PepsiCo Worldwide Flavors Company Human Resources - Case Study Example

HUMAN RESOURCE PepsiCo Worldwide Flavors Company Human resource refers to the administration of an institution’s employees; it is concerned with establishing, enforcing and/or chaperoning policies regulating employee’s performances and behavior of the organization towards its employees. Staff members of human resource are usually viewed as the association assets hence referred to as human capital. Just like other business assets, human resource objective and target is to generate sufficient and adequate use of employees with the aim of minimizing risks and boosting the Return of Investment (ROI).This term paper surveys PepsiCo Worldwide Flavors company and two topics; Labor Relations and Management Skills and their respective theories including issues resulting from these topics in relation to Labor and Employment Relations Association, a human resource management company which general purpose and goal is to advocate and improve labor and employment relations. PepsiCo is one of the world’s most iconic and recognized consumer brands. Currently, its portfolio consists of three products, Pepsi, Diet Pepsi and Pepsi Max among other beverages. PepsiCo human resource department follows the belief that “their people are their greatest assets”. They take pride in acknowledging the contribution each one of them makes. In addition, PepsiCo staff ensures professionalism to develop full potential. They create a collaborative and mutually supportive work and develop performance management to explore the underlying business strategies. Scopes of human resource oversight include amidst many others employee enlistments reservation, interviews, incentives and motivation, task selection, labor law agreements, achievements analysis, training, competent growth and professional development, arbitration and diversity administration(Going, Ute 2009 p.3) . However, due to the fast, dynamic transformation in the business world today, human resource management has been faced by several challenges which continue to grow daily. Tom Marsden, Director of Professional Services at Alexander Mann Solutions says that human resource departments really need to be adding real business value to their organizations. “Although the restrictions of the recession are not over yet, companies are recognizing that in 2010 they will need to take steps to retain their workforce. This could be through an increased emphasis on engagement programmes or by investing in areas that will optimize expenditure, such as integrated technology systems .The signs are that human resource departments are preparing to maximize their resources and staff as organizations need to flourish”. In details, some of the issues faced by HR associations in PepsiCo Worldwide flavors include leadership development. Human resource professionals are faced with being typically expected to deliver the essential structures, processes tools and points of views to make outstanding decisions and to make future leaders of the organization, hence leadership is a sensitive an important factor when it comes to achieving a successful HR organization. It can lead to the growth or the downfall of a company. However, to overcome this, PepsiCo has maintained a code of conduct and human rights work place policy to deal fairly and honestly with the associates regarding wages, benefits and other conditions of employment. Secondly, lack of effective HR measurement tool is a major issue faced by this company. According to the information gathered on Labor Employment Relations Association on PepsiCo company, measurement of results in terms of transaction management is poor .Exploiting metrics to arbitrate effectiveness is the start of a shift from perceiving HR’s role as the principle administrative function to viewing HR staff as a real strategic partner within the organization. Moreover, the issue of work culture and managing change contribute to human resource challenges. As organizations are going global, one problem faced by HR organizations, in this case PepsiCo is how to adapt to the new ways. Competition from other global companies for instance Coca-Cola has generated consumer preferences and stereotypes. Stress and conflict due to long working hours targets pressure and competition thereby adding stress to the organization indirectly. In addition, globalization has contributed to the current problems faced in PepsiCo management, companies going global mean that the workforce is increasing in diversity and managing people with different cultural, religion and social backgrounds is a challenging task to the HR managers especially in the 21st century. In reference to LERA, it has many sub-branches all over the America, Europe and Asian continents making it vulnerable to experiencing cultural issues. Generally, human resource organizations require management skills to deliver effective and potential services to their clients. Having robust skills in multiple areas opens a whole new world of possibilities to success. Some of the managerial skills used in accordance with Labor Employment Relations Associations by the PepsiCo include: Capable Organization: HR management requires a systematic approach. Neatly arranged files, firm time management skills and self-efficiency are the key to successful management in human resource. Having in mind that one deal with people’s career and lives, HR staff should be competitive enough to deliver to their best of abilities. Multitasking skills: This involves the ability to form two or more tasks simultaneously in case of any intermittent leave or employing strategies to fill in for absent employees for operations to run as planned in the association. Effective communication: Communication in HR organizations is a crucial component in achieving success. The team should speak senior management language and observe the ranks and the levels of employees. For instance in Labor and Employment Relations Association, HR professionals have to communicate up to the management, over to the managers, out to potential employees and finally down to all levels of the current staff members. In addition, consultative approach requires establishing continuous dialogue to enhance participative and democratic culture. Diplomacy and Ethics: HR professionals are the confidants of their company which requires them to safely guard confidential and sensitive information. LERA for instance ensures that the commitments of top managements are met and employee’s activities, policies and regulations are followed. Conflict management and problem solving skills: High productivity experienced by LERA, causes demand for people to work together which in turn leads to conflicting ideas that need to be controlled. Associations with effective management and problem solving skills are able to overcome this hence achieving more in future. Dual focus: Employees expect human resource specialists to advocate for their concerns besides prosecuting managerial policies. At times battle arises when human resource professionals are torn between protecting individuals or the organizations’ culture and values. Change Management Skill: In the recent times, most companies have experienced a constant state of flux. A competitive human resource association is the solution to cope with such crises. Effective negotiation skills: In relation to opposing views, a successful HR company should be able to find a common middle ground bearing in mind the goal of negotiation, which is to leave the conflicting parties with satisfied outcomes. To further explain these management skills, the theory of Constraints to leadership has been adopted to provide breakthrough practical applications to advance personal work fulfillment and also to boost the productivity of human resource management. Centralizing on the actual constraints to team potency and abundance, the unique theory of constraints management skills set to utilize and position intellectual and sensible tools of constraints management to assist people to construct, operate and measure and to supervise and control effective work development and growth. Starting by developing Human Resource associations to be proficient in conflict management through ending with a personal and team implementation plan, this theory provides a laboratory that acts as a platform to develop personal and interpersonal skills .It helps in offering improvement in performances and managerial skills that cultivates one into specializing on how to tackle diverse business issues. Applying the theory of Constraints in management skills aids people towards achieving outstanding results as a team member or a leader. The field of labor relations, also known as industrial relations or workplace relations looks at the interconnection and alliance between the organization and workers especially workers represented by union. This system reflects the interaction between the actors, human resource management and the employees. In addition it refers to the connection with various forms of workers participation. In PepsiCo Worldwide flavors, their global citizenship is committed to work towards developing partnerships and programs in undeserved regions that provide opportunities for sustained and improved labor, health, environment and education. Labor relations usually occur in many rankings and the circulation and division of leadership can hugely determine the future roles of the economy. The large variety of labor relations throughout the world means the distinctive studies about the limitations of over- generalization and unreal analogies. Traditionally, four distinct types of workplace governance have been established which include dictatorial, paternalistic, institutional and worker participative. (Greenwald, Laake 2012 p.18) Moreover, industrial relations scholars have described three perspectives to comprehend and analyze the workplace relations. These views include unitary, pluralist, radical views, and system approach. Each offers a particular explanation of workplace relations and will therefore interpret such events as workplace conflicts, the role of unions and job regulations differently. Radical theories are usually linked to Marxist theories. Unitary perspective: In unitary view, the organization is perceived as an integrated, congenial and cordial system. A core assumption in this perspective management, staff, and all members of the organization share same objectives, likes and goals, hence they work in unison towards the targeted desires and ambitions. In fact unitary perspective has a paternalistic approach which expects and demands loyalty from every employee. Therefore at times, trade unions are thought to be as unnecessary and conflicts perceived as troublesome and distracting. Pluralist perspective: According to this approach, organizations are recognized to be consisting of influential, powerful, and divergent subgroups, management and labor unions. This perspective views conflicts of interest and squabbles between managers and employees as natural and unavoidable. Basically, this is the perspective mostly embraced by the Labor and Employment Relations Association .Consequently, the responsibility of human resource management would lean less towards legislating and managing and more towards cooperation and uniformity among the members. Labor relations bodies are usually recognized as valid representatives of employees. Conflict is solved using collective bargaining and is generally viewed as positive change towards new developments. Therefore, realistic managers should let conflict to happen. Marxist perspective: Being a sociologist, Marx Weber explained this theory in relation to societal view .It views labor relations as a creation of the huge capitalist society. The fundamental assumption of this approach is that industrial relations under capitalism are unending causes of conflicts. Furthermore, this perspective argues that conflicts are the building blocks for labor relations although open disputes are uncommon. According to Marxist view, industrial conflicts are considered a class fight and industrial relations as a politicized impression and a part of class struggle. This involves a comprehension of the capitalized human resource organizations, social interactions of productions, and the tool and system of capital aggregation. Furthermore, Marxist perspective views the jurisdiction relationship between the two classes; employer (capital) and employee (labor) as the origin of industrial relations .Both the counterpart’s battle to hold their respective titles so that they can enjoy a greater advantage over the pother in the process of bargaining. The components of this approach feel that employers can survive longer with minimized labor than the employees can without work. This statement has been disputed by several human resource scholars who argue that none can take place without the other; both are dependent on each other. For instance in the Labor and Employment Relations Association, the rule governing the employment sector must ensure that enough number of employees are enlisted and recruited to enhance the organization profitability and boost the return of investment which in turn makes the association competitive in the market and hence reducing the risks of globalization issues. As far as theory is concerned, the settlement paid to the employees is as a result of increasing workforce and power wrangles within the human resource organizations. For instance when employees are determined to double or maximize their savings and interests by paying less compensation to the employees, while the latter refuses such expeditions and this resistance will in turn result into industrial conflicts. System approach: Individuals are part of an ongoing but independent social system (Dunlop 1958, p.56).Here, the behavior, actions, and responsibility of the individual are shaped the societal cultures. Principally, the three fundamental elements applied in this system are input, process and output. The value systems and other characteristic systems of the society affect the process of determining outcomes or achievement. The essence of this theory is to help us understand group togetherness which is often provided and shaped by the societal factors. Moreover, labor relations systems consist of certain actors, contexts and ideology which wraps them together and a list of rules established to govern the actors of work place and work organizations .The actors here refers to managers, workers and their representatives, and the government agencies in relation to human resource. The rules governing the system are grouped into two categories; substantive rules and procedural rules. The substantive rule simply refers to those rules that arbitrate the situations and conditions under which people are employed. Such rules are often borrowed from the written terms and conditions of employment, jurisdiction, terms and conditions of employment, practices, and managerial policies and instructions. On the contrary, procedural rules administer how substantive rules are drafted and understood. Ultimately, the implementation of new regulations and the revision of the original rules for enhancing the labor relations are the basic and major outputs of the labor relations system. Basically the system approach refers to the habitat of the system which is normally by the advanced technological nature of the organization, financial constraints and the power sharing in the macro-environment, in this case the society. (Baker, McKenzie 2012 p.12) Based on the current and future human resource needs and issues arising from the findings of the course paper, I came up with some recommendations that can be helpful to various Human Resource Organizations to assist in strategic and business planning Recommendations Managing employees: As businesses and human resource management go global and undergo expansion, so do workforces. Operating and supervising globally is the perfect way to uplift a wide range of complex challenges especially for PepsiCo Worldwide flavors. Drafting and implementing global workplace policy: For instance drafting employee’s policies for an international workforce with their competitors, Coca-Cola to ensure consistency and efficiency, a single global policy applicable to all employees worldwide should be drafted. Conducting global employment audit: This is especially effective when dealing with human resource organizations with streamlined workforces like PepsiCo. The first step is to identify and gather information, secondly evaluate and analyze information and finally plan actions and remedies. The information to be edited may include wage and hour, employee benefits and discrimination and harassment issues. Enlisting mobile employees: This recommendation is suitable in HR organizations with offices all over the world and with a high workload. It will ensure prosperity and success on far-flung business. Pepsi being a worldwide company, mobile employees should be enlisted to deal with specific services in different continents. Review of Human Resource Policies: The existing HR policies should ensure completeness and relevance. In addition widespread communication and comprehension of the policies should be ensured to avoid conflicts in communication especially in PepsiCo where employees consist of people from diverse cultural backgrounds. Globalizing and promoting regionalized code of conduct: This is effective when minimizing the levels of conflict among employees. Encourage robust reporting of any suspected violations. In conclusion, PepsiCo has established short term planning strategies to boost profits in the globalized world today. The human resource management does not compromise on the quality and values to be followed hence the company is prospering by accelerating its functions in a well-structured way. References Aniba, M. (2012) Report on HRM function related to PepsiCo. Retrieved on 13 March 2014 from http://www.slideshare.net/anibamunir/report-on-hrm-function-related-to-pepsico Baker, P., McKenzie 2012, ‘Premier in International Labor and Employment issues’. Journal of the Global Employer.vol.2, no 4, p12. Going, K., Ute, K 2009’Drafting and Implementing Global Workplace Policies’. Journal of Global Policies.vol.2, no2, p.3. Greenwald, J., Laake, PA 2012,’ Labor and Employment Issues’. Journal of Putting the Law to Work.vol 5, no1, p18. Read More