Employee Commitment in Multinational Organisations - Essay Example

Topic: International People Management Lecturer: Presentation: Introduction Commitment is of paramount importance in virtually all aspects of organizational operations. Organizational culture is fundamental for employee commitment in any organization. In many situations, organizational culture fails to foster commitment among employees, which makes the committed employees an exclusive group. Contemporary organizations tend to lay off employees often due to their failure to accomplish the targeted goals. Employees on the other hand have a tendency of shifting from one employer to the other in search of satisfaction. In this set up, neither the employees nor the employers are contented. In essence, employee commitment means loyalty to the employer and is one of the aspects that signify successful employment relations. The employer must be ready to reciprocate the commitment of employees for satisfaction in the workplace to be accomplished. This paper presents a critical assessment of some issues which may arise for the management researcher investigating the extent of employee commitment in a large multinational organization. It focuses on some of the factors that affect employee commitment in multinational organizations such as employee satisfaction, retention, career ladders, job security, employment relations, cultural diversity and empowerment of the human resources. Issues associated with Employee Commitment Employee satisfaction is a significant determinant of the level of commitment. Multinational organizations operate in different cultural environments and likely to be faced with problems of satisfying employees with diverse needs. The comfort zones of employees from different cultural backgrounds are different and for them to be satisfied, the management has to adopt case specific strategies rather than an overall strategy of employee satisfaction. The comfort zone is a combination of surroundings and occurrences that a person usually feels contented without fears of imminent dangers (Guskey, 2000). The impacts of comfort zones on performance are wide ranging. People tend to perform differently in varied conditions in the workplace. When an employee is working in a comfort zone, performance is usually high. The managers need to ensure that there is flexibility in the workplace to allow the employees to maintain their comfort zone (Gilley, 2000). For example, some employees like using the internet for news and information. Their comfort zone is the working environment that has privacy, which is one of the factors that help in maintaining employee satisfaction. Satisfied employees usually perform better than the disgruntled counterparts. Allowing the employees to be contented is significant in the maintenance of inventiveness in the workplace. Maintenance of a comfort zone helps in promoting self management amongst the employees through flexible working practices. This makes them to feel indebted towards achieving the objectives that have been set for them by the employers. The motivation that occurs amongst self managing employees is usually due to the fact that satisfied employees require minimum supervision and can produce the desired output on their own. The cost of hiring supervisors is therefore reduced. Workers tend to strive to achieve the set objectives in order to maintain the employer’s confidence in them so that they can get promotion or more benefits. Skills are improved due to specialization in specific tasks leading to increased production (Robert & Jerald, 2008). They are normally inventive and their creativity is usually an important asset to the organization. Managers need to invest in their innovativeness for improvement in the organization’s output. Satisfaction among the human resources usually enhances the accomplishment of organizational goals. The managers and the subordinates collaborate to accomplish tasks in the workplace. They approach work issues as a team and find solutions to challenges as a group when all are contented. (Hughes & Michael, 2009) argue that employees enjoy participating in management through teamwork when they are satisfied. It becomes easy to identify problems and come identify the way forward. They turn out to be assets to the organization and strikes that may arise due to dissatisfaction are rare. Constantly being supervised and controlled in every action reduces self esteem and confidence. Performance is lowered since the workers can not be certain about their output. They should also be allowed to be responsible in certain tasks in which they specialize depending on their comfort zones. The global labour market dynamics largely affect employee retention in multinational organizations. The labour market is liberalized and employees can obtain work permits to work in a wide range of companies globally. Movement from one employer to the other is therefore common in the contemporary multinational organizations. High employee turn over is detrimental to an organization’s productivity and reputation. It is usually costly to hire and train new employees to become competent in the workplace. The organization looses skilled employees to competitors, and more so, skills attained from the organization. Derek et al. (2008) argues that it may be a great loss to the organization especially when an employee exposes company information to competitors. For that reason, the future projections may not be realized if the organization relied on training an employee to attain a particular goal in future. Customers may loose confidence in the organization due to disruption in service delivery especially when the departing employees were at strategic positions of service delivery. Some clients build their trust on particular employees especially for the services that require one-on-one relationships, and therefore they might not be willing to begin a new relationship with other employees in the organization. International human resource managers need to ensure that the employee turn over is not contagious. This may happen especially due to the interconnectedness between the main company and the foreign subsidiaries. Johnson (2001) argues that high employee turn over lowers the confidence and morale in the work place. When an organization is capable of retaining skilled employees through strategic human resource practices, it attracts new skills in to the organization from the labour market as well as from other organizations, thereby improving its productivity. Issues of career ladders are common in multinational organizations mainly due to the complex management structure. Centralized control from the head office tends to lower optimism of internal career ladders. For example, a US multinational company with more than 50 foreign subsidiaries with centralized management may hinder some employees in the foreign subsidiaries from moving to the top management. Competence among employees is maintained through ensuring that they have hopes to advance in their careers. Edwards et al. (2007) observe that the morale of employees decreases when they work in the same position over a long period of time. As a result, they work harder to move up the ladder through promotions, hence the human resource managers need to ensure that promotions are awarded for good performance. Multinational companies use this strategy especially when identifying the employees who are competent to be given the privilege of heading departments in foreign subsidiaries. Johnson (2001) argues that the strategy is useful in determining the workers who are self driven and who can represent the organization with minimum supervision. On the other hand, additional responsibilities act as indicators of trust in employees, which is likely to improve their commitment. Job security is also a major factor that influences employee commitment. It is usually affected by the changes in the economies in which the multinational organization operates. When there is an economic crunch in a particular country, the foreign subsidiary may lay off some of its workers, such as the way General Motors did as a result of the 2007 global economic crisis. Employees need to be guaranteed of their security in employment for maximum productivity. According to Whitfield, & Poole (1997), lack of security leads to low morale and search of opportunities outside the organization. Employees can not dedicate their time fully to the organizational activities. Job security is significant in maintaining confidence among employees so that they are not easily lured out of the organization by competitors who are likely to guarantee job security. In other words, employees need to be convinced that they can not loose their job overnight. They too need to be heard especially regarding the workplace problems. Competency can not be accomplished if the working environment is not favorable. On the other hand, employees need to feel represented in the decision making process whereby their voice is put in to consideration. Employment relations affect the level of commitment depending on the employees’ perceptions regarding the organizational activities. Cultural issues are of major concern in successful employment relations. The attitudes of employees in regard to the organizational operations are significant in promoting good relations between the employees and the managers. They largely depend on the cultural background of the population from which the employees are drawn. Some cultures are individualistic such as the British, US and Australia among others while the Japanese and the Chinese cultures tend towards collective action and teamwork. Adler (2002) argues that cultural differences affect the manner in which people relate with each other and it is not different for employment relations. For example, working strategies that affect the employees’ religiosity may degrade the relationship between the managers and workers. On the other hand, cultural diversity is a critical issue that may affect employment relations as the different cultures make efforts to establish self identity. When one culture is esteemed than others in the workplace, employment relations deteriorate. However, strong relations may be appreciated when both the mainstream and minority cultures are appreciated (Luthans &Stajkovic, 1999). In the international perspective, human resource managers are required to understand the desires of the diverse cultures in the workplace. It is important to understand that different people have different talents which can form a strong workforce when utilized to the maximum. The managers have a difficult and essential task of managing diverse characteristics such as gender and racial differences. Religious beliefs are also diverse and work may be affected by dogmatic religious holidays internationally. Managers therefore have to be highly capable and informed individuals to cope with the demands of the workforce thereby maintaining effective employment relations (Daniels, 2006). Empowerment of employees is influential in regard to the level of commitment among them. Employee training helps in maintaining focus in regard to the organizational activities as well as generating hope among them in regard to career development. Without the conviction that they will accomplish their personal and career development goals, the employees’ morale remains low. Training also helps the employees to learn how to take opportunities for knowledge acquisition. This is supported by Derek (2007) who believed that learning how to search and put new knowledge in to practice improves employee competence and the overall organizational productivity. Such employees engage in life-long learning and are significant assets for an organization. For a multinational organization, employee training and development is a task that is complex in the sense that they deal with a large number of employees that are widely spread globally. The overheads may rise if all were to be adequately empowered through training. However, workplace learning and group learning can empower the employees to acquire knowledge regarding accomplishment of organizational tasks. Team building strategies are important to motivate the employees to be proactive in transferring knowledge within the workplace. Employees working in teams possess diverse skills and therefore they can accomplish different tasks and share knowledge to form a strong workforce. Ensuring that employees from different subsidiaries share knowledge is an important aspect of empowerment, which is not as costly as supporting employee training in educational institutions. This can be accomplished through promoting regular interactions as well as promoting the pursuance of a common goal in the entire workforce (Edwards et al. 2007). Empowerment also involves effective communication between the management and the employees. Communication in many multinational organizations is usually hindered by the distance and proximity of the top management to employees in the lower grades. The managers should ensure that vital information that the employees can use in accomplishing tasks is accessible to them. Access to information also enhances decision making among them. Authority should be delegated to the employees to ensure that they are able to develop their own strategies for accomplishing tasks. Constant feedback is significant to ensure that the employees’ efforts are recognized (Whitfield & Poole, 1997). In the contemporary organizations, communication has been enhanced by advancements in communication technology. The internet can be applied to effectively communicate with foreign subsidiaries. Conclusion Satisfaction among the human resources is a major issue that can be identified in multinational organizations. It can be accomplished by appreciating that different employees have unique comfort zones, which the management should help the employees to accomplish for higher commitment. The global labour market dynamics are also among the issues that multinational organizations face. The fact that employees are free to move from one organization to the other affects employee retention. Failure to retain experienced employees lowers the organizational competitiveness. Career ladders influence commitment and may affect productivity in multinational organizations. Lack of job security is a critical issue in maintaining commitment in the workforce. Employment relations affect the attitude of employees towards work and may lower or raise commitment depending on the level of interaction between the managers and employees. Worker empowerment is also an issue in many organizations especially due to size and scope of operations. Teamwork and workplace learning through interactions among workers with diverse skills can be useful in employee empowerment and hence increased commitment. References Adler, N. 2002. International dimensions of organizational behavior. 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