Human Resource Challenges in VUCA and SMAC Business Environment

IntroductionThe jargon VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity) was initially coined by the US Army War College with the aim to indicate the dangerous conditions in Afghanistan and Iraq in 1990s. Successively, the term was adopted by business leaders to narrate the drastically changing global business models. In addition to the changing business models, there is also change in the taste and preferences of the customers, alternatives available to the customers and price wars are adding fuel to fire. It was good enough in earlier days, if managers drafted their plans to deal with uncertainty, but in the present days of business, one has to actively tackle uncertainty and that calls for the leaders to be very active and swift.Evidence shows that the developing countries are enjoying a substantial growth in Gen-Y and GenZ Z in the organizations. India, particularly, is enjoying a huge share with over 50 per cent of its employed people below the age of 32 years. Actually, by 2030, India will surpass China as the country with the major population in the young working age. Gen-Y is better placed in using organizational technologies than Gen-X and the Baby boomers. Also, this generation usually is not comfortable to be restricted by the Lakshman Rekha of the companies and looks for greater amount of freedom in the working environment. SMAC offers an environment that facilitates the HR department to advance its operations and increase the proximity to the employees. All four technologies, namely, Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud are equally important in making the employees feel great working in the organization.VUCA Terminology DecodedDaniel Wolf, in his book Prepared and Resolved, published in 2006, was one of the first to use the acronym VUCA in the context of strategic business leadership in describing the chaotic, turbulent, and rapidly changing business environment that some at the Kennan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina consider as the "new normal. "Valerie Garrow and Sharon Varney (2015), in their research paper comprehended the terminology VUCA as mentioned under -Volatile - In a more volatile world, periods of stability can seem like a thing of the past. Instead we have more instability, wider fluctuations and often very rapid and unexpected change. No wonder many people see change as the only constant, and HR professionals find themselves 'constantly re-organising the re-orgs' as their organisations endeavour to respond.Uncertain - With so much volatility, not only is the future unlikely to be much like the past, but the present is often very different too. Information is incomplete because it is changing and there is too much going on to know it all. That increase in uncertainty makes it much harder to figure out what's happening today, let alone trying to understand what organisational form and capabilities might be important in the future.Complex - Uncertainty is amplified still further by complexity. The technological ease of connecting with people far and wide has created more interdependencies and feedback loops than ever before. Within those intricate and multilayered networks, actions can have unintended consequences which cannot be predicted. The risk for those designing organisations is: change one thing and you might well change everything! Ambiguous - 'Unknown unknowns' abound in complex, uncertain and volatile environments, and so ambiguity increases. Where no precedents exist, it becomes ever harder to reach clarity and agreement about the meaning and significance of events. Thus increase in doubt and hesitancy, making it easy for inertia to take hold. Therefore, in a highly ambiguous environment, it can be difficult to reach decisions about organisation design strategies.SMAC Terminology Decoded'In God we trust, all others being data'Edwards DemingBhrigu Joshi (2015) in his article "The 'SMAC'ing of Human Resources" reveals that HR analytics empower the organisation with a crystal clear view of people investments and help the HR function to establish its credibility. …