HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN THE CONTEXT OF CULTURE IN THE REPUBLIC OF NORTH MACEDONIA

Abstract

We live in a time of constant search for comparative advantages. Companies are restructuring into increasingly efficient and compact organizations that try to reduce costs and increase productivity on the one hand and improve corporate responsibility and behavior on the other. But no matter how good the manager or leader, no company, government or university would function properly if the main factor, that is, employees, was forgotten. Although some experts may dispute the fact that employees are the most important resource that an organization has human resources, they are the lifeblood of the business system. Whether they are the most ordinary public bus drivers, the clinic neurosurgeons or miners, the workers in the transport of the capital, the medical care and just the cans of Coca-Cola will not be serviced. Without well-chosen employees, people with the right skills, education, enthusiasm and will for progress, productivity and profitability would suffer. The effectiveness and efficiency of HRM methods depend both on the perception that employees have of such methods, but also on the ability of managers to correctly articulate their idea. Nowadays, there is no organization in the global environment that does not use the activities that are part of human resource management. From bakeries to police and hospitals to NASA, all their future steps pass through the sieve that the science of HRM has calibrated. This paper analyzes the theories and principles of human resource management around the world along with an analysis of the current situation in the Republic of North Macedonia in terms of human resources and the representation of HRM professionals. This is compared with the results obtained from 23 other countries in the world. The analysis examines various aspects of HRM in Macedonia, such as the presence of the HR department, the number of HR employees in companies based on their age, the budgeting of HR departments and other specifics. The end of the paper exposes the fundamental questions that lie at the heart of the global economy: Are workers paying the price for progress? Are working conditions in developing countries neglected and relegated to the background? My recommendations then suggest striking a careful balance between the need for progress as the main motivating factor of global economies and the use of some restraint, if not sacrifice, necessary to counterbalance economic globalization in order to protect the integrity, well-being of employees and cultural differences that could not simply be erased in the process. Ultimately, HRM should really be designed to advance humanity, not capital.