Nike's HRM: Adapting to Globalization for Global Success - Free Paper Example

Introduction

Globalization has enabled companies to expand rapidly and conduct business in many parts of the world (Ulrich et al., 2012). Globalization has affected business activities, hence the need to change the functions of human resource management (HRM) to keep up with the trend. Nike has not been left behind by the globalization issue. Nike is the world’s largest athletic apparel and footwear seller, with its headquarters in Beaverton, United States ("Nike Purpose: Standing Up for Equality", n.d.). The goal of the company is product quality, innovation, and improved conditions of labor to increase productivity. Nike has developed tools and guidance to improve HRM in their businesses. Integrated HRM capabilities and investing in Human Resource (HR) personnel has enabled the company to have the right employees with the required skills to drive business success. Additionally, the company has teams in every region with people who work with suppliers to develop and measure HRM capabilities. This paper will discuss the processes for global human resources functioning, with Nike Inc. as the case study. Implementation of processes for global resource functioning allows a company to achieve its goals and competitive advantage.

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Professional Cultural Competence among Personnel

The organizational culture of Nike is centered on innovation and creativity to meet the needs of customers (Young, 2017). Nike understands that innovation and talent cannot be separated. Therefore, the company utilizes training programs, coaching, and mentoring programs to maintain the talent of the employees. These approaches enable the company to produce the world's best equipment, athletic wear, and apparel, hence global growth.

Nike also believes in diversity. Diversity culture results in a dynamic workforce that promotes Nike’s innovation, creativity, and brand image and in return, competitive advantage (Young, 2017). The culture of diversity in the company is maintained through HR programs such as the “Speak up” program, which enables the sharing of ideas among the employees. As a result, diversity has maximized the development cycles of Nike’s products, especially in developing new designs for its products.

Planning for Processes for Global Human Resources Functioning

The processes for global HR functioning for Nike should focus on achieving organizational goals, improving business, performance, and competitive advantage (Wire, 2010). Therefore, this plan should focus on transforming the HR processes to create a work culture for talent growth, retention, and development. Firstly, the company should align its hiring and recruitment processes with its global business plans and needs for growth and innovation in business (Kanna, 2013). Perhaps, the company should focus on ending favoritism toward managers who are citizens of the country in which the company is located. Most of the multinational companies tend to view the nationals of the company's headquarters as potential expatriates. Secondly, Dobre (2013) stated that the processes should support employee performance, compensation and training, performance evaluation, and dynamic business environments. Thirdly, the company should increase the self-reliance of its business units through developing employee communication and feedback systems, performance management, leadership development, and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for each business. Employee training is the fourth activity in the planning process. The organization should train its workers to develop cost-effectiveness, ethics in business practices, sustainability in business processes, and efficiency in the work processes. These processes recognize and reward the company's performance on global levels to motivate and encourage employees in their efforts. The processes should be considered important to business stakeholders.

Domestic and Global HR Markets

The practices of effective domestic and global HR strategies can be differentiated through two major factors. The first factor is the complexities of operating in different cultures and different countries, and the second factor is hiring different nationals across the border (Morley et al., 2017). These factors bring in the major differences between the two HR markets including; the need for expanding professional expertise to include knowledge of employment laws in foreign countries, involvement in a changing mix of employees, and increased responsibility for the selection, training, and management of workers. Another difference between domestic and global market HR strategy is that global market requires diversity management because of managing people from different political and cultural backgrounds and differences in gender. However, a similarity between domestic and global HR strategy is that both involve staffing, employee relations, compensation, and training and development.

HR Solutions for Improved Functioning and Outcomes

The global market is stiff competition, so a company needs to have multi-cultural and cross-cultural diversity (Distelhorst et al., 2017). Nike can remain in the leading position in the industry and have a competitive advantage if it strategically plans its activities. Other than the usual roles of performance appraisal, staffing, compensations, benefits, maintaining employee records, and formulating personnel policies, there is a need for more activities. Human resource managers should focus on employee training and development programs, and formulate practices and policies that are directly related to the strategic goals of the company (Sivalogathasan, 2014). Also, the human resource manager should acquire knowledge on issues of international human resources that impact the business and provide advice to the management. For example, for several years, the company has been practicing techniques of lean manufacturing which involves eliminating waste through capacity building and cost reduction (Distelhorst et al., 2017). However, the policies developed for waste elimination should ensure workforce productivity. Therefore the human resource manager should ensure that this strategy is achieved by ensuring that minimal overtime, proper wages, good reward systems, and proper working conditions are maintained to foster employee satisfaction and consequently, productivity.

Additionally, global HR managers should maintain and manage gender diversity (Ehambaranathan et al., 2015). Since Nike is operating in different countries, an HR manager should have cultural knowledge and be aware of how to maintain diversity in the work environment. In some countries, women are equally qualified as men, while in others, the count of women is negligible. Therefore, managers should design policies that will enhance the inclusion of all genders. From a different perspective, a diverse team of employees is likely to work well together. So, the HR manager should conduct team-building workshops to motivate employees and promote an acceptance of gender diversity to assist the company in building strong teams that will enhance goal achievement. In countries where there is the belief that individuals play a larger role, HR managers should focus on creating awareness about team effectiveness to maintain the profitability of the company.

Factors that Impact an Effective Human Resource Global Strategy

The management of human resources in diverse economies, cultures, and legal systems can be a challenging task (Mello, 2014). The most common factors that impact an effective human resource global strategy include; legal and political factors, laws, merging trends, mergers and acquisitions, and international business. The stability and nature of political systems differ from one country to another. Some of these countries are governed by dictators who control the buying of goods from countries they will benefit from as individuals. In others, business contracts are unenforceable due to internal political factors. Under severe conditions, political instability leads to the seizure of foreign firms. Additionally, HR laws and regulations vary from country to country. So, multinational firms must decide strategically when to comply with or ignore certain laws and regulations due to political or operational reasons.

Emerging trends can impact HR's global strategy. Emerging technologies such as social media, social computing, and mobile devices affect HR positively by enabling HR to deliver services more effectively and efficiently (Malik & Aminu, 2011). For example, cloud computing can help HR to reduce the time and cost required in developing new HR solutions. Additionally, technology increases the expectations of HR customers. For instance, through smartphones and the internet, employees can access HR services and systems at any time and from anywhere. In the case of Nike Inc., new footwear and other products can be advertised through technology on social platforms.

Economic factors are also significant influencers of effective HR global strategy (Malik & Aminu, 2011). Economic systems vary among countries, with less developed countries becoming receptive to foreign investment in an attempt to create job opportunities for their growing population. On the other hand, developing countries provide an effective platform for global businesses to realize significant profits depending on restrictions in earnings transfer and currency fluctuations in these countries.

Mergers and acquisitions are parts of international businesses that affect HR strategies (Kanna, 2013). Most HRs tends to approach mergers and acquisition as an occasional event, so they are not prepared for cost synergies and workforce integration. A company should thus focus on making fast, repeatable, and efficient mergers and acquisitions. It should have the ability to reliably and effectively combine two distinct taskforces to one company that can help a business accomplish its goals.

Conclusion

Implementing the processes for global resource functioning enables an organization to achieve its goals and competitive advantage. Globalization has changed business activities, and so have the HR practices and processes of Nike. Nike is the largest seller of athletic footwear and apparel in the world, and its professional competence focuses on diversity, talent, and innovation. The organizational profession culture is based on talent, diversity, and innovation. The paper has discussed the plan for developing a process for an effective HR global strategy to enable the achievement of organizational goals. The HR solutions for the planned strategies have also been discussed in the paper. Some of the factors that affect an effective process for HR global strategy include legal and political factors, economic factors, mergers and acquisitions, emerging trends, and international business.

References

Distelhorst, G., Hainmueller, J., & Locke, R. M. (2017). Does lean improve labor standards? Management and social performance in the Nike supply chain. Management Science, 63(3), 707-728.

Dobre, O. I. (2013). Employee motivation and organizational performance. Review of applied socio-economic research, 5(1).

Ehambaranathan, E., Samie, A., & Murugasu, S. (2015). The recent challenges of globalization and the role of employee engagement-The case of Vietnam. International Journal of Human Resource Studies, 5(1), 69.

Gautam, D. K. Human Resource Management and Globalization in Nepal: A Framework for Future Research. Nepalese Academy of Management, 108.

Kanna, V. V. (2013). Global HR Practices and Strategies-The Challenges Ahead. Journal of Commerce and Management Thought, 4(1), 168-178.