Tasks

 Briefly outline the nature of your chosen company, its market and current global
position

 Consider the company’s current approach to HRM and evaluate the ways in which
this may need to change in the future

 Discuss the staffing issues that the organization should consider as part of any
future decision on contributing global expansion.

Company Overview
This report is about a very well know and famous company of United Kingdom which is
known as British Airways which is the United Kingdom's largest international airline, with
routes to over 550 destinations towards all over the world. The British airline is world’s
renowned for their high standards and international recognitions all over the world and they
also have being featured in many reviews by airline critics as well as passengers. As a part
from just offering flights, British Airways keeps its status up to the mark within the airline
industry which offers a commitment and excellent service levels of work.
British Airways has evolved from many years with the airline industry. And this was owned
by Comair Limited since 1992, this company was started off with low rate of beginnings as
Aircraft Transport and Travel in 1919, with its maiden flight from Le Bourget to Honslow in
August 1919. Later, with the merger of a few other airlines due to the decline of the industry,
this British airline was named Imperial Airways and was the first major British carrier. At
that time, they operated with only 18 aircraft and 250 employees.
Soon after their collaboration with Qantas to launch the first flight to Australia and with the
acquiring of more aircraft, British Airways Limited was created which was a merger between
Imperial Airways and the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC). After World War
II, with more transatlantic flights added, another sister airline was also created just to handle
these flights. It was known as the British European Airways (BEA). Through the years,
British Airways has continued steady growth, incorporating newer and more sophisticated
aircraft and as well as running the Concorde since 1979.
The success of British Airways could mostly attribute to its continuous addition of more
international flights as well as the expansion of their fleet. Apart from that, the entire airline
boasts of features which provide their passengers with the best valuable comfort service.

Facilities
The facilities provided for the ease of check in including telephone check -ins, valet services
and also an online portal at http://www.britishairways.com that consists of many features
allowing passengers to check flight schedules, check personal bookings, travel advice,
information on British Airways destinations and even perform online flight bookings. In fact,
they have even implemented an e-ticketing system which provides passengers with the
flexibility of checking in without the need of a physical ticket. Only the passenger details
including proof of identification are required to be produced during check-ins, as all booking
information has already been stored in their computer systems. In fact, through this system,
flights can be changed even up to 30 minutes before departure time.

Marketing
Marketing plays an important role in a company as the customers are very important and their
are more sophisticated in terms of their expectations, as there are putting more and more
pressure on the airlines. Therefore customer care must be everyone’s concern throughout the
organisation. And the management of people plays a virtual role which must be strategically
planned for staff communication; selection and training are high priorities. Human resource
management in the airline industry has to start to consider the implications of globalisation in
terms of multi-ethnic staff to better deliver the service to a number of passengers who
increasingly speak languages other than English and thinks differently. The integration of
different cultures could be the next challenge for the airlines.

Internal marketing
Internal marketing means involving of staff at all levels in effective marketing programmed
enabling them to understand their role within the marketing process. Internal marketing
programmes consist of training and staff development, effective internal communications and
integration schemes, designed to enhance knowledge and understanding of the overall
marketing orientation within the organization. Internal marketing gives employees the status
of internal customers with the same importance or more (Virgin Atlantic hierarchy of
publics) of the external customers. Customer satisfaction being achieved through employee
satisfaction. Internal marketing should aim to ensure the commitment, motivate, and to
transmit the values. Internal marketing has been key to British Airways to go through its
management of change, corporate image building and increase overall co-operation within
the organization.

HRM Models

1) Hard Model
The hard approach to HRM emphasizes the quantitative, calculative and business strategic
aspects of managing the headcount resources in as rational way as for another economic
factor. It also commented that HRM reflects a long standing capitalist tradition in which the
worker is regarded as commodity, therefore the interest of management, adopting a strategic
approach that is closely integrated with business strategy, obtaining added value from people
by the processes of human resource development and performance management. This model
is associated with efficiency - seeking devices such as assessment of human resources,
rewards, individual performance appraisals, and performance pay, reflecting the applications.

2) Soft Model
The soft model which emphasizes the people as an assets who can be developed through the
commitment and learning an organization might have competitive advantages. Soft model
methods, offers a way forward from the current emphasis on, at worst, solely technological
issues, and at best a technological approach which has added to it some recognition of the
needs to deal with human activity.

International HRM for British airways

Globalization of business has resulted in the growing acknowledgment of the value of a well-
managed employees and the fruition of the human resource function from being sighted as a
support function to one of strategic significance (Scullion and Starkey, 2000).

Recruitment Approach
British airlines can put one of the three different approaches to recruitment (Francesco and
Gold, 1998):
1)Ethnocentric:-The central focus of this approach is home country practice , where
headquarters from the home country takes foremost decisions, employees from the home
country cleave to vital jobs, and the subsidiaries pursue the home country resource
management act.
2)Polycentric:- In this approach, every subsidiary directs on a local basis, where a local
employee heads a subsidiary since headquarters’ managers are not believed to have sufficient
local knowledge, whereas subsidiaries habitually expand HRM practices locally.
3)Geocentric:-In this approach, the company manages employees on a global basis ,
recruiting and developing a group of international managers from various countries, who
comprise a movable base of managers who are taken use in a range of facilities as there
requires.

Evaluation

International staffing
Geocentric staffing policy will appoints the best person no matter what nationality he/she has.
Some of those international staffing strategies are good in particular situations. Nevertheless,
none of them is without its disadvantages looking from different perspectives.

Training and development

It is necessary for industry to rethink attitude towards investment in human capital. Training
and development is not luxuries investment but rather necessary to meet needs that raised by
technology and by the customer and labour force. As Olsen (1995) state: “managers have to
re-examine attitude to the way human resources can be used to meet both customers’ and
employees’ needs, requiring an in-depth analysis of the spectrum of human relations
Training is regarded as a key tool in the implementation of HRM polices and practices,
particularly those involve cultural change and new working practices introduction. Holden
(1994) points out that one of the most vital steps in HRM plan is to analyze the training needs
of the organization in relation to the organization’s strategy and link it with the needs of the
individual within it. Under multi-national environment, culture training is necessary with the
role of cultural training, which can encompass:
1) The corporate norms and values which operate in company,
2) Language and other training related to the creation of a better understanding of the national
culture of the parents or off-shore customer.

Rewards and recognition

Organization’s rewards and recognition system reflect organization’s attitudes, intention and
entire organizational culture. An effective rewards and recognition system is a useful tool to
motivate employees (Byars & Rue, 2003).
Management should understand what employees regard as meaningful rewards. Pay is part of
the issues; Rewards should be viewed in a large perspective. It can also be working
environment, office equipment, and informal recognition etc. (Byars & Rue, 2003).
Remuneration is one of the important parts of reward system. It is directly linked to staff
performance and motivation. However, in an international environment, different economic
systems, development levels, political and institutional contexts, traditions and cultures make
it difficult to find a uniform method for comparison (Logger, Vinke, Kluytmans, 1995.

Cross-Cultural Management
Blacker et al (1999) contend that previous international HRM researches emphasized chiefly
on the cultural relativity of HRM practices, interpreting that the enlargement of a company's
HR policies are theme to cultural influences and that international organizations ought to take
these culturally based differences into consideration whilst operating globally. Even though a
great deal of this literature is not overtly tagged international HRM, it handles themes of
cultural differences in management style, employee motivation, leadership style, negotiation
style, with that of cross-cultural training . Markedly therefore, the key concern of cross-
cultural management of British airways would require to have focus on management style,
employee motivation, leadership style, negotiation style, with that of cross-cultural training.

External conditions
External conditions cover economic conditions, govt. regulations and union expectations.
Economic conditions are employment rates, nature of inflation affect the behavior of the
human resources showing reluctance to leave job, demand for overtime etc. Govt. regulation
like pension and benefit regulations, health and safety guidelines and immigration provisions
etc. affect the Human Resource decisions. The existence or unions prevents the flexibility in
designing Human Resource Programs. Union strategies and their negotiation have greater
impact on external conditions.

Organization Conditions
This comprises mainly with the internal environment like nature of the organization, nature of
the work and also the employee working conditions.

The Employment Relations Effects

The HRM literature suggests that for human resource policies to produce a significant,
positive impact on the "bottom line" of any organization two critical preconditions must be
achieved: (1) external fit (that is, a close two-way fit relationship between the nature of the
business model and the composition of the HRM policy mix); and (2) internal fit (that is, the
existence of a complementary, mutually reinforcing set of HRM policies). However, what
still remains unresolved in the relevant literature is whether any positive bottom line impact
comes via a negative impact on the workforce ("working harder") or a positive impact on
workforce attitudes and behavior ("working smarter").
Boxall (1999) draws a distinction in employment strategy between human capital advantage
(recruiting and retaining outstanding human talent) and human process advantage (fostering
learning, cooperation, and innovation). The detailed study of Southwest certainly suggests the
importance of the human process advantage (Gittell 2003).

IHRM Policies and Practices

There are at least three ways of enhancing internal operations through IHRM policies and
practices. The first entails matching and adapting HR practices to closely accommodate the
unit's competitive strategy, local culture, and governing legal system. The second necessitates
creating a modus operandi whereby HRM practices can be modified swiftly to respond to
changing host conditions. The third calls for a set of IHRM policies at the MNE level that can
encompass and legitimize the HRM practices of the local units.

Conclusion and Recommendations

HRM process is a continuous process which inter relates all the Human Resource functions,
and more specificity is important. Right number of people in right time and made available
through HRM which is required to achieve the objectives. Job analysis selection process
adapted to the organization’s culture and working environment are more helpful for the
purpose, with the organizations change over time there must be good matching of individual
abilities with organizational needs for the future. Employee training and management
development are duly emphasized for the same purpose. Effective performance depends on
extrinsic term like, Job design working condition, job security and satisfactory supervision
and intrinsic factors of achievement, recognition responsibility from the work etc.
While using the different models of HRM in international prospective it is clear that the
cultural environment, the nature of the multinational industry, the extent of reliance of the
MNCs (multinational companies) on its home country, domestic market and the attitudes of
senior management play a significant role in minimizing the human resource activities
between domestic and international perspectives. A global perspective in MNCs, degree of
Centralization or decentralization, limited resources, nature of operations, firm’s size,
professionals with international experience, need for expatriate compensation and
international growth strategies etc. have also severe impact on the successful implementation
of any of the models of HRM as detailed earlier. Practically HRM output is the central point
in selecting the feasible model applicable in the environmental context. Nowadays in
competitive global context, introduction of MBO (Management by Objective), Management
by Exception, Human Resource Development activities through proper recruitment, selection,
training and motivation would facilitate the increasing productivity of the available human
resources. All these might be facilitated through application of different human resource
models in the context of the environmental strength, opportunity, threat and weakness of the
concerned business.
British Airlines centrally focuses on the vital significance of the close integration of HR
policies, systems and activities with business strategy and in this way its HRM approach can
be labeled as hard approach. However, markedly, at the same time, it realizes group benefits
program not only for employees’ financial benefits, but also career advancement. These
suggest that a British airline has a balancing approach of HRM. However, if the British
airlines wish to continue its competitive advantage in terms of HRM, the management will
require exploiting the opportunities offered by knowledge economy, particularly in the
context of its global operation.

References and Bibliography

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