GHRM practices in some MNCs

Presentation by

Rafshad Mahamood
Roll No.: 15 S4 MBA (IB)

GHRM practices in 2 MNCs

IBM
IBM has had robust discussions around how to make their HR managers to be more consultative more strategic. To develop successful global HR practices they focused on two areas: 1. Through leadership from countries, regions, and divisions, and 2. Buy-in

IBM corporate supplies support for their local HR units through various means 1) One form of support comes from creating programs that can be adapted locally to shifts in the environment. This enables HR subunits ability to develop custom systems and practices with an ever-watchful eye on the constant changing needs of IBM clients

2) Another example is the corporate allowing the definition of employee performance to be relative. This allowed regional leaders to base performance ratings for their employees off peers within the region rather than corporatewide.

3) A final illustration of increased autonomy is IBM corporate turning the distribution of compensation over to regional managers. Corporate understands that empowering local autonomy can be very complex and requires extensive creativity and innovation.

Training in IBM
IBM places a strong emphasis on training as a strong driver of knowledge sharing. Currently IBM budgets $700 million annually towards formal classroom training and online learning. They have created an On Demand learning strategy that, according to Nancy Lewis, Vice President, IBM On Demand Learning, allows IBM to bring, the learning to work,-- an exciting new era of learning that promises to leverage the collective expertise of employees, teams, and organizations throughout its enterprise.

Challenges
Internationally, IBM has faced unique challenges For instance, in Europe the branches are highly integrated in knowledge sharing within their region but run into difficultly extracting relevant knowledge from the U.S. or other outside regions. They also recognize that different geographies and even different business units may require varied levels of HR expertise.

Solutions
To combat these challenges IBM focuses on three things: 1. Eighteen to twenty-four month job rotations 2. Numerous training opportunities 3. Five-minute Drill.

 Training focuses on doing HR in countries outside of their own and can be in the form of formal training, paid school, workshops, as well as other options The Five-minute Drill refers to checking in periodically on key employees and is used exclusively in Europe (Executives are expected at any moment to be able to discuss about any high-potential manager)

Conclusion
IBMs Asia-Pacific divisions incorporate a tremendous amount of new practice development and knowledge sharing among their HR groups. It is typically thought that almost all HR innovation has its roots in IBMs corporate U.S. office but this is not the case always. There are times when practices formed in the U.S. are simply deemed unacceptable in other countries

TOYOTA
Toyota maintains high profile in its HRM policies and practices too. Ian Winfied of university of Derby, UK who conducted a detailed field study on Toyotas HRM, strongly believes that human resource practices of this company can serve as a model, particularly in manufacturing and production oriented organizations

HR framework of Toyota
Toyotas HRM framework broadly comprises of four goals as described below: 1. 2. 3. 4. The goal of organizational integration The goal of commitment The goal of flexibility and adaptability The goal of quality

1. The goal of organizational integration:The integration of employees at individual and collective level with organization is seen as the primary goal of Toyota HRM strategy. This goal has been achieved through extensive use of teams that are subordinate to organizational goals. Welfare of employees also received wide attention as a part of this goal.

2. The goal of commitment:In order to achieve this goal, a two-pronged strategy was followed. Firstly, Toyota preferred semi-rural workforce for induction in their plants. They believe that people who are not contaminated by industrial culture and influences tend to retain with them a kind of feudal value of loyalty, which can be converted into organizational commitment. Secondly, measures such as suggestion schemes, quality circles and employee involvement methods are used to gain commitment.

3. The goal of flexibility and adaptability

Team authority in place of single individual holding paved way for realizing flexibility in the organization. These teams are task-based and can be dismantled or restructured, depending upon the situation. The adaptability trait is institutionalized through the approach of multiskilling and job rotations.

4. The goal of quality

Self, peer and teams surveillance techniques are used to ensure quality of products. Further, a series of measures employed, such as time and motion study, benchmarking, continuous process improvement and employee involvement contributed in the achievement of this goal.

Managerial Implication
This model has two prime practical implications. Firstly, it serves as an ideal model in terms of how an HRM strategy must be made. In other words, a sound HRM strategy should have super ordinate goals linked to organizational goals and these goals must be rendered to core HRM practices. Secondly, the mix of local ethos with international practices to obtain commitment and organizational integration of workforce serves as a great learning tool.