HRM and leadership 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

HRM and leadership 2 - Essay Example The management of its human resources can be considered to be so well done that its employees in certain countries have tended to side with this corporation whenever any move was made by both the various individuals or rival companies to disrupt its operations (Malone & Roberts, 1996). While in many cases, the process of globalization alongside the liberal economic policies which have come with it and have come to be accepted in many countries have worked towards weakening the strong foundation upon which many trade unions have been built, this has not been the case with those unions that are related to General Motors. One would take the trade unions of Britain and Germany as examples of just how efficient the human resource management of General Motors has become. Despite the fact that the internationalization of the car industry has intensified the economic competition among the various carmakers in the world, General Motors has not had to encounter any of the frictions that other companies in similar business have had to encounter with their trade unions In most cases, the liberal policies that have been adopted by various governments because of globalization have tended to work more in favour of the employers than the workers do. These policies advocate for the flexibility of the labour market and this has meant that the labour market, especially in the automobile industry, has been deregulated and that automakers have been empowered in areas the hiring of workers, their firing, the choice of how much to pay them, as well as the choice of the use of labour (Heffelfinger, 2009). As a result of this, informal employment and other cheap forms of labour have become prevalent because automakers prefer them not only for the cheapness of wages paid to them, but also for the fact that they do not have to cover them in such matters as insurance and safety. This has made it very difficult for trade unions to be able to organize workers into a powerful force because m any of these informally employed people are not members of unions. This has not been the case with General Motors and this is because of the fact that this corporation has chosen to adopt a stand where it cares for all of its employees on a global level, so that many of those who work for it tend to be secure in their jobs, hence being more productive (Brondo & Baba, 2010). The management of General Motors has ensured that it provides the necessary leadership to its employees in matters pertaining to their employment so that the latter have come to appreciate their working conditions as well as feeling secure in their employment, especially in the current world of economic uncertainties. Fair Working Environment The swift change in the development of equipment as well as the globalization of the economy has led to the acceleration of structural adjustment. With the division of labour on the international scene, some of the companies in the automobile industry of developed countries have opted to shift those operations that they consider labour intensive to other countries, such as China and India, where there is cheaper labour. This has led many of their employees in their home countries to lose their jobs and this may account, to some extent, to the high job cuts in the automobile industry in the western countries (Dietrich & Krafft, 2011). This has not bee

Business Strategy term project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5500 words

Business Strategy term project - Essay Example Agilent Technologies is a leading manufacturer of measurement devices in a variety of industries. It was formed through an IPO (initial public offering) from a spin-off of Hewlett Packard in 1999. The company website states the following about the company: "Agilent Technologies, a spin-off of Hewlett-Packard Company, broke records on Nov. 18, 1999 as the largest initial public offering (IPO) in Silicon Valley history. The US $2.1 billion raised from that IPO was a sharp contrast to the $538 in working capital that founders Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard began with in 1938. From a small garage in Palo Alto, California, to employees around the world serving customers in 110 countries It is located in room 5022, just off the Santa Clara Campus's main lobby at 5301 Stevens Creek Blvd. in Santa Clara, Calif..(Agilent,2007).The company's corporate brochure describes itself as: " When measurement matters, engineers, scientists, manufacturers, businesses, researchers, and government agencies rely on Agilent tools and solutions. ... No other company offers the breadth and depth of measurement tools and expertise to meet the world's critical requirements for electronic and bio-analytical measurement".(Corporate Brochure,2007) The 1934 setup company launched its first product after a good amount of R&D as the company's website states, "Bill Hewlett's study of negative feedback results in Hewlett-Packard's first product-the resistance-capacity audio oscillator (HP200A), an electronic instrument used to test sound equipment. The oscillator uses an incandescent bulb as part of its wiring scheme to provide variable resistance, a breakthrough in stability in oscillator design. The principle of feedback provides the foundation for other early HP products such as a harmonic wave analyzer and several distortion analyzers". (Agilent, 2007) In 1943 ,as the company's website states, "Company enters the microwave field with signal generators developed for the Naval Research Laboratory and a radar-jamming device. A complete line of microwave test products follows World War II, and the company becomes the acknowledged leader in signal generators". 2. Identification of the industry and competitorsAgilent has been operating in multiple industries as its website clearly states that, " Agilent has a long history of innovation and leadership in the communications, electronics, semiconductor, test and measurement, life sciences and chemical analysis industries".(Agilent,2007) The Major Competitors for Agilent Technologies are reproduced from Agilent Technologies Fact Book 2007 as under : Source :Agilent Technologies Fact Book, October 2007 Agilent began with measuring instruments way back in 1938 and developed this area as field of