Individual Organizational and National Perspectives - Assignment Example

EMPLOYEE MANAGEMENT By Student’s Name Code+ course name Instructor’s Name University Name City, State Question1 Polycentric staffing is the policy of a company that is involved in hiring of employee and/or promoting the same employees who are actually citizens of the countries where the company was started or the country where the company was initially hosted that they operate subsidiary from. This policy is deemed to be best used when the companies involved want to keep hiring their employees at low cost (Konopaske et al 2002). This case concerns European Buildings Materials Company (EBMC), a large and a publicly listed company that is European headquartered MNE. It operates in the sector of building materials supply and industry. The critical decision in this company is on how to manage their employees. The company targets three businesses in the sector. Supply of the primary materials, building products and also distribution of the products like the builder’s merchants and specialist’s distribution are the main course of the multinational enterprise. It has been observed that the company, since its inception the company has had a very vibrant management team that always ensured that employees’ issues were observed without ado. It must also be noted that the guest model of human resource has been appropriately used in this organization. The guest model of human resource management also tries to analyze the HR strategies that are implemented by any organization. It is also prevalent to note that this model also explains practices and outcomes of the decisions. In this case it is true to note that the appointment of the EBMC was seen to bear fruits for the company in matters pertaining to staffing of the company. Consequently, like any other company with the intention of going global, the corporate HR department must have a crucial role to play. However, the function of the HR is faced with a big challenge to establish an effective structure and an organized plan and a process. According to Scullion and Starkey (2000), it may take three distinct forms centralization, decentralization or transition HR approaches. In accordance to this, EBMC operates from a highly decentralized approach where a very small corporate HR department and members of its staff at the headquarters is low. This corporate department undertakes a very narrow range of functions as compared to the centralized global firms and this reduces the cost of managing the company. This factor is recommended as it reflects the highly decentralized, well managed corporate structure that has been utilized in the organization and has in place at EBMC since its inception and especially the early days of the organization’s internationalization. This is a structure that operates smoothly and is highly recommended to the big organizations. This is because, since the company operates from a considerably simple structure just like a locally based industry. Therefore, the HR policies and the practices get devolved down to the business unit level and this is a factor that gives support to the business strategy adopted by the company and the senior management who recognize that as sustainable competitive advantage it derives from securing a high quality local management in the headquarters and who are able to effectively and quickly respond to the changing conditions of the host country band its culture. Therefore, the overall duty of the headquarters is that of primarily supporting the services and the coordination of the organization. The company uses this style of staffing since it helps them in the way reducing the costs. This is due to the reason that there is already a properly managed plan and also having a well arranged structure for the company. Moreover, the employees employed to the firm and also hired at the subsidiary level do not have any problem when adapting to the culture of this company. In addition, the communication in the company is not affected and there is a smooth transition within the operation of the companies. It is also defined as policy where multinational organizations have a strategy of staffing whereby each of its satellite offices is managed and controlled as a unique and independent national entity. Hence, from this Managers and the entire employees’ body are hired locally from the headquarters so as to minimize any communication and cultural challenges of the company (McNett & Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2005). EBMC is a company that utilizes the talent management whereby it is centrally based. Its HR department is placed in the HQ where it is easy to control the staff. This strategy is easy to manage and particularly effective since whenever they go international it is always easy to have a culture of the company easily taken into account in the new destination. It also helps to transfer the culture to the nation before the natives of the host nation are integrated into the company and gets to learn of the culture of the company. It is particularly simple to manage the staff from the central point and all their needs an easily catered for from the HQ. Therefore favoring the method polycentric staffing approach benefits EBMC and has the benefits to the company. However, this approach is not an all benefits approach. It also has also some drawbacks which may pull the company down if not well inspected and managed. Some of the drawbacks include the potential rejection by the country that the company is hosted. Some of the natives and the governments may argue that since the company is not employing them it is not of benefit to them and hence may face rejection. In addition the natives once employed may take a long time before being integrated into the system. This is because, the process of getting a new culture of the company is difficult and especially amid foreigners. However, notwithstanding the challenges and the drawbacks the company still helps the company and therefore it is the preferred method. Question 2 The best way that EBCM may diffuse knowledge key knowledge from the foreign subsidiaries to other operations from the headquarters and back to the headquarters is through proper communication. Organizational communication in this organization is a concept that has grown tremendously over the past years. The success of an organization is influenced by effective communication between the various stakeholders of the organization. Effective organization performance is determined by the management ability to relate with other staff and employees. Communication is a fundamental discipline in influencing the relationship between employees and management. Communication concepts and skills are vital in influencing the results within an organization. Communication is vital in the organizational change process. The existence of open dialogue facilitates the creation of trust in enhancing the change process. Management should apply the communication concepts and skills in undertaking their leadership roles to ensure proper functioning of the organization. Management of EBMC plays a vital role in the functioning and operations of this organization. Communication is a vital discipline with varied concepts and skills that facilitate the growth and performance of an organization. The essential role played by communication has resulted to a lot of researches undertaken to enhance improvement of the process of communication and ensure a conducive environment effective communication. Some people within an organization never taken an interest on the process of communication until some operations go awry. The tendency of paying attention to the process of communication after something has gone wrong need to be avoided. Organization leaders and other stakeholders should indulge realistic determination in choosing which communication skills and aspects operate effectively in organization performance. The concepts and skills of communication within EBMC are essential in ensuring the effectiveness of the organization. Management staff in the organization should make use of the best skills and concepts of communication to ensure improved performance of the organization. The relationship between employees and management is enhanced by the presence of effective communication. Theories developed and researches that have been undertaken present certain aspects of communication as the most critical in improving communication process. Active listening is one of the concepts that play a vital role in the communication process. Communication process lays much of its significant in active listening. In order for communication to take place, a message has to be heard and retained by the listener. Active listening ensures there is understanding of the concepts being communicated. The receiver of information cannot respond to the communication process unless the information is synthesized. Active listening becomes effective when there is involvement of the mind and deliberate effort in the process. Active listeners embrace new ideas and information in undertaking operations of an organization (Rogers & Agarwala-Rogers 1976). Organizations like EBMC should develop a culture that involves active participation of employees in the management practices. Some employees exhibit quality skills that can be engaged to assist in the operations of the organization. The culture of engaging employees in the running of the organization ensures there is diversity of ideas and skills in the running of the business. All this will depend on the relationship between the management and the employees which is determined by communication. Organization culture is thus an essential aspect in the communication process. The culture developed by the leadership determines the success of an organization. Communication is important because it helps in forming a great leadership structure and makes the work of the different department easy to do. Leadership strategies should indulge communication in dispute resolution. The performance of the various roles of management depends on the effective communication. Management should ensure that employees have an environment where they can give their contributions thus contributing towards organization development. Leadership strategies define the approach that management use in the running of the organization. Management should ensure effective communication is enhanced in performing the various functions of management including training and directing (Owen et al 1976). Question 3 Good leadership is the key reason to reduce repatriation. Leadership in an organization can be defined as the approach and manner in which directions are provided, plans implemented and workers motivated. In this case, this firm has no difference in its leadership structures. The bases of power can be said to be the ways and methods in which the managers of an organization use in order to influence the behavior of the employees. It is also referred to as the possession of authority on employees and having an influence over other people. The practice of repatriation is a common thing in different organizations however; it is something that is relatively rare when it comes to EBMC. One of the most important factors that may contribute to this is probably the small size of its corporate head office which is simple to manage and also easy to sail through when it comes to management. Another crucial issue is the balance that is kept between the employees in the domestic market and those in the international operations. In addition, EBMC has over 90 per cent of its employees who are based and works outside of their home country and probably this may be a challenge. However, EBMC helps the company in settling down. In practice therefore, all the international assignments of the employees of this organization are essentially given as a one way ticket and this opens opportunities for a vacancy in the parent country. This is after an international assignment has been assigned and the local posts are extremely limited. Hence, the company conducts its operations in a very careful manner so as not to raise the expectations of the employees about the prospects of the job that may be offered on return from international assignments back to the home country. EBMC can be considered as one of the multinational companies that have very strong human resource. The methods used in management of the human resource are very important in the management of the employees and reduction of repatriation among the employees. It is therefore very significant to analyze the nature of human resource in the company. The magnitude and nature of human resource in any company always determines the profitability of a company. Human Resource Management (HRM) can be viewed as a very fundamental aspect of an organization. This is because productivity of employees always determines the rate at which organization develops in terms of productivity. Therefore repatriation has to be zero rated in different organizations worldwide. EBMC has employed very vibrant approaches to human resource. This has explained the reason as to why the company has been showing very significant improvement in as far as profitability is concerned. It must be noted that the profitability of any firm must always depend on the strength of human resource. The business firms should also consider having a common base of improving their employees’ ability through motivating them. A successful and well conducted training helps in delivering improvement in individual and team performance which in turn also helps improve the results of the business. Without proper training the employee’s work is not well put forward and also the internal relationship between employees is very vital for the posting of better results of the organization. Staff training also helps in staff retention which reduces cost (Andresen et al 2013). Another system that can be applied by different organizations of converting the employees into partners is a good system as it motivates the workers to work extra hard so that they can increase the amount of profits so that they can get a higher share. This type of system has great results in that the leadership does not need to follow up the workers since they become the owners of the business with the buying of the shares. On the other hand, different companies focus at making their business the best in the country through the use of colleagues in which they help the people through recruitment and training the workers. This highly motivates the workers and also potential employees since their training is provided. They also improve the places of work by providing clean and up to standard offices for the workers. This is another factor that reduces repatriation. It is also worth noting that new firms always require proper competency assurance management system so as to ensure that they cope up with the conditions and systems within their new places of work. Most of the organisations always possess guidelines that require the employees to perform some specific duties in a unique way as stipulated by the guidelines of the organisation. The tasks done by the employees are always required to be done in accordance with the stipulated quality assurance requirements. This always ensures that the activities of the employees results in to improved productivity of the firms. It is therefore true to note that most firms always require employees to have enough competencies that are commensurate with the tasks assigned to them (Baldock et al 2006). Reference list McNett, J. M., & Blackwell Publishing Ltd. (2005). The Blackwell encyclopedia of management. Malden, Mass: Blackwell Pub. Konopaske, R., Werner, S., & Neupert, K. E. (January 01, 2002). Entry mode strategy and performance: the role of FDI staffing. Journal of Business Research, 55, 9, 759-770. Rogers, E. M., & Agarwala-Rogers, R. (1976). Communication in organizations. New York: Free Press. Owen, J. L., Page, P. A., & Zimmerman, G. I. (1976). Communication in organizations. St. Paul: West Pub. Co. Andresen, M., Al-Ariss, A., & Walther, M. (2013). Self-initiated expatriation: Individual, organizational, and national perspectives. New York: Routledge. Baldock, C. V., Wilding, R., & Baldassar, Loretta. (2006). Families Caring Across Borders: Migration, Ageing and Transnational Care giving. 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