Category: HRM

Human resources management is a very important function within an organisation that involves the management and recruitment of employees in an organisation. It also encompasses the provision of direction for employees. It is imperative that the human resources manager understands these functions to retain the organisations workers besides ensuring that they perform well. As organisations become global with regard to their operation, the management of people continues to become more complex.

This essay looks at several functions of human resources management based on interviews conducted on two human resource managers from a motor vehicle service company and retailer market store. The main objective of this essay is to understand the leadership requirements in organisations by looking at the way the managers spend their time in the handling of human resources.

The first person interviewed was a line manager from both the Toyota Company. The second interviewee was a line distribution manager in a retail market store. The two managers have been employed in the companies for over one year now. Both of them are responsible for 15 and 22 employees respectively in their departments.

The departments are involved in the production and distribution of commodities and services offered by the companies. To find out the importance of the human resource in the company, a questionnaire was prepared. The questions covered the importance of communication and human resources as a whole in the company.

First of all, it was important to know what the two managers found to be most challenging about human resources management. The two managers agreed that the most challenging part in the department was maintaining proper communication among the employees. It was realised that most employees usually had difficulties in interpreting orders issued from the top management. For this reason, many issues arose in the organisations.

This situation was seen to lower the performance at both individual and organisational levels. At times, it brought about various problems associated with customer delivery. The interview also revealed that the human resource managers always tried other innovative ways of communicating to their employees. However, in this regard, managers have improvised new ways such as emailing, internal memos, and reminder notice boards to encourage the employees perform as per the organisation’s expectations.

When asked to describe human resource in their companies, the two managers responded that technology was also one of the most challenging areas in communication. Some employees were not computer literate. This situation made it difficult for the human resources department to perform their work.

It was also revealed that communication was the most vital part of the human resources management (Bennis and Thomas 134). In cases where there is a clear line of communication, managing employees became easier. In this regard, both companies had embraced new technologies as a way of improving communication.

With this state of events in put in place, the managers were also asked what distinguishes a successful human resources department. First of all, there must be a clear link between the systems in the company. The company must also have a clear vision and mission statements that ensure that all efforts in the company drive towards a common goal. All aspects of the business should be set up besides giving the employees an orientation immediately after recruitment.

Communication was also an important aspect of successful human resources management. The two managers agreed that a company must have a clear line of communication from the top to the bottom level of management. There should also be clear structures for employee motivation at all times. Workers should be rewarded for good work. Besides, methods of discipline should also be outlined. There should be room for promotion among other incentives that make employees feel appreciated (Kelly 94).

This state of events means that successful managers are those who allow people to work individually while at the same time appreciating their contributions towards the success of the company. According to Kelly, a successful manager should enable employees to utilize and develop their skills (102).

At the same time, the manager should observe the welfare of the employees to ensure low turnover rates. Communication channels were also mentioned as important areas for a successful manager. According to Bennis and Thomas, clear communication channels make the work of the human resources manager easier as employees adhere to similar regulations (134). Media such as loud speakers, internal networks, and extension lines for calling should be put in place to facilitate communication amongst the employees.

As leaders, the two managers agreed that employee motivation was an important aspect in human resources management. However, both parties held that operative enthusiasm varied from one human resource manager to the other. It is important that a human resources manager recognizes the effort of each employee with a view of rewarding them accordingly. Ways of motivating the employees included providing them with day offs, annual leaves, performance based incentives, scholarships, promotions, and salary increment among others. Lastly, the careers of the human resource managers depend on how well they treat the company’s personnel because their productivity depends on how they handle them.

Works Cited

Bennis, Warren and Robert Thomas. Leading for a Lifetime: How Defining Moments Shape Leaders of Today and Tomorrow. London: Harvard Business Review Press, 2006. Print.

Kelly, Eamonn. Werful Times: Rising to the Challenge of Our Uncertain World. New York, NY: Wharton School Publishing, 2006. Print.

Introduction

The Company

This HRM recruitment portfolio has been developed for Huawei Technologies for the position of Senior WiMax Planning Engineer in its Basingstoke, UK office. The company is “a multinational telecommunication and information technology equipment and services company headquartered in Shenzhen China” (Huawei, 2011).

It is the largest supplier of equipment used in networking and telecommunication in China and the second largest supplier of such equipment globally. It was founded in 1988 and is mainly owned by its employees alongside external investors.

Huawei’s core business activities include research and development in the field of telecommunication (Huawei, 2011). It manufactures and sells various equipments that are used in the provision of telecommunication services. Finally, it offers “customized network services to telecom carriers” (Huawei, 2011).

Currently, Huawei serves 90% of the top 50 telecoms operators in the global telecommunication industry. In 2010, the company realized a net profit of US$ 3.64 billion (Huawei, 2011). The 2010 results reflected a 30% increase in profitability from the previous financial period.

The firm normally channels at least 10 percent of its net profits to research and development in various parts of the world (Huawei, 2011). Due to its excellent financial performance, Huawei has been able to expand to various countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and America.

The Position

The job to be analyzed is titled, ‘Senior WiMax Planning Engineer’. WiMax technology is “a family of telecommunication protocols that provide fixed and mobile/ wireless internet access” (Huawei, 2011). The use of WiMax technology calls for the design implementation and maintenance of communication networks that suit the specific needs of the client.

A senior WiMax planning engineer thus helps in performing the aforementioned duties in order to achieve the objective of providing clients with excellent telecommunication services (Huawei, 2011). The nature of the job can be described as follows.

The job requires technical expertise and involves both in-doors and out-doors assignments. Planning for the provision of telecommunication services through the WiMax technology involves analyzing the needs of the customers and developing network solutions that can satisfy such needs (Huawei, 2011).

The planning and design aspect is characterized by the use of various engineering techniques such RF planning tools to develop appropriate solutions. Once designed, the planning engineer must explain the characteristics of the new network solution to his juniors who will participate in the implementation process (Huawei, 2011). This helps in avoiding confusion and misunderstanding during the implementation stage.

The implementation aspect is mainly an out-door assignment especially during the installation of equipment and construction of base stations. The senior WiMax engineer normally surveys the topography of the area in which the client is based and selects the most suitable site for the construction and installation of the necessary equipment (Huawei, 2011).

The other tasks associated with the implementation stage include planning for site acquisition, preparation of the site and the final installation of the equipment (Huawei, 2011). Finally, the job entails monitoring the existing network and providing timely repairs in the event of a breakdown.

The Importance of the Job to the Company

The job is of great importance to the company since it is directly related its core business activity. The importance of the job can be described as follows. First, the job enhances the process of positioning the company and its products in the market (Linnenluecke and Griffiths, 2010, pp. 357-366).

Clients who are satisfied with the networks designed by the senior WiMax engineer will definitely view the company as a premium service provider (Long, 2000, pp. 100-103). Second, the job strategically links the research and development initiatives with the market needs.

The planning engineer works directly with the customers. Thus he or she is able to indentify customers’ needs that have not been satisfied. Such needs are usually communicated to the research and development department so that appropriate technologies can be developed to satisfy them.

Third, the job has a direct influence on the efficiency of the firm (Linnenluecke and Griffiths, 2010, pp. 357-366). As a planner, the incumbent identifies the best alternatives of satisfying the market needs using the available resources (Huawei, 2011). The job also enhances sharing of knowledge and skill development in the company.

The senior WiMax planning engineer not only supervises his or her juniors but also trains them on various aspects of network design and planning. Finally, the job serves as a channel through which the operation strategy of the company is implemented (Linnenluecke and Griffiths, 2010, pp. 357-366).

The objectives of the firm’s operation strategy in terms of the expected service quality, cost efficiency, delivery lead time, consistency and flexibility are achieved through effective execution of the duties associated with job. The specific skills, attributes, experience and qualifications needed for this position are explained in section two.

Job Analysis Plan

Job analysis refers to the process in which data relating to the “duties, responsibilities, necessary skills, outcomes and work environment of a particular job are collected for the purpose of developing a job description” (Prien and Goodstein, 2009, p. 78). Thus a job description is the main outcome of the job analysis process.

The other outcomes of the job analysis process include recruitment plans, job advertisements, and planning for performance development. Job analysis helps the human resources department to determine the relationships between employment procedures such as selection, compensations, training needs and performance evaluation (Bacci, Francia and Chiselli, 2008, pp. 255-275).

In analyzing the job of senior WiMax engineer, the following aspects of the job will be analyzed. First, the tasks and duties associated with the position of a senior WiMax engineer will be analyzed (Prien and Goodstein, 2009, p. 89). It is important to evaluate such duties and tasks since their execution forms the basic unit of the job. Thus the following information will be collected about the duties and tasks.

Data will be collected on the frequency with which the duties and tasks are carried out by the incumbent. The duration in which the duties and tasks last will be considered in order to determine the amount of time and labor force need to complete them (Bacci, Francia and Chiselli, 2008, pp. 255-275). The effort in terms of both physical and mental energy need to complete the duties and tasks will also be considered.

It will be important to gather information about the complexity of the tasks and duties (Robertson, 2000, pp. 121-146). This will help in determining the specific skills needed for the job. The equipment needed by the incumbent to complete the duties will also be identified. Finally, it will be necessary to collect information about the standards to be achieved while performing the duties in order to achieve the desired quality.

Second, the work environment will be analyzed. The work environment has a great influence on the physical requirements of the job. The work environment refers to the surroundings of the workplace in which the job will be performed.

Consequently, it includes analyzing the occupational hazard or obstacles that might prevent the completion of the job (Robertson, 2000, pp. 121-146). In case any such obstacles exit, it will be necessary to evaluate how they can be effectively eliminated.

Third, the tools and equipment needed by the incumbent to complete the job will be analyzed (Frankline, 2005, p. 341). Performing the duties of WiMax engineer requires specific tools and equipment. Fourth, the relationships in terms of the supervision to be given and received will be analyzed. Finally, the requirements in terms of the knowledge, skills and abilities needed for the job will be analyzed (Frankline, 2005, p. 342).

Steps in Analyzing the Job

The following six steps will be followed in the analysis. The first step involves deciding how the data to be collected will be used (Frankline, 2005, p. 347). In this case, the data will be used for the purpose of training, job advertisements/ recruitment, performance appraisal and compensation. Consequently, the data related to these aspects of employment will be collected. The data collection methods will include interviews and questionnaires.

In the second step, relevant background information about the job will be reviewed (Frankline, 2005, p. 351). For example, the current job description, organization and process charts will be evaluated in order to understand the work flow and identify the existing gaps.

A specific position, Senior WiMax Planning Engineer, will be identified in the third stage. The position will be distinguished from the related jobs in order to provide clarity (Catalin and Maria, 2009, pp. 447-451). In the fourth stage, the data will be collected and analyzed. In the fifth step, both the employee who performs the job and his or her supervisor will analyze the gathered information.

In the last step, the job description and specification will be developed (Catalin and Maria, 2009, pp. 447-451). The job description defines the activities and responsibilities associated with job. The specifications on the other hand define the qualities, skills and traits needed for the job.

Job Description for the Position of Senior WiMax Engineer

The job description is a written statement that specifies the “duties, responsibilities, important contributions and outcomes needed from a position, required qualifications of candidates, reporting requirements and relationships with coworkers in a particular position” (Catalin and Maria, 2009, pp. 447-451). The job description for the above position can thus be described as follows.

Job Purpose

The incumbent will be responsible for analyzing and designing WiMax systems in 2/3/4 GHz, with the aid of specific Atoll RF planning tools. He or she will also assist in capacity and frequency planning as well as recommending appropriate optimization techniques.

Key Responsibilities and Accountabilities

The position involves participating in the analysis and design of WiMax systems in 2/3/4GHz with the aid of relevant RF planning tools, Implementing RF designs for particular markets. The incumbent is also expected to help in capacity and frequency planning as well as recommending optimization techniques.

It also involves designing WiMax networks with the aid of RF propagation models, analyzing topographical maps in order to identify the best site according to network coverage.

Other responsibilities include engineering designs and coverage mapping, LOS and link budget calculations, designing and implementing various access technologies to facilitate the provision of bandwidth such as Wi-Fi and Fiber and participating in training and development of appropriate knowledge and skills. The position reports directly to the senior regional planning manager.

Skills

The incumbent must have a clear understanding of RF propagation models and their use; understanding of RF engineering, measurement equipment and instrumentation; knowledge of IEEE 802.X standards.

He or she must be proficient in the use of MS office 2007/ 2010, internet and email; able to understand and perform various calculations associated with WiMax planning and engineering; able to lead and train a group of junior engineers. The candidate should be a self-driven and result oriented person.

Knowledge

The candidate must have a good knowledge of WiMax technology and its applications. He or she must be able to design and implement WiMax networks to suit specific client needs. The candidate should also be able to plan for capacity and frequency using various RF planning tools.

Qualification

In addition to solid industry experience, the candidate must have ad degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Cisco certification and WiMax forum certification.

Experience

The candidate should have at least five years experience in WiMax engineering. He or she should have at least three years experience in designing and implementing RF networks.

Recruitment Procedure: Advertisement for the Job

The aim of an advertisement is to reach the largest number of candidates within a specific region. In this case, the advert targets candidates in the UK market. The advert will be posted on Guardian Jobs online searches.

The use of online advertisement will help in eliminating the costs associated with printing the advert in traditional media. Besides, it will enable the client to reach the largest number of candidates who have computer skills. The following advert will appear on Guardian Jobs online searches.

Introduction

Huawei Technologies is a premium multinational telecommunication company with its headquarters in Shenzhen, China. The company currently operates in Europe, Asia, America and Africa.

As a leader in the global telecommunication industry, Huawei provides exiting careers and competitive compensation packages to qualified persons in various parts of the world. In order to meet the demand for our services in UK, the company is pleased to invite applications from qualified candidates to fill the above position in the Regional network department.

Job purpose

The incumbent will be responsible for analyzing and designing WiMax systems in 2/3/4GHz, with the aid of specific Atoll RF planning tools. He or she will also assist in capacity and frequency planning as well as recommending optimization techniques.

Skills

1. You should be able to plan for capacity and frequency use as well as recommending optimization techniques.
2. Ability to design WiMax networks with the aid of RF propagation models.
3. Ability to analyze topographical maps in order to identify the best site according to network coverage.
4. You should be able to perform LOS and link budget calculations.
5. Ability to participate in training and development of appropriate knowledge and skills.

Knowledge

1. An understanding of and ability to apply the principles of WiMax engineering.
2. Knowledge of IP will be an added advantage.
3. Knowledge of IEEE 802.X standards.

Academic Qualifications

The successful candidate will possess the following minimum academic qualifications:

1. Bachelors of Science degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering or its equivalent from a recognized institution of higher learning, preferably a university.
2. WiMax Forum Certification.
3. Cisco certification.

Work Experience

The successful candidate will possess the following minimum prior work experience:

1. At least two years experience in using RF network planning tools in implementing wireless broadband systems.
2. At least three years hands-on experience in designing RF networks with at least one year spent on a senior network planning role.
3. Relevant experience in the use of RF/ microwave technology to provide wireless communication services.
4. At least four years in operating a cell site, including equipment installation, verification and optimization of radio frequency.

Where

The position is in the Basingstoke, United Kingdom Head Office. However, the position holder will be required to travel to various cities and locations within UK.

An attractive remuneration package will be provided for the successful candidate. Other benefits include health insurance cover, 21 days annual leave and pension scheme

How to Apply

If you posses the above requirements, please post a copy of you updated CV, certificates, cover letter and testimonials to the address indicated below. The applicant is advised to clearly indicate the job title and current telephone number in the cover letter.

The applicant should also give a brief statement explaining why he or she is the most suitable candidate for the position. The short listed candidates will be contacted through their phone numbers within five days after the deadline.

The Link between Job Analysis and the Design and Sustainability of Human Resources

The link between the process of job analysis and the design and sustainability of the organization’s human resources can be explained in terms of the purpose of job analysis. The link can thus be described as follows.

Human Resources Planning

The process of job analysis provides human resources managers with essential information which enables them to make vital decisions in regard to sustaining the company’s human resources (Bacci, Francia and Chiselli, 2008, pp. 255-275). In particular, job analysis enables the human resources managers to determine the actual number of jobs in a company and the nature of such jobs (Catalin and Maria, 2009, pp. 447-451).

This helps them to decide on whether to create more positions or not. Job analysis facilitates the development of precise job descriptions. Consequently, the employees will be fully aware of their responsibilities, performance targets and accountabilities (Edwards, 2010, pp. 91-105).

It also helps in assessing the worth of various positions in the organization. This helps the management to decide on which positions to eliminate or create.

Creating and Monitoring Performance Standards

Job analysis helps the human resources department to develop activities that are specific to particular jobs as well as setting the performance standards for such activities. Thus it facilitates objectivity in performance appraisal (Gibbs, 2010, pp. 58-75). Objectivity enables the managers to assess the productivity of employees in an unbiased manner thereby improving the effectiveness of the appraisal.

Besides, it identifies the main responsibilities to be considered as part of the performance management system (Gibbs, 2010, pp. 58-75). Job analysis also helps in categorizing various responsibilities into job groups. The job groups simplify the process of delegating duties and clearly point out the criteria in carrier development.

Compensations and Benefits

Job analysis helps in determining the value of each job, thereby enabling the management to decide on appropriate level of compensation for each job (Lewig, Xanthopoulou, and Bakker, 2007, pp. 429-445). The skills requirement identified during the analysis process can be used as a determinant of compensations.

Compensations based on skills and the value of each job results into high levels of employee motivation (Lewig, Xanthopoulou, and Bakker, 2007, pp. 429-445).

Selection and Recruitment

The analysis enables managers to indentify the appropriate standards and requirements for selecting new employees (Nankerris, and Stanton, 2010, pp. 136-151). Development of unbiased interview questions can be achieved if the job analysis is properly done.

Training

On the job training programs helps in improving the skills and productivity of the employees (Nankerris, and Stanton, 2010, pp. 136-151). Job analysis support the training programs by identifying the knowledge and skills needed to improve productivity. Thus it informs the process of developing the content of training programs (Nankerris, and Stanton, 2010, pp. 136-151).

By analyzing the work environment, the management will be able to train employees on how to avoid the various health hazards at the workplace (Toshihiro, Yoshio and Abe, 2009, pp. 56-67). We can thus conclude that job analysis supports the development of human resources by providing essential information that is used to make decisions.

Role of Job Description in Attraction and Recruitment of Employees

As discussed above, a job description provides detailed information about the duties associated with a given job and the skills required in performing such duties. Thus before beginning the selection and recruitment process, it is important to have a well written job description (Bacci, Francia and Chiselli, 2008, pp. 255-275). The specific roles of job descriptions in the process of selecting and recruiting employees include the following.

First, the job description acts as a reference guide that is used to set comparable industry salaries (Toshihiro, Yoshio and Abe, 2009, pp. 56-67). The recruitment team can compare the salary offered by the company to those offered by their competitors for the same position.

Thus if the there is intense competition for talent in the industry, the company can set its salaries slightly above the average industry salaries in order to attract the best employees. Second, the job description gives details of the required experience and skills for a particular job (Linnenluecke and Griffiths, 2010, pp. 357-366).

It will thus be possible to match such requirements with the qualifications of each and every applicant (Toshihiro, Yoshio and Abe, 2009, pp. 56-67). The financial resources used to compensate the employee will be maximized if the newly hired employee has skills that match those specified in the job description.

Third, the job description forms the basis for formulating interview questions (Bacci, Francia and Chiselli, 2008, pp. 255-275). Once the interviewer knows the traits he or she is looking for in the applicants, they will be in a position to ask relevant questions that enables them to asses the suitability of the applicants.

By formulating unbiased interview questions, the interviewer will avoid the risk of losing potential employees at the recruitment stage (Toshihiro, Yoshio and Abe, 2009, pp. 56-67).

Fourth, it provides information that is used to design adverts for the positions to be filled. Inclusion of relevant, concise and accurate information in the job adverts increases the chances of accessing a large number of applications (Bushardt and Glascoff, 2010, pp. 11-21).

Consequently, it will be possible to hire the best talent in the industry. Job descriptions function as legal documents that can be used in settling disputes such as termination suites filed by an employee.

This means that the job description forms the foundation of employment contracts (Brannick and Lerne, 2002, p. 77). Applicants are more likely to express their interest in a company that clearly specifies the terms and conditions of employment.

Evaluation of existing job descriptions enables managers to identify their human resources requirements (Brannick and Lerne, 2002, p. 79). For example, the human resource department will be able to identify the extra skills required as specific jobs change over time. Identifying the needed skills and their relative importance facilitates the process of setting priorities in the recruitment process.

The jobs that are very important for the operation of the company will be given first priority in the recruitment process as compared to the less important ones (Brannick and Lerne, 2002, p. 81). Besides, it helps in allocating resources needed for the recruitment of employees for various positions.

For example, the organization can allocate more resources in filling positions that need specific technical skills such as engineering in order to get the right candidate. In conclusion, a well written job description serves as a guide that directs the managers through the various stages of selection and recruitment of employees.

References

Bacci, S., Francia, A. and Chiselli, S. 2008. Graduate Job Mobility: A Longitudinal Analysis. Statistica, 68(3), 255-279.

Brannick, M. and Lerne, E. 2002. Job Analysis. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Bushardt, S. and Glascoff, D. 2010. Organizational Culture, Formal Reward Structure and Effective strategy Implementation: A conceptual Model. Journal of Organizational Culture, Communications and Conflict, 1(2), pp.11-21.

Catalin, P. and Maria, C. 2009. Analysis and Projection of Job Openings in S.C. Compania De Transport Feroviar S.A. Annals of Faculty of Economics, 4(1), pp. 447-451.

Edwards, R. 2010. Job Analysis of the LMS: Mechanization and Modernization. Accounting, Business and Financial History, 20(1), pp. 91-105.

Frankline, M. 2005. A Guide to Job Analysis. New York: Cengage Learning.

Gibbs, S. 2010. Evaluating HRM effectiveness: the stereotype connection. Employee Relations. 22(1), pp. 58-75.

Huawei, 2011. Huawei UK. Web.

Lewig, K., Xanthopoulou, D. and Bakker, A. 2007. Burnout and connectedness among Australian volunteers: a test of the job demands. Journal of Vocational Behavior. 71(3), pp. 429-445.

Linnenluecke, M. and Griffiths, A. 2010. Corporate Sustainability and Organizational Culture. Journal of World Business, 45(4), pp. 357-366.

Long, D. 2000. Job Analysis: A Management Tool. Journal of Food Distribution Research, 10(2), pp. 100-103.

Nankerris, A. and Stanton, P. 2010. Managing employee performance in small organizations: challenges and opportunities. International Journal of Human Resource Development and Management. 10(2), pp. 136-151.

Prien, E. and Goodstein, L. 2009. Practical Guide to Job Analysis. New York: Cengage Learning.

Robertson, T. 2000. Building bridges: negotiating the gap between work practice and technology design. International Journal of Human-Computer studies. 53(1), pp. 121-146.

Toshihiro, K., Yoshio, H. and Abe, M. 2009. A Comparative Analysis of Job Entry Methods in Japan, US and Europe. Accounting, Business and Financial History, 10(3), pp. 56-67.

Introduction

Globalisation has influenced the contemporary business environment substantially due to the emergence of different market forces coupled with the unparalleled increment in the intensity of competition. Subsequently, firms have been forced to be competitive. Quintanilla and Ferner (2003) affirm that organisations adopt different HRM practices depending on their national settings.

Some of the factors that lead to the variation of HRM practices include governmental policies and regulations, competitive priorities, cultural idiosyncrasy, and the adoption of different managerial practices, for example quality management and Just In Time [JIT] (Ahmad & Schroeder 2003). Edwards and Rees (2011) emphasise that decision-making within organisations has become a complex process.

Despite this aspect, HRM practices influence an organisation’s outcome and survival, which underscores the importance of integrating ‘best practice’ model in HRM. Marinus and Kok (2003) define best practices as the high performance work practices that organisations should adopt as described by various HR systems and methods. The best practices lead to positive, universal, and additive effects on firms’ performance (Stahl & Bjorkman 2006).

In line with its growth objective, GSR Enterprises has identified Germany as one of the most attractive investment destinations in the Euro Zone. Subsequently, the firm is focused on entering the industry by establishing a subsidiary firm at Cologne, Germany.

This paper evaluates the relevant issues in international HRM [IHRM] that GSR Enterprise might experience in the German market. The analysis aims at providing GSR Enterprises with sufficient insight on how to establish operations successfully in the German market by adopting best HR practices and policies in its strategic management process.

The evaluation is based on a number of aspects, which include standardisation versus localisation of HR practices in entering a foreign market, the HRM approaches at GSR enterprises, issues affecting implementation of HRM, factors that might affect the transfer of best practices, and the alternative HRM approaches that GSR should consider whilst entering the German market.

Entry into the international market

Multinational Corporations operate in an intricate environment, as evidenced by the interplay amongst the concepts of standardising best practices, integrating the dominance of the parent company, and differentiation or responding to the local market demands (Zheng 2013). The prevailing labour, social, legal, and political conditions in the domestic and host country influence the HRM philosophy adopted by a multinational company.

The norms, values, and assumptions held by the parent company in the home country are embedded in the national system (Bloom & Reenen 2010). Thus, some companies attempt to export the HRM practices to their subsidiaries via the adoption of ‘best practices’, which enhances the transfer of managerial knowledge in the international market (O’Creevy & Gooderham 2005).

A study conducted by Walsh and Zhu in 2007 shows that most US multinational companies operating in China have adopted an individualised incentive pay system as opposed to the Japanese companies and this aspect reflects the dominance of the approaches adopted in the home country (Gilmore & Williams 2012).

Liu (2004) affirms that the HRM system must be confined within a specific environmental context. Moreover, the characteristics of the host country determine the HRM policies and practices. For example, subsidiaries operating in China face challenges in their efforts to integrate the HRM policies and practices of the parent company in the host country due to capitalistic assumptions.

Therefore, it is imperative for organisational leaders to evaluate the degree of fit between the host and the parent country. The closer the characteristics between the home and the host country, the easier it is to transfer the HRM practices of the parent company to the subsidiary firm (Campbell & Burton 2012).

Vo and Stanton (2011, p.3514) emphasise that the ‘balance between cross-national isomorphism and differentiation is affected by the home and host national business systems’. Understanding the prevailing national systems in the host country will influence the extent to which GSR Enterprises formulates optimal IHRM practices.

Kostova and Roth (2002) argue that the prevailing conditions in the host country influence the behaviours and attitudes of an organisation’s workforce. Despite the dominance of the home country effect within the international context, Gilmore and William (2012) contend that MNCs are forced to align their HRM practices in accordance with the host country’s institutional [legal] and cultural characteristics.

This assertion highlights that HRM practices in the international context tend to adopt a polycentric tendency, which limits the extent to which the MNCs can diffuse their HRM practices in the international context. Multinational companies must link their HRM practices to the existing legal and labour market structures. Some countries such as the United Kingdom are characterised with lightly regulated labour markets, which makes it easy for MNCs to transfer their HRM practices as opposed to other countries (Gilmore & William 2012).

HRM approach at GSR Enterprise

Beh and Loo (2013) cite the existence of a direct correlation between a firm’s performance and the adopted HRM policies and practices. Thus, the significance of adopting a set of optimal HRM practices or high performance work systems [HPWS] cannot be ignored.

Sims (2002, p.158) affirms that incorporating ‘optimal HRM practices, for example employee training and development, recruitment, and selection, performance appraisal, and career planning management is directly correlated with a firm’s performance’. GSR enterprise has integrated best practices into HRM in an effort to attain and sustain competitive advantage within the domestic market [UK].

Achieving high firm performance depends on the extent to which an organisation has developed sustainable competitive advantage, which can be assessed by evaluating the degree of uniqueness, the economic benefits generated, and extent of differentiation from competing firms (Stahl & Bjorkman 2006).

GSR Enterprises has attained an optimal performance in its domestic market due to the adoption of the universalistic HRM model. Beh and Loo (2013, p.157) affirms that the ‘universalistic perspective focuses on the best practices, which implies that firms will be excellent if they identify and adopt best practices in the way they manage people’. The firm is in a position to hire employees from the local labour market who are aligned with the company’s HR policies and strategies (Syed & Jamal 2012).

In its quest to penetrate the German market, GSR Enterprises intends to adopt the ethnocentric approach as its guiding HRM philosophy. This approach involves a situation whereby the subsidiaries established in the foreign market do not have the autonomy to make strategic decisions regarding their strategic HRM policies and practices.

On the contrary, the decisions are made at the headquarters in the home country (Tiwari 2013). However, standardising the HRM practices by adopting the ethnocentric approach in the host country might affect the firm’s performance adversely in the international market. Sengupta and Bhattacharya (2008) argue that the ethnocentric approach might affect the productivity of employees hired from the host country.

Incorporating the ethnocentric staffing approach might increase the rate of employee turnover, hence affecting the firm’s overall performance. Under the ethnocentric approach, expatriate managers are charged with the responsibility of overseeing operations of firms in the international market (Brewster & Mayrhofer 2011).

However, the expatriate managers might not be acquainted adequately with the host country. Geppert and Williams (2006) argue that expatriate managers might experience cultural myopia, which means that they might not understand the prevailing cultural differences between the home and the foreign country.

Rovai (2012) further affirms that the existence of cultural differences requires employees to adopt different approaches. Thus, they might take a substantial amount of time familiarising with the host country’s characteristics, which might lead to poor decisions, hence affecting the firm’s performance. In summary, replicating the HRM practices in the host country might affect the GSR Enterprises’ success in the German market.

Current issues in international HRM

One of major sources of challenges being experienced by MNCs in the strategic HRM practices entails existence of differences in national culture between the home and the host country (Lertxundi & Landeta 2012). Ahmad and Schroeder (2003) affirm that national culture significantly influences the behaviour and attitude of the workforce.

Studies conducted by Hofstede indicate existence of significant national culture differences across countries (Clark & Lengnick-Hall 2012). The UK and Germany are characterised by significant differences with regard to their national culture based on the six cultural dimensions stipulated by Geert Hofstede.

These dimensions relate to the degree of masculinity, pragmatism, indulgence, individualism, power distance, and uncertainty avoidance. However, the UK and Germany are characterised by a close fit with regard to some of the cultural dimensions, which include power distance and masculinity as illustrated below.

Table 1

Graph 1

Source: (The Hofstede Centre 2014)

National culture difference is a critical determinant on the effectiveness with which MNCs transfer HRM policies into the host country (Harzing & Pinnington 2011). Clark and Lengnick-Hall (2012) contend that findings of studies conducted by other scholars such as Hofstede, Tayeb, and Schneider have accentuated the fact that the HR policies and practices adopted by a particular organisation are embedded strongly in the national culture.

However, the degree to which the national culture is entrenched in organisations’ HR practices varies. This assertion stresses the importance of HR managers appreciating the prevailing cultural differences in the process of making strategic HR decisions.

Graph 1 above shows that the UK and Germany are characterised with significant differences with reference to the degree of individualism, indulgence, uncertainty avoidance, and pragmatism. The difference between the countries’ degrees of individualism might force GSR Enterprises to incorporate a culture of information sharing due to the lower individualism index in Germany (67) as compared to the UK (89), which indicates a relatively low level of interdependence in the society.

Moreover, the higher uncertainty avoidance index in Germany [65] as compared to the UK [35] might affect GSR Enterprises success in implementing organisational change. Therefore, by entering the German market, GSR Enterprises will be predisposed to diverse national culture, which requires the firm to adopt optimal strategic IHRM practices (Marchington & Wilkinson 2012).

Under the current ethnocentric approach, the firm might not penetrate the targeted international market successfully because its approach will force it to ignore the prevailing cultural differences. Aswathappa (2010) highlights that ethnocentrism forces firms to use the home culture as a metric in assessing the behaviour of the foreign culture.

Moreover, ethnocentrism makes organisations develop the perception that their home culture is more dominant as compared to the host country’s culture. Such an assessment can lead to prejudice within an organisation’s workforce, hence hindering the incorporation of ‘best practices’ in HRM. Therefore, GSR Enterprises might experience a major obstacle in its quest to promote multiculturalism, which is a fundamental aspect in the firm’s pursuit for long-term excellence.

Vodafone, which is a UK-based firm, successfully entered the German market by merging with Germany’s Mannesmann in 2000. However, the firm encountered significant challenges due to the existing cross-border cultural differences between Germany and the UK.

Mannesmann had adopted a hierarchical decision-making culture and rigid HRM policies in accordance with the German culture. On the contrary, Vodafone had an open communication policy in line with the country’s culture. However, the firm was in a position to enter the market by conducting cultural due diligence during the merger (Livermore 2010).

Subsequently, Vodafone adjusted its HRM policies successfully, hence aligning its HRM practices with the prevailing national culture (Ahlstrom & Bruton 2010). On the contrary, Wal-Mart’s effort to enter the German market by adopting the anti-union stance affected its penetration adversely. The company ignored the fact that unions are highly appreciated in Germany as opposed to the US.

This aspect affected the company’s public relations effort. Livermore (2010) argues that Wal-Mart incurred an estimated loss of $ 1 billion. In order to improve the chances of survival, the firm was forced to adopt the prevailing local conditions in Germany.

Factors that might affect transfer of best practices

Economic systems

Aquinas (2010) posits that economic systems vary from one country to another. Differences in economic systems are transferred to the HR practices adopted by different organisations. For example, companies in the developed companies such as the European countries are required to pay a substantial amount to departing employees as severance pay as opposed to less developed countries.

Furthermore, differences in economic systems also lead to variations with regard to the employers’ rights in the process of discharging employees (Aquinas 2010). Therefore, GSR Enterprises has a duty to ensure that its HRM policies such as employee compensation align with the Germany’s structure.

Legal factors

Different countries have adopted varying legal and industrial relations. For example, the employment policies and practices enacted in the United Kingdom vary from those of Germany. Therefore, it is imperative for companies intending to enter the international market to conduct an extensive evaluation on the prevailing international labour relations.

Despite the existence of international labour relations, it is imperative for organisational leaders to appreciate the prevailing historical differences with regard to labour and industrial relations between the host and the home country (Aquinas 2010). In order to succeed in the German market, GSR Enterprises will be required to adjust its HRM policies and practices to the prevailing legal systems in the country.

Alternative HRM approaches

In a bid to improve the new subsidiaries chances of survival in the German market, it is imperative for GSR Enterprises to incorporate the most effective HRM approaches in order to deal with the external environment and the institutional factors.

Thus, the firm will increase the likelihood of infusing best HRM practices. Some of the approaches that the firm should consider are discussed herein.

Best fit or contingency approach

One of the most effective HR approaches that GSR Enterprises should consider entails the contingency/best fit model. GSR Enterprises should be cognisant of changes emanating from the business environment and their likely impact on its operations.

Thus, the firm should integrate the contingency or best-fit approach, which underscores the importance of aligning the HR practices and strategy to the prevailing environment in which it operates. Porter, Smith, and Fagg (2007, p.9) contend that improved ‘business performance is attained only when HR strategies support the organisation’s choice of competitive strategy’.

According to Ehnert (2009), the best-fit model underscores the importance of establishing strong horizontal and vertical fit in organisation’s operations in order to enhance performance. GSR Enterprises can attain horizontal fit by establishing a link between the various HR activities while vertical fit is attained by aligning HRM with the organisation’s strategic goals.

Ehnert (2009) emphasises that the best-fit approach is characterised by two main elements, which include the internal and external fit. The external fit emphases on the significance of linking the operational strategy and the marketing strategy.

Conversely, internal fit ensures that the human resource practices and policies adopted by an organisation are implemented coherently. This aspect means that the HR practices and policies should not work in the opposite direction in order to maximise outcome. For example, if the organisation has integrated the concept of teamwork, it must avoid rewarding individual performance (Dowling, Festing & Engle 2008).

Polycentric approach

Considering the firm’s commitment in upholding its ‘best practices’ within the newly established subsidiary in Germany, it is imperative for the management team to balance the HR practices adopted in the home and the host country by incorporating the concept of polycentrism, which advocates tolerance to varying cultural beliefs, values, and norms.

Under this approach, GSR enterprises will be in a position to hire employees from the local market to head the subsidiary’s operations. However, GSR Enterprises will be required to conduct a comprehensive training on candidates selected from the host country in order to influence them with adequate knowledge on the company’s culture (Sengupta & Bhattacharya 2008).

Regiocentric approach

This approach entails adopting the international HRM practices to the prevailing region. In this case, GSR Enterprises should integrate the IHRM policies as stipulated by the European Union because the two countries are members of the union. The regiocentric approach will enable GSR enterprises to outsource human capital from the EU labour market, hence increasing the likelihood of developing a global perspective.

Conclusion

The analysis above highlights the existence of cross border differences as one of the major issues that GSR Enterprises should consider in its entry into the German market. Differences in the business environments between the two countries highlight the importance of GSR Enterprises understanding of the target host country prior to its entry in order to adjust its HRM practices optimally.

The HRM practices adopted by GSR Enterprises in the host country will influence its long-term success. Therefore, GSR Enterprises should adopt the most effective HRM approach such as the contingency or best-fit model. This model will enable the organisation to establish a strong link between the firm’s HRM policies and strategies with the internal and the external business environments.

Alternatively, GSR Enterprises should integrate polycentric and regiocentric approaches in its international HRM practices. Polycentric approach will enable the firm to balance between the best practices in the host and the home country while regiocentric approach will ensure that the organisation’s HRM practices align with the requirements of HRM practices as stipulated by the Euro Zone member countries.

Reference List

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Human Resource Management is an intricate part of management that plays a vital role in the efficient running of a company. An amalgamation of self-confidence, rationale, superior administration practices as well as common sense forms the core principles of successful and effective management of people in the place of work. As much as it may come naturally to a number of people, it may pose a serious challenge to others thus the need to attain the necessary sensitivity or expertise required.

In order for the company or institution to be maintained at soaring levels of standards, it requires a good administrator who possesses these main aspects. Conversely, the management of people is one of the most intricate undertakings for majority of administrators in any given institution or company.

Some characteristics of (HRM) Human Resource Management will be emphasized on in this report. There are few alternative approaches to tackle the undertakings of Human Resource Management.

Some guidelines may be adhered to that may help them achieve their goals to enable Human Resource Management administrators be apt to their challenging task at hand of managing people.

One of the main aspects that a HRM officer ought to observe is the art of being a good leader. Smith (1989), in his research, observed the following:

Anyone who is acting as a leader is to a greater or lesser degree a ‘manager’ even if they do not officially have the title. Conversely there are people who have the title ‘manager’ who do not provide much leadership. Nonetheless, leadership is still an expectation of the ‘manager’ role, whether it is as ‘first line manager’ or CEO of an international corporation. (p. 93)

The desirable leadership qualities have to be exhibited by all managers who are automatically referred to as such since they have taken on the role of leadership regardless of their official title.

Another aspect that is reckoned to be a significant key is motivation. There are many arrays of reasons that individuals work for which good administrators recognize and appraise. These encompass:

• Creativity: the individual deals with new challenges and thrives upon the task using their mind’s eye and self expression.
• Money as a motivation.
• Social contact i.e. interacting with other individuals from diverse areas.
• Personal development: mostly in terms of gathering self-respect, confidence building and utilizing as well as acquiring new skills.
• Idealism and commitment: this involves the aspiration to support or assist other people and the trust in the institution and in what it is performing or striving to attain as well as the objective to utilize understanding as well as skills for a worthy cause.

Several insignificant demoralizing motivators may also be recognized, this include:

• The trepidation of changing jobs.
• Culpability of the workers, in that there is the feeling that they may be letting down the company.
• Also considered is the incapability of getting another job.
• The belief that the company will not survive without them. This is classified as the feeling of indispensability or egoism.

In order for a Human Resource administrator to prop up employees adequately as well as to be able to deal with attitude or performance trouble, they must initially have a perception of the reason that an individual be it a volunteer or staff member has taken up a specific job in an institution, the way that the individual feels regarding the job as well as the reason the individual is sticking to the job.

The aspect of motivation also applies to the administrator personally, even for volunteer managers whereby, the need to acknowledge their personal motivation points whether monetary (increased), or power related plays a role in abetting the administrator comprehend the employees tribulations. (Bond, 1991, p. 105)

The consideration of other people’s emotions is another key feature that should be observed by Human Resource administrators. Much as people are less concerned about it, emotions play a huge part in the lives of employees.

Human beings emotions have a great influence on their capacity to interrelate with others, toil as well as reason. The way that a worker leaves, whether satisfied or dissatisfied, or may collaborate with the administrator depends on the way the administrator handles particular circumstances that involve emotions and have a decisive impact on the whole situation.

Buckley (2002) observed that “to be a good manager or team leader you have to have an above-average interest in people” (pp. 35-48). It can be stated that a good administrator ought to reflect on people’s emotions as well as exhibit an element of concern with regards to their troubles.

Several people maintain the notion that something must be done with reference to an individual’s emotions and end up evading them initially. This idea is wrong seeing as by the mere fact of remarking as well as paying attention on an administrator’s frame of mind regarding the employee’s emotions and what they are experiencing, may regularly evoke some remarkable outcome minus any action or measures being taken.

By clarification of accountability, every worker or volunteer must know protocol and what it means in practice as there is no particular model. It is usual clear where there is defined organizational structure.

Where there is no clear structure it is a case where by the need to find out who that particular employee or volunteer is answerable to. If there is nobody accountable to the worker or volunteer the need to find out who would talk to her or him.

Ultimately, everybody whether paid or volunteer should be accountable to the board as a whole. Though it is difficult to manage a large group, it’s usually better if each worker is directly accountable to few people.

However, the same questions should be asked in relation to part-time, temporary or casual workers, trainees, consultants and anyone who is part of a formal staff structure who need to be accountable within that structure.

An administrator of Human Resource may make headway in achieving the goals of the department by recognizing responsibility for regions of trouble. The sources of the problems are basically formed from the following:

• Contravening the stipulations and laws governing a company.
• Aspects beyond institutional as well as personal control.
• Cases of deficiency in dedication as well as incentive towards the job.
• Low level institutional administration.
• Personal management of low quality.
• Comprehension, capability as well as skills that may be insufficient and inapt.

For the problems touching on low individual management, comprehension as well as deficiencies in dedication to the job, accountability lies squarely with the employee and the superior to sort out the troubles that may be affecting them, the reason that the problems are occurring, the consequences as well as steps to be implemented to curb the situation from worsening.

In the instances where the laws have been contravened, accountability lies with the superior to elucidate the decree as well as what error has been committed, or to lend an ear to the unpaid assistant or the employees explanations as to what transpired.

According to Michaels (2001), “a joint look at the rationale for the decree as well as the outcomes of contravention may be done by the two and may help them come up with a decision on the way forward” (p. 10).

Troubles that may arise regarding low levels of administrative procedures as well as the other aspects beyond the institution and individual control require resolutions that ought not to be affirmed by employees or volunteers. It will not be just to reprimand people in case nobody is sure about the anticipations as well as the principles or in case nobody is enthusiastic to set right the precedence’s as there is an overload of work.

The challenge of obtaining incongruous unpaid helpers/volunteers acts as another main hurdle to attaining the company Human Resource administrator’s goals. A few unpaid assistants can be short of the understanding or expertise required by the institute.

In various cases this can be prevailed over by offering teaching/training or by assigning the unpaid associate diverse tasks. Nevertheless, some helpers may require more training or support than the organization can validate providing. It is vital to concede this, unlike disregarding it and accepting a helper to grow to be a net drain in the institute.

If an unpaid assistant is inapt for the job, the act of informing them on the same is quite a daunting undertaking that may not be appealing to many people. A clear cut elucidation ought to be offered regarding what the company may afford for volunteers as well as the reason that the institution may not be able to have room for the said volunteer.

As cruel as it may appear, vetoing unpaid assistants is likely an easier affair on them in terms of long term, since if they are kept on and continue committing errors thus getting antipathy from the other employees, their self-belief will be severely destabilized ending with dire consequences on their personality.

According to Dipboyer (1992), “the deficiency in incentive as well as low performance levels may emanate from inapt organizational management” (p. 89). The following may be observed:

• Unpaid assistants as well as employees may perceive the lack of appreciation or feel unsupported in the institution. Employees may perform their duties at low levels and end up feeling estranged from the institution or more specifically the team.
• The institution may not be pristine on its expectations from the volunteers or employees and may be exuding assorted messages and may also be requiring too much from the employees and the volunteers
• In cases where the superior may unable to control either the employee or the volunteer and the procedures that may include appraisals and supervisory meetings either utilized inadequately or not at all, the superior may require support as well as training.
• The institutions precedence’s may be flooded or may be inconsistent calling for better methods of time as well as planning management for the individuals as well as the institution as a whole.
• The ability to put into practice the alterations needed to aid the worker perk up in their duties. Communication lines need to be put in place between the people who wield power that may influence change and the superiors.

If the manager is unable or unwilling to manage, or if the organization is unclear about its priorities, the worker or volunteer is being set up to fail. When this happens the organization fails as well (Pauls, 2004, p. 68).

Furthermore, the following may be regarded as alternative strategies to address the task

• Ownership: individuals are considered as a strategic resource and thus the need to foster as well as build them up with top administrators that may accredit the approach.
• Internal fit: This is an articulate approach to policies of Human Resource and does not wholly depend on a single element e.g. training. It groups HR policies into an incorporated package of procedures and principles.
• External fit: effective Human Resource departments are vastly aware of outside environs and plan their HR needs while incorporating diversifying external aspects and solve issues or alter strategy, which may abound from environmental transformations.
• Staff development: recognizing as well as enhancing talent streams.
• Promoting a purposeful HR performance dimension template that will give surety alongside objectives and incessant well-designed progress.
• Founding effectual Human Resource Management at supervisory levels that may offer value added sustenance to alterations within the organizational structure.

With the help of the suggested alternative strategies, the organization will have the ability to cope with the ever rising challenges that exist in every organization and especially in the Human Resource section. The goals of effective Human Resource Management may be attained through the use of the additional strategies to enhance their ultimate performance as well.

Reference List

Bond, H., M. (1991). Beyond the Chinese face. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press.

Buckley, R., M. (1999). The employment handbook. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

Dipboyer, I. (1992). Selection interviews: Process perspectives. Cincinnati: South Western.

Micheals, E. (2001). The war for talent. Boston: Harvard Business School.

Pauls, M., A. (2004). The cult of personality: How personality tests are leading to mislabel our children, mismanage our companies and misunderstand ourselves. New York, NY: Free Press.

Smith, M. (1989). Advances in selection and assessment. Chichester: Wiley.

In contemporary business environments, companies need to adopt effective human resources management policies; an effective personnel management strategy goes further than ensuring that employees are motivated to perform their duties diligently to involve respecting their human rights and fundamental freedom.

This paper is a response to a case study of an international clothing company that has had issues of disregard of human rights.

The paramount factor for the company as far as human capital is concerned

According to the case, the company saw employees as the line or pathway through which they would earn profits and revenue for the company. The main focus of the management was to have increased revenue and disregarded the way employees gave the results.

With the managing style, the management was kept to ensure that employees were loyal to the company and worked for the benefit of the company. However the challenge that the company had was that the management was not willing to listen to the demand of employees. The management never was willing to negotiate with unions and neither did it to respect human fundamental rights and freedom.

Business risk and Merits to

Do nothing with the situation

When the company decides not to react on the demand of human capital and opt to retain the same method of operation, the company might get negative publication. Negative publication means that the company will lose business as it will be portrayed as an un-ethical company that does not respect the demand of its employees. Customer loyalty will be eroded by negative publicity of an organization; it will give competitors an upper hand.

Cease using contractors

Given a chance to control people directly, I will use an integrated human resources management system. The management system I would enact would ensure that human rights have been respected and employees have been motivated. When such policies are adopted, the company will gain positive publicity which will work for its benefit. The risk that would be there is to change organizational culture that the company already had.

Make changes to contractors

When the structure of contractors’ human resources management is changed to adopt an effective leadership method, the company will be able to adopt policies that will ensure human rights have been respected and staffs are motivated. What should be changed is the approach taken by the contractors and ensures that the policies adopted are quality.

Recommendations for the best approach

For an effective operation, organizations need human and physical resources; properly managed organizations have an appropriate number of personnel’s in number, experience and expertise.

To ensure that the right number of people is available when required, a company’s human resource management should develop effective framework of planning human resources. The following are the main objectives that the human resources management approach should have:

• To ensure optimum utilization of human resources; this will be attained through effective personnel motivation and empowerment programs
• To forecast future requirements for human resources.
• To integrate the human resources plan with the organization plan.
• To establish ideal management development programs and ensure it meets the needs of expansion and diversification programs.
• To assess the surplus and shortage of human resources and anticipate the impact of technology on jobs and human resources.

Introduction

One major aspect of human resource management is to deal with the management of employees within the organization. Proper employees’ management is beneficial to the organization as it results into increased performance.

Drucker observed that investment in good human resource management practices as well as programs have an increased advantage to the organization in terms of improved productivity in addition to superior financial performance (74). Therefore, organizations especially those that are based on developing countries should focus on human resource management practices that are aimed at improving the organization performance.

Researches indicate that the success of organizations within the current highly competitive environment hugely depends on the type of their employees and innovative human resources management programs and practices (Greer 156). Recruitment, training and development of employees are some of the aspects of human resource management that are critical for the organization success.

Therefore, this paper critically examines some of the recruitment, training and development challenges that need to be addressed by human resource management within an organization.

First the paper will focus on the description of the recruitment, training and development challenges within the Fly Emirates carbine crew staff and then critically analyzing the root causes of the problems. The solution to the problems will then be proposed and how these solutions will be implemented. Finally the paper will look at the obstacles to the successful implementation of the solutions.

The challenging aspect of HRM

As indicated, recruitment training and development of employees is one such aspect of human resource management that should not be taken lightly. Thus, this paper will primarily deal with the recruitment and training problems that human resources within the Fly Emirates should deal with particularly on their carbine crew.

In the recent past, the Fly Emirates airline has seen a tremendous growth creating opportunities for over one thousand employees. In particular, the Fly Emirates airline has employed 440 carbine crew employees who are recruited from various countries around the world. However, the clients have been complaining of poor service delivery especially during flights. This problem has been exacerbated by poor recruitment procedures and lack of proper training services offered to the new Fly Emirates recruits.

A description of the problem and its effects

I work as a carbine crew within the Fly Emirates airline short haul services between Oman and Kuwait. Our major role as crew members is to ensure that we provide the best customer services to the clients while at the same time ensuring that they are safe and comfortable throughout the flight. Crew members are supposed to deal with any emerging emergency and security situation during the flight and at the same time administering first aid to the passengers and any other non-crew members on board.

As part of our job, we have to ensure that all the equipment needed for emergency purposes are in proper working condition prior to the flight. We also have to ensure that the supplies can sufficiently serve the clients.

Moreover, Fly Emirates carbine crew offers assistance to the passengers who cannot easily board the plane in addition to demonstrating safety procedures and use of equipments to all the passengers. Generally, the Fly Emirates carbine crew ensures that the flight is safe and pleasant to all the passengers and the non-crew members on board.

The above description highlights all the challenging roles of the carbine crew. In fact without proper training on these roles, none can achieve them. Basically, the Fly Emirates carbine crew members should be trained on how to deal with emergency and security situations during the flight. Yet, these are not the only responsibilities required of the Fly Emirates carbine crew members.

There are other roles that are considered minor but essential for the success of service delivery. These include serving meals and refreshments to the passengers, completing the paper work after the flight, checking passenger seat belts during takeoff and landing. These duties not only require appropriate skills gained during training but also through experience.

It is true that without proper recruitment of trained and experienced carbine crew members and continuous training and development of these workers, the Fly Emirates carbine crew staff will endlessly contribute negatively to the client and organizational service delivery. This is what has primarily affected the first growing airline dubbed as the Fly Emirates.

With lack of highly trained and experienced carbine crew employees around the world, most airlines have been recruiting insufficiently trained carbine crew members as management trainees.

However, the personnel department does not take the necessary steps to train these new recruits as they assume that they will acquire the needed skills during the assigned tasks or job.

The main issue here is that the main job requires highly skilled personnel to deliver the necessary services. In fact, the Fly Emirates carbine crew needs not only to be trained on emergency and security issues, but also on flight management basics that can only be got through on job training. Therefore, human resource managers should reconsider their recruitment procedures and training programs so as to equip the crew members with appropriate skills to deal with the challenges (Drucker 75).

Critical analyses of the root causes of the problem

As mentioned before, proper recruitment procedures that identify the highly skilled staff as well as staff training programs are essential for the success of the organization. In fact, equipping employees with appropriate skills is necessary in enhancing their performance (Jones 51).

The major cause for the lack of the necessary skills needed for the service delivery is the deficiency of skilled and experienced workers within the job market. Fresh graduates are few and they need an extra training so as to become effective and efficient. Lack of proper training programs for such new recruits within the organization; result in having poorly skilled employees who are ineffective and inefficient (Siddique 222).

The other cause is the UAE employment policy that focuses on employing the country nationals. In fact the nationalization policy requires that major organizations employ to the largest percentage the country nationals (Siddique 230). However, many locals have not taken the necessary training in the carbine crew that would equip them with the needed skills. Even those who have the training still need further training. The problem is that the organization has not appreciated the need of adequate skills in this area hence have not developed better training programs such as that seen in pilots on job upgrading program.

Other problems that the human resource managers have to deal with are the cross-cultural differences. In fact short haul services operate within the Middle Eastern countries that have almost similar cultural environment. Most of the carbine crews are normally sourced from other countries other than the Middle East countries. Therefore, these workers need to be retrained on the required skills based on the cultural environment in which they will operate (Jones 55).

In as much as the original training incorporated the international standards, what constitute the international standards regarding the appropriate behavior and the implications for business success has been taken from various sources primarily from developed countries (Jones 55).

The proposed realistic and suitable solutions to the problem

The Fly Emirates face numerous staff training and development problems which in turn greatly affects the level of service delivery to the clients. However, to remain competitive in the airline industry, there are quite a number of realistic solutions that can be offered for implementation so as to address the cause of such ensuing problems. The solutions can be categorized under leadership and management (Guest 263).

Leadership solutions

Strategy development: The Fly Emirates leadership must have the requisite skills and knowledge to adequately develop a business and visionary model which fits all the demands that are being made and circumstances which accrue in the Fly Emirates Company. The business strategy must take account of the training and development needs of the carbine staff members.

Staff motivation and development strategy: Basically, in every competitive business environment, an organizational must always lay down strategies on how to develop and motivate its staffs. In fact, given the nature of services that the Fly Emirates carbine crew undertakes, it is worth that the company management appropriately rewards the staffs. The rewards can take many forms ranging from promotions to increments in the remuneration packages.

However, to adequately perform their tasks, training must be provided to all carbine crew members on an equal basis to avoid promotional and reward biasness (Truss 1122). Issue pertaining to level of education and experience must also be taken into account when offering promotion and reward schemes.

Persuading and influencing: Prior to assigning specific tasks to the carbine crew members, the responsible leadership must have the necessary skills and knowledge of explaining the strategic Fly Emirates business issues to pertinent groups and individuals who are based either outside or inside the Fly Emirates airline.

It is essential that for tasks to be satisfactorily accomplished to meet the airline goals as well as the clients’ demands, the leaders must win the staff support. Any training and development needs that are implemented without the acknowledgement and support of the staff are bound to fail or being refuted (Guest 264).

Management solutions

Planning and budgeting: The training, service delivery and staff development problems that the Fly Emirates currently faces emanate perhaps because of poor planning and budgeting strategies.

The management of Fly Emirates should take into consideration the available and identifiable resources including finance, staffs, equipment and aircraft which must be appropriately planned for and effectively managed. To realize this, it is deemed necessary that this airline company implement strategies that ensure all service deliveries; training and development elements or resources are combined in a succession of annual plans with accountabilities and specific targets (Truss 1122).

Development of standard operating procedures: Assigning tasks to any carbine crew staff without proper training and development in that particular field or area of assignment is unhealthy. In fact, such an assignment might make a worker to be very unproductive and fail to deliver as per the clients’ demands or airline expectations. This implies that, the Fly Emirates management needs to develop standardized procedures take corrective actions, monitor performance and set targets for major operations.

By whom, when and how the solution should be implemented

The leadership and management solutions to the problems that Fly Emirates currently faces must be implemented by the entire Fly Emirates leadership and management staffs but with the support of other members and workers. Devoid of incorporating junior employees, the intended solutions might fail to realize their intended goals and objectives.

The implementation of these solutions needs to take place prior to the assignment of carbine crew members to undertake specific tasks. In fact, the solutions should be in place when planning for the business operations and before the prevailing problems worsen. However, since the solutions assume the channel of change or problem management strategy, their implementations should be gradual. There must phase by phase implementation to warrant the success of the solutions (Guest 264).

Probable obstacles to successful solution implementation

Like all challenges, the internal resistance to change is one of the major obstacles. It is not easy for not only human resources department but also the whole organization to easily change their policies.

However the problem can easily be handled using the experiences workers are facing on the job and also using the passenger feedback. The head of the carbine crew department must begin by drawing the proposal to the human resources. However, the proposal could easily be rejected based on other factors such as the organization goals and objectives.

The other potential obstacle is the financial aspect to the proposed solution (Guest 271). The organization Approval to finance the proposed solution would be a major step towards having the highly skilled work force in the carbine. Having highly skilled personnel would be a sure way of providing excellent services to the customers. The other issue could be lack of corporation with other stakeholders such as the training department.

Works Cited

Drucker, Peter. “They’re Not Employees, They’re People.” Harvard Business Review, 80.1 (2002): 70–77. Print.

Greer, Chales. Strategic Human Resource Management: A General Managerial Approach, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2001. Print.

Guest, David. “Human Resource Management and Performance: A Review and Research Agenda”. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 8.3(1997): 263-276. Print.

Jones, Stephanie. “Training and Cultural Context in the Arab Emirates: Fighting a Losing Battle.” Employee Relations 30.1 (2008): 48-62. Print.

Siddique, Malim. “Job Analysis: A Strategic Human Resource Management Practice.” The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 15.1 (2004): 219–244. Print.

Truss, Charles. “Complexities and Controversies in Linking HRM with Organizational Outcomes”. Journal of Management Studies, 38.8 (2001): 1121-1149. Print.

There are many successful firms and companies in United Kingdom but Atkins stands out as it is the leading engineering as well as design consultancy firm in the region. The company is number eleven in the whole world in the same category. It has got the ability to respond to the most technical and challenging problems. The company’s profile explains that it is aimed at planning, designing as well as enabling solutions (Atkins, 2010).

In the view of the fact that there is a lot of information concerning Atkins Company, this essay shall focus on human resource management practices. More specifically, the essay shall explore the strengths and the weaknesses of some human resource management practices such as training and development as well as recruitment. In addition, the paper shall also discuss some viable solutions to the same problems.

As any other successful company, Atkins aims at training and developing its employees to be in a position to retain them and to reap the best out of them. Most importantly, training and development helps Atkins to achieve its goal of being the employer of choice. The company spends around 16.7 million in training and development every year, conducted in work and outside the work setup (WS Atkins plc, 2010).

The company has established a Graduate Development Framework that helps in providing training as well as experience that is necessary for career development. It offers further training not only to persons willing to upgrade their skills to meet the current standards and requirement in installation and design, but also some specialist courses as well.

Tailored training is very effective in the development of the employees because it does not only help in helping a person utilize abilities as well as talents but also in enabling someone to choose an appropriate career route. More specifically, tailored training offered at Atkins helps a person specialize in different areas such as project management or other technical areas.

Therefore, although individuals have got a right to choose the route their career takes; Atkins provides necessary professional support to help them make the right decisions. Apart from graduate development programs, Atkins also offers safety training services. The company has established occupation health and safety as well as health and safety training programmes.

It is very important to offer training and development to the employees but the manner of offering the service is equally important. For instance, it is very beneficial to offer training in work and outside the work environment because both setups have got advantages and disadvantages. Atkins reaps the benefits of offering training and development in both set ups, which is an important strength.

Most importantly, the training and development is dynamic as it not only targets development of careers but also other areas that are necessary in a working environment like health and safety. Although such venture is a strength, study indicates that Atkins concentrates so much on training.

Consequently, the money spent in financing might not end up increasing the returns of the company although the same may be helpful in the life of employees outside the work environment.

Apart from that, it is explicit that Atkins lays more emphasis on formal training and abandons the most important aspect of the informal training. Although formal training is important, informal training is important as well and ought to be incorporated in the training programs.

Recruitment is one of the most important human resource management in an organization or industry. This is due to the fact that it is through the practice that a company acquires the right personnel necessary for performing various tasks aimed at meeting the goals of the organization.

Atkins proves to be very successful in its recruitment practices in the view of the fact that in the year 2010, the company was classified in the category of the best recruitment teams. Moreover, in the same month of April, it was identified as the most popular construction and Civil Engineering Company that recruits graduates. Therefore, having emerged as a winner illustrates that the company is an expert in recruitment.

The application process in the Atkins Company reveals great expertise in this area. All vacancies in the company are listed in relation to specific disciplines and a candidate chooses a vacancy and then identifies specific business areas of interest. Application is done through filling an online application which does not give some one a chance to submit two application forms.

After submitting the application form, the applicants are then required to complete psychometric tests to be in a position to move to the next level where applicants are supposed to go through a telephone interview. The last phase of the recruitment process takes part at a graduate assessment centre (Atkins, 2010).

Going through the whole recruitment process indicates that the process is carried out in a highly professional and expertise manner. The whole process does not only ensure that the company recruits the best candidate but it is also helps in the selection process because the less qualified candidates are eliminated in earlier stages of the interview.

In addition, offering graduate job opportunities as well as undergraduate job opportunities is also very beneficial not only to the successful candidate but also to the company. This is due to the fact that the company is able to benefit from the unexploited talents of the young people. Most importantly, the fact that the company offers jobs to the jobless helps improve its reputation, which is an important factor in attracting clients.

However, the recruitment strategy also reveals some weaknesses that are detrimental to the company. For instance, the recruitment procedure is too technical such that eligible candidates may be eliminated due to technical problems (Schuler, & Macmillan, 1984). In addition, due to technical reasons, the cost of recruitment increases and therefore, the method may end up not being cost effective.

It is also important to mention that although online tests are important sometimes one type of test may not be suitable for do different persons since people are characterized by different personalities. For that reason, it may not be possible to have a different online test for every applicant who reduces the efficiency of the test (Employee Evaluation and Performance Appraisals , 2010).

It is important to identify major causes of the human resource management problems in order to come up with viable solutions (HRM Advice 2008). Although it is essay to conclude that adequate research has not been conducted on the area of human resource management, available research indicates that there are other causes of the human resource and management problems.

Most of the human resource managers fail to utilize even the available research and more so disagree with some of the research findings. For example, studies of Rynes, Colbert, & Brown (2002) illustrate that many human resource managers do not believe on the results of the online tests. As a result, they may fail to make proper use of the strategy which is by itself a human resource weakness.

It is important to understand that there are both advantages and disadvantages of incorporating the very current technological development in a company set up. No one can negate the fact that they lead to efficiency and effectiveness which is an important benefit in each and every organization.

However, excessive use of technology may end up causing some human resource and management weaknesses like it is the case in Atkins Company. The recruitment process of the Atkins Company is highly technical since it is only the last step that does not make excessive use of technology.

Nevertheless, technology is not bad although improper use of the same due to failure of evaluating the implication of certain policies may lead to such problems (Oxford Policy Management, 2010) and (Bratton & Gold, 2001).

The nature of the construction company is the chief cause of the most of the human resources weaknesses in Atkins Company. For instance, the study has indicated that the company spends a lot of finances in formal training programmes.

The problem emanates from the fact that a construction and engineering company requires a wide range of manual skills and therefore, if the company has to perform, it has to invest in training personnel.

The same problem of the nature of the company also causes human resource managers to involve in some practices that are not cost effective like the highly technical recruitment process. According to Loosemore, Dainty, & Lingard (2003) pressure of cost is one of the significant challenges in a construction company.

Employees are the most important factor in a company as it is through them that the main goals are achieved. Therefore, it is important to look for solutions that can solve problems touching on them. For example, the study has indicated that the company spends so much on training of which it is very necessary. Nevertheless, the cost can be minimized if the company aims at attracting highly qualified professionals.

Studies of Ferris, Berkson, & Harris, (2002) indicate that due to the current high competition in the market, it is important for a company to build a good reputation to be in a position to attract highly qualified individuals. By so doing, the cost of training is also minimized.

Some of the changes that are taking place globally are difficult to control and therefore, the company ought to be prepared to deal with such changes. For instance, due to globalization, the company needs to attract employees from other companies, which is equally expensive. Therefore, to remain competitive, the company should aim at continuous promotion of the organization.

It is important for company to understand the needs of the employees to look for better ways of meeting the needs. As highlighted earlier, it is important to adapt to the changes that are taking place currently in all sectors that helps the company remain competitive and also to cut down the operating costs.

A study conducted by WS Atkins plc, (2010) illustrated that after modernizing the human resource department, services were not only improved but also the operating expenses were reduced by twenty five percent.

Every company or industry is characterized by certain unique or different challenges that hinder proper functioning of the same. Atkins Company is no exception since it faces major challenges faced by other construction companies attributed by the fact that the industry requires manual labour that is highly skilled.

Human resource management in the construction company is quite challenging due to the fact that it involves personnel from different career backgrounds as well as cultural backgrounds. In addition, there are pressures due to limited finances and time.

However, even in such circumstances, there are some significant human resource practices that can be adopted to help not only meet the challenges, but also increase the competitiveness of the company. Since human resource management department is the key player in any company, effective human resource practice should be adopted (Post-print of Cameron & Miller, 2008).

The study has indicate that although Atkins has been successful in some areas like recruitment, there are still some improvements that are required to enable the company meet the challenges of a construction company and to continue performing well.

Reference List

Atkins. 2010. About Atkins. Web.

Atkins. 2010. Atkins recruitment team takes top prize. Web.

Bratton, J., & Gold, J. 2001. Human resource management: theory and practice. London: Routledge.

Employee Evaluation and Performance Appraisals. 2010. Web.

Ferris, G. R., Berkson, H. M., & Harris, M. M. 2002. The recruitment interview process: Persuasion and organization reputation promotion in competitive labour markets. Human Resource Management Review, 12 (3), 359-375.

HRM Advice. 2008. External Recruitment Process Key Issues. Web.

Loosemore, M., Dainty, A., & Lingard, H. 2003. Human Resource Management in Construction Projects: Strategic and Operational Approaches. London: Routledge.

Oxford Policy Management. 2010. Human Resource Management and Development. Web.

Post-print of Cameron, L & Miller, P. 2008. Improving HRM practice in SMEs: how to apply relationship marketing concepts. Australasian Journal of Business and Social Inquiry, 6 (3), 1-22.

Rynes, S. L., Colbert, A. E., & Brown, K. G. 2002. HR Professionals’ beliefs about effective human resource practices: correspondence between research and practice. Human Resource Management, 41 (2), 149–174.

Schuler, R. S., & Macmillan, I. C. 1984. Gaining Competitive Advantage through Human Resource Management Practices. Human Resource Management, 23 (3), 241-255.

WS Atkins plc. 2010. Human Resources Review. Web.

Introduction

Until recently, most governments have resolved to undertake the task of shaping the HRM functions in both the private and public sectors using a comprehensive legal framework. Basing the arguments on the published information and most of the interviews carried out in both developed and the developing countries, this paper shall succinctly explore on the implications of the emerging legal framework for the HRM in public and private sectors.

The paper will also explore on the challenges that a government may face in trying to change the HRM practices through its laws and regulations. Furthermore, it will also highlight on the difficulties that the policy makers and managers encounters in either introducing HRM into a certain sector or even practicing it within the country.

In essence, the paper is aimed at drawing concrete analysis by comparing and contrasting the challenges faced by HRM in Middle East Africa as opposed to UAE. This discussion compares Saudi Arabia with UAE.

An Overview of HRM practices in Saudi Arabia

Until recently, the government of Saudi Arabia implemented a lax approach to the overall management of people in the private sector (Budhwar and Mellahi 99). The approach was in practice up to the late 1990s, when the regulations that governed the Human Resource Management in the private sector were founded on a labor law.

As it can be recalled, the labor laws that were implemented were in use in the early 1969 (labor law-royal Decree no. M21 45 – 48). The labor laws adopted, their scope and regulations were so limited to the contractual issues and they did not at all interfere with the way of managing people within the private sectors.

As a repercussion of such limitation, the employers in the private sectors had inadequate legal obligations towards their major expatriate employees. Atiyyah (268) asserts that in the absence of Human Resource Management practices, unscrupulous private employees have undertaken this advantage and therefore, they treat foreign workers in unfair manner, and especially those that are unskilled.

International media and non-governmental organizational have for quite a long time claimed that the Saudi government has not been able to provide enough protection for the foreign employees, especially in the private sector. According to the recent report outsourced by BBC, the rights of the foreign employees are not only being abused by the employers, but also by the country’s legal system.

Moreover, the allegations that are accustomed on foreign employees in the private sector cannot be ignored. Budhwar (14) reported that managers in the Saudi Arabian private sector are very dictatorial and carried out their tasks under the hire and fire criteria. This means that they tend to employ a large number of employees whom they can manipulate as they wish.

For more than a decade, the government has been impelled to introduce a system that tends to utilize the legal framework in managing employees within the private sectors. In achieving this objective, the government is impelled to raise the rate of unemployment opportunities and also the rate of external pressures towards certain private sectors that are not ready to assume the laid down strategy of incorporating HRM into their strategies.

For instance, in meeting this requirement, the laws required the private sector not to employ any Saudis within their system. Additionally, Saudi Arabia has been put under external pressure by international bodies such as the International Labor Organization (ILO) and World Trade Organization (WTO) in amending its labor laws with regard to the issues of the welfare of the workers, labor rights, and the work standards within the private sector.

After Saudi government was put under much pressure, it resolved into implementing new legal framework, which was meant to replace the foreign workers with competent skills and create more jobs for the Saudis in the private sector. The new laws were also to be utilized in regulating the management of both the local and foreign workers.

Furthermore, the laws would also be used in improving the social welfare of the Saudi and expatriate working in the private sector (Debrah 135). In making sure that the private sectors do not overlook the welfare of workers, the government had to intervene in the new labor laws to suppress the extent at which the workers are exploited.

In essence, the government involvement in monitoring the labor laws is to ensure that workers are endowed with the required basic rights, such as the right to annual leave, health and safety measures, maximum working hours, maternity leave, and favorable working environment, especially for the female workers.

It has therefore been noted with great concern that the appropriateness and effectiveness of government interference in the HRM has generated a far-reaching research, in that, there is an affirmative action taken by the government on the employment status of minorities in the larger society (Budhwar and Mellahi 63).

An overview of HRM practices in UAE

The management of Human Resource Management and its related issues in UAE takes into account the initiatives designed to promote employees development, putting into consideration all the contextual factors known to have influenced the managerial practice in this domain. Until the recent times, the HRM practices were primarily based on the English Nations.

However, with a rampant increase in globalization of the emerging markets and the increase in the interdependence of the global economy, there has been a steady increase in the HRM research activities in other parts of the world, and most particular in UAE (Abdullah and Shaw 82).

In line with the HRM strategies practiced mostly in developing countries, it is worthwhile to note the significant changes that have evolved from the use of HRM. Also in line with this perspective, it can be noted that the research that has been carried out in UAE has also triggered a need to introduce HRM in other developed countries.

Though there is an intense effort in introducing HRM in the developed countries, in most of the developed countries there is inadequate evidence regarding the nature and pattern of HRM systems. This is much evident and valid for the countries within the Middle East Region. Recently, some attempts have been made to fill this gap (Gilmore and Williams 50).

The studies carried out indicate that in the Arabs society and in particular, UAE, government ideologies and political situations strongly influence the organizational culture. In a nut shell, despite the UAE being an important region within the Middle East for both domestic and international trade, it also experiences lack of HRM practices, and there is a need to allocate resources that will contribute to a better theory and HRM practice development.

HRM-related Challenges in both Saudi Arabia and UAE

In the UAE and Saudi Arabia, HRM is a vital aspect, but a less developed field of expertise. UAE, in particular, has resolved to adopt the western way or culture in modernizing, privatizing, and expanding its business activities – industrial and financial. For instance, as in the employment perception, employment of female employees has taken a different approach as it has been discovered to be increasing drastically.

UAE has also taken a different course when it comes to the political field. Initially, Chaudhry (23) reckons that politics took a great initiative in influencing the manner and pattern at which HRM was being practiced in the country. UAE, being characterized by a stable and strong confederation means that it is able to protect its local entities.

However, the level at which human resource management is practiced is limited by the laws and regulations that are used in both countries. That is to say, the two countries are both strongholds of Islamic religion, meaning that they are headed by Sharia. This means that the sharia is the dominant source of most of the norms within these societies.

Since most of these countries within the Middle East Region work under a common goal, the Human Resource Management practiced within these two regions is based on similar approaches to the recruitment, hiring, training, evaluation, performance appraisal, and dismissal of employees (Clayton and Tangri 180).

Introduction of HRM in both countries also resulted in a major effort to advance the quality and accessibility of education to both the males and females. This therefore led to the female being allocated equal job opportunities in the work places as opposed to the past legal system in which men were favored in terms of job vacancies (Dobbon et al. 44).

UAE has apparently become a relative and a preferred business environment within the Middle East. Abdullah and Shaw (90) affirm that this is endorsed by the fact that the region operates under low custom tariffs besides lacking a personal income tax. Moreover, the region is exceptionally secure and technologically advanced in its business environment.

Initially, the region used to be an era of oil production and export in Abu Dhabi. From the beginning even before 1957, the economic status of Emirates has been independent and this was because the region had a self-ruling system and abundant natural and human resources. During the recent times, Unilever, one of the chief international firms with its strong presence in both Saudi Arabia and the Middle East, generated some job opportunities for Saudi women.

This composed of general education from the kindergarten to high school education. Moreover, it also included training teachers for colleges. In Saudi Arabia, the development planning projects have for a long time, funded the country’s economy. This suggests that a business, when well managed within a country, can grow and become resourceful towards the country as opposed to a situation where the business is carried out outside the country.

It is further anticipated that as the business grows, their will be a need to outsource some of them, which may be of great help during economic hardships. Saudi Arabia in this case is a highly conservative Islamic country in which the sharia, which is based on the Quran, is used to shape the social relations of the inhabitants (Al-Faleh 23).

In this case, Saudi Arabia has high attractive portfolio in terms of human resource management, and this is evident in the production of oil. As Budhwar and Mellahi (63) suggest, the HRM in Saudi Arabia functions as a strategic partner in the business environment and works towards maximizing the human capital.

It does this by being sensitive to the needs, interests, and capabilities of individuals, and matches those needs and interests with the objectives of the firm. Given the high increase in technology and myriads of opportunities available for women interested in the schemes of work, Saudi Arabia women are trained and deployed in such positions, and most of them pursue careers in HRM.

However, as identified by Al-Faleh (28), HRM faces some challenges in UAE and this may affect its operation within this region, and particularly to the developing firms. For instance, the region has the highest male to female population and the work pool is largely the male ratio.

Another impact is that UAE has the highest number of workforce to population ration. This therefore becomes a challenge towards the HRD, in that, it becomes difficult to decide on who to deploy and who to dismiss. UAE also happens to have the largest number of expatriates as a proportion of population.

Benefits that both Countries may adopt from Each Other

Considering that both countries are experiencing similar HRM challenges and that they are both located in the Middle East Region, there is a need for them to integrate HRM policy and practices. Integrating HRM policies and practices would mean that the countries would be in a better position to learn common challenges affecting them and find ways on how to control them.

Conclusion

The Middle East countries are by diverse challenges, including the warfare besides intense competition from other developed countries in terms of goods and services offered. It would therefore be very difficult for a person to develop his or her career in HRM.

Given the explanatory nature of this study, it would be appropriate for both the Saudi government and the UAE to handle HRM policies and practices with a lot of caution. Despite the discrepancies that arise between the two governments, there is need to amend the laws and regulations associated with the HRM practices, and integrate them and come up with a single strategy that will prevent future challenges.

Bibliography

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Abdullah, M.H. and Shaw, J. D. “Personal Factors and Organizational Commitment: Main and Interactive Affects in the United Arab Emirates.” Journal of Managerial Issues 11.1 (1999): 77-93. Print.

Al-Faleh, M. “Cultural Influences on Arab Management Development – A Case Study of Jordan.” Journal of Management Development 6.3(1989): 19-33. Print.

Budhwar, P. “Introduction: HRM in the Asia-Pacific Context.” In Budhwar, P. (ed.) Managing Human Resources in Asia-Pacific. London: Routledge, 2004:1–15. Print.

Budhwar, P. and Debrah, Y. “Rethinking Comparative and Cross-National Human Resource Management Research.” International Journal of Human Resource Management 12 (2005): 497–515. Print.

Budhwar, P.W. and Mellahi, K. Managing Human Resources in the Middle East. Oxford: Routledge, 2006. Print.

Chaudhry, A. K. “Economic Liberalization and the Lineages of the Rentier State.” Comparative Politics 27.1 (1994): 1–25. Print.

Clayton, S. D. and Tangri, S. S. “The Justice of Affirmative Action.” In Blanchard, F.A. and Crosby, F.G. (ed.). Affirmative Action in Perspective. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1989:177–92. Print.

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Gilmore, S. and Williams, S. Human Resource Management. Oxford: Oxford University, Press, 2009. Print.

Introduction

There is an agreement that human capital can be a basis of competitive advantage; that human resource practices are more influential on the human resource part of the firm; and that the complex nature of HR systems of practice can enhance the inimitability of the system. Human resources belong to a firm’s most valuable assets (Hendry & Pettigrew, 1986, p. 3).

In the past few decades, there has been an upsurge on the body of literature focusing on creating sustained competitive advantage for organizations through the development of core competences, tacit knowledge, and dynamic capabilities. Reflecting on these literatures, it can be concluded that the resource-based view has become one of the dominate theories in debate on strategic HRM and on how human resources and related HR practices can have an effect on firm performance (Barney, 2001, p. 42).

Models preceding RBV

Resource-based view led to a change in strategic management thinking from an ‘outside-in’ approach – with an emphasis on external, industry-based competitive issues to an ‘inside-out’ approach, in which internal resources constitute the starting point for understanding organizational success (Wright, Dunford & Snell, 2001, p. 701).

During the 1980s, the main developments in analyzing strategy emphasized on the relationship between strategy and the outside environment. A befitting example on such studies is an analysis done by Michael Porter who analyzed the structure of the industry and competitive positioning (Boxall, 1996, p. 59). However, the link between strategy and the organization’s resources and skills has been neglected in research.

Most research focusing on strategic implications of the inside environment of a company has focused on matters pertaining the implementation of strategy and how to analyze the firm process through which strategies come up. Recently, there has been a revival of attention in the role of the firm’s resources as the basis for firm strategy (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004, p. 203).

The roots of the RBV

The resource-based view roots go back to the mid-twentieth century when the value and quality of human resources in terms of knowledge and experience. In essence, RBV offers a critique of the dominant models of the 1980s, in particular, the model of Michael Porter.

Porter-like approaches make implicit heroic assumptions about the cleverness of the leadership team and their ability to make efficient choices and the relative naiveté of cultural changes within a firm (Hendry & Pettigrew, 1986, p. 5). Porter’s framework of industry analysis and resulting competitive strategies focus on the relevance of the external environment, which also makes part of the early HR strategic models.

The outside-in approaches put a lot of emphasis on the external analysis in terms of opportunities and threats, while the inside-out approach focuses on the internal analysis and the strengths and weaknesses of the organizations. This shift in strategic management has had significant implications in the field of HRM (Barney, 2001, p. 46).

Sustained competitive advantage is determined by resources that are valuable, rare, inimitable, and non-substitutable. These are the qualities of desirable resources.

These resources can be distinguished in financial resources in terms of equity, debt and retained earnings, physical resources like machines and factories, human resources in terms of experience, intelligence and wisdom associated with the firm, and organizational resources such as teamwork, trust, systems, organizational design, management information systems and budgeting techniques (Wright, Dunford & Snell, 2001, p. 706).

There are three reasons as to why firm resources can be imperfectly imitable. The first reason is the ability of the firm to obtain a resource depends on unique historical conditions (path dependency) (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004, p. 205).

Secondly, the link between the resources owned by the company and a firm’s sustained competitive advantage is causally ambiguous (causal ambiguity); and thirdly, the resources generating a firm’s advantage is socially complex (social complexity) (Barney, 2001, p. 47).

Path dependency captures the idea that valuable resources are developed and the fact that their competitive success does not simply come from making choices in the present, but have theory origin and starting point in a chain of events, incidents, and choices in the past. This chain of events and managerial choices over time, in combination with the complexity of social interactions of actors involved, form the basis of the second barrier to imitation according to RBV: social complexity (Wright, Dunford & Snell, 2001, p. 710).

Unique networks of internal and external connections are natural barriers for imitation by rivals. The third type of barrier in RBV is causal ambiguity; it is difficult for people who have not been involved in the decision-making process to assess the specific cause-effect relationships in organizations (Boxall, 1996, p. 64).

Application of RBV to the field of HRM

The resource-based view when applied to the field of HRM posits that it is people who encompass the properties of value because they contribute to firm efficiency or effectiveness; rarity, since they are not widely available, inimitability, as they cannot be easily replicated by competitors; and non-substitutability, given that other resources cannot fulfill the same function. The above qualities are the necessary conditions for organizational success (Barney, 2001, p. 49).

The RBV focuses on competitive advantage from the perspective of inimitable human resources that are less visible or transparent, in contrast with, for example, technological, technological, and physical resources. In addition, the RBV emphasizes the complexity of organizational systems in determining competitive advantage, related to the bundles and systems approach to HRM research.

Furthermore, the RBV is concerned with sustained competitive advantage or profitability at the firm level, whereas other theoretical frameworks focus on behavioral outcomes or internal efficiency issues (Hendry & Pettigrew, 1986, p. 6).

The fundamental explanation to the resource-based view is relatively straightforward. It begins with the presumption that the top management of a firm desires for the company to have a sustained competitive advantage (SCA). A company that attains an SCA is able to earn economic rents or returns that are above average. In turn, emphasis is laid on the means by which organizations attain and sustain advantages (Boxall, 1996, p. 67).

The resource-based view holds that the solution to this is through possession of certain principal resources. These resources, in return, should also have precise features of value, inimitability (Wright, Dunford & Snell, 2001, p. 715). A sustained competitive advantage can be obtained if the company uses these major resources in its product markets.

Therefore, the RBV focuses mainly on strategic choice, holding the company’s management responsible for crucial roles of identification, development, and use of major resources to make the most of returns (Barney, 2001, p. 50).

Key Elements of the RBV

The essential elements of the resource-based view are sustainable competitive advantage and superior performance; key resources; and strategic choices by management. Each of these components is discussed below. Despite its various definitions, strategy entails an attempt by a firm to achieve and sustain competitive advantage in relation to other firms (Hendry & Pettigrew, 1986, p. 7).

Although the notion of competitive advantage remains central to the strategy literature, clear definitions of the concept are rare. Advantage can be viewed as a relative concept. In other words, advantage is deemed meaningful only when compared to another entity or set of entities (Barney, 2001, p. 48).

Advantages are relative to an arena or context, and that what counts for an advantage in one contest may not be so in another, and, indeed, be a disadvantage. A competitive advantage, therefore; is a merit that one company has over its competitor in a particular market, or even an industry (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004, p. 221).

The resource-based view argues that advantages can be sustainable if they are derived from key resources possessing certain characteristics. These features include inimitability, rarity, and non-substitutability. Concisely, a firm’s resources are a source of sustainable competitive if they possess the three characteristics of market value and barriers to duplication (Boxall, 1996, p. 70).

The second element of resource-based view is identifying key resources. The current literature is replete with discussion that attributes the superior performance of firms to strengths such as customer service excellence, design capability, managerial expertise and teamwork. At any given, an organization is likely to have a wide range of resources at its disposal (Hendry & Pettigrew, 1986, p. 8).

From a resource-based perspective, the normative challenge facing firms is to identify and deploy those resources that meet the characteristics earlier in this essay.

Resources can be divided into three principal groups: tangible assets, intangible assets and capabilities. Tangible assets are those assets in a firm, both current and fixed that have long-run capacity. In addition, these assets are transparent and weak at resisting duplication. Intangible assets, on the other hand, are particularly pronounced in industries such as pharmaceuticals, consumer goods industries, and service firms where company reputation is critical. These assets have relatively unlimited capacity (Barney, 2001, p. 47).

Firms possessing intangible assets can leverage their value by using them in house, renting them, or selling them. These assets are relatively resistant to duplication efforts by competitors due to their regulatory of position gaps or differentials. Capabilities are skills that the company. The firm manager has a role of converting resources into valuable products for customers (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004, p. 208).

The initial task facing mangers is to try to identify the resources possessing the potential to generate sustainable competitive advantage. In order to do this, resources must provide potential access to a wide variety of markets; are relevant to the key buying criteria of customers; and they are difficult to imitate (Boxall, 1996, p. 72).

Conclusion

The resource-based view posits that the firm’s management ream assumes responsibility for identifying, developing, protecting and deploying value-generating resources. Given the practical difficulties of these tasks, good-quality top management in itself can possibly exhibit the characteristics of a key resource. The resources and capabilities of an organization are the main factors in formulating strategy (Barney, 2001, p. 51).

They are the basic constants upon which a company can establish its identity and frame its strategy, and they are the chief sources of the firm’s profitability.

The key to a resource-based view to strategy formulation is the comprehension of the links between resources, capabilities, competitive advantage, and profitability- especially, comprehending the mechanisms through which competitive advantage can be sustained over time (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004, p. 215). This calls for the design of strategies that explain to maximum effect each firm’s unique characteristics.

Reference List

Barney, J 2001, ‘Is the resource-based view a useful perspective for strategic management research? Yes’, Academy of Management Review, vol. 26 no.1, pp. 41-56.

Bowen, D, & Ostroff, C 2004, ‘Understanding HRM-Firm Performance Linkages: The role of the ‘Strength’ of the HRM System’, Academy of Management Review, vol. 29 no. 2, pp. 203-221.

Boxall, P 1996, ‘The strategic HRM debate and the resource-based view of the firm’, Human Resource Management Journal, vol. 6 no. 30, pp. 59-75.

Hendry, C, & Pettigrew, A 1986, ‘The practice of strategic human resource management’, Personnel Review, vol. 15 no. 5, pp. 3-8.

Wright, P, Dunford, B, & Snell, S 2001, ‘Human resources and the resource based view of the firm’, Journal of Management, vol. 27 no. 6, pp. 701-721.

Cirque du Soleil is a Canadian based company that deals in the organization and staging of entertainment events. The company hosts its events in different countries in the world.

Due to its international inclination, Cirque du Soleil ought to create an inclusive and accommodating environment for all its employees and stakeholders in order to enhance its reputation.

The main question to ask is how a company can effectively adopt human resource practices in order to be in a position to manage diversity. The main issue in this case is the problem of managing diversity in Cirque du Soleil.

The employees of the company are drawn from different countries, which depict a lot of diversity in terms of the corporate culture (Pawar 2). There was also the problem of accommodating employees with medical conditions, as is the case of discriminating against an HIV positive performer in the company (Pawar 2).

As mentioned in the preceding part, Cirque du Soleil was facing main issues in the structure of its human resource practices to capture the dynamics in the company. The dynamics in the company were necessitated by the expansion of operations of the company into other regions of the world.

The nature of the operations of the company makes it exposed to different work environments with diverse conditions. This requires the change in human resource policies to capture the managerial diversities that feature in these environments.

This called for the development and implementation of strategic management policies. Such policies are often desired as they help a company to respond to human resource issues amicably. From the look into the case, it has come out that the company is facing issues to do with managing diversity in human resource (Pawar 6).

This called for major changes in human resource practices of the company. These changes were to be developed by the human resource department, in liaison with the top management of the company. These are the two main parties in finding a solution to issues of management diversity in Cirque du Soleil.

The first and perhaps the most critical step in solving human resource problems within the organization is the appreciation of the fact that a problem exists in the organization. This is one of the key responsibilities of top organizational managers (Armstrong 112).

Concerning the issue of discriminating an employee on the grounds of his status of health, the Vice President of Human Resources was sorry about the incidence and noted that the company had a set of anti-discrimination policies that needed to be revised (Pawar 2).

The position of the company’s management was that the company needed to come up with better human resource policies and practices that could help it deal with the issue of human resources management that it was facing.

The position of the human resource department was that the company needed to ensure that its human resource operations were flexible in order to capture the human resource needs in each destination where the company staged its performance (Pawar 6).

The principle that underlies this position is that each region in the world is governed by human resource policies and legislations that may differ with the culture of human resource management in the company.

Therefore, the company has to set corporate headquarters in different regions in the world, which could help them set human resource policies to govern their events in those regions.

Concerning the issue of recruitment, Gagnot noted that the company needed to embrace the recruitment of young and inexperienced people in order to encourage creativity (Pawar 6).

The stakeholders of any company are often termed as the main determinants of the success of the company. In this case, the main stakeholders to the issues facing the company are:

• The top management of the company
• The human resource department of the company
• The employees and,
• The spectators, who are also the customers of the company.

The primary stakeholders to the issues that are presented in this case are the employees, the top executive of the company and the human resource department. The company faces a crisis in the the formulation and implementation of human resource policies and practices.

The employees are directly affected by the human resource practices in the company, such as was the discrimination against the employee who was discriminated on health grounds.

Due to the fact that the employees of the company performed in different regions of the world, their remuneration was also affected by the diversity of human resources policies in different regions (Pawar 6).

The top management of the company, with the help of the human resource department, is charged with the key responsibility of ensuring that they devise strategic policies for managing employee issues in the company.

In strategic human resource management, employees are often taken as the key resource in any given company. The management of Cirque observed that the goodness of the company depended on its employees (Pawar 6).

All the human resource policy improvements in Cirque du Soleil were to be developed and enforced by the human resource department. This makes the HR department of the company the central player in the issues that were facing the company.

The HR was responsible for creating a favorable work environment for the employees (Pawar 8). On the other hand, the customers are considered as the second stakeholders in this case.

Most of the developments in the company were geared at enticing more spectators in the event of the company, thereby attracting more earnings (Pawar 5).

The company has to embrace strategic principles amidst the efforts to streamline the human resource practices in Cirque du Solei. This is noted in the manner in which the company’s human resource department embraced changes in the employee management process.

The company has to compromise most of the cultural practices that had been utilized for a relatively long period of time. For instance, the company changed its policy in recruitment by choosing to employ young and inexperienced artists and training them to perfection (Pawar 7).

As part of initiatives to attend to the needs of its employees, the company was forced to pursue an open human resource policy that encouraged feedback from the employees.

This is attributed to the fact that employee feedback is critical in determining the positives and negatives of any new HR policy that is introduced in the organization (Pawar 11). Failure to listen to the employees often results in a smoldering crisis in the company.

As observed in the case, Cirque du Soleil, juts as many other companies, was affected by problems of managing employees due to diversity in the company. Whenever a company is faced with an issue of management, the management ought to appreciate the existence of such a problem.

This gives room for policy change, thus the devise of solutions to the challenge (Dessler 2). This is what happened in Cirque du Soleil; the recognition of the presence of discriminatory policies in the company by the Assistant President in charge of human resource in the company.

This same line of actions is utilized in the company throughout the sustenance of the various stages of human resource management in Cirque du Soleil. This implies a high level of application of strategic HR practices in the company.

Works Cited

Armstrong, Michael. Strategic Human Resource Management: A Guide to Action. London: Kogan Page, 2008. Internet resource.

Dessler, Gray, and Biju Varkkey. Human Resource Management. Delhi: Pearson, 2011. Print.

Pawar, Manasi. Cirque du Soleil’s Human Resource Management Practices. ICMR Center for Management Research: India, 2007. Print.