1.0 IntroductionThe purpose of this report is to discuss some strategic issues facing human resource management practices in today's businesses. At the end of this report, the advantages and challenges that each of these issues brings will be evaluated. Recommendations that organizations can implement will be given to overcome the challenges posed by each strategic issue. The strategic issues I have chosen to address in this report are mergers and acquisitions and outsourcing. 1.1. Mergers and Acquisitions Mergers and acquisitions are totally different but they serve the same purpose. A merger is the joining of two companies to form a larger company. As for acquisitions, this happens when one company buys another company and the purchased company is then absorbed by the company that purchased it. Mergers and acquisitions can be classified in two ways: within the same industry or across industries. Mergers and acquisitions within the same industry mean that both companies belong to the same industry. When it comes to cross-industry, the two companies are in different industries but are then incorporated into one company that serves those two industries. (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart and Wright, 2014)1.2 OutsourcingOutsourcing means that companies use the services of third-party providers, vendors or consultants to provide the services that they are unable to perform themselves due to from a lack of expertise. Outsourcing means that people do the work externally and not internally. (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart, and Wright, 2014)2.0 Advantages2.1 Advantage of Mergers and AcquisitionsThere are many reasons why companies merge and acquire other companies. The biggest advantage of carrying out a merger or acquisition lies in the...... middle of paper ...... cultures of the acquired companies (Kumar, 2014).4.2 Recommendation: OutsourcingA strategy that can be implemented work by the HRM of a company is to have an agreement with the third party service provider to participate in the interview process of the person who will be doing the outsourced work and also to familiarize the person doing the work with the company (Kumar , 2014). Ezra Holdings achieves this by implementing a buddy system in which the external party works closely with an internal employee trained to handle such situations and also very familiar with the company culture (Kumar, 2014). This way the company will have an easy way to provide feedback and the buddy can also train the external party if they are not meeting expectations. Additionally, the knowledge needed to perform the work will be provided by the internal employee..