Department of Business Management Assignment Sample
Introduction
International human resource management in a broader sense can be explained as the activities related to management, recruitment and skill enhancement of employees working in different countries in which the business organization is operating. In this context, the current study will highlight the IHRM strategies and practices of Marks and Spencer in the United Kingdom as well as India. In addition to that, the study will also utilise the different IHRM theories and models in order to properly explain the IHRM practices and strategies in relation to leadership of the concerned organisation. Apart from that, a set of recommendations will also be included in the study for enhancing the performance of the HRM in India.
Main body
There are a number of IHRM approaches, which are being used by different business organisations all across the globe in order to efficiently establish the business in different parts of the world. These approaches include polycentric approach, ethnocentric approach and geocentric approach. All of the mentioned approaches have certain advantages as well as drawbacks. Polycentric approach is a method of recruitment under which the MNCs recruit the employees from the host country at managerial positions (Zhu, 2019). This approach of IHRM is comparatively less expensive than other approaches and it provides the locals with the opportunities of employment without being partial towards the parent company. Sometimes this approach isolates the headquarters from its foreign subsidiaries due to the presence of local employees at managerial posts. On the other hand, ethnocentric approach focuses on hiring people from their parent country to fill the different positions all over the world (Zhong et al. 2021).
Marks and Spencer is a renowned company operating in the fashion industry and it has already established itself in multiple countries of the world including India successfully. The company uses the geocentric approach of IHRM and focuses on hiring the efficient candidates for different job posts irrespective of their origin and nationality. This approach has helped the organisation to effectively enhance the overall performance by ensuring the recruitment of most talented and skilled workers.
Geocentric approach is one of the methods of recruitment adapted by international business organisations. According to this approach, multinational business organisations hire the best suitable candidates for a job regardless of their nationality (Furusawa and Brewster, 2019). Companies, which are absolutely global in nature, majorly adapt to this strategy. There are a number of advantages for implementing this approach in the recruitment process of employees. At the same time, it has several limitations and disadvantages as well. For example, the advantages of this approach includes that, through this approach the multinational companies can utilise the expertise of their managers and workers for accomplishing the company’s goals and objectives as a whole (Košičiarová et al. 2021). As the employees belong from different parts of the world, they possess the knowledge of works gathered from their respective countries, which enhances the performance of the organisation effectively. This approach is ethically fair as well as it reduces the chances of unfair treatment by focusing on the talent of the individuals rather than their origin, nationality or other aspects. Apart from that, it also helps in building a strong culture network. On the other hand, limitations of this approach include the time consuming process of recruitment (Jiang and Yahiaoui, 2019). Proper investigation and scrutiny is required for the selection of the most appropriate candidate in this process, which increases the time of the process. In addition to that, in many instances training and relocation costs also increase at the time of transferring managers from one nation to another.
Another paradigm to assess the different ways in which the IHRM activities are being conducted is convergence and divergence approach. These approaches can also be referred to as universalist and contextual paradigms. According to the convergence approach or universalist paradigm, the practices and policies of human resource management can shift from one country to another (Parry et al. 2021). This approach believes that if a particular set of policies and practices are working efficiently in one country, then it will prove to be beneficial in another country as well. On the contrary, contextual paradigm or divergence approach advocates that before implementing the HRM practices in a country, an organisational internal and external factors need to be considered completely (Tayali and Sakyi, 2020). This approach compares the working system of one country from the working system of another country and then determines the similarities and dissimilarities between them. After identifying the similarities and differences, a new set of practices and policies can be developed for establishing the business in the host country efficiently.
Marks and Spencer IHRM adopts a divergent approach for operating in the host countries without facing any major cultural issues. This approach minimises the risk of hurting cultural sentiments of the consumers and ensures the implementation of best set of HRM practices in the business by comparing and evaluating the working systems of the company. Even though this approach sometimes fails to properly evaluate the socio-cultural influence of HRM practices on the success of business, still it has proven to be an ineffective approach.
Global leadership can be significantly defined as leading people that are based in multiple nations of the world. In other words, global leadership is leading people from different cultures and backgrounds for achieving growth of the organisations. Global leadership is extensively crucial for handling people efficiently and lowering employee retention rate along with igniting employee efficiencies (Kamalaveni et al. 2019). However, implementing global leadership has various challenges that can make the efforts of leaders critical. One of the most significant challenges of implementing global leadership effectively is handling cultural conflicts. Global leaders are known to work across people of various cultures. Furthermore, different people from different cultural backgrounds can have distinctive values and priorities that the global leaders can find critical to handle appropriately by aligning with the company’s vision.
Additionally, other significant challenges can be stated as creating shared goals along with implementation of shared work. Global leadership plays a very crucial role in bringing together goals of the employees in achieving overall growth in performance and success of the companies (Al Khajeh, 2018). Thus, it becomes crucial for the global leaders that are working under global organisations to find ways for bringing together the goals of the employees for achieving integrated success of the companies. However, due to different cultural perspectives among employees, creation of shared goals and implementation of shared work becomes extensively critical. Thus, global leaders need to walk an extra mile for building trust among the teams and also need to appreciate and respect different cultures for successfully implementing global leadership, creating a synchronous alignment towards mission and work.
On the other hand, implementation of global leadership has another challenge of communicating across barriers. Communication can be referred to as a key for achieving systematic growth of the companies by enhancing employee motivation and efficiency (Islami et al. 2018). However, with virtual spaces and differences in geographies, communicating effectively becomes significantly critical. Additionally, global leaders also face issues with language barriers while implementing leadership among the employees of different geographies. It can be stated that appropriate implementation of global leadership is extensively crucial for bringing forth growth of a company. With a systematic leadership implementation, the companies can encounter different issues in the context of lower productivity due to lack of motivation, communication and others. Thus, these mentioned challenges need to be overcome appropriately for successful implementation of global leadership in global organisations.
Global leadership plays a vital role in achieving working efficiencies in the companies. With effective implementation of global leadership, different aspects of employee-centric approaches can be achieved such as enhancing working productivity, efficiency, motivation, lowering employee turnover rate and others (Al-Jedaia and Mehrez, 2020). One of the foremost crucial impacts of global leadership is increasing the job satisfaction of the employees. Employees can be regarded as one of the most crucial assets of any organisation. Thus, achieving employee satisfaction is extensively essential, which would directly impact employee efficiency and growth of the companies. It needs to be stated that apart from just getting salaries from the companies, employees also seek mental and physical well-being for staying in the companies for an extended period of time (Inceoglu et al. 2018).
Furthermore, this factor of employee satisfaction can be greatly achieved through appropriate implementation of global leadership. Additionally, different employees from different cultures come together to work harmoniously in companies. Thus, it is the responsibility of the leaders to behave efficiently to make the employees feel energetic and high in morale. Global leadership impacts significantly towards efficiently achieving talent management in the companies. Additionally, through effective team building exercises and training among the employees, the internal working culture can be positively impacted for increasing productivity and thereby profitability of the organisations (Pathiranage, 2019).
Internal working environment of the companies play a massive role, in terms of being an intangible dividend that assists in boosting the company’s bottom line. Employees that love their job want to have a positive working environment for enhancing their mental well-being by enjoying working with their co-workers and achieving individual targets in a positive manner. Thus, with efficient global leadership, the internal working environment can be extensively nurtured that is known to value, respect and provide worth to every employee. These also impact the creativity and innovation aspects of the employees. With a fruitful global leadership in effect, the employees from different nations become free from any unnecessary burden that unlocks their individual creativity aspects, which directly impacts on growth of the organisations (Duan et al. 2018). Furthermore, with the advancement of time, technologies are also getting rapidly evolved that is impacting on providing companies with a competitive edge. Thus, with effective global leadership, the employees also become mentally prepared for accepting change in organisations.
The international human resource management can be referred to as a crucial factor that assists in determining the achievement of growth of companies in the long run (Lavelle, 2018). Furthermore, culture plays a crucial role in developing an efficient working environment that impact on efficiency and profitability of the organisations. Thus, the IHRM of the company needs to enforce appropriate cultures within organisations in different nature for systematically achieving company development. As per the insights of Hofstede, different countries have different cultures that need to be analysed efficiently for enforcing appropriate leadership styles.
It can be seen that both country’s cultures different significantly from one another. In case of power distance, it can be noticed that India stands at 77, whereas, the UK stands at 35 (Hofstede-insights, 2022). This states that the culture of Marks and Spencer needs to be adjusted as per the nation’s culture for achieving company development through IHRM in that significant country. Indian culture is more restricted and under control, unlike the UK that requires freeness in the cultural environment for growth. Additionally, in terms of individualism, the UK stands at 89, whereas India stands at 48 (Hofstede-insights, 2022) (Refer to appendix 1). This states that the culture of the UK is more of collectivistic nature for achieving long term success. In a similar manner, the culture of different countries needs to be understood for achieving appropriate development in the company.
From the environmental analysis, the difference in environment of the UK and India can be significantly understood and the IHRM practices can also be analysed from various factors (Refer to appendix 2). Certain factors can be noticed that impacts on the IHRM of the company in both the countries.
Understanding of social factors for appropriately bringing other strategies and practice of IHRM is crucial. It can be noticed that the literacy rate of the UK is 99% (UNA, 2022). On the other hand, in India it is 74.04% (GOV, 2022). Thus, it can be stated that implementation of IHRM practices or strategies would be extensively feasible and flexible in the UK in contrast to India. With increase in intelligence, literacy and efficiency of the employees, implementation of organisational strategies becomes easy, which in turn would contribute towards the growth or success of the company.
From the environmental analysis, it can be noticed that the UK is working forward to bring about a high level of technological advancements (Refer to appendix 2). In this regard, for instance, the IHRM of Marks and Spencer is also bringing further technological advancement in terms of AI, machine learning and others for achieving increased efficiencies (Yates-Roberts, 2019). Additionally, the company in the UK is also hiring 85 tech specialists for helping accelerate the online haul for advancing further in the market (Stevens, 2021). However, in India, it can be noticed that the government is planning to invest further in science and technologies, which would enable the IHRM of the company to incorporate advanced technologies for achieving growth in that particular country.
Abiding by the legal terms of the countries is essential for systematically advancing in the market without encountering any legal issues. In this regard, for instance, it can be seen that Marks and Spencer has been abiding with the employee protection and other laws as enforced by the government of UK such as the Employee Act 1996 and the Equality Act 2010. Additionally, for appropriately conducting business in India, the IHRM of the company is following Indian laws like the Factories Act 1948 and the Minimum Wage Act 1948. Through maintaining these by the IHRM of the company, the business is getting conducted efficiently.
Environment is a crucial factor for contributing towards development and nourishment of the planet by the companies. Thus, from the analysis, it can be seen that in the UK, there has been a growth in awareness for focusing on environmental wellbeing (Refer to appendix 2). For instance, Marks and Spencer in this regard have undertaken various strategies for positively impacting the planet. The company has undertaken a mission to become net zero by 2040 (Marks and Spencer, 2021). Additionally, in India, the IHRM of the company has launched programs like Clothes Exchange Program for recycling and helping people live a more sustainable lifestyle (Kanti, 2018).
It has been observed from the above conducted analysis that there are huge differences between the HRM practices and strategies that have been adopted by Marks and Spencer in the UK and India. These differences are due to the cultural and environmental differences of both the countries. Hence, in this section a set of strategies are being recommended, which could have been implemented by Marks and Spencer in India.
People management approach
HRM of Marks and Spencer could focus on developing a strategy, which emphasises more on creating a working environment where the people belonging from different cultures could work together effectively. It has been observed from the above analysis that in India, individualism is very low and the culture of the country focuses on the impact of an activity on society largely. Therefore, the leaders of the organisation could focus on developing a strategy, which promotes collectivism work culture. This strategy could have helped the organisation to effectively utilise the skills of the employees for enhancing the overall performance of the company. Collective working strategy enables the employees to know each other well (Merkel, 2019). It eventually allows them to shape their behaviour and working style in accordance with the team. There are certain limitations of implementing this work culture in the organisation, which could have negatively impacted the performance of the company. These limitations include that this type of work culture could increase competition (Crick and Crick, 2020). In addition to that, the competition among the employees and the arrival of conflicts could also have increased. Conflicts among the employees have the potential to reduce their work efficiency, which can be disadvantageous for the organisations as well. Despite these limitations, collective working strategy could have proven to be beneficial for the growth of the organisation in India.
Recruitment strategy
It has been mentioned in the study that Marks and Spencer utilises a geocentric approach of recruitment. From the above analysis, it can be stated that the leaders of the concerned organisation could shift its approach to polycentric approach in India. Power distance in India is quite high as compared to the UK hence; this approach could have impacted the performance in a positive manner. Polycentric approach could have enhanced the relationship between the authority and their subordinates effectively (Cong et al. 2021). The fact that both managers as well as labourers belong to the same nation in this approach, this strategy could have proven to be advantageous for the organisation to a large extent. Adapting to this approach has the potential of isolating the headquarter of the company from its subordinates (Meuer et al. 2019). Despite that, it could have worked well in India as per its power distance value. Therefore, the leaders of Marks and Spencer could focus on implementing a polycentric strategy in India for the proper growth of the business in the country with a profound focus on cultural instincts.
Overall, it can be stated that even though the company is performing well in India there is scope of improvement in the HRM strategies and policies of Marks and Spencer in India. These improvements can facilitate the growth of the company in the host country to some extent.
Conclusion
It can be concluded from the study that Marks and Spencer have it’s headquarter located in the UK and the organisation is operating in India quite well, with its strategies and practices. The company has adapted to a geocentric strategy of recruiting the managers and employees from all across the globe. In addition to that, the company uses a divergence approach to the working system, which has benefited the organisation to a great extent. Apart from that, large differences in culture and internal and external environmental factors of business were observed between both the countries. For example, individualism in the UK is very high as compared to India. Based on these differences, it is recommended that the company can promote collective working culture in India.
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