Human Resources Culture - Essay Example

COMPANY PROFILE Maersk group is a worldwide conglomerate and operates in 130 countries. The group’s headquarter is located in Copenhagen, Denmark. Ithas a workforce of around 108,000 employees. Other than owning one of the world’s largest shipping companies, it is also involved in a wide range of activities in the energy, logistics, retail, and manufacturing industries.  In 2010, Maersk Group was no.147 in the Fortune Global 500 listing of worlds best companies. In Maersk the first set of business principles were formulated in 2007. These business principles were developed in consultation with both internal and external stakeholders and all the latest global, economic, social and environmental challenges were taken into consideration. The Basic business principles include: Supporting and respecting internationally proclaimed human rights Responsible business behavior Providing a good place to work Protecting health and safety Maintaining high security standards Supporting the customers Protecting the environment Engaging with society (AP Moller Maersk) VISION & MISSION Maersk’s vision is to “To be the undisputed leader of liner shipping companies” Previously they had a vision to create opportunities in global commerce. Maersk makes sure to fulfill its vision by the help of following mission: By truly understanding their clients and the clients’ business Offering second-to-none transportation solutions Being profitable and delivering sustainable, profitable growth Continuously reducing costs and increasing efficiency Offering their colleagues personal growth and a motivating place to work Being innovative Being good corporate citizens (Maersk Group, 2010) VALUES Maersk shares some fundamental values with all its 108,000 employees all over the world. These values are deeply engraved in every employee and they are guided by these values regularly. Let’s have a look at each of these 5 core values: 1- “Constant Care – Take care of today, actively prepare for tomorrow.” Maersk employees believe in preparing for tomorrow beforehand. They work for today and are pro-active rather than reactive. 2- “Humbleness – Listen, learn, share, give space to others.” Maersk has a very friendly environment for its employees. The employees work closely with each other on projects and try to uplift each other. Every employee at Maersk is respectful towards others, listen to their opinions, and most importantly give them their personal space. 3- “Uprightness – Our word is our bond.” At Maersk, a great importance is given to uprightness. Employees make sure to keep their word and work with honesty. 4- “Our Employees – The right environment for the right people.” Employees are given great importance at Maersk as they are the people behind its great success. Employees are given a challenging and exciting environment to work in. They are supported for great career opportunities all over the world at Maersk. Maersk also is one of the highest salary givers. 5- “Our Name – The sum of our values, passionately striving higher.” All Maersk employees constantly work passionately to achieve higher success for the company as well as themselves. These values have determined how they interact with employees, customers, and society for more than 100 years. The values continue to serve as an integrated part of the way Maersk carries its business. Their Group CEO embraces the values and sees them as an important part of driving a performance culture and helping the company win in its market places. (Human resource, Maersk Group, 2009) CHALLENGES Maersk faces a few problems in its business that creates big challenges for the company. One of the challenges faced by the company is economic downturn. This challenge has also affected the employees and the culture of the organization. Another challenge for Maersk is that its supply has increased from its demand. MAERSK CULTURE Maersk all over the world creates an exciting and challenging working environment for their employees. They achieve this by creating a workplace driven by results, and give high importance of ethical standard and diversity. Maersk hires the best and the most talented people at its workplace. It ensures that the values of the company all over the world are fully adopted by its employees and these values guide them at every step of their decision making process. The managers make sure to motivate their employees and guide them as mentors. Maersk also gives great career opportunities for its employees. In this paper, we will have a look at the culture of Maersk in great detail. (Maersk Hongkong) (Heathfield) Performance Driven Culture Maersk is striving hard to keep a high performance culture. It believes in recognizing good performance, and dealing smartly with low performance. For this reason it actively manages the performance of its employees and organization as a whole. Maersk strives to create an environment where employees perform best to their abilities. It works tirelessly for employees to take responsibility of their work. A performance culture at Maersk is a combination of the following things: Shared Direction: Maersk believes in collective understanding, which will be reflected in day-to day action, of what the company stands for, where it is going and how it achieves results. The key drivers for Shared Direction among employees are Vision, Mission, Goals, Strategy, Values, customer focus and Social Responsibility. Performance Execution: Maersk largely focuses on timely accomplishment of all tasks necessary to achieve the desired results. The key drivers involved are Leadership, Relationships, Team work, Learning, Talent, Cost Management, Innovation and Company Focus. Engaged Employees: Maersk actively engage its employees to use the accumulated knowledge, skills and commitment for better performance. This helps in achieving the goals of the organization. The key drivers are: Leadership, Relationships, Team Work, Learning, Talent, Innovation, Performance Management and Employee Focus. (Maersk, 2009) Ensuring High Performance At Maersk, the process starts with defining the clear metrics and cascading them throughout organization. Then the targets set are converted into budgets and plans. Then different reporting systems are used to aim to support performance reviews. Business performance is reviewed then. Good performance is then rewarded and corrective actions taken when necessary. (Maersk Line, 2009) On-time delivery Maersk has adopted the strategy of on-time delivery. By on-time delivery, here they mean that every meeting, every work, every commitment, every delivery, every promise and everything should be on time. Maersk values the importance of time, of its employees, suppliers and clients. By adopting this thing in its culture to respect for time, it ensures that everyone’s time is being valued in the company. Diverse Culture Maersk is a big example of a multi-cultured organization. It operates in 130 countries and has employees from all over the world. These employees bring together their own cultures that form a collective culture of the organization. The individual practices and cultures of each employee are valued in the organization. They are free to follow their local customs and traditions. Every employee respects others for who they are, and respect the culture and religion they have. At Maersk, they make their differences in culture, their strength. (Maersk HongKong) Learning and Development Maersk cares a lot for its employees. It ensures that the employees learn, grow, develop and lead. It constantly creates opportunities for the employees to help them learn, and develop. Its employees are supported to find work anywhere in the Maersk globally. The employees are trained for all the core business skills and leadership skills development of employees. Employees are encouraged to move from department to department for their better understanding and development. It holds a management trainee program for the top scorers of their new employees test, and makes them learn from all of the departments and countries where Maersk’s business operates. Employee Motivation At Maersk, employees are constantly taken care of. They strive to motivate their employees so that they actively perform for the success of the organization. This is possible through a various ways of motivation that the company chooses to take on. Rewards and Recognition: Many different rewards are given to the employees and they are recognized for their high performance. Rewards like star performer of the year, Team awards, Employee of the quarter, bonuses etc. motivate their employees. Employee training: Maersk makes sure that employees are fed with motivational trainings so that they participate in the work with more dedication. Mentoring: The Managers at Maersk guide their subordinates at every step of the work. (Maersk Line, 2009) THE CULTURE ELEMENT THAT DOES NOT FIT Maersk has a set of very good cultural elements that is made by the deeply engraved values in the employees. One culture that they haven’t adopted well is-competition. Maersk’s vision is to be the undisputed leader in the industry. The vision itself relates to competing the competitors and then being the best. The employees are not given an environment where they compete with each other to become the best. This is however not encouraged in the organization because it leads to organizational politics rivalry between the employees. However, they can still create healthy competition between the employees to get the most out of them. (Raza, 2011) Bibliography AP Moller Maersk. (n.d.). Who we are. Retrieved from Maersk.com: http://www.maersk.com/AboutMaersk/WhoWeAre/Pages/WhoWeAre.aspx Heathfield, S. M. (n.d.). Culture: Your Environment for People at Work. About.com, p. 2. Human resource, Maersk Group. (2009). Values Introduction to New Employees. Coupenhegan . Maersk. (2009). Driving a Performance Culture. Maersk Line. Maersk Group. (2010). Our Vision. Coupenhegan : Maersk Group. Maersk HongKong. (n.d.). Corporate Culture. Retrieved March 27, 2011, from Maersk: http://www.maerskship-hk.com/employees/corporate_culture.php Maersk Hongkong. (n.d.). Our Workplace. Retrieved march 27, 2010, from Maersk Hongkong: http://www.maerskship-hk.com/employees/workplace.php Maersk Line. (2009). Motivating Performance. Maersk Line. Maersk Line. (2009). Performance Management. Maersk Line. Raza, M. (2011, March 25). HR Director. (F. Tufail, Interviewer) Read More