UNIT 1 - Global HRM strategies The case of Aretalgni Inc. Aretalgni Inc.

is a corporation with 350 employees and presence in 10 countries (UK, Germany, France, Australia, USA, Canada, New Zeeland, Island, Ireland and Taiwan. Their headquarters are based in the UK and the corporation operates business in the financial sector, engineering and construction, and international commerce. With a strong corporate culture, top-down chain of command, highly standardized internal procedures and hierarchical structure the corporation has relatively good work stability for managers and little mobility of employees. The top executives and middle management are UK citizens and operative staff are from the local countries where they hold their operations These, with a relatively high rotation generating an expensive learning curve. The organization of this corporation is a classic pyramidal structure where a board composed by a representative of each region (Europe, Austrasia and America) and each area of business (Director of the finances division, Director of engineering division and Director of commercial division) plus the representatives of the shareholders (15 members). They select every year in a general meeting the president of the company who, in turn, nominates the CEO for each of the branches. After that level, each branch in each country has a local manger that selects and hires local personnel at will as required. Finances and HRM are centralized in London and logistics and operations are under the administration of local managers with the supervision of the country COO. UK Operates in the 3 divisions and is home of the headquarters USA - Operates in the commercial and Finances division FRANCE Finances and Commercial divisions GERMANY - Operates the 3 divisions AUSTRALIA Operates the 3 divisions CANADA - Operates the 3 divisions NEW ZEELAND - Finances and Engineering divisions ISLAND Finances division IRELAND Finances and Engineering divisions TAIWAN Finances and commercial divisions Aretalgni Inc. Statement of Mission and Vision: We produce money

Recently, the corporation took over a couple of family business via aggressive acquisition to expand its scope - geographical influence and diversify their portfolio. The first company acquired was a small private university in Oxfordshire, close to London. This university has 250 staff members under open-end contract covering the academic and administrative functions. As it was a family business their environment is friendly and they offered flexibility and autonomy to all the different departments as long as the objectives where achieved. Just 5% of the personnel are not from the UK and they didnt developed any aggressive plan of expansion in the last 5 years. The plan of the corporation is to strength and improve the qualification of the university, use it to provide specialized training to its employees and embrace an aggressive plan of expansion opening subsidiary campuses in Taiwan, Brazil and Dubai to offer highly ranked postgraduate courses in finances, management and international commerce. The second company the corporation took over was a family business working in international commerce with offices in Brazil, Miami and headquarters in Panama. With 35 employees, most of them family members this company offered to its customers the logistics and commercial support to move and offer manufacturing products from Brazil, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan in the USA and Latin American Market. After the death of the founder of the company (grandfather) the company was under a chaotic management with lots of internal power conflict. Each branch developed independent procedures and without centralized coordination each office tried (and failed) to develop independent business. While taking control of this commercial company the corporation wants to reinforce its commercial activities adding to the existing infrastructure in Taiwan, UK and Germany. The objective is to develop a strong logistic network connecting Taiwan, China and Brazil with the centres of consumption (USA and the European Market / UK, Germany, France). The expansion plan also considers the inclusion of operations in India Russia and Ukraine. The technological platform of the corporation consists of 4 main servers located in UK, Australia, Taiwan and USA. To administrate the intra-networks they use to administrate the different activities in each of the offices in the 10 countries. The new acquisitions are working each one with its own server to administrate their respective intranet. The initial evaluation indicated that the university was behind the current practices in virtual education and the platform was about to be obsolete as they used many procedures based on printed forms. The commercial company used a different language based in Microsoft applications whereas the

corporation was using Oracle to administrate and do data mining in large databases. To face the new plan of expansion a review in procedures and performance was carried out finding that urgent changes are in need to be implemented. Among them, a radical re-evaluation of hiring policies as it was found that some discomfort exist with the fact that there is no room for local executives to progress in their careers, and that the executives become complacent after a while working in the same country/position. In general, due the standardized procedures in place the work runs by inertia and creativity, innovation and the sense of challenge are absent in most of the executives. To prepare the corporation to its new stage of expansion you have been contracted as external expert to: Outline the new HRM Strategy of Aretalgni Inc. To do so you will need to: a. Critically evaluate the key economic drivers that would have influence in the strategy for expansion of Aretalgni Inc. b. Analyze how these economical variables would have impact in the development of the new HRM strategy for Aretalgni Inc. c. Set up goals of employee commitment, flexibility, quality and strategic integration with the further developments of the corporation. d. Understanding the theory and evidence related with the conceptual relation between HRM and organizational performance, evaluate the impact that the new HRM strategy would have in the current practices of the corporation e. Analyze organizational, national and cultural issues that may influence the new HRM strategy and recommend how these issues could be addressed to implement the new HRM strategy. You must support all your arguments and suggestions with strong evidence (relevant specialized literature, citations and quotations when necessary). UNIT 2 Human Resource Development

To implement your HRM strategy and to prepare the corporation to face the challenges coming with their expansion activities you will need to design and suggest the implementation of some policies and practices related with HRD. To do so you will need to: a. Suggest the model theory and model of training that suits better with the identity and plans of the corporation b. Undertake a training needs analysis and recommend interventions to support the development of Aretalgni Inc. growth strategy c. Suggest other employee development methods that can contribute to improve the performance of the corporation in its expansion plans provide notes about their efficacy and long-term effect in the performance of the organization. d. Examine the applicability of new trends in employee development. You must provide an executive report supported with relevant literature, citations, examples and quotes when considered necessary. UNIT 3 Managing Change in International Organizations The new expansion of Aretalgni Inc. comprehends the inclusion of new executives, new branches and new operations some of them in unknown contexts implying change and risk. TO keep in control of these new operations and branches and to cope with the future demands of the organization if the growth expectations are achieved; some changes in the organizational structure must be considered. To suggest the necessary changes you will need to: a. Analyze the existing structure and suggest one design able to cope with the new shape of the business. b. Forecast areas in which conflict and resistance to change would be present and suggest methods to cope with these situations if they arise. c. Consider the impact of the changes forthcoming in the individual motivation and work attitudes of present and future employees. Suggest some measures to be considered in this area in order to improve the organizational performance. UNIT 4 - Managing the implementation of new technologies and working practices

The new acquired businesses are operating under different standards both at the technological and administrative level. Changes must be implemented and the directives of Aretalgni Inc. decided that they want to impose their current platform and working practices (even if they need to be modified) to the acquired companies and further new developments. As new technologies and working practices have to be developed and implemented in both, the new acquisitions and the existing branches of the corporation, you need to provide a plan to support such changes. To achieve that you will need to: a. Design a plan for the HRM director and staff - describing roles and responsibilities - to support the implementation of the new technologies and 2 of the new key working practices that you can identify in this process of transition. b. Forecast areas in which problems with the adoption of new technologies may cause discomfort and affect the attitude of workers towards the use of such new technologies c. Evaluate and suggest (new) forms of work organization that may emerge as result of the implementation of new technologies. d. Provide an analysis and design a strategy for the management of workers considering the new scope and activities of the corporation. Suggest methods and tools that could be use to implement such practices based on the use of new technologies. You must support al your arguments and suggestions with strong evidence (relevant specialized literature, citations and quotations when necessary).