Framework For Strategic Human Resource Management

Current Issues Faced by the Company

Discuss about the Framework for Strategic Human Resource Management.

International human resource management can be referred to the set of activities that are aimed in managing the organizational human resources at the international level in order to achieve the objectives of an organization. It is also aimed at gaining the competitive advantage over the organization’s competitors at both international and national level (Brewster et al., 2016). The purpose of the report is to briefly discuss the issues currently faced by the renowned ‘No Name’ Aircraft Company. In addition to this, the report will focus on how the human resource professional of the company will be dealing with the issues and how he/she should ensure that these issues are not repeated, considering the internal environment of the organization. Moreover, the human resource manager of ‘No Name’ Company will be making some recommendations along with an implementation plan for eliminating such issues.

The CEO of the company Adam O’Meara is becoming concerned due to their organizational profits, which is decreasing day by day. The employees of the company are not working well in teams and there is also a communication gap between the integrated teams and across teams and their management. The organizational culture is also very negative and this is directly related to the parts from Vietnam and China. Moreover, the organization is also facing some issues related to embracing the rich working values with the diverse people. In addition to this, there is also intolerance among the employees from various generations. Furthermore, the company also hesitates to recruit people with disabilities, even when their skills and qualifications are better than other candidates. Therefore, being the human resource manager of the company, it can be recommended that the company needs to adopt proper practices immediately.

‘No Name’ Aircraft Company is an Australian Company, which has subsidiaries in three other countries namely, China, Vietnam and Singapore. The company builds and sells aircraft to around fifty countries all across the world. Several aircraft parts are being produced in Vietnam and China and most of the design engineers operate at Singapore. The Aircrafts are being assembled in Singapore and Australia. However, the company is facing certain issues currently and CEO Adam O’Meara is becoming increasingly concerned regarding their organizational profits. He realizes the need to maximize the return on investment of the shareholders and obtain a high share price (Tyson, 2014).

Dealing with the issues

At their home country, that is Australia, the teams are not at all working well and also there is a miscommunication between the integrated teams as well as across teams and their management. In addition to this, the work place culture is negative and the workers have adopted wrong strategies. They are resistant to organizational changes and this kind of culture have extended to the communications between the Headquarters and their subsidiaries. Moreover, the ‘No Name’ Company has also faced some issues in China and Vietnam. Aircrafts that are being sold to the customers require small to large modifications, which is creating a big confusion among them (Lmip.gov.au, 2018). The customers have reported their dissatisfaction with the company’s services, due to their poor quality.

Moreover, there is a lack of diversity policies in both the host country and its subsidiaries. The company is facing issues to embrace the rich working value of diverse people. At the headquarters, the employees are intolerant towards working with the different generations. In addition to this, there is a lack of recruitment of the individuals with physical disabilities in China. The managers are strongly ignoring the job applications of the people with disabilities, even if their skills are beyond other candidates.

The most crucial factor, ‘No Name’ Company needs to take under consideration is that the human resource manager does not have any clear picture to help the employees understand each other. In addition to this, the interactions among the staff members are also influenced by the perceptions of each other. The expatriate workers are also facing some issues while working with the local employees, as they are resistant to any kind of changes. The CEO of the company is now worried as it is facing numerous performance management issues all across the organization. International performance is also connected to the international performance appraisals; however, these lacks at ‘No Name’.

The performance reviews are being conducted by the human resource manager of Australia, but other subsidiaries lacks it. In addition to this, the company has no formal performance appraisal processes for the expatriate workers. Therefore, it can be said that the ‘No Name’ Company is facing these critical issues, which the international human resource manager needs to take care of. O’Meara is afraid of his company’s reputation due to the management’s discrimination and biasness towards recruitment of candidates with disabilities. 

Being the international human resource manager of the company, it is important to set up a comprehensive and more flexible IPM system, in order to allow the subsidiaries for making independent decisions in relation to the product supply as well as demand outcomes. Moreover, the company lacks a comprehensive training and development program, which can ensure the quality in expatriate development. Therefore, it is important for the international human resource manager to set up an effective system, which improves the current programs of training and development in both the subsidiaries and host country. In addition to this, an effective and systematic workforce planning as well as managerial development programs will efficiently ensure staff promotions in their career development pathway (Gatewood, Feild & Barrick, 2015).

The international human resource manager plays an important role in effectively managing the human resources of the subsidiaries as well as host country. The globalization of the business is leading to mobilization of the resources. In order to minimize the risks of failure or underperformance in the overseas assignments, the manager needs to gain an understanding of the major issues at first (Cascio, 2018). As the company is suffering from various issues, the implementation of the international strategies is immensely important for controlling the international business.

There are several socio-economic, institutional and normative (socio-cultural) influences that affect the international businesses on the long run. The socio-economic influences can be the labor market conditions, general economic conditions, lifestyle components, income and others. The social environment comprises the sum total of the society’s customs, beliefs, behaviors and practices (Bratton & Gold, 2017). The ‘No Name’ Company needs to gain an understanding of the labor market conditions and the general economic conditions of other countries for the business (Ogunyomi & Bruning, 2016). It is noticed that the company is facing several issues related to the diverse workforce. The company’s employees have a mindset of “we have always done it in this manner”. They are resistant to changes.

Diverse workforce brings in huge talent and experiences within the organizational setting. The diversity needs to provide certain practices, which involve appreciation of other people’s culture within the headquarters, subsidiaries and across the subsidiaries (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014). The human resource managers of the company need to set up practices as well as strategies in order to ensure that there is no such organizational discrimination and the workers should work together by maintaining peace and harmony (Sheehan, 2014). In addition to this, the international human resource professional needs to set up proper diversity training procedures and mentoring programs for imparting education on diverse culture and their effectiveness (Marchington et al., 2016).

In addition to this, the institutional influences of the ‘No Name’ Company comprise legal rules, formal or informal rules set up by the employees as well as the union. The line managers of the host country are responsible for communications within the headquarters and subsidiaries (Brewster et al., 2016). However, the CEO of the company is constantly receiving mails from Singapore, Vietnam and Singapore seeking for clarification on several points. The line managers are not working efficiently and effectively, as they are required to solve petty issues and clarifications (Nkomo & Hoobler, 2014). Therefore, the human resource manager should set up clear guidelines and rules, mentioning about their job role and penalty must be imposed upon those who are not abiding by the legal policies of the company (Albrecht et al., 2015).

Moreover, the diversity management of the ‘No Name’ Company claims to the policy that directs everyone to be respectful of age, race, gender, ethnicity, physical abilities and other philosophies (Shields et al., 2015). However, in China, the company is facing tremendous issues in the diversity management. The senior employers of the China branch have set up some illegal rules of not recruiting disabled candidates, irrespective of their qualifications and skills.

The normative (socio-cultural) influences are associated with the cultural as well as social traditions and routines of the ‘No Name’ Company. In simpler terms, it refers to the power of the employers on an individual to conform their group’s behavioral norms (Purce, 2014). However, the company has no specific set of rules or guidelines for its employees and moreover, the employers are engaged into some unethical practices. It led to confusion within the organization and the employees are not ready to accept any changes. The international human resource manager of the company is required to set up strict change management guidelines within the organization (Paillé et al., 2014).

In this context, trainings and orientation programs must be conducted for making them understand the need for organizational change. Moreover, the organization should take a strong step towards diversity management issues. It is important to make the employees as well as the employers to understand the benefits of a diversified workforce (Jackson, Schuler & Jiang, 2014). The company has strong policies of diverse management and its inclusion. However, those policies are not on the right track. Therefore, the duty of the international human resource manager is to monitor the steps taken by the regional managers and employees. There performance must also be reviewed in order to reduce the discrimination, which exists within the organizational settings (Banfield, Kay & Royles, 2018).

The international human resource manager of the company is required to implement proper labor as well as equal opportunities laws in order to ensure the success of a prospective culturally diversity management in an international environment. Implementation of such laws will ensure a healthy workplace and help in removing the barriers within the organization (Wilton, 2016). Moreover, the human resource manager needs to create a proper diversity management plan for the welfare of the expatriate workers. In addition to this, the recruitment procedures must be on the basis of skills and competencies of the candidates and not on their physical disabilities (Stone et al., 2015).

From the analysis above, it can be recommended that the international human resource manager of ‘No Name’ Company needs to present a plan to the organization for eliminating the issues. A proper global leadership program will be able to provide the employees with a proper work life balance. The human resource manager of the company needs to design some sponsorship plans for the employees’ health diagnosis. In several organizations, employees are provided with flexi timings in order to provide them with a proper balance between their professional and personal lives. Along with this, the expatriate workers are even provided with relocation facilities.

Moreover, the human resource manager should set up international rewards objectives for the ‘No Name’ Company. Reward and recognition programs are often set up by the organizations to motivate or encourage the workers to give their best to the organization. From the case study, it is evident that the company does not have any fixed method of rewarding its employees and thus, it led to such ineffectiveness within the workplace. It is important for the human resource professional to design a proper reward and recognition program in order to motivate the employers as well as the employees at the right time with right reasons. This will help in providing the company with the right results at the right time.

Figure: Functions of Human Resource Manager

Furthermore, the company lacks proper diversity management strategies within the workplace. It is important to make the employees understand how diverse workforce brings in new experiences and ideas, which in turn helps in yielding better outcomes. The diverse workforce has the potential of giving the ‘No Name’ Company accessibility to a broader range of viewpoints as well as opinions. In addition to this, it will help the organization in gaining competitive advantages as well.

Being the human resource manager of the company, it is immensely important to monitor the actions of the employers and other managers. Discrimination within the workplace leads to the degradation of its reputation or image. A healthy workplace environment should be unbiased and open to diverse working culture. The ‘No Name’ Company is facing issues as the managers are biased towards diversity and physical appearances and disabilities of the candidates. If these factors are not being noticed and changed at the earliest time, the company will lose its reputation forever.

Therefore, proper on job training sessions, mentoring programs, virtual assignment and knowledge sharing sessions must be conducted by the human resource manager of ‘No Name’ Company. This will help in mitigating the political risks and social conflicts as well. In addition to this, the company should also promote diversity trainings in order to make the managers understand the need for diverse workforce within the organization. The diversity trainings must be conducted by the human resource manager by hiring professional trainers and certified experts. Moreover, it is evident from the case study that the customers of the company are also not happy with their products. They have received some defective models, which led to utter confusion. The company needs to monitor the feedbacks of the customers as well, in order to get benefitted on the long run.

Conclusion

To conclude, the report throws light on the current human resource management policies of the ‘No Name’ Company. From the case study, it is quite evident that the company is currently facing huge problems like performance management, customer feedback management, diversity management and others, which is marring its reputation and image. The international human resource manager is given the responsibility to manage the whole situation and monitor the progress of the organization. It is even seen that the managers of ‘No Name’ Company in China, is not appointing candidates with physical disabilities having better qualifications and skills than the existing ones. Therefore, the report highlights the major responsibilities of the human resource manager in terms of promoting proper practices within the workplace.

In addition to this, the international human resource manager is planning to implement some outsourcing techniques along with innovative technologies. Moreover, the manager has decided to carry out an online survey and direct interview with the customers for gaining their valuable feedbacks. It will help the company in gaining an understanding about the changing preferences and choices of the target customers. Furthermore, the company should also design a proper reward and recognition program for its employees in order to motivate and encourage them. This will ensure better performance, which in turn will lead to the betterment of the organization. Additionally, the human resource manager will also carry out annual and monthly reviews for gaining a brief idea on how the company is operating.

References

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