BSS058-6 Strategy and the Global Competitive Environment Assignment Sample
BSS058-6 Strategy and the Global Competitive Environment Assignment Sample
Introduction
International human resources practice can be set as a process which involves recruitment, selection, training and development of human resources in Multinational Corporation. With globalization, it has become essential for the enterprise to formulate effective strategies to manage human resources. Human resources managers make use of strategic approaches to support employees by providing a healthy and safe environment, rewarding and recognizing their work and many more that lead in enhancing their overall productivity (Meijerink and Keegan, 2019).
Countries like Australia, through having liberal economy, are able to promote increased efficiency, innovation and higher productivity as there is free competition among the companies. There is less intervention from the government in the process of the enterprise in liberal market, so each of the companies have different HR policies related to the way employees must be managed in the global workplace. While, Germany and Japan are two best examples of countries that are having key characteristics of a coordinated market economy as they have a rigid labor market. In such a market there is long term interaction among the workers, trade unions and employees are being protected through business law (Gooderham et. al. 2019). That is, the employment contract act of Germany clearly mentioned all the rights that employees have such as equal opportunities, minimum wages and other benefits.
This report will highlight key information pertaining to the human resources practices being differ in liberal and collaborated market economies. In this the two countries are being selected to understand the difference between her practices in different economies like Australia and Germany. Likewise, Australia has a liberal economy while Germany has a collaborative economic market. The main aim of the study is to know about the several human resources practices being utilized by her manager in different economies to handle the global workforce.
1. The manner in which human resources practices differ between liberal and coordinated market economies, selection of one practice for comparison and two specific countries
Human resources manager is responsible for managing the global workforce by recruitment, selecting, developing and training them related to the way specific tasks must be done. In the present analysis, the example of Australia and Germany is being selected to understand the Hr practices being performed in specific countries (Demougin et. al. 2019). Such as:
In the context of liberal economic market conditions, the firm generally relies on a competitive market to get access to labor, skills, finance and technology. That is, Australia is having liberal economy in which many of the large multinational companies have tried to follow legal and formal methods to deal with trade unions. Such markets are highly cost competitive and the infrastructure is more radically innovative which means the employees have a set of skills to make use of this innovative technology while completing their respective task (Cumming et. al. 2020). That is, in such a market the HR is able to effectively influence employees to adapt itself as per the changing environment condition, learn new techniques and procedures to complete a particular assigned task.
On the other hand, in the coordinated market, the enterprise heavily relies on collaboration arrangements to get access to financial and human resources for smooth operation of the enterprise. Coordinated markets are coordinated by Association or Trade unions that contribute in handling economic cooperation through negotiating with labor groups, political leaders and other things. This has contributed in maintaining a sense of coordination and collaboration between the different individuals as they are clearly specified about tasks that they need to actually perform (Hassel and Palier, 2021). In short, it can be said that coordinate market economics accommodates economic interdependencies through bargains between the trade union representative, organized business as well as political elites.
Moreover, there is greater difference in terms of industrial relationships present in liberal and coordinated markets. The reason is, in Australia, the coordination and negotiation is being limited to the company level only, however, in the context of Germany, the industrial relationships are based on collective bargaining at sector level. Apart from this, the salary and working conditions present in Australia are different in different enterprises due to liberalization. They are provided wages on the basis of existing skills, knowledge and qualification that they actually have to perform a particular task (Snower, 2019). On the other hand, the HR of Germany offers wages, salaries as well as workplace conditions as per the standard set by the government. In short, all of the HR managers try to offer minimum and equal wages to all the employees so that they can live a better lifestyle.
Employees in Australia have more power to easily mobilize for a particular job to another due to plenty of employment opportunities available in an external environment. So, with high mobilization, the HR manager is not much interested in providing proper training and development to the employees. The reason is, if it will move to another enterprise or its competitors then all the resources and efforts invested to train the employees will be wasted to maximum extent (Macke and Genari, 2019). Therefore, instead of offering training, the HR manager of Australia spends the time and resources in attracting and recruiting more highly qualified, trained employees.
Similarly, in such a liberal economy, the HR manager makes contracts that last for a specific time period only and they need to be renewed after some time. This means the employees of Australia do not have permanent contracts to work with specific enterprises and gain a specific number of wages for their work. In Germany, most of the human resource managers focus on making investment in training and development of the employees as it will influence them to work for the enterprise for many years (Schedelik et. al. 2021). HR managers try to reward and recognize the efforts being put by each employee that contribute in influencing them to put maximum efforts for benefits of the enterprise.
Due to the short-term employment relationship in liberal market, the HR manager laid emphasis on development of generic skills among the individuals. So, that they are able to complete some simple and generic tasks being allotted to them in the enterprise. Likewise, they have developed skills of communication, leadership and decision making which are actually required to work in any enterprise and are generic in nature (Mathafena et. al. 2019). It does not involve much wastage of time and efforts of HR manager and through this it is able to get maximum outcome from the employees by putting minimum efforts.
Furthermore, in Germany, the HR manager practices offering unlimited working contracts to the employees in which they have capability to work for the enterprise, until and unless there is a major cause or issue. In short, the long-term employment relationship has developed a confidence among the HR manager to invest heavily on training and development of employees. With a motivation that they are able to learn the way a particular task must be done and specific objectives could be attained (Cristiani and Peiró, 2019). They get inspired as they think the company heavily invests in providing them support and guidance related to the way specific activity must be completed for a particular outcome. In short, this type of practice, contributes in encouraging their active participation in different activities of the firm and leads to its success.
In addition to this, in the coordinate market economy likewise, Germany, the HR manager tries to develop industrial specific or company specific skills that are more in demand with an aim that the employees are able to do the assigned task. Gradual learning of new and new skills leads to developing a confidence among the staff members that they will be able to perform specific tasks in the desired manner. Apart from this, there are chances of more strikes happening in coordinated countries like Germany as compared to Australia as the issue is at industry level (Mansion and Bausch, 2020). While, in liberal market, the issue is solved at company level only so there will be no strike. So, the HR manager of Germany tries to practice to formulate strong relationships with trade unions by listening to their grievances and finding alternative methods to resolve them.
Due to liberal economic market, Australia is having more inequality among the employees working in multinational companies as compared to the coordinate market of Germany. This influenced the HR manager of Australia to undertake more practices to promote equality among the employees through offering equal wages, working environment and other benefits to them. This will lead to influencing them to devote more energy, effort and time to get a higher outcome (Aligica et. al. 2019). In-equality among the employees results in the arising of conflict and confusion among the team mates, indirectly adversely harming the overall operation and productivity of the enterprise to more extent. Thus, they are not at all ready to put much more effort into the benefits of enterprise as they are not recognized by the company.
As per the industry wide bargaining, the wages and working hours of the employees are being decided by the Human resource manager of Germany. Works Constitution Act of 1952 is one of the legislations that specified employee’s needs to maintain a positive relationship with the work councils. The human resources or personnel department of Germany has to follow a comprehensive and detailed legislative with a motive to promote collaborative practices. So, it is a powerful elected body that contributes in providing access to the information, consultation and co-determinations (Bogoviz et. al. 2021). Manager practices or undertakes all the activities that are specified in the agreement so that there are no legal or ethical issues from which the company has to suffer in future scenarios.
The below image depicts information related to the factors that need to be considered in context of determining the basic salary of the employees working in coordinated markets such as Germany. That is, education qualification, work experience, seniority of position and many others key factors that are explained as:
In addition to this, the 8-box model could be utilized to understand the way HR managers of different countries take decisions related to practices that must be performed to recruit, retained highly talented employees in Germany and Australia. This model suggests that there are different internal and external factors that influence the effectiveness of HR.
Intended HR practice: Generally, the HR manager of Germany lays focus on retaining the existing workforces through providing them appropriate salary, reward and recognition and abiding to the collaborative agreement. Its intention is to provide proper training and development so that they get industry specific skills and learn the way assigned tasks could be completed (Hassel and Palier, 2021).
On the contrary note, the HR of Australia or liberal economy intended to hire new and new talented individuals as per the market situation to have more fresh workforces in the enterprise. Not much training and guidance is provided to the employees as HR thinks that they will move to another organization.
Actual HR practice: Actual HR practices of both the countries like Germany and Australia is to offer appropriate wages to the employees so that they are ready to put more effort for the benefits of the company. But in the liberal market, due to heavy competition, the HR manager is not able to provide a proper remuneration that leads to influencing employees to easily switch from one firm to another for getting better employment opportunities (Gooderham et. al. 2019).
While, in actuality, the HR of coordinate economy is able to easily promote a sense of coordination between the team members or employees through having predetermined rules and regulations for all. The individuals are enforced to follow specific rules that are coordinated and determined by them which helps in getting maximum outcome.
Perceived HR practices: In Australia, the employees are liberal or free to perform their respective tasks but the contract determines the leaves, salary, rules and procedures that they have to follow while working in the organization. Employees in Australia are not very interested in communicating or building relationships with others, which makes it difficult for the HR manager to coordinate (Ererdi et. al. 2022). Moreover, the chances of inequality among the employees increased to more extent. However, in the context of Germany where there is a coordinated economy, employees coordinately work together as a team for achievement of the end objective. The reason is, the rules and procedure being followed by them are coordinately designed that helps in getting optimum outcome.
HR outcome: The outcome of the HR practices being implemented in different manner in different countries, that is, Germany and Australia. Her practice of Australia by not providing much training and development has resulted in losing the employees or having short term relationships with them. Similarly, more wages and growth opportunities to employees that have worked hard during the year have influenced others to productively contribute to the growth and success of the enterprise (Schedelik et. al. 2021). However, in Germany, Hr performed the practices of offering training as well as development opportunities to the employees that lead in maintaining a strong long-term relationship with the firm. So, in a coordinated economy, the HR manager does not have to incur more and more costs to hire employees that work for the growth and benefits of the organization.
Furthermore, through the research, it has been extracted that in Germany, the HR manager of companies working in the retail sector often offers the new employees learning options under the specialist. That contributes in getting professional training and learning industrial specific skills that they actually required to be selected within the enterprise and performed specific tasks. However, in Australia, liberal economy, the employees are teaching general skills that could easily be learned without much investment of time or effort (Gribling and Duberley, 2021). In this, the HR manager tries to match the company needs with employee’s expectations that lead in inspiring them to put more effort and be part of the success of the enterprise. Likewise, the main objective of a firm is to have a strong brand image, then it will focus on satisfying the wants of employees through offering them good wages, promotion opportunities and other benefits.
In coordinate economy, the HR manager also laid efforts on listening to the grievances or problem being faced by the individual as their main objective is to retain them within the enterprise for longer run. This contributes in finding appropriate solution for the problem, ensuring healthy working environment and recognising of the employees for their hard work and dedication. That is, HR of Germany treats each and every individual with respect, values their culture and beliefs that lead in influencing them to work coordinated as a team for the end outcome (Mansion and Bausch, 2020). However, Australia does not have to pay much high wages to the employees as it could easily hire new talented employees from different countries due to liberalization. This results in the HR manager not laying much effort on training and developing skills among the individuals that they actually required to gain professional and personal success in future scenarios.
Apart from this, it can be evaluated that in liberal economic market, such as Australia, the HR manager generally takes all decisions; there is less interaction between the employees. Standard procedures are made that clearly determine how and when a particular set of tasks must be done. While, in the coordinate economy country, that is, Germany, the employees are engaged to share their innovative and creative ideas in the training, this contributes in improving the learning and development of skills among peers (Mariotti and Marzano, 2020). They started learning from each other; communicating with each other led to creating a pleasant environment and inspiring them to work productively.
Conclusion
From the above report it can be clearly analyzed that there is significant difference between the hr practices of liberal and collaborative economy. Likewise, in liberal economy, such as Australia, the employees have the opportunity to easily shift from one company to another in search of more growth options. While, in Germany, there is no quick shift of jobs by employees so the HR manager performed practices of providing training and development to the employees. This led in providing appropriate support to the employees working in Germany related to the way tasks must be done without much error or any mistake.
In addition to this, it is learned that there are more chances of inequality being present among employees working in liberal market. In contrast to that in a coordinated market, the employees have equal chances to get wages, positive and healthy working conditions and many other benefits that lead to more output. So, it can be said that the major aim of the human resource manager is to improve the overall performance and productivity of the employees through rewarding and recognizing their efforts to maximum extent. In the present study, the training and development is one of the practices of HR being selected to be compared in the context of liberal and coordinated economic market.
From which it is learned, that in liberal market, there is less emphasis by the HR manager on offering promotion, training, and development opportunities with a fee that can easily shift to get a better employment opportunity (Yang and Lew, 2020). That is, completely differentiated from the coordinate market in which the Hr manager invests more on training and development to develop the existing skills of individuals and get maximum outcome. Therefore, through the above analysis, it is critically analyzed that there is a difference between the HR practices in different countries or economic conditions.
References
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