Staffing Issues & HR Management - Research Paper Example

?Introduction There are two ways through which most of the organizations grow and expand i.e. through organic growth or by making acquisitions. Organic growth often takes place when firms grow within itself over the period of time and therefore the growth is largely within the confines of the firm. Such growth often therefore allows firms to focus on developing their business through its own resources and keep on expanding in similar or different markets. The speed with which the acquisition strategy can be applied can also allow the firms to actually respond to the under-valued opportunities in rather quick manner. If the firm can maintain an adequate level of cash and other resources, it can swiftly move to acquire undervalued firms to actually create an opportunity to deliver more value to the shareholders of the firm. (Damoiseau, Black, & Raggio, 2011) In order to expand globally, firms therefore have to manage whether they want to grow organically or through expansion. In either way firm has to manage certain issues which will be discussed below in order to be successful at global level. Cultural Profile Culture plays important role in the overall success of the organization at the local as well as the international level. The management of change within an organization clearly demonstrated the need for having a clear analysis of how the culture of the organization will be changed and reshaped in a manner which is more suitable for the firm. In order to successfully operate in countries like India, it is therefore important that the cultural assessment must be done. The overall cultural profile of India would suggest that India is a developing country with established historical and cultural roots. The same has been transferred into the management style of the firms operating in the environment too. Over the period of time, India however, is making a transition towards a global corporate culture which is required for fostering of the global management culture within the organization. India is a country which is dominated by masculine culture which is based upon traditions and family businesses. The Tata Group started as a family business and is still is a family business despite the fact that it is now an international conglomerated. Indian culture therefore is focused upon family businesses where bosses and managers are considered like father figures. Communication Issues Another important role of the leader in managing change is to communicate across a shared vision for the change and the future of the firm. Providing a clear and vivid communication across the whole firm therefore makes it clear for each one of the employee and other stakeholders to basically know what their roles and responsibilities are and what the firm actually expects from them. Such an approach therefore ensures that the leaders inculcate the vision across the whole organization through effective communication across all the channels. One of the ways through which leaders manage change is to ensure the stability during the change process as change is not being viewed by every person in same manner. Like Tata Group which remained an organization where culture was not so conducive and employees worked as if they were working in a public sector organization. In such situation, the productivity was relatively low and as such complacency developed across all the companies working under the banner of Tata Group. As a leader, Ratan Tata therefore has to ensure that the painful transition of the organization takes place as quickly as possible in order to take advantage of the relative opening of Indian economy to the international world. One of the key requirements therefore first is to initiate that change required to make the firm to advance and meet the future requirements of the market. (Ahn, Adamson, & Dornbusch, 2004). This was only achieved through effective communication because change at the global level requires effective communication of the changes. Communication within a particular cultural group can however, become something of real importance in order to successfully operate at the global level. Operating at global level therefore requires that local culture is understood by the international managers whereas local ways of communication should have been adapted too in order to better communicate with subordinates. Further issues like meeting with delegates, partners, suppliers, as well as customers can be a significant communication challenge if not well prepared in advance. Staffing Issues & HR Management One of the most important concepts in strategic management is that of the development of core competencies of the firm. Those firms which have been able to develop their core competencies often develop them into their competitive advantage so that they can clearly move ahead of the competition. The presence in different businesses and sectors though may help the firms to diversify the risk, however, it may not allow the firm to develop its core competencies and as such the firm may lag behind in the competition. Core competencies at the global level can only be achieved once the firm put into place strategic HRM practices at the global level too. To successfully meet with the HRM challenges, it is critical to understand that the firms looking for expansion at the global level must look for the local talent and tap into the local knowledge in order to gain further insight and penetration into the market. By accessing local knowledge and human resource base, a global firm can actually focus on developing its core competencies at the local level while leveraging the same through their original core competencies developed at global level. Leadership and Motivation Another important role of the leader in initiating and managing change is to ensure that change delivers the results. As such it becomes the responsibility of the leader to develop the strategies which can allow the firm to expand and grow while at the same time emerge out of the transitory period of change. The management of change therefore requires the leaders to ensure that the change strategy is executed in a manner which delivers results. If change could not bring in the desired results, leaders may not be able to claim that the change process was strategy executed as well as implemented. Leaders therefore must ensure that the strategy delivers value to the firm and helping in fostering the shared vision of the firm. Issues of Concerns One of the key issues to manage at the global level is the streamlining of the different businesses which are controlled at the group level. One of the key advantages of the streamlining the business is therefore to free up firm’s resources so that they can be utilized in more productive manner. Tata was in many businesses and was losing money just because it was not able to streamline all the businesses under one banner. By systematically spinning off and selling the businesses, Tata therefore ensured that it has the resources required to focus on developing its core competencies so that they can be developed into distinctive competitive advantages. However, one of the disadvantages of this approach may be limitations it can put on the firm’s ability to expand. Firms therefore may find themselves working in too few businesses and therefore may not be able to expand and grow where profitable opportunities grow. The streamlining of the business therefore may increase the response to the new and profitable opportunities. Another important advantage of streamlining the businesses is to become competitive in terms of cutting the costs. It was only after streamlining the businesses that Tata was actually able to develop Nano as a model car. Streamlining the business therefore offers an opportunity to reduce the costs so that firm can become more competitive at the regional as well as at global level. Streamlining the business therefore can allow the firms to create more value which can be further leverages to take advantage of the improved brand image to go into the global markets. (Bromiley & Washburn, 2011) However, this will require constant focus on developing the value and if the firms, after streamlining their businesses, still fail to deliver this value, they may find themselves at odds with the competition. Organizational Structure and Expansion There are two important ways through which an international firm can actually expand at the global level i.e. the organic growth or through acquisition strategy. However, it is also important to develop an organizational structure required to establish presence within an international set up. The organizational structure will be based upon a vertical structure where clearly defined layers of management will be established. A clearly defined hierarchy of the management shall be essential in order to ensure that the new venture, at its initial level is centrally controlled till the firm has been able to establish its roots. Such organizational structure therefore will allow the firm to nominate international managers to participate in the day to day managerial decisions while at the same time getting the support of the local managers. Through blending both the international as well as local managerial experience, the organizational structure will be hierarchical in nature and will follow simple chain of command principles. Another important benefit which a firm can achieve through the acquisition strategy is to achieve the benefits of the synergy. The benefits of synergy can be achieved either through cost savings which can result into the avoidance of duplication as well as reducing the administrative costs. Apart from this, synergy can also allow the firm to actually achieve other complimentary benefits such as tapping into the cross selling opportunities. When acquiring a competitor or firm working in the same industry, a firm can actually sell the products to new customers and hence expand its market share more rapidly. Acquisition within a global context can also allow the firm to vertically integrate it either through acquiring a buyer or supplier. This can allow the firm to further strengthen its business and expand and grow exponentially. This could only be achieved once the firm has been able to develop further competencies. It is also however, important to note that acquisitions can be difficult owing to the fact that it may be difficult for the firm to reconcile the cultural differences between two different cultures. When companies merge or acquire other companies, it may be difficult to actually fit the two cultures and it is also because of this reason that most firms often fail to achieve the benefits of the acquisition at the global level. Bibliography Ahn, M. J., Adamson, J., & Dornbusch, D. (2004). From Leaders to Leadership: Managing Change. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 10(4), 112-123. Bromiley, P., & Washburn, M. (2011). Cost reduction vs innovative search in R&D. Journal of Strategy and Management, 4(3), 196-214. Damoiseau, Y., Black, W., & Raggio, R. (2011). Brand creation vs acquisition in portfolio expansion strategy. Journal of Product & Brand Management, 20(4), 268 - 281. Read More