International Human Resource at BHP Billiton - Case Study Example

INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE AT BHP BILLITON Student’s name: Couse: Class: Institution: Date: Background BHP Billiton is a multinational company dealing with Mining, metals and petroleum. It was created in 2001 after merger of Brocken Hill Proprietary Company Limited (BHP) and Billiton plc. The headquarters is at Melbourne, Australia located at 171 Collins St. Billiton started in 1860 as a mining company in Netherlands and it dealt with tin and lead smelting.in 1940, Bauxite mining was also begun in Indonesia and Suriname. In 1970, Billiton was acquired by shell and it acquired a tin smelting and refining plant in Phuket, Thailand. Its mining division was acquired by South Africa’s Gencor Ltd. Brocken Hill Proprietary Company Ltd (BHP) started in 1885 with Silver and Lead mine in New South Wales, Australia. In 1915, in opened a steel manufacturing at Wales due to technical limitations in mining ore at Brocken Hill. BHP ventured into petroleum exploration and made discoveries at Bass Strait in 1960s. In 2001, the two companies merged together to form BHP Billiton and in 2003 steel business was changed to BlueScope Steel. It operates in over 25 countries with about 41,000 employees. Its range of operations include, mining and processing of minerals, oil and gas production. The company donates one percent of its pre-tax profit in community programs as a corporate social responsibility. As environmental responsibility, the company participates in voluntary submission of reports about Green House Gases. However, a serious environmental disaster was caused by a mine dam owed by the company collapsed causing pollution of the river Rio Doce [Han14]. Factors contributing to re-entry shock According to the cultural identity model, it is assumed that those returning home go through changes that influence their sense of belonging and cultural identity. They undergo psychological adjustments and it varies depending on sociodemographic characteristics. Age contributed to re-entry shock as younger employees had more difficulty in re-adapting to compare to the old ones. This was associated with the young’s high ability to learn and adapt to the new culture thus returning increase the in level of distress (Cox 2014). According to BHP Billiton’s policy of 2007, it employs younger graduates in their assignment located in the developing countries. This age group is advantageous to the company as they can easily be trained to international standards but when they return to their native countries, they face high chances of experiencing re-entry shock due to the new culture they were integrated to. Marital status was also another factor contributing to re-entry shock. Single repatriates were associated with more depression than those that are married. According to Hyder, this was associated with the assistance from the spouse that the married get while relocating which subjects them to less difficulty thus copying well with re-entry [Hyd14]. Since BHP Billiton considers young graduates for jobs in developing countries, majority of them are single and will face re-entry shock once the assignment is completed. Length of intercultural sojourn was related to the re-entry shock. The longer the duration one stays abroad, the more they will experience re-entry distress and adjustments challenges associated with returning home [Suu14]. The longest duration ranges from two to three years that an expatriate works in a foreign country as the locals recruited learn. When one works in an international company, he/she learns a new liberal lifestyle and values that when they return home there will be conflict with the lifestyle of their friends and family (Martin & Harrell, 2014). Cultural distance between the two countries contribute to how much the one gets re-entry shock on returning home. Individual working in a country with a culture that is very far from their own will experience high levels of dissatisfaction compared to on who went to a country with a culture close to their own. BHP has recorded a higher failure rate of adjustment to a new culture between Americans and Australians while a low failure rate amongst Japanese and Europeans. BHP is working on a strategy to come up with a global culture for its organization so as to address this challenges. According to Stevens et al, (2006) workplace readjustment contributes to re-entry shock as the returnees are subjected to conditions which do not reflect their gained experience from their stay in the foreign countries by their colleagues and the HR managers. The shock arises as BHP does not keep its employees in the foreign countries permanently and they are forced to return to their home countries. Transfer knowledge by the repatriates faces resistance from the home organizations when they try to introduce the newly learned skills from the foreign countries. The home individual’s closed and reserved attitude leads to no sharing of new knowledge by the repatriates. BHP trains its employees to meet international standards and after an international assignment, the trained individuals will be forced to work in their home countries as there will be no skilled labour force to fit the positions available. This is because the local leaders insist on recruitment of the locals from where BHP is operated. The locals recruited will be a challenge especially those who have worked for some years as they tend resist new inputs. BHP does not help their employees find jobs their spouses but some in the U.S and Finland help find jobs for their spouses which makes it easy for them to adjust and settle well [Ber15]. International assignment as an important way of training international operators Through international assignments, expatriates are able to learn new skills during their stay in foreign countries. On returning back to their own countries, they teach the learned skills to the colleagues. This process of sharing knowledge promotes learning thus producing workers with skills that are recognized internationally. BHP’s expatriate managers undergo cross-cultural training where different financial systems and legal framework are taught so that they are able to fit to the international market. The expatriates have experience on running of various procedures in the organization and they will demonstrate to others on how they work. Also, international assignments provide a broader perspective to the employees as they gain multiple skills that will enable them work internationally. Despite the call by the local leaders for BHP to recruit the locals, they are not allowed to work on their own but they work under an expatriate who ensures the new recruit is accustomed to the stipulated international standards. The first human resource strategy of BHP is training across different cultures where trainees are exposed to a common culture and during their working time, there will be coordination and understanding. Through interactions with a pool of experienced colleagues, one gains professional development and gains more skills than what they had trained before. In the course of training, expatriates are exposed to different cultures thus they embrace cultural diversity which enables them to work in different cultures and internationally thus promoting the success of the company. The practices of the corporation and the expected code of conduct of the corporation are passed to different nations and cultures thus keeping the company’s charter as there is minimal influence externally. The corporation’s culture is maintained. BHP carries out evaluation of its standards basing on the cultural differences as the standards may vary from culture to another. To maintain the initial standards set by the local country, it stresses on training its employees to the same level so that the standards are maintained at the international level. The language of communication in BHP is common to all his employees and through good understanding among the staff, the organization goals are easily met as no confusion is created during procedures and sharing of knowledge with other branches internationally. Sharing of inputs from different personnel contributes to organizational development as improvements are made as the old ways and method are modified. International standards are achieved through this approach and it leads to development of shared values by a team of employees with a common goal for an organization. Reference Han14: , (Hannam, 2014), Hyd14: , (Hyder, 2014), Suu14: , (Suutari & Brewster, 2014), Ber15: , (Bergstedit, 2015), Cox, B. J. (2014). The role of communication, technology, and cultural identity in repatriation adjustment. International Journal of Intercultural Relation, Vol. 33, Issue 7-8, p. 241-259. Martin, J. N., & Harrell, T. (1996). Reentry training for intercultural sojourners. In D. Landis & R.S. Bhagat (Eds.) Handbook of Intercultural training, p. 307-326, 2014. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Aruna (2015), Emerging Challenges in Human Resource Management International Referred Research Journal, April, pp. 83-84. Read More

 

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