Abstract
CultureWorks ESL School has existed since 1998 in Ontario, Canada. Unlike the conventional ESL schools, CultureWorks provides international students with a letter of conditional acceptance to the University of Western Ontario and other affiliated University colleges, which gives international students an opportunity to study in Canada.
The school as experienced a tremendous growth in the recent years because of an increase in the number of international students in Canada, especially in the Ontario region. The institution’s conditional offer gives international students an opportunity to study in a well-known university in Canada.
A strong teacher team has helped CultureWorks to earn a favourable reputation throughout the world. As a result, CultureWorks expanded its business to Ottawa in collaboration with the Carleton University. However, many challenges have emerged during the expansion. For instance, there is a strained relationship between employees of CultureWorks and those of Carleton University.
This research explores challenges that face CultureWorks because of a rapid expansion and collaboration strategy. In this regard, the research applies human resource management (HRM) principles to highlight challenges of sustaining the growth and proposes recommendations for effective management of partnership and strained employee relationships.
Introduction
Many organisations struggle to meet the dynamic needs of their customers as they react to changes in markets. Meeting customers’ needs and beating competitors require an appropriate use of internal and external relationships, which ensure that an organisation has the potential to sustain its objectives and emerging growth initiatives (Rastogi, 2000).
The strategic need to collaborate with other institutions and people is now a crucial factor of success in a highly dynamic and competitive environment. Organisations should collaborate with others in order to capitalise on accessibility and resources they lack.
Therefore, building a successful organisation in a competitive global economy requires firms to form strategic alliances for mutual benefits. In this regard, firms should create a partnering culture in order to facilitate collaboration with other partners.
Partnership and alliances have a great potential in promoting growths of organisations. CultureWorks and Carleton University should rationalise and combine their facilities, operation, and functions in order to maximise efficiency and service delivery to students. Such affiliations have effects on cultures, norms, and practices of both institutions.
The main aims of collaboration were to encourage enrolment of many students, create synergies, provide a global reach for foreign students, develop a critical mass, facilitate and sustain growth strategies, add core competence of instructors, and finally leverage on external talents, expertise, and technology of other institutions.
Challenges that CultureWorks and Carleton University experience during the integration of employees are numerous. One would expect such a deal to bring about a fast growth without strains. However, most of such initiatives fail to meet their objectives. We can attribute some cases of failures to market conditions and financial difficulties of organisations.
Still, we can trace causes of failures to neglected human resource challenges in both organisations. Organisations can only realise such growths when information flow freely, but this can only occur when there is a trust among employees. However, this is not the case at CultureWorks and Carleton University. Both institutions have faced internal employees’ challenges because of various reasons.
The strained relationship that exists between the two institutions can derail growth strategies of both. It can also have impacts on employee morale, retention, communication, job security, and promotion. However, these are challenges associated with sustaining growth in growing institutions. In this context, the role of the HRM is crucial for both organisations.
HR Issues between CultureWorks and Carleton University
A number of reasons exist to explain causes of failures in organisations during partnerships. However, the most important area in the process of collaboration is managing human resources in order to retain them and provide opportunities for effective collaboration for increased performance.
Under such circumstances, CultureWorks will not meet its objectives in the collaboration programme. Affiliation and partnership strategies have become growth strategies for many organisations. However, most of them usually fail in the integration process.
Findings have shown that some failures result from the inability of employees to embrace and adapt to the new environment or because many employees leave organisations during the process. Thus, managing employees’ issues can ensure that CultureWorks and Carleton University meet and sustain their growth strategies (Kleiman, 2000).
Some of the problems from employees, which both organisations faced, were management challenges, loss of talents, differences in organisation cultures, and ineffective management of change and sustainability of change.
All these challenges have direct impacts on strategic HRM. Cultural differences and organisational practices could be the most challenging aspects to both organisations. In most circumstances, the HR department has limited roles during the negotiation of partnership deals between organisations. This may explain why organisations do not consider their cultures, practices, and employees during negotiation processes.
Affiliation has effects on both employees of CultureWorks and Carleton University, and measures to manage such effects could create a strong team, business model, and success for both institutions.
The roles of HRM
By identifying and developing appropriate response mechanisms, the HR manager can create long-term strategies for success of CultureWorks. On the contrary, failure to take any action can result in the failure of expansion strategies of CultureWorks. It is the role of the HR manager to put the right employees at the right positions.
Therefore, effective selection and assessment of employees’ capabilities, especially in leadership positions can facilitate employees’ integration in both institutions. HRM must also account for employees’ integration processes for effective operation between the two institutions.
HRM must encourage effective communication between the two organisations. Communication is the main factor to successful organisational during growths and formation of partnership. The purpose of internal communication is to let employees know of the ongoing organisational strategies and possible changes in the institution.
It is a challenge to initiate cooperation among employees from different institutions. Therefore, constant communication is necessary in order to establish how employees think about the ongoing partnership with other institutions. This process should be the start of understanding differences in organisational culture between the two institutions.
Communication is critical during this process. However, there might be problems with information to communicate due to confidentiality, the kind of information to communicate, especially in a case where trust does not exist among employees.
The HRM department must develop a communication guideline for internal communication during the integration process. The blueprint should provide effective communication channels for employees from both institutions.
CultureWorks and Carleton University have different cultures, which they have developed over the years. The issue of a sub-culture is a major problem to the HR department when organisations form a team. This is the most difficult area to comprehend because every institution aims at building and instilling unique culture among employees.
Therefore, the HR must initiate effective cultural integration mechanisms in order to eliminate barriers within the two institutions. For instance, CultureWorks is a private institution that has limited information in the public domain. On the other hand, Carleton University is a public institution that offers ease of gaining access to important information for employees and visitors on its Web site or institution.
Therefore, such differences between public and private institutions are potential sources of organisational conflicts. The HR manager must anticipate organisational culture challenges. Consequently, the department must develop effective strategies of overcoming differences in practices among employees of the two organisations.
Employees must understand that organisational practices are dynamic because of changes and growth of the institution. Therefore, it is appropriate for the HR department to determine the level of integration between employees of the two institutions. This is possible by understanding employees’ behaviours and key factors, which influence their behaviours towards other employees.
Managing and sustaining changes among employees during organisational growth are a part of the HR roles. In order to achieve optimum results from the partnership, changes in the organisational operation, structures, employees’ roles, compensation, and management of employees are necessary.
Change in itself is a problem to the institution, as well as the employees. Effects of changes can cause confusion among employees. Therefore, a proactive HRM is necessary to avert possible negative outcomes.
Cultureworks should understand effects of changes among its employees. The organisation can avoid some challenges through effective communication in the organisation. For instance, CultureWorks should arrange changes in the leadership structures, roles, and transfer of employees to Carleton University. It is also important to recognise central elements that drive change within the institution.
The HR manager must encourage participatory approach in which senior executives and line managers take active roles in change processes. Employees from both organisations can development resentments if their managers come from different institutions. This situation may lead to resistance among employees of the two institutions.
Employees’ commitments and behaviours to facilitate collaboration between the two institutions depend on effects of change on their roles. This raises the issue of consultation with the affected employees.
Employees can only commit to change processes if they will not interfere with their terms of services. Any change that alters work schedules, locations, reporting lines, organisational cultures, and management styles may not be favourable for many employees.
Issues have also emerged based on decision-making processes with regard to management of employees’ talents. However, the role of HRM remains critical to successful growth of CultureWorks. In this context, we can focus on two roles in order to understand how HRM can facilitate growth of the institution. First, the HRM must understand the ongoing changes and model the organisation through these change processes.
This implies that as CultureWorks experiences changes based on its growth strategies, various HRM problems shall emerge, and there is a need to control them for effective transition during this period.
HMR must ensure that the institution assigns the right employees to the right departments. The HR manager must ensure that collaboration does not result in loss of employees. Therefore, effective retention and employee development systems can avoid such impacts.
Second, HRM functions should also focus on using its employees to create competitive advantage. According to the resource based view, organisations can attain competitive advantages if their employees meet certain requirements. In this regard, CultureWorks must use its rare skills and knowledge in employees to create competitive advantage and growth.
Such skills and knowledge are difficult for competitors to imitate. Therefore, the organisation can sustain its growth strategies by using its human resources. In this regard, the role of HRM involves planning human resources from attraction, recruitment, retention, and deployment to various departments or locations (Noe et al., 2012).
However, we have to note that the institution cannot achieve and sustain growth and competitive advantage from the HRM roles alone. Such achievements and sustainability depend on the way employees commit and implement strategies.
Therefore, the team must have management abilities to implement HRM initiatives in ways, which make them inimitable and specific to CultureWorks. Still, CultureWorks strategies for maintaining its growth strategy must focus on developing employees and adopting favourable HR practices during the transition (Wan, 2007). This shall ensure that the institution avoids employee challenges from collaboration with other institutions.
Conclusion
CultureWorks has experienced a rapid growth in the past few years due to the increasing number of foreign students, who seek the best letters of acceptance in Canada for higher education. Consequently, the institution has collaborated with Carleton University as a strategy for growth. However, there are strained employee relationships and other challenges, which result from change processes.
Growth has strained CultureWorks resources, and it has to collaborate with external partners. However, the HR department failed to prepare employees adequately for the ongoing expansion and changes.
This created pressure on employees as they reacted to such changes. Outcomes were strained relationships, communication challenges, and issues of integrating organisational cultures and practices. Therefore, managing such a rapid growth requires management of change too.
HRM policies and practices must also account for such changes, growth strategies, and collaboration with other institutions, especially with regard to employees’ relationships. This can avoid possible losses of employees and resistance to change efforts. Moreover, CultureWorks can sustain its growth strategies through HRM processes and practices, which favour collaboration with other external institutions.
Recommendations
CultureWorks should consider the following suggestions in order to facilitate growth and improve employee relationships. At the same time, they will ensure that CultureWorks sustain its growth strategies and retain its employees.
- CultureWorks must develop clear business strategies for collaboration with other institutions. The process must involve inputs from the HR department. Both organisations must communicate collaboration strategies to their employees.
- HRM must conduct a thorough study of organisational cultures of both organisations and identify cultures that can work for both
- Management of diversity in both employees and institutions are crucial for success
- HRM must identify employees competence and assign new responsibilities based on the ongoing transformation in the institution
- CultureWorks must create a strong communication culture in order to eliminate cases of job insecurity and fear among its employees. At the same time, the institution should develop a communication channel for its employees and employees from the other institution.
- Change management is necessary during growth and collaboration with other institutions
- The institution must engage senior executives in formulating growth strategies and implementation processes
- HRM must keep employees morale high and implement different methods of employee motivation, especially those affected by collaboration initiatives
References
Kleiman, L. (2000). Human Resource Management: A Managerial Tool for Competitive Advantage. Cincinnati: South-Western College Publishing.
Noe, R., Wright, P., Hollenbeck, J., Gerhart, B., and Eligh, L. (2012). Human Resource Management: Gaining a Competitive Advantage, CDN Edition. Toronto: McGraw- Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Rastogi, P. (2000). Sustaining Enterprise Competitiveness: Is human capital the answer? Human Systems Management, 19(3), 193-203.
Wan, H. (2007). Human Capital Development Policies: enhancing employees’ satisfaction. Journal of European Industrail Training, 31(4), 297-322.