Introduction
Sony is a Japanese company that specializes in consumer electronics, which accounts for about six percent of the market share. The company also operates in foreign countries like the Japan, Spain, United Kingdom and Canada.
The company has numerous stores in the United States, Spain, United Kingdom and Canada. It has in the past decade experienced significant growth, enabling it to maintain its position in the competitive market.
The company has a large and diversified team of workers who are drawn from all walks of life.
Culture at Sony and Human Resource Policy
Sony as a company stands on a very strong foundation, which has its roots from the organizational culture. The company is actually strong in terms of its objectives, principles, policies and values that are widely held; whereby all of them are clear, in addition, it is held strongly by its members, particularly the founders.
Consequently, this defines the success story of the organization, which keeps on burning in the heart of every worker. The workers are encouraged to participate sufficiently and work together.
The employees are free to bring out their ideas. Nevertheless, it is in this state that the company is in a position of regenerating, thus facilitating or enhancing its effectiveness.
The development of human resources is one of the most important parts of the human resource policy in the company.
The human resource development policy of Sony is to develop its employees by ensuring that they are properly trained so as to keep them acquainted with the latest technology and skills in order to make them competent in meeting the current market demands (Karmar, p.92).
Local Training
Each and every factory of the company has its own residential training programs whereby the employees are trained in order to be able to meet their particular needs.
The biggest part or percentage of the employees at the company receive local training in their respective countries, whereby the training programs are designed specifically to meet the set standards as well as the demands of the particular countries.
The programs run every years and the duration taken by an employee in completing his or her training program depends on the course that he or she is taking.
In addition, we find that it is the responsibility of the institution to ensure that programs and policies help in the continuing of staff.
The workers in the organization should take the initiative of assessing interests and skills and seek activities of development that are compatible with their needs; they should work together to establish development and training objectivities.
Many programs of employee training and development fall under the categories of Career Development; Professional Skills; Management Development; Basic Skills and Supervisory Skills.
International Training
Even though the company mainly prefers local training as the best way of developing the expertise and proficiency of its employees, we find that this has been substantially enhanced by the International Training Center that is located in the corporate headquarters of the company in Tokyo, Japan.
Since its inception, the International Training center has always brought together managers and aspiring managers, providing them with training that meets the international standards of the profession.
Perhaps this is what has enabled the company to grow to the level it is currently, since the managers of all the branches in different countries across the world have sufficient knowledge and expertise that is not only limited to their respective or particular regions, but of internal and general standards.
The employees attend classes in accordance with the manager’s wishes, even though their qualifications also matter. A typical class is composed of twenty to thirty nationalities. There are several courses provided which can be divided into two broad groups:
Management Courses take about sixty percent at the training center. Those who take these courses must be within the company for a period of no less than five years time, whereby they are trained in appreciating the real values of the company together with business approaches.
Executive courses are classes that usually have individuals who attended management courses about five to ten years before. Here, they are trained on how to be in a position of representing the company internationally and working with foreigners, whereby they stress on the analysis of the industry (Fleetwood, & Hesket, p.63).
Conclusion
The main objective of the company is to ensure that each and every employee is given the opportunity of maximizing his or her potential and ability.
Sony does not only do this for the benefit of the employees but also for its own benefit, since in this current competitive world, whereby technology has reached great heights, it is important that employees are knowledgeable about the latest skills so as to enhance their productivity, thus making the company remain relevant in the industry as well as remain in the driving seat.
Training also enables the employees to gain much experience and knowledge that would enable them to get promotions within the company.
The enhancement of this virtuous circle is the ultimate objective of their training efforts at several various levels via many programs of training running every year.
Works Cited
Fleetwood, Steve, and Anthony Hesketh. Understanding the Performance of Human Resources, Cambridge, 2009. Print
Karmar, Ray., et al, Human Resource Management in Australia-strategy, people, Performance, (4th ed.), Sydney: McGraw-Hill (chapter1 and 5) 2011. Print
Klikauer, Thomas, Critical Management Ethics, Basingstoke (UK): Palgrave. 2010. Print
Sparrow, Paul. Handbook of International Human resource Management: Integrating People, Process and Context. Chichester: Wiley. 2009. Print