Strategic Human Resource Management in Carlsberg Group

Running Head: HRM
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Strategic Human Resource Management
6/3/2019

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Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
Overview of the case study (Carlsberg group).......................................................................................2
1. Strategic HR priorities of Carlsberg Group...............................................................................2
2. Rationale behind implementation of ‘Winning Behaviour’ strategy.........................................3
3. Alignment of the Winning Behaviour strategy with Carlsberg HR practices.................................4
Equity and Diversity......................................................................................................................4
Workforce planning and development...........................................................................................4
Social responsibility......................................................................................................................5
4. Challenges faced by Carlsberg in strategy implementation in Malaysia................................6
5.‘Winning Behaviours’ strategy in Australia and recommendations for success..........................6
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................7
References.............................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
The report brings about the discussion on the concept of human resource management
in context to business organisations. The concept of strategic human resource management
can be defined as the process of linking the function of human resource to the objective of
the organisation. The significance or aim of the strategic management of human resource is to
enhance the performance of the organisation. The discussion is based on a given case study
of the company, i.e. ‘Carlsberg’, inclusive of the HR strategies, and their winning
behaviours strategy (Carlsberg group, 2018). In addition, the assignment will also include the
discussion of the difficulties faced by the company in implementing the HR strategy. In the
later part, the report will provide recommendations to the aspect of implementation of the
‘winning behaviour’ strategy in context to Australian business environment.
Overview of the case study (Carlsberg group)
The case study is given on the company, ‘Carlsberg’ established in the year 1847, is
located in the Copenhagen, Denmark. The company provides employment to 41,000 people
and deals in the sale of 500 different brands of beer. The CEO of the company established a
strategy development process, which is based on the phenomenon of ‘must-win battles’
(Carlsberg, 2018). The goal behind the strategy of the brand, was to incorporate a common
group culture and focusing on the enhancement of the capabilities and potential of the
individuals in the organisation. Five types of behaviours were mentioned, which were
aligned with the global strategy of the company. The group faced certain challenges, in their
business practices due to the nature of work or operations, for an instance in the cases of
Muslim countries (Chan et al., 2018).
Other than this, the case has mentioned about the introduction or expansion of the
business of the group in context to Australian market. The company from the analysis of the
case, and other such concepts has been stated as one of the successful brewing firm. Thus, the
business strategy and other concepts of HRM will be studied in the later section of this report
(Hatch & Schultz, 2017).
1. Strategic HR priorities of Carlsberg Group
The first aspect in the report will analyse the HR priorities and other practices of the
company, Carlsberg. In any organisation, HR department carries out different functions of

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human resource management, and has certain priorities in the organisation. To outline the
major HR priorities of Carlsberg, it can be stated, the company aims to build critical skills
and capacities of their people for attaining the objectives. The case has represented that
company focuses to take lead of the market. Therefore, attaining or establishing effective
leadership is another key HR priority of the organisation (Buckley & Ghauri, 2015).
Besides, this Carlsberg prioritise to improve or enhance the performance of employees to
attain high customer satisfaction from the sale of their products. Thus, it has been analysed
that the brewery company will be able to attain these listed HR priorities through developing
behaviours and providing training to their employees. In addition, the managers will also
emphasize on the performance management tools to enhance level of organisational
performance and growth (Kumaraswamy, Garud & Ansari, 2018).
2. Rationale behind implementation of ‘Winning Behaviour’ strategy
Carlsberg has implemented the ‘winning behaviours strategy’ in their organisation as a
broader perspective for the effective functioning. Winning behaviour is the strategic
behaviour adopted by the organisation to incorporate common culture in the organisation.
The senior staff at the Carlsberg group implemented the winning culture, that focused on five
behaviours, i.e. ‘together’, ‘we are stronger’, we want to win, and the customers are central
to the decision-making. the other two types or aspects of behaviour include ‘we are
empowered to create a difference, and ‘ensuring high engagement with society’ (Sozen &
O’Neill, 2019).
The aim of the company was to direct the efforts and interests of people towards a
common goal. Thus, to determine the rationale behind Carlsberg choosing or adopting the
‘winning culture’ is the alignment of the global business strategy with the international
approach of HRM. The senior managers perceived the benefit or advantage of using the
‘winning behaviour strategy’ as it established a glocal way of thinking in the organisation
(Noe et al., 2017).
The glocal way of thinking explains the approach of ‘think globally, act locally’. The
winning strategy has been termed as FAST strategy i.e. (fearless, ambitious, smart, team)
which aimed to ensure people work together at high efficiency. Another major objective
behind the use of ‘winning behaviour’ strategy was to ensure that people in the local firm
speak same language as adopted by the headquarters (Hatch & Schultz, 2017). However, it also
aim at integrating these aspects with the locally relevant FAST programme. For an example,