MGMT212 IKEA Human Resource Plan Assignment Sample

• Subject Code : MGMT212
• Subject Name : Management

Global Comparative Management

Table of Contents

Introduction.

Main Body.

Recommendations for Human Resource Plan.

Conclusion.

Reference List

Introduction to Global Comparative Management

Global comparative Management is the study of managing international operation is host countries by large firms (Grădinaru, Marinescu & Toma, 2016 p92). The organizations are able to focus on identifying the managerial issues and developing solutions. In this assessment, any two issues of cross-cultural human resources would be discussed in alignment to IKEA. Ingvar Kamprad founded the company in the time of 1940s to 1950s (Ikea.com, 2020).

Main Body of Global Comparative Management

The business in the economy is facing globalization on a large scale. This is resulting in international business operations as well, where cultural diverse workforce is constructing to run these in the economy. When a brand wishes to expand its stretch to certain host country, it has to collaborate with that land’s people for better understanding of their resources. Therefore, understanding language barriers and diversity in culture of the employees working in the international infrastructure is essential for efficient human capital engagement (Chandra, 2018 p36). IKEA is a company that is working across 40 countries. It has to identify the cultural difference from its homeland to others in order to adjust with new regulations and to create an environment that helps the employees to gain familiarity. Therefore, in order to manage cross-cultural differences, cross-cultural human resource management is essential to incorporate. Ikea’s 2 major cross cultural human resource issues from a global context are as follows.

Attitudes of Workers and team members - The Company of IKEA has been successful in expanding its business operations across the world. This has led to the mixed culture diversity at its workplace vastly. The company believes that its employee are its brand ambassadors. Their key values covers the aspect of caring for its team members and they believe that all individuals have something unique to offer to its business activities. All its hired employees are diverse in culture with passion for home furnishing in common. IKEA did face some lawsuit regarding forced labour. It affected its reputation, as it is a Swedish giant is furniture retailing. This resulted to them publically apologising for generating income with prisoners in East Germany for three decades (Bbc.com, 2020). This happened because their suppliers from the period of 1960 to 1990 used this labour without informing the top managers, although some executives knew about it. This has led to the development of IWAY, which is the code of conduct for the conditions of working, manufacturing and sourcing raw materials (Ikea.com, 2020). This was created to be followed by anyone who associates with his or her business operations. This declined the rate of corruption and malpractices, which in return influenced the attitudes of workers and other team members effectively.

Work Culture for Diverse staff - The Company has vast international Operations with the inclusion of diverse staff. It tends to welcome all dimensions of cultural diversity and it believes that a diverse staff is good for their own Swedish workers for their international customers and business. The vision and values of IKEA states that it encourages individuals to be themselves and contribute to their uniqueness for overall growth. It tries to construct a working environment where genders of all categories feel empowered. For example, it offers the same parental leave to men as to women, which fosters the culture of gender quality and reduces the pay gap in them. They also support the LGBTQ+ community and welcome them to exploit the opportunities provided by the company without any biasness (Ikea.com, 2020). However, it faced another gender related controversy when it removed the pictures of women from its Saudi Arabia catalogue. They did this because the country was in a political revolution on the matter of fair treatment of women (Theguardian.com, 2012).. Their act after analysing the political environment of Saudi Arabia is not justified, as it is contradictory to its core values. Therefore, it can be concluded that IKEA runs analysis of the political and economic market trends to not face any unwanted lawsuit, but in this case, it backfired because this was not expected from a giant retail furniture business.

Recommendations for Human Resource Plan

The company of IKEA can improve its human resource management plan in various ways. Some of the recommendations are provided below.

1. Diversity is extremely beneficial for workplaces as it promotes equality and openness to accept all kinds of people and their culture and appreciate them based on their talent. The first and foremost thing that shall be done by IKEA is that it should revise its HRM policies to hire international staff. It shall create policies so that the diverse staff is able to adjust and get familiar with another culture fast. The policies shall also talk about the development of support programmes through which the expatriates can feel safe and secure in the host location.
2. The provision of training and development shall be given to the employees in a way that it is easy for them to catch the aspects of it. The establishment of job roles and duties is essentially important as well. IKEA can develop a diversity-training programme where people from different cultures learn about each other and the behaviour of respecting one’s ethnicity is established.
3. The HRM shall encourage the diverse staff to socialise with each other. This interaction will break the ice cultural difference and team can be formed for effective production of job duties.
4. IKEA shall lay out clarity in expectations of work performance from their native and host employees. This will also encourage them to work in diverse groups within the company infrastructure.
5. The HRM can also come up with the planning of reward programs both extrinsic and intrinsic. This will motivate the employees to work harder and in synchronisation with each other.

Conclusion on Global Comparative Management

It can be concluded that the HRM holds an essential role in running of international operations of IKEA in the economy. It also highlights the importance of cross cultural human resource management for effective and efficient outcome of operational activities.

Reference List for Global Comparative Management

Bbc.com (2020) Ikea 'regrets' forced labour use. Retrieved 3 June 2020, from https://www.bbc.com/news/business-20356945

Chandra, M. (2018). MANAGING DIVERSE WORKFORCE ISSUES & CHALLENGES. NOLEGEIN-Journal of Human Resource Management & Development, 35-37.

Grădinaru, C., Marinescu, P., & Toma, S. G. (2016). Comparative Management–A Performance Vector. Manager, (23), 88-98.

Ikea.com (2020) History - IKEA. Retrieved 3 June 2020, from https://www.ikea.com/ms/en_JP/about_ikea/the_ikea_way/history/index.html

Ikea.com (2020) IWAY, Our code of conduct - IKEA. Retrieved 3 June 2020, from https://www.ikea.com/ms/ar_AE/about_ikea/our_responsibility/iway/index.html

Ikea.com (2020) We believe in Diversity & Inclusion. Retrieved 3 June 2020, from https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/this-is-ikea/work-with-us/diversity-and-inclusion-pub86a2cb59

Theguardian.com (2012). Ikea apologises over removal of women from Saudi Arabia catalogue. Retrieved 3 June 2020, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/oct/02/ikea-apologises-removing-women-saudi-arabia-catalogue

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