Staffing approaches
A number of factors come into play when choosing the appropriate staff for the international subsidiaries of a multinational company. In its former ethnocentric approach, the biggest consideration for Sony was the home country’s authority both in foreign strategy and recruitment.
For the company, most subsidiaries would have Japanese staff in senior positions. Unfortunately, this kind of approach has several disadvantages. One of these disadvantages is applying a foreign culture on foreign employees in these subsidiaries.
A good example of how this failed to work out was in the strike at the Sony manufacturing plant in Indonesia where laborers protested against a policy that had them work while standing.
With a shift from such an approach, the firm could take on a Geocentric approach. This way they will manage to balance the need to transition from their ethnocentric structure which has been seen to cost them in certain situation without necessarily pulling out all Japanese workers.
In using the geocentric approach they stand to gain in a number of ways. They will firstly be able to take advantage of low labour costs by employing their skilled workforce in certain countries e.g. China.
The shift would also allow the company to keep track of their talent management strategies which seeks to maximize the quality of their workforce globally.
The use of their online training software TrainNet will go a long way in ensuring that the communication between the central human resource department at the Japanese headquarters and global staff is robust and steady.
Characteristics to look for in subsidiary managers
Some characteristics that Sony should ensure it looks for are strong communication skills, leadership ability, talented and flexible. The different kinds of culture that the staff will be exposed to will demand an understanding of different people from around the world.
The need to exercise effective communication by both subordinate staff and managers is highly essential to the success of these subsidiaries. Managers will need to show exceptional leadership abilities as they will be forced to deal with employees from a variety of work and educational backgrounds.
The fact that the global approach of recruitment will pool in workers from different parts of the world will mean that these workers need to be able to cope with one another and communicate well. It will be necessary for these managers to equip themselves with sound knowledge and fluency in a variety of languages in this regard.
At the same time there will be a huge need for flexibility as they adapt to new working environments.They might be forced to embrace new living standards. These kind of changes should not interfere with their productivity.
Managing global staff
Sony needs to balance its recruitment policy to ensure an equal opportunity is given to its international pool of workers so as to provides opportunities for training to all applicants and recruits into the company. By doing this they will manage to hire trainees with the best potential of coping with international assignments in future when they advance into managerial positions.
The training mechanism in the company should incorporate a system that allows managers who have excelled in working with subsidiaries to train their incumbents. This will ensure that the skills learned by each generation of managers is transfered to the next generation.
In order to promote global mind sets, the company should attempt to span out its training programs for its new staff to travel to other subsidiary divisions where they can experience a different working environment through actual practice. Managers in the home country should also take opportunities to participate in projects that will require them to travel to regional divisions.
Training
Sony’s training efforts are highly commendable. They have managed to maintain a steady flow of talent from all levels of their organization structure so as to ensure that the company’s objectives and vision are equally shared. Their 2 year program allows their junior staff to get all round exposure to the company ‘s operations.
It also does a good job of equipping them with a variety of skills. Initiating their training progress from such an angle allows them to comes to terms with their strengths and hence gives them a chance to choose the department that best suits them.
The best step Sony could take to improve its training in light of its multi-country operations, is to emulate this program in subsidiary countries. This will obviously demand that subsidiaries are given adequate policy management rights in order to ensure that the training runs smoothly.
The management panels of foreign divisions are best suited to know their recruitment and training needs and hence a strong communication link should be maintain with regards to this effort.
Dealing with labor difficulties
The company could make use of recruitment and HR consultancy firms in subsidiary countries so as to stay in touch with the needs of their staff in future. They could also make use of communication technology to maintain a cohesive relationship with workers in these countries. This will help in addressing problems faced in the workplace quickly and easily.
CSR
Sony’s corporate social responsibility is geared towards better working conditions for the staff in subsidiary countries. What this however means to the firm is that the terms offered to workers have to match up to expectations in the firms operational standards.
The best approach that the company can take is offering more support to workers in developing nations to harness their talents and helping them to acquire skills that were earlier on inaccessible to them e.g. supporting software developing incubation programs. This way they will be able to reserve the best minds in the available workforce in these emerging markets.