HRM case study exercise

Techno Co. is an international IT company. Its workforce numbers over 90,000 employees and its headquarters are in the USA. Until 2000 the company structure was organised into relatively independent geographical areas. Thus, the German headquarters in Berlin had the autonomy to take decisions independently of the New York headquarters and the European headquarters in Paris. A result of this devolved structure was that few, if any, truly global HRM policies existed. HR practices in reward, training, flexibility and performance management differed substantially between countries. There was however, a strong corporate culture that applied throughout the organisation and which supported a set of company-wide core values. One such value was the strong anti-union stance emanating from the US.  

Techno Co utilised innovative and sophisticated HRM practices to marginalise trade unions and has been successful in defeating union attempts to achieve recognition in the US, UK and elsewhere. In Germany however, Techno Co does recognise trade unions. The German operation has a strong body of elected representatives which is consistent with German employment law. A number of these representatives are members of the union and they have a powerful voice in decisions relating to the workforce. Until 2000 Techno Co took part in industry-wide bargaining which set the pay and conditions of the majority of the company’s employees.

In the early 2000s Techno Co began to lose its monopoly status. It also began to encounter economic problems as a result of a growth in domestic and global competition. A new CEO was appointed and made some fundamental changes to the business strategy. Decision making was taken out of the control of local managers and autonomy at the local level was reduced. Responsibility shifted from local headquarters such as London to regional headquarters such as the European headquarters in Paris. Moreover, the company was restructured around business units, each of which became responsible for a range of products. Business units were encouraged to standardise management functions such as marketing finance and HRM across global operations.

Your group is in charge of HRM for the IT Solutions business unit which has design, production and distribution operations in 70 countries. Your task is to decide the following:

1.      Which HR practices would you standardise on a global basis?

2.      Where might you allow differences in HRM?

3.      How will you ensure that all your subsidiaries across the 70 countries implement your global policies?

4.      Why have you chosen these options?

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