Multinational Organizations Must Retain and Develop a Workforce with a Global Mindset - Coursework Example

Running header: Global mindset Student’s name: Instructor’s name Subject code: Date of submission: Multinational organizations must retain and develop a workforce with a global mindset.’ Discuss. Introduction Multinational organizations are those organizations with facilities as well as other assets in at least one country other than their home country. In other words, they have offices and operations in different countries though having a centralized head office from where they coordinate global management. Being a multinational organization therefore imply that they operate in an economic landscape that is rapidly changing hence becoming increasingly global. According to Anil and Vijay (2014), for virtually all multinationals, market opportunities, cutting edge ideas, critical resources as well as competitors lurk not just in their home countries but more so in the distant and hence little understood regions across the globe. As such, for such multinationals to succeed in exploiting emerging opportunities and tackling related challenges with depend on their intelligently observing and interpreting the ever changing world in which they operate. Anil and Vijay (2014) therefore call for the multinationals to create a global mindset in a bid to create the required intelligence. In this regard, creating a global mindset in the organization will not only be a preserve of the top leadership of the organization but also the human resources department must endeavor to ensure that they retain and develop workforce with a global mindset if the organization is to succeed in the contemporary dynamic world. This paper addresses the importance of a global mindset and hence the reason why multinationals must retain and develop a workforce with global mindset. Retaining and developing a workforce with a global mindset would be a key source of long-term competitive advantage in the global marketplace given the ever intensifying global competition. According to Gupta, A$, Govindarajan, (2008), multinational organizations are subjected to simultaneous as well as conflicting pressures for global integration and local responsiveness as globalization intensifies. This means that the multinationals must integrate and coordinate geographically dispersed operations as well as their culturally diverse workforce. This is in addition to responding to local demands while managing inter-organizational relationships with differing stakeholders including strategic partners, suppliers, customers and host governments which necessitate finding a balance between competing country, functional concerns and business. Retaining and developing a workforce with global mindset would therefore help the multinationals in overcoming this challenges hence ensuring their smooth running which would act as their competitive advantage as stated above. This would enable such organizations to always think globally while acting locally and hence being able to seize opportunities that arise in whatever market the workforce operates in while not being left behind on the global front. As put by Levy etal (2007), a workforce with a global mindset would possess openness to and awareness of diversity across cultures and markets with a propensity and ability to synthesize across the diversity. This is even more so for the different levels of leaders and managers for they drive the corporate vision. A multinational with employees who have a global mindset will be able to think globally as a whole and hence be able to take advantage of global opportunities whenever and wherever they arise. As put by Anil and Vijay (2014), in the global environment, multinationals require highly specialized but closely networked groups of global country, regional and worldwide functional workforce. This would mean that the organization will therefore not depend on one person’s ability to think globally but will rely on the network of interconnected global mindset of workforce across countries and levels in taking advantage of all the global opportunities. The implication of this is that organizations workforce possessing global mindset is that they will not only be able to do all things but will be able to understand the complexities and nuances of the global environment including the tradeoffs and opportunities whenever they avail themselves. This is a key aspect of international strategic management especially in balancing competing business, country and functional interests. In other words, it is paramount for multinational organizations to retain and develop workforce with a global mindset if they are to be successful in combining speed with accurate response and hence being able to seize opportunities whenever and wherever they arise. As stated above, a multinational organization that retains and develops workforce with a global mindset will have a number of competitive advantages in comparison to its peers. One such source of a competitive advantage is that of being an early mover since such an organization is able to identify emerging opportunities early on as stated above. As put by Levy etal (2007), such companies are able to act on opportunities and solve problems in spite of cultural challenges. Levy (2007) also argue that early mover companies have workforce that is able to identify and act on emerging opportunities in foreign companies owing to their having close friends and colleagues in foreign markets willing to look beyond cultural differences in solving business problems. For instance, although it may be difficult to deal with passive cultures in an attempt to make them become first movers, developing global communities and hence workforce among the cultures in an effort to share learning and experience is able to bring about the much needed change hence converting such cultures and hence organizations into first movers. Furthermore, developing a global mindset among the workforce will help overcome the arrogance trap that is a big impediment to becoming first movers. In this regard for instance, managers from developed world will be able to shun arrogance with which they approach emerging markets hence fostering corporation with their colleagues in these markets. This way, in an environment where workforce appreciate one another regardless of cultural or status difference, the multinationals are able to take advantage of emerging global opportunities promptly hence becoming first movers. It is important that multinational organizations retain and develop workforce with a global mindset for in so doing, they are able to achieve effective communication across global and local demands. A survey by Bartlet and Ghoshal (1992) indicate that multinationals with workforce that has a global mindset achieve effective communication across different cultures. In this regard, they are better able to balance the tradeoff between adapting locally and standardizing globally. In other words, such organizations are able to achieve solutions that match the logic of the global standard with the operating and regulatory necessities found in the local context. In this regard, the conflict that would often arise between the head office and the branches due to failure in communication is minimized and the organization is able to run smoothly. Such smooth communication flow is also viewed as important as it fosters cooperation and faster policy implementation especially by the branches. This is because such a multinational is better able to understand the tradeoffs between global standardization and local adaptation. Another reason why multinational organizations need to retain and develop a workforce with a global mindset is because this will enable them share best practices both formally and informally since the mindset fosters trust amongst different individuals. Sharing best practices across the multinationals is an important success indicator. This can only happen when the workforce is good at building trust across their different cultures, identifying opportunities that are emerging and sharing practice within the multinational organization. Acquiring a global mindset among the workforce will enable them have the above skills. Without a workforce with a global mindset, the multinationals will find it challenging in disseminating best practices across their organizations. Where the workforce does not have a global mindset, multinationals will have problems with staffing since sharing knowledge and best practices across the multinationals subsidiaries would call for some workforce especially those in senior ranks to be willing to relocate. However, this willingness will be hard to come by where there is no global mindset. In addition, it should be noted that best practices are shared through informal channels as opposed to formal channels in many multinationals. However, this is hard to do where the workforce does not have a global mindset especially because it will be hard to access the needed information. As such, in a bid to encourage smooth sharing of best practices, organizations should train and develop workforce with a global mindset. Multinationals ought to train and develop a workforce with a global mindset since this would help them act on emerging opportunities better. A research by Bartlet and Ghoshal, (1992) indicated that new product rollout successes is matched with the workforce’s ability for identifying emerging opportunities while building trust across cultures. A number of ways for dealing with emerging opportunities exist including rolling out products across various markets quicker. For instance, while it took proctor and Gamble 27 years to avail pampers in 20 countries, it only took two years for Vidal Sassoon to be availed in forty different countries owing to the managers and hence workforce having had a global mindset and hence a better understanding of opportunities in the local markets. Furthermore dealing with local markets could also be done through reverse innovation where innovation takes place in emerging as opposed to the developed markets. For instance, general electric (GE healthcare) used to sell its US designed medical diagnostic equipment to India with just a few local adaptations though only a small Indian market could afford the equipment that costed 20 thousand US dollars. As a result, GE and local workforce in India decided to develop a portable battery operated electrocardiogram machine at a cost of only $ 500. The innovation was so successful that the same is being sold in the US. Had GE failed to retain and develop workforce with a global mindset, this would not have been possible. Multinationals would also need to retain and develop a workforce with a global mindset as this would facilitate building trust across cultural settings. It should be noted that multinationals as the name suggests operate in many countries with differing cultures. Furthermore, given the ever-changing market, coordination across the different countries would be difficult. This is more so where the culture of the subsidiaries greatly differ with that of the home country. As such, multinationals ought to invest a lot into ensuring that their workforce understands different working styles while developing a global mindset. This would enable them understand behaviors while building trust which is necessary in ensuring effective coordination and running of the organization. Where there are great differences that have not been resolved by ensuring the workforce does have a global mindset, there will be lack of trust which might hamper the organizational performance. Thus, if multinationals are to be successful, they have to retain and develop employees with a global mindset. Conclusion It has been established that the global mindset is a vital factor in determining how multinationals perceive global business opportunities as well as the strategies they develop in a bid to harness the opportunities. Thus, the management should endeavor to create and support an environment where a global mindset can exist. One way of ensuring that organization’s adopt a global mindset lies in the human resources department retains and develops a workforce with a global mindset. As has been explained above, a workforce with a global mindset is important for the multinationals in a number of ways. These include enhancing the multinational’s capability of entering into any market in the world where it chooses to compete in. Furthermore, having a workforce with a global mindset would enhance the multinational’s capability of taking advantage of their worldwide resources in whatever competitive situation they find themselves in regardless of where they are. It has also been established that a number of competitive advantages will accrue for multinationals that retain and develop employees with a global mindset. These include becoming an early mover, being in a better position to take advantage of the tradeoffs between local adaptation and global standardization, more rapid and efficient sharing of best practices across its subsidiaries as well as improved coordination between head office and subsidiaries. In a bid to become more competitive and hence be able to survive in the ever-changing global environment, multinational organizations have to retain and develop workforce with a global mindset. References Anil, G& Vijay, G2014, Cultivating a global mindset, Academy of management executive, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 116-126. Bartlet, C&, Ghoshal, S, 1992, what is a global manager? Harvard Business Review, September 1992, pp. 124-132. Gupta, A&, Govindarajan, V2008, The quest for global dominance: Transforming global presence into global competitive advantage, San Francisco, Jossey-Bass. Levy, O, Beechler, S, Taylor, S&, Boyacigiller, N2007, What we talk about when we talk about when we talk about global mindset: Managerial cognition in multinational corporations, Journal of international business, vol. 38, pp, 231-258. Read More