Global Talent Management and Improving Business Performance - Coursework Example

Global Talent Management work Global Talent Management Introduction The article which will be critically evaluatedin this section is Balancing individual and organizational goals in global talent management: A mutual-benefits perspective. In this article, the writers discuss about the increasing activities of multinational corporations and their growing need for global talent management (GTM). GTM is developed by multinational corporations as they believe that in order to survive in the global environment; there must be a key concern towards the development of talent in managers and leaders. Multinational corporations mutually agree to the benefits and need of the GTM but still there are many issues that they face regarding the talent management at organizational level and at individual level which might be contradictory to one another. There may be two types of expatriate assignments that are given to employees who are a part of the multinational corporations. These assignments allow them to develop their talent on a global perspective as they receive assignments abroad and that helps them to develop significant skills to operate globally, to handle the global operations, and to spread the knowledge about globally spread operations in order to help the country networks and improve productivity to understand the business model. These expatriate assignments can be of two types which impact the organizational goals of GTM and individual level goals (Farndale, Pai, Sparrow, Scullion, 2014, p. 205). The expatriate goals can be organization-assigned expatriates which are often the ones which are assigned by the organization to send certain employees abroad who are deserving and talented. These employees have to live away from their families and shift abroad in order to fulfill the goals of their organization. This kind of expatriate assignments may not include the will of the employees always and some might find it extremely difficult to live away of their country and loved ones. Hence, the work gets affected and productivity would decrease. On the other hand, it would be a good option for the fulfillment of the organizational goals and GTM as it allows employees to understand and polish their skill in the international context (Farndale, Pai, Sparrow, Scullion, 2014, p. 206). Because of certain problems associated with this type of expatriation in the GTM, there have been two other strategies that are being used by multinational corporations. The first strategy is to reduce the number of organization-assisted expatriation assignments and promote rather other alternatives such as building strong computer and telecommunication networks to enable short-term, productive, and more frequent international assignments. The second strategy is to promote the use of self-initiated expatriates which include the will of the employees. The self-initiated expatriates include the relocation of those employees who want to go abroad, live there, and work there voluntarily. They are rather more productive and have more chances to develop talents and skills faster than those who are sent on organization-assisted expatriates. The organization-assisted expatriates are a rather more traditional type of international assignments while self-initiated expatriates, the latter having more motivational factors. The self-initiates expatriates have greater chances of personal and professional development as workers are motivated to live abroad, explore cultures, and come out of the traditional existing ways of living. Most of the multinationals today prefer this type of expatriates as they believe they have greater organizational mobility. However, both the types of expatriates will be able to overcome their problems as they know it will be good for their career and will only take them ahead. Thus, both the types of expatriate assignments are a confirm step towards career development with one having more scope for fulfilling self-development goals, while the other has more tendency to fulfill organizational goals (Farndale, Pai, Sparrow, Scullion, 2014, p. 206). There is also a psychological contract theory which focuses on the fulfillment of individual needs in an organization. In GTM it is important to meet the needs of the employees in order to ensure that they are giving their full potentials to the organization. Every individual has different needs and the psychological contract theory focuses on the promise that if the employees do something for the organization, the organization will do something for them in return. This is essential in the development of GTM as it promotes flexibility and self-development making it more creative unlike the traditional expatriation which would have only fulfilled organizational goals. Even though the self-development expatriation is an essential strategy to ensure personal and professional development, it might also turn out to be risky at times. The organization cannot assume that all self-initiated expatriation employees are talented and skilled enough to be sent on these international assignments. Still the GTM has to impose checks and career control mechanisms in order to select those employees who are also capable (Farndale, Pai, Sparrow, Scullion, 2014, p. 205). There are several costs affiliated with these assignments and if the employees fail to perform their duties well, it can result in failure in the international affairs and poor management in a global perspective causing harm to the organization. It becomes difficult to choose which theory and approach to use in GTM to ensure that the organizational and individual goals are both being fulfilled at the same time. The writers of this article suggest that out of the many social theories, the psychological contract theory is thus the best in such conditions. This strategy ensures that the employees are motivated towards the organization and thus they perform their jobs efficiently. These theories create a strong bond between the employees and the employers as both believe their needs are being fulfilled by the other. This is where the role of the global manager comes in as he is responsible for the managing, linking, and communicating of the different business managers from different regions or countries. These managers ensure that the employees are efficiently trained and ready to be moving globally. Conclusion These conclusions are made through a set of pilot studies carried out to collect data as the existing data on such a topic is very limited. Qualitative data has been collected as it the most appropriate one in this aspect. Thus, this research is an initiative towards the fact that individual and organizational goals can both be achieved mutually if correct GTM theories are being adopted and applied. The study consists of various details collected by the GTM policymakers, managers, and expatriates which would help them to address the growing issues with global managers seen. The individual and organizational goals can contradict each other but this article tells us how these issues can be balanced globally using different effective theories. Reference Farndale, E, Pai, A, Sparrow, P, Scullion, H. 2014. Balancing individual and organizational goals in global talent management: A mutual-benefits perspective. USA: Journal of World Business Improving Business Performance Coursework 1 Title: Strategic Maps and their usefulness This report talks about strategy maps that are greatly used since the 1900s in businesses in order to visualize the performance of the balanced scorecards quickly. They use diagrams in order to display the strategies and the priorities of the business strategies. Through this, the strategies are classified and represented by shapes in the balanced scorecard. The diagrams show the strategies and the cause and effect chains. It is a tool for improving the business performance and management as it creates the link between the long-term business strategies and the short-term daily operations. The strategy maps also allow businesses to measure, manage, and reassess their strategic goals. The strategy maps have many advantages and disadvantages which enhance its usefulness as a management tool for improving the business performance. Strategy maps are used in companies to depict how the business links its long-term strategic objectives with the daily routine operational activities. These strategic maps do this by using four different perspectives which are customer, financial, learning and growth, and internal processes. The customer perspective is used so that the companies are encouraged to understand their distinctive features that attract their customers and make them different from their competitors. The financial perspective focuses on the primary activity of improving the cost structure and using the available assets for greater productivity (Norton, 2013, p. 23). The learning and growth perspective is what helps the companies to aim and consider the technologies and skills that are needed and are useful in order to fulfill the strategic goals. The overall strategy framework is used to improve the areas of the business such as service, quality, branding, and partnerships; the internal processes are a perspective which aims for the development of better characteristics of the products and services. The process of making strategic maps is greatly used in order to classify the causes and effects. It helps the business to improve their operations at a day-to-day level which eventually leads to the improvements of business’s daily activities and then followed by achieving the long-term strategic goals. This is why it’s often considered to be a useful tool for improving business performance. In order to make the strategic maps effective and impactful, there are arrows and links used to show the links between the short and long term objectives (Norton, 2013, p. 23). The strategic mapping technique can be greatly used to control and monitor the organizational performance. It is a tool for management which aims to improve the business performance by looking into various aspects such as financial, customer, etc. Through the technique of using maps and figures, the employees are able to look at the day-to-day operations and activities that they are carrying out and how they can be achieved in order to improve the long-term objectives of the organization. Employees are able to understand the strategic maps as they are visually impactful and give them the tendency to analyze how their activities are perceived. Through this, they are able to implement improvements and changes in their business performance by adopting even the slightest improvements that contribute to the major business objectives. These clear demonstrations allow the employees to carry out controls and monitoring over the daily activities taken over by them in the business (Norton, 2013, p. 23). Strategy maps are also able to demonstrate how the intangible assets of the business can be used to improve the stockholder value. The map shows the qualitative data and the outline of the objectives on which the employees tend to operate. This map covers a wide range of perspectives showing how each of these strategies can improve the value of the business simply by improving its performance and productivity (Norton, 2013, p. 23). Strategic maps also provide the managers a deep insight into those problems that are otherwise difficult to identify. It allows them to look into those strategies that are unable to deliver tangible performance improvements and find solutions for those strategic issues. At times, the strategic management tool is also considered to be an ineffective tool of business management. This is because in order to make strategy maps effective, the employees from all parts and levels of the organization must give their buy-in. the management has to ensure that all the employees are aware of the way these strategic maps work and how they are potentially beneficial for the organization performance. Managers have to convince the workforce and carry out a successful strategy to attract the employees. Sometimes employees also start feeling disenfranchised due to the improved corporate performance of the business as a result of their efforts. Since the strategy mapping tends to focus on the long term business objectives, at times they ignore the small single aspects of business performance which are necessary to consider. The ways in which strategic mapping can be used to control and monitor the organizational performance is through aligning the personal performance improvement goals with the organizational goals. This would monitor employees’ personal growth as well as the organizational growth. With chances of personal development, employees will rather be more motivated towards the strategic goals and thus will contribute to the organizational goals as well. When there will be benefits or rewards for the individuals in order to fulfill the goals, they would more likely be motivated towards the strategies and thus a collective benefit will be achieved with the personal and the organizational goals. When a business sets strategic mapping techniques, they must ensure that there are no expectations for the immediate or huge successes in short-term periods. The strategic mapping process tends to benefit the business performance over a period of time as it focuses more on long-term goals. Strategic mapping most likely promotes gradual and incremental improvements at all levels of the organization (Norton, 2013, p. 23). Remuneration should not be set based on individual targets as the goals of personal development should also be values only when they contribute to the overall business improvement. Thus, strategic maps are used by businesses in order to improve their business performance. This tool controls and monitors the business performance at every level and also ensures employees’ personal development. This report concludes that strategic maps have several benefits for the organizations and they tend to be an effective tool for achieving the employees’ participation and contribution in fulfilling long-term strategic goals. Reference Norton, D. 2013. Strategy Maps: Converting Intangible Assets into Tangible Outcomes. USA: Harvard Business Press Read More