Introduction
The performance of every organization is highly determined by its workforce. Employees of any organization determine whether it will attain its goals and objectives by how they contribute towards the output of the organization.
Hence recognizing the role of the employees towards the success of an organization has made many organizations to view their employees as one of its important asset. According to Honore (2009), the most important assets of a company are not product, money or profit but their employees (p.3).
Longeneker (2011) adds that motivating workforce will help to improve the performance of the organization (p.). Many organizations have renewed their commitments to their employees by treating them fairly and with a lot respect.
Many companies have come up with different schemes for improving working conditions for their workers as payment compensation schemes, holiday leave schemes, trade union participation among others.
These efforts are not only happening in local companies but also among multinational corporations that are operating in different parts of the globe.
This report analyses the steps that can be taken by a multinational corporation that has taken a strategic plan to improve the performance of its employees through the managers in three countries (India, Australia, and Brazil) where it is operating.
Approach
MNCs operate in different parts of the globe, which are diverse in so many ways. Different regions where MNCs operate differ in geographical, political, economic, social-cultural, and technological factors.
The corporations have to use multidisciplinary approach when they are giving goods or services in different regions where they operate. For instance these corporations have employed people from all the regions where they operating for effective delivery of their services.
For example, a MNC such as Coca cola has branches in almost every country of the world and therefore employ staffs who differ in their culture, beliefs, taboos, race among other differences.
Therefore, for the corporation to come up with a scheme that will address the needs their diverse staffs, it needs to be a multidisciplinary approach that will put into consideration their diversity. Employees would also like to associate with an organization that have diverse outlook.
As Maxwell and Knox (2009) notes employers branding will help to motivate employees (p.93). However, there stands some basic things required by all employees require and hence the approach will be general in many cases but specific in some cases.
Something like good salary and wages will motivate every employee irrespective of their diversity. Good working environment will raise the output of the employees in many organizations despite their differences.
Manager can use several approaches to motivate their employees who are working in different regions. These approaches will depend on the circumstances or challenges that workers in a certain region face.
One approach may be very appropriate for a certain region but inappropriate for another region. The success of a given approach depends with the region and factors that lowers morale of the employees in that region. Below are some of the approaches that the managers of this MNC may apply to motivate their workers.
Equal employment opportunities
MNC usually employs people from different background in terms of race, sex, culture, and beliefs. As postulated by Wegge, Van Dick, Wecking, and Moltzen (2006) creating a working environment that is objective is very crucial in that kind of setting (p.50).
After recruitment, these people are posted to go and work in different regions where the corporation operates. Sometime MNCs may send senior managers to go and coordinate their operations in different regions but recruit local people to work in the junior positions.
This creates a very diverse working environment where every staff needs to be comfortable for them to give their best output. Thus creating an environment conducive for all workers is very important in such a setting. No group should be discriminated on any basis in the work place.
The corporation needs to treat all the employees equally, irrespective of their race, sex, origin, or beliefs as a way of making every body wanted in the work place.
The communication in the work place should be improved to ensure that all the workers are able to communicate with one another effectively despite their diversity. As Jacqueline and Milton (2009) claim, the language that the leader uses to motivate employees is also very important (p.5).
Sharbrough (2006) supports this view by arguing that motivating language is very important in all industries (p.22). Workers from different cultures should be encouraged to develop a sense of understanding and having mutual respect for one another.
These will help them to live in harmony with one another in the work place thus creating an environment that enables them to maximize their productivity. Managers of the multicultural organizations ought to promote a culture of mutual respect, teamwork, productivity, and acceptance among its diverse employees.
This will help to increase contribution of every person towards achievement of goals and objectives of the organization. The corporation needs to recognize the strength of having a diverse workforce and put all the necessary efforts to maximize their potential.
A multicultural leader needs s to balance the needs of the diverse employees and those of the organization. The leader ensures that all employees are treated with dignity and respect they deserve irrespective of their race, sex, origin, and beliefs.
The balance is achieved as the managers desire to gain more knowledge and awareness of the diverse group they are leading. Increased knowledge and awareness enhance the understanding of the managers as they continue to learn more about different people they are working with.
To enable them to work more effectively, the managers need also to address their personal beliefs, biases, and behaviors that are not in line with the creation of working environment that is value diverse.
They must be willing to move from personal view to professional view and support advocating for procedures and policies that reflect diversity. This will help them to address all inequalities that may be present within the corporation and create a working environment that is conducive for all employees.
In this case, the corporation is operating in three countries that have diverse cultures. The cultures of Brazil, Australia, and India are different and if the corporation decides to move its managers from one country to another, they must be willing to embrace diversity for them to be effective in their leadership.
Employees in these countries are very diverse, and unless leaders choose to treat all the employees without discrimination, they may not be in a position to maximize the potential in production. It is important for the corporation to recruit employees from all regions irrespective of their country of origin or race.
The recruitment process needs to be transparent, fair, and equitable. This is equitability is attained by developing policies and procedures that will enhance diversity in the organization.
The procedures should ensure that recruitment, job evaluation and promotion processes are done in a way that respects diversity within the organization. This will minimize cases of biasness in the work place, which will make all the employees comfortable and happy with the way processes are done.
If the employees are not comfortable with processes of recruitment, evaluation, and promotion, they will not be willing to give their best to the organization. Many workers will be willing to work hard where they feel that their efforts are well recognized through fair process of job evaluation.
If the promotions are not based on a fair evaluation but on other forms of bias such as racial, sex and beliefs, employees will not be willing to support leaders promoted through such process. This will reduce their motivation and hence their productivity in the corporation.
Employees would like corporation to recruit and evaluate employees through procedures that have no unfair bias, stereotype, and prejudice. Any procedure that fall short of this requirement will not be acceptable among employees, which may end up lowering their morale.
Thus, managers of this corporation need to ensure the right procedures and policies are established that will be applied in the countries where they are operating during the process of recruitment, job evaluation, and promotion.
Rewarding workforce
Rewarding and employees’ recognition are very important in every organization. As postulated by Anderfuhren, Varone, Giauque, and Ritz (2010) material benefits and appreciation can help to motivate employees in any organization (p.13).
Employees both in local and global working environment are always motivated by rewards they get from the organization as well as recognizing their effort. According to Poornima (2009), monetary and non-monetary compensation are very necessary to retain workers in any organization (p.6).
Corporations should look for ways of rewarding their workers for the work they are doing. As Dewhurst, Guthridge, Mohr (2010) contend, individual attention and praise will help to raise the morale of the employees (p.2). These will raise their morale and motivate them to give their best for the benefit of the corporation.
These rewards comes in different forms such as bonuses, promotion, job leave and other ways of rewarding employees for the work they are doing. Corporations should come up with programs for recognizing and rewarding their employees as a way of motivating them in the work environment.
These programs will enable employees to have fun and celebrate their success making them to appreciate themselves and the corporation they are working with. According to Obilade (2009), employees are also concerned about the performance of the organization they work for (p.9).
This recognition programs may include celebrating anniversary of the corporation after sometime, celebrating birthday of workers and recognition of workers who have shown good performance in their duty. Among the many programs available for accrediting an individual’s work, is peer recognition.
This program will give workers power to reward their colleagues for the good work they have shown. Workers are more likely to support such a program because they will feel recognized and again they know the performance of each other well and who deserve to be recognized.
Again, managers and supervisors are not around at all the time to know who is performing his or her duty more than the others are. Workers can even be told to nominate the person whom they feel deserve to be rewarded for his or her work.
Actually, letting workers to select amongst themselves the one to receive a reward instills the feeling of usefulness as they feel involved in major issues and so they become part of the company.
Such employee driven programs come in handy as tools to motivating workers given that they (the programs) are easy to implement and run. After all, they will raise the morale of the employees to work hard to achieve simple rewards such as time off, movie ticket and other small gifts.
Informal programs will work in any environment either locally or internationally. Chang, Chan, Gudmundsson, and Sawang (2011) argue that internalized motivation can create creativeness and corporation among the workers (p.9).
Thus for the managers of the corporation to motivate their employees in the work place in all the branches where they are operating, they need to consider these programs.
Informal programs will work even in very diverse environment such as multicultural environment since the employees who are choosing need to be rewarded and recognized in their work place.
These programs will also help to eliminate any form of discrimination that may arise in such environment when managers and supervisors are choosing the employees to be rewarded or recognized.
Understanding and counseling program
It is the role of the organization managers to encourage and motivate their employees to attain higher goals. Van, Cees, Berens, and Dijkstra (2009) indicates that developing capabilities of employees is important in any organization (p.197).
It is important for the managers to understand each employee is different and require motivational needs that are different. According Blaskova (2010), an individual approach is one of the best methods of motivating employees (p.9).
The abilities of each worker are different and this should be understood even when their work is being evaluated. Understanding the strengths and weakness of each employee will help managers to know which job is appropriate for them and what can be done to improve their performance.
This will require managers to go extra mile and understand his or her employees beyond work environment to help in meeting their motivational needs.
The performance of employee is usually affected by the challenges they are experiencing in their personal life such as marital issues, financial crises and other issues that matters in their life. Thus, it is important for managers to understand their employees on a personal basis to know how to motivate them.
Some challenges that workers are facing require counseling which organization can plan by looking for appropriate counselors to help them to overcome those challenges.
This situation may be made worse in a diverse working environment like in MNCs where employees come from different background with more diverse challenges.
Challenges expected
Implementing these strategies in three countries that differ in many ways is not easy. According to Bodolica (2007) dealing with workers in a foreign country can be a great challenge to the managers due to their diversity (p.9). India, Brazil, and Australia are politically, economically, and culturally different.
Corporation managers need be flexible when they are motivating their workers in the three different countries. For instance, the three states are in different class economically where for instance Brazil and Australia are more developed compared with India.
This means that the wage level in three countries will be the same. Brazil and Australia are more developed and their wage is high compared with India.
India is a developing country where the cost of labor is cheap compared with that of the other countries and there the corporation has to come up with a compensation scheme that will motivate employees putting into consideration these differences.
Secondly, the three countries have different cultures and managers have to ensure that these programs accommodate diverse employees. Creating a working environment that is conducive and diverse is not easy but necessary for the success of the corporation.
Developing policy and procedures for ensuring equality requires managers to rise beyond their bias, prejudice, and stereotypes and use a professional approach that will motivate all the employees.
Thirdly, implementing these programs may be expensive to the corporation as creating policies and procedures for eliminating any form of discrimination will require time and other resources.
However as noted by Hardre and Reeve (2009), training of the managers will equip them with right skills to motivate their employees (p.65).
Recommendations
There is need for corporation to use an approach that is multidisciplinary for managers to motivate their employees more effectively. Here are some of the steps that managers need to apply in their effort to motivate their employees.
Develop and implement proper policies and procedures that will create fairness and equality in the working environment. This will help to eliminate all forms of discrimination in the corporation.
Ensure fairness in the recruitment, job evaluation, and promotion where employees will be recognized according to their performance and not on any other basis.
Create rewarding and recognition schemes to appreciate employees who perform well in their job.
Create a working environment that is conducive for all workers where all employees treat each other with respect and dignity irrespective of their differences.
Create programs for understanding and counseling employees as way of meeting their motivational needs.
Conclusion
The managers of this MNC need to employ several strategies to motivate their employees to give their best. This may include rewarding and appreciating employees, equality in work place, counseling, and understanding employees among others.
A diverse approach is also necessary in all the three countries to help improve performance of all workers.
Recommendations given above also need to be implemented in all regions as way motivating workers to increase their out to the corporation.
Understanding employees is a good strategy will help to solve their personal issues.
Reference List
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