Strategic Human Resource Management

This report discusses the strategic HR priorities adopted by Carlsberg and how it aligns with the business goals. It also explores the challenges faced during implementation and provides recommendations.

Running head: STRATEGIC HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Strategic Human Resource Management
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Strategic HR priorities of Carlsberg...........................................................................................3
Rationale for implementing the strategy of “Winning behaviours”...........................................3
Carlsberg's 'Winning Behaviours' strategy alignment with the HR practices............................4
Challenges and issues faced during the strategic implementation in Malaysia.........................5
Analysis of strategy within the Australian context....................................................................5
Recommendations......................................................................................................................6
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................6
References..................................................................................................................................6

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Introduction
The concept of strategic human resource management centres on the process of
planning to determine the present as well as needs for the future for the management of
human resources effectively. The report is prepared to discuss about the strategic HR
priorities adopted by the Carlsberg and how it can manage to align the strategic HRM
approaches with the business goals or objectives to, be achieved (Noe et al., 2017). The
strategic HRM also highlights the importance of managing the talents and opportunities
perfectly, furthermore ensure strengthening the performance and efficiency of human
resources department. The topic will also illustrate about the winning behaviours strategy that
can be aligned with the HR practices and at the same time, overcome the issues that may be
experienced during the strategic implementation process (Carlsberggroup.com, 2019).
Strategic HR priorities of Carlsberg
As we all know, cultural plays a major role in ensuring successful human resource
management, thus, he strategic HR priority is the formation of a common group culture,
which acts as a winning culture for supporting the new strategies to human resource
management. The winning behaviours have been facilitated by focusing on five major
behaviours including the “we want to win”, “together, we are stronger”, “our customers and
consumers are at the heart of every decision we make”, “we are empowered to make a
difference” and “we are engaged with society” (Mello, 2014). All these behaviours have been
aligned by Carlsberg with the international business strategies to HRM for fulfilling the needs
of people and at the same time, remove the barriers and obstacles that my affect the business
functioning too.
According to Jackson, Schuler & Jiang (2014), the strategic HR priorities also include
social constructs and managing negotiations with people from different backgrounds and

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cultures, furthermore interpret the cross cultural aspects and ensure implementing an effective
corporate strategy by the managers and employees. Based on Carlsberg’s strategic aspects,
the top management has been responsible for managing the Human resources department and
corporate social responsibility department too for ensuring transformation of business
strategies into business practices (Carlsberggroup.com, 2019).
Rationale for implementing the strategy of “Winning behaviours”
The “Winning behaviours” strategic concept is based on the rationale that defines the
major causes of transforming the business strategies into every business practices. The major
questions that arose revolved around the roles and responsibilities that the managers of the
organisation handle during the strategic management implementation along with the ways by
which the managers influence the behaviours of the employees to develop new strategic
concept and facilitate winning behaviours within the organisation (Kramar, 2014). There is
need to include a social agency that can help Carlsberg to analyse the local aspects and foster
development of a winning culture required to gain deeper understanding into the business
functions and processes and ensure corporate values management. This has facilitated the
empowerment and maintained a good work life balance, which induced significant changes
through improvement of strategic communication and better management of corporate values
and beliefs. As stated by Søderberg (2015), another 'Winning Behaviours' strategy is
implemented on the basis of adopting the Glocal approach, which aims to maintain a right
balance between collaborative working at the Global level, though, at the same time, allowing
the local brands to undertake business approaches required to gain enhanced business
performance (Lengnick-Hall, Lengnick-Hall & Rigsbee, 2013). This global approach or
winning strategy has helped in differentiating the organization from its competitors,
furthermore ensure successful business management for Carlsberg Group. The company
focuses on meeting the clients’ demands and expectations to the fullest and thus Carlsberg

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consider the customers as the most important stakeholders in business, who reside in the
bottom of heart of the organisation. Therefore, this has been the rationale for which,
Carlsberg implements the Winning behaviours strategy (Taylor, Doherty & McGraw, 2015).
Carlsberg's 'Winning Behaviours' strategy alignment with the HR practices
The “Winning behaviours” strategy influenced the ‘glocal’ way of thinking, which
can strengthen the HR strategies and practices, furthermore ensure putting efforts by the
management team for accomplishing the business goals and objectives effectively. To
maintain a winning scenario by influencing the winning behaviours, Carlsberg made sure to
identify the various leadership skills and competencies like motivation, guidance and support
to the employees for improving the process of performance management (Leleux & Van der
Kaaij, 2017). This has though been done with the management of surveys and by conducting
reviews, based on which the employees, can get appraisal and rewards too, furthermore get
influenced or motivated to perform to their potential. This has also been helpful for the
development of a good corporate culture, which further contribute to the organisational
performance and business efficiency. Brusendorff (2014) depicted that the Wining
behaviours at Carlsberg is based on the Glocal approach, which allows the brand to work
with the local brands at the global level, though enabling scopes and opportunities for the
other businesses to manage the business functions effectively.
Based on this approach, Carlsberg has prioritised on the human resource practices
though management of collaborative working by respecting each other’s culture and
welcomed cultural differences too, which has facilitated the cultural diversity and equity
within the workplace. The management of Carlsberg Leadership Academy training and
International Talent programme could further support betterment of skills, knowledge and
behaviours along with influencing behaviours and mind sets to perform to their potential too.
It has also helped in delivering better customers services to the clients and influenced their

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positive mind sets and buying behaviours too (Hitt, Ireland & Hoskisson, 2016). Any sort of
discrimination based on race, religion, colour, creed or ethnicity has been prevented to ensure
good working conditions and management of a good corporate culture where people has been
working in a collaborative manner by communicating with each other.
The company has also focused on dealing with the challenges of ownership and
contribute to the power and autonomy, required to deliver excellent outcomes and even
manage better acqusitions of knowledge, information along with learning too. It improves the
working environment and allows every employees to share their respective views, ideas and
opinions, which is necessary for managerial decision making. As stated by Hitt, Ireland &
Hoskisson (2016), the Winning culture of the organisation improved the company’s ability to
acquire better information about the business operations and processes that are aligned with
the management of corporate values, beliefs and goals to be achieved. The empowerment of
individuals has been possible and a good work life balance in managed, which made the
employees find interest in their work and thus a good culture is developed too through better
communication process management, sharing and exchange of individual views and opinions
too (Chesbrough et al., 2018). Thus, the organisation has undergone transformation through
betterment of strategic communication and managing the corporate values and beliefs too,
required to maintain good working conditions and a healthy work culture.
The 'Winning Behaviours' strategy of Carlsberg has also been supported by becoming
socially and environmentally responsible, which has been essential for contributing to the
positive impact on the environment and community. The engagement of stakeholders has also
improved the organisational skills and competencies to strive towards management and use of
natural resources in a responsible way too. The climatic change conditions are major issues
and so to maintain a low carbon economy, Carlsberg has taken help from the external experts
at the Carbon Trust to ensure setting various targets related to the lowering down of carbon

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emissions at the brewery and at the same time, collaborated with value chain partners for
reducing the ‘beer-in-hand’ emissions by the end of 2030 (Carlsberggroup.com, 2019).
Challenges and issues faced during the strategic implementation in Malaysia
There are multiple issues and challenges that have acted as barriers for Carlsberg
while implementing the ‘Winning behaviours’ strategy in Malaysia. Few of these include the
strategic implementation, being suitable for the present market conditions in Malaysia and
emergence of social and ethical problems too. It has been found that, the company wanted to
manage global expansion by entering the market in Malaysia and thus the Carlsberg Green
Label was introduced to enter the Malaysian market. The company has been using the same
strategy of entering new markets, that was previously used only, which made the focus on
attracting more customers only, which created issues like unable to meet the products’ supply
and delivery needs.
One of the major issue during strategic implementation is that Malaysia consists of
Malaysian Chinese who adhere to strict principles about not consuming alcohol, which has
also increased social pressure within the community and created issues for company. Another
issue could be the emergence of social and ethical issues while promoting the product in the
Malaysian market with the help of this strategic implementation (Marler & Fisher, 2013).
This has also led to making more people drinking and then driving, thereby, increased the
chances of accidents and adverse health effects too. Due to this, the introduction of the beer
with the implementation of this winning behaviour strategy has been opposed by many
people all over Malaysia (Carlsberggroup.com, 2019).
The demands for better in the Malaysian market is quite low, due to which, the sales
were recorded as significantly low, as compared to the sales generated in other countries,
which also resulted in sending the stocks in the warehouses. These were left for long time and

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led to expiry, which also contributed to lack of awareness about the brand and its products,
furthermore resulting in negative mind sets and poor purchasing behaviours (Hatch &
Schultz, 2017). Another major issue could be the smaller Malaysian market, which has
created difficulty for Carlsberg to attain the desired level of profit, due to which, the company
aimed at attracting shareholders or investors from other countries to make investments.
Analysis of strategy within the Australian context
The Winning behaviours strategy managed through the adoption of Glocal approach
in Australia could allow Carlsberg to extend its hand to the other local companies so that
necessary support could be provided for enhancing the competitiveness within the industry.
The winning culture supported by the statement of “together, we are stronger”, further, could
help in welcoming cultural differences and also the people from different backgrounds and
culture to work together as an unit and in coordination. This would help in collaborative
working as well as facilitate sharing and exchange of individual ideas, views and opinions
required by the manager of the organisation to make effective decisions (Armstrong &
Taylor, 2014). This would also create win-win situations for the brand to remain proactive in
decision making and at the same time, consider the clients as the most important
stakeholders, who needs should be taken care of. The Winning behaviours strategy could also
be facilitated with the company aiming to lower the carbon footprint and use of renewable
sources of energy for the production of electricity (Hatch & Schultz, 2017).
Recommendations
 It is recommended for Carlsberg to communicate the Winning behaviours strategy
with all the organisational members for ensuring that the strategic implementation
remains aligned with the HR practices

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 Just like the managers of the organisation, Carlsberg is recommended to engage the
employees too while making any decisions and take the responsibilities in hand for
practicing the winning behaviours with ease and efficacy
 The arrangement of global leadership training and development programs for the
staffs is recommended for strengthening the skills and knowledge of workers and
ensure performing to the potential
 To survive in the Malaysian market and create an impact, Carlsberg could also create
a unique logo that represent the Winning behaviours and present alcohol consumption
limit, which can promote healthy consumption and create positive influences on
behaviours too
 It is also recommended to introduce CSR campaigns aligned with the Winning
behaviours strategy for contributing the welfare of the community and even create
positive impact on the environment
Conclusion
The report focused on the strategic human resource management considering the
business organisation, i.e., Carlsberg’s Wining behaviours strategy to facilitate strategic
implementation and manage human resources effectively too. The strategic priorities
included cultural diversity management and working together to make a difference and
contribute to the wellbeing of the society too. The winning behaviours strategy was supported
by various HR practices including working the Glocal way and maintaining diversity within
the workplace too. The challenges faced during the strategic implementation included the
social and ethical issues resulting from the strict rules and principles of preventing alcohol
consumption because of the presence of Malaysian Chinese along with the lower demands in
the market. Lastly, few recommendations were provided, which represented focus on

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corporate social responsibilities and even aiming to engage stakeholders altogether to
facilitate the decision making process.
References
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Brusendorff, A. S. (2014). Corporate Social Responsibility: A Case Study on Carlsberg.
Carlsberggroup.com. (2019). Retrieved from https://carlsberggroup.com/
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Leleux, B., & Van der Kaaij, J. (2019). Winning Sustainability Strategies: Finding Purpose,
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