on technical and

manufactured good but instead USA has one the strongest service sectors which is of course run

by its human resources. So both Bangladesh and USA export labor intensive goods so why is

their GDP per capita so different? This is because USA invests in its people to turn them into

highly skilled workers while Bangladeshi workers are less skilled and educated so their products

are not of that high value.

We need to consider that most of the workers are young and we have a lot of female workers.

Gender discrimination and sexual harassment are things that any female worker has to contend

with while working which significantly lowers their job performance. “I have even been advised

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to flirt with them in order to be heard (Hassan, 2014).” This shows that now it is important for all

to champion diversity in the workplace. At the same time we have a lot of Generation Y workers

who have different values compared to the older generation so they need to be motivated in

different ways.

According to the MD of ACI Ltd, the workers need to understand the purpose and the values of

the organization so that they are more passionate towards working and understand the the

organization’s goals. He further states that, “when we come to empowerment, you have to

understand the relative achievement of your team and you will have to do it based on their

performance, initiatives and compliance (Invest in human resource: analysts, 2014 ) .” Hence

developing human resources in an investment and not expenditure because companies that don’t

invest in HR won’t be successful in the long run. However the challenge remains about how we

can build a corporate culture if our present HR is not skilled. The answer is that most top

executives have to be hired from abroad and then they develop and educate the human resources.

Therefore the private sector has to play a greater role in educating and training the human

resources because the governments of developing nations need to invest mostly on people’s

needs first.

However Bangladesh is on the right track. This is shown by the fact that most organizations

now a have a separate HR department while about 67% of firms now provide in-house and

external training to their employees according to the Study on HR practices and Trends Survey

2014. The survey also found that, “75% of respondents said their organizations have structured

mechanisms in place to manage employee grievances and obtain feedback (HR practices pick up:

study, 2014).” Now the selection process is also considering not just the technical but also the

emotional quotient of prospective employees.

Also Bangladesh has a lot of opportunities when it comes to its HR practices. Most workers

are young and ambitious and they would like to perform and develop careers as HR professionals

but the challenge is that firms are “still to provide the understanding, competencies and self

confidence among HR professionals to involve themselves in the core business as an important

business partner for the line function (Mastering Management: Expert’s guide for Bangladesh,

2011).” According to this article, Bangladesh generally has a young and ambitious but they are

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http://www.thedailystar.net/invest-in-human-resources-analysts-9509)


very impatient so they need proper counseling and leadership to help them concentrate first on

improving their performance and honing their competencies. Also proper work environment and

excellent leadership is also required to attract and retain employees. The main challenge is that

businesses fail to link HR practices with business success (Mastering Management: Expert’s

guide for Bangladesh, 2011).

Due to the effects of different external forces the emphasis now is to build human capital

which is the “knowledge, education, skills and expertise of a firm’s employees (Dessler &

Varkkey ,2011,p. 27).” Now HR managers don’t just need education required to hire and fire

people, they also need the education and skill set required to look at the big picture so that they

can help in the strategic planning of the business. Hence they also need to develop new

proficiencies because in order to understand the other functional areas like finance, marketing

etc. HR graduates and personnel must understand IT and IS to develop new ways to do

transactional activities through HRIS. These will help them use evidence based HR so that they

can justify investing in HR to the board.

There are of course a lot of challenges but the area of HR is new and flourishing. Hence there

are ample opportunities for graduates to excel in this field in the future. This would require

proper planning and investment by not only the top management but the government as well. The

government itself doesn’t have a ministry for HR. This needs to change to motivate even more

firms to give requisite importance to the HR practices. HR personnel should be seen as strategic

planners, should be empowered and should be given proper compensation. The other factors that

require structural changes are education, training and nutrition services. HRM education at

present is mostly text book driven and based on industrial management. The HR professionals

themselves need to take measures to upgrade themselves and have to be able to demonstrate the

bottom line benefits of modern HR practices (Mahmud, Tarannum & Chowdhury, 2014). Within

the next decade the job prospects of HR graduates will be bright as Bangladesh further enters the

global market which will force Bangladeshi firms to invest in and adopt modern HR practices.

REFERENCES

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Dessler, G. & Varkkey, B. ( 2011).Human Resource Management (12th Edition). India: Dorling Kindersley licenses Pearson.

Garwin, D.A. & Datar, S.M. (2008). Business Education in the 21st Century. Retrieved November 20, 2014, from http://www.hbs.edu/centennial/businesssummit/business-society/business-education-in-the-21st-century-2.html

Hasan, M.J. (2014, November 1). Transforming humans into human resources. The Financial Express. Retrieved from http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2014/11/01/63829.

Hassan, O. (2014, March 6). Women in the Workplace: Gender -specific challenges in the corporate world. Message posted to https://olindahassan.wordpress.com/2012/03/06/published-women-in-the-workplace-gender-specific-challenges-in-the-corporate-world-daily-star/

HR practices pick up: study. (2014, February 2). Star Business Report. Retrieved from http://www.thedailystar.net/hr-practices-pick-up-study-9507

Invest in human resources: analysts. (2014, February 2). Star Business Report. Retrieved from http://www.thedailystar.net/invest-in-human-resources-analysts-9509

Mahmud, K., Tarannum, T. & Chowdhury, S.M.R (2014). Career Prospect of HRM in Least Developed Countries: Bangladesh Perspective. International Journal of Managerial Studies and Research (IJMSR). 2(8).30-40. Retrieved November 20, 2014, from http://www.arcjournals.org/pdfs/ijmsr/v2-i8/5.pdf

Mastering Management: Expert’s guide for Bangladesh. (2011, June 20). The Daily Star. Retrieved from http://archive.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=190670

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