Managing and training a global workforce - Essay Example

Due to the importance of training companies have to device ways to become more effective at training a global workforce. The managing of employees internationally requires the use of sound management techniques. The business structure of a company affects the way employees are managed. Centralized and decentralized management systems function very differently. In a centralized management system all decisions are made at the top level, while in a decentralized system employees are also involved in the decision making (Blurit).

Getting employees involved is a great way to instill confidence in the workers and to establish good labor relations. There are different factors that affect a company’s abilities to manage a global workforce. Four of those factors are cultural differences, language, currency differences, and regulatory variations (Gordon). The cultural differences among workforces affect a company’s ability to manage its workforce. Japanese culture is very male oriented. It would not be a good strategy for an American company to put an American woman in charge of a Japanese factory.

In the United States women have equal employment opportunity, but there still exist a glass ceiling for women to get into managerial positions. During the next five years there will be more women at the top managerial positions of companies. . Regulatory variations affect the way a company manages a global staff. The normal work week in France is 35 hours, while in the United States the normal work week is 40 hours (Itodt). The training of employees in global settings is extremely important. Due to the distance barriers companies that have headquarters in the United States or Europe have to adapt their strategies to train its staff located across the 200 countries in the world.

A technique that can help multinational corporations implement training sessions faster and in a more efficient manner is the use of online training tools. An online training can be created customized to the needs of the global staff. Language barriers can be eliminated by creating the training in the native language of the population. One of the advantages of online training is the flexibility of implementation. Companies can choose to give the online lessons during working hours or to allow the employees to take the training sessions on their own time.

Employees can assess the company’s intranet online to take the training. In order to be fair and to motivate employees to take the training session seriously companies can pay financial incentives upon successful completion of an online training taken at home. Due to issues associated with cultural factors another option companies can utilize to train its global workforce is to hire domestic consulting companies from the foreign location. For example a US company would hire a HR consulting specialist in China to train the employees from its Chinese operation.

The use of this strategy can achieve better results because these firms have special insight into the cultural factors that motivate the employees from