International expansion could be troublesome if proper expansion strategy is not followed. International expansion is a vast concept and hence there are number of key aspects which are important to be taken into account in order to make the international expansion process a success. The HR department plays an important role in the overseas expansion as it takes into account a number of key aspects for the smooth operation of the organisation like staffing, development of organisational structure and culture and also helps to analyse the effective management of performance showed by the employees of an organisation. Since globalisation provides unparalleled business opportunities to organisations, it is essential for the organisations to make sure International Human Resource planning is done effectively (Tr?pczy?ski and Tr?pczy?ski, 2016). Human resources plays a crucial role in developing a strong human resource plan which helps an organisation to face the imminent challenges that overseas markets are waiting with. Multinational companies focus on managing its HR effectively in order to eliminate potential staffing issues which would help to operate in the foreign market effectively. Winch-It Industries Pty Ltd is a light manufacturing industry which has planned to expand its business in the overseas market and the present report will discuss the key HR issues involved with international expansion which would help to address the objectives of the study.
Organisational structure is an important aspect in every organisation and it becomes paramount while the international expansion plans are developed. Organisational structure could be defined as the process of allocating tasks and jobs within the organisation and also developing a formal or informal reporting framework within the organisation which would help to operate effectively in a market. The development of organisational structure is important for an organisation as it will help to make business strategy which would involve each and every organisational level effectively (Dickmann, Brewster and Sparrow, 2016). Winch-It Industries has been able to so far operate in the Australian market effectively and is now planning to expand its business in the foreign market for which having an efficient organisational structure is imperative. The main focus of the organisational structure is to develop the communication between the different levels of the organisation. While developing foreign expansion strategy organisational structure stands to be important as in a new market communication is the ultimate tool that can help create opportunities (Laforet, 2016).
An effective organisational structure could guide employees by laying down official reporting relationships which makes each and every employee aware of their immediate leader and hence helps to bring out effective insights from the leaders. The significance of organisational structure stays in the fact that it helps the employees to look up to someone above them to seek for suggestions which is not possible in an informal structure. Organisational structure is extremely effective in positively influencing the operations and the efficiency. There are different forms of organisational structure like flat structure and tall structure. The flat structure is known for its lesser layers in the structure and reporting relationships. In this kind of structure front line employees could make range of decisions and could easily get access to the leaders or the upper management. On the other hand the tall structure is complicated and has more layers of management and access is not easy for the lower level employees (Laforet, 2017).
The Winch-It Industries Pty Ltd has been able to operate effectively in Australia and hence in order to make international expansion it is important for the organisation to adopt a suitable organisational structure. It is important for the organisation to be able to make suitable decisions while working in the foreign market and for that it is important for the organisation to provide flexibility to the employees to be able to make decisions. The tall structure is structure where decisions are made through complex layers of management which could become problematic for the organisation Winch-It in the initial days of foreign business. The organisation needs to make decisions faster and there should be less experimentation done in regards to decision making. It is important for the foreign offices of Winch-It to get easy access to the upper management of the organisation and through tall structure it will not be that easy and hence the flat organisational structure is recommended to the organisation. The flat organisational structure will help the front line employees to make suitable decisions obviously with the support of the mid level managers and in case there are any problems the mid level managers would be able to connect with the upper management sitting in Australia, and hence Flat structure should be adopted by the organisation (Sparrow, Brewster and Chung, 2016).
One of the major aspects that every organisation will have to consider while expanding the business operations in the overseas market is cultural aspect. Culture could be defined as the acquired knowledge that people commonly use to interpret their personal experience and behave as per the situations generally. The understanding of culture and the visible differences in culture is important for the organisations to learn. Hence it is important for Winch-It learn about the differences in culture which is only possible with the implementation of a suitable cross cultural management (Huang and Zhu, 2016). In a potential new overseas venture culture could be the deciding factor and hence it is indispensable to have an effective cross cultural management in place for the organisation Winch-It. The Cross cultural management could be defined as the process of managing teams and works effectively considering the cultural differences between the employees and among the regions. In the present case the organisation Winch-It should look towards understanding the culture of the employees working in the foreign operations of the organisation (Cascio and Boudreau, 2016). In the present case the organisation should implement a shared and adaptive cross cultural management. The shared and adaptive cross cultural management will be effective in understanding the different cultural aspects of a society and will help the management and the employees to learn how to operate business in a new environment. It could also be said that an adaptive cross cultural management is extremely effective in helping teams to learn while working in a new overseas environment (Van Dyne and Ang, 2016). Hence it is recommended that Winch-It should follow a shared and adaptive cross cultural management style.
Staffing is a key issue in an international expansion strategy. Staffing could be a complicated aspect that might require a lot of brainstorming but having the right kind of staffing in place for an overseas operation could just be the decision to help an organisation reach the pinnacle of success. Winch-It should be prudent in its staffing strategy and should analyse the market environment effectively before making decisions final regarding recruitment and staffing. The company will face significant competition in the overseas market due to the emergence of companies from China and Japan and hence Winch-It should understand the importance of placing the right people in the right areas (Armstrong and Taylor, 2017). To run the business in the new market the company should implement experienced and a challenging character to operate the new business. The company should focus on placing an expatriate to the new market that understands the foreign culture well and knows how to respect it. The expatriate with effective process knowledge and cultural awareness would be a huge plus for the organisation as it will eliminate the issue of miscommunication and issues regarding professional bonding. The company should look to recruit lower level employees from the local region but should focus on implementing Australian manager with suitable cultural awareness which would help to manage the business properly (Wilton, 2016).
Managing employee performance based on the organisational needs and aims is a major job for the international Human resource management. Even though the foreign employees understand their cost to the company but it is the role of the HRM to analyse the performance of the employees and support them with valuable insights. For Winch-It this becomes an extremely important aspect to analyse the performance of the overseas employees and accordingly make business plans and strategies. While considering performance management for the overseas operations it is important for the organisation to understand what sort of performance appraisal should be implemented. Whether it should be a standard format of performance management or a customised set up for an overseas branch needs to be decided properly (Cania, 2016). The organisation should address the aspect of uniformity in the performance management process which would help the organisation to set parameters and attributes to make sure performance management is uniform and effective for all the offices of the organisation. Hence it could be said that the organisation Winch-It Industries Pty Ltd to should address the issue of uniformity in managing performance and should answer the question going with a standard format of performance management with the help of KPIs or going with customised setup with specific attributes (Brewster, Mayrhofer and Smale, 2016).
Conclusion
The present study has discussed the key aspects of international Human resource management that is suitable for Winch-It which has helped to cover up the objectives of the study and successfully complete the report.
References
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