International HRM Issues and Performance Management: A Case Study of Tesco

This report discusses the international HRM issues and performance management challenges faced by Tesco, a multinational company dealing in groceries and retailing. It outlines the review of the international human resource management, overview and history of Tesco, issues related to the international human resource management, analysis of these issues, and recommendations related to the issues of the International HRM.

Human Resource Management

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Review of the International Human Resource Management......................................................3
Overview and History of Tesco..................................................................................................4
Outlining the international HRM issue.......................................................................................5
Analysing international HRM issue or problem.........................................................................7
Recommendations of International Human Resource management...........................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management refers to the system of managing, recruiting, selecting and
hiring of the employees in the organization. This management focus on the assets and capital of
the organization. It is important because it manages the people of the company which helps them
to achieve the mission. Tesco is a multinational company working in groceries and retailing
having its headquarters in Welwyn Garden City, England. This report will outline the review of
the international human resource management and overview and history of the Tesco company.
Further it will outline the issues related to the international human resource management and
analysis on this issues and problems. At end, it will outline the recommendations related to the
issues of the International HRM.
Review of the International Human Resource Management.
International Human Resource Management is the most important management of the
business organizations as it manages the resources by recruiting and hiring the human and their
activities on the international level or at multinational business (Barrena-Martínez, López-
Fernández and Romero-Fernández, 2019). Multinational company sell their products in different
foreign countries which the proper management by the human resource. Three countries are
involved in the international human resource management these are: home country, host country
and third country (What is International Human Resource Management, 2021). Home country is
that country in which firm has originated. Host country is that in which the transactions and the
operations of the business are made. Third country means from where some human resources
and other related resources are acquired.
The need of international human resource management is important for the multinational
company like Tesco. It has different practices like:
1.Cultural Diversity: As human resource management is the human-oriented system it
must have significant impact on the cultural diversities (Brewster, 2017). Different counties has
different culture because of different types of people live in different countries. Tesco company
must have cultural diversities as it is a multinational company dealing with the different
countries. The company must focus on culture of every country they are dealing with.
Global staffing: People of the different countries are recruited and selected for the
specific jobs in order to achieve the goal of the organization (Cooke, 2018.). These individuals
provide their services to the companies and get salary in return. The company can also appoint

the expatriate means an employee who is the resident of the country in which headquarter of the
organization is located and he is working over there. The organization can also appoint the
human resource from the country where their headquarters are located and can achieve its
planned goal.
Global benefits and compensation: The organizations mostly deals with those countries
which are not expensive. Due to pressure of giving more wages the company will appoint those
human resources on which compensation is lower. The cited organization can decide the
compensation of their employees by focusing on the certain factors related to laws and policies.
Overview and History of Tesco.
Tesco is a multinational company dealing in the items of groceries and merchandise
retailer having headquarters in Welwyn Garden City, England. It was founded in 1919 by the
Jack Cohen in London. The name Tesco was discovered as when Jack Cohen buys a shipment of
the tea from the T.E. Stock well and then he took the initials of these three letter and discovered
a name Tesco. It is the third biggest retailer in world in the terms of gross profit and ninth-largest
company in terms of the profits earned (Wood, Wrigley and Coe, 2017). The organization has
shops in five different countries across the Europe. It is the leader of groceries in the markets of
United kingdom. The brand of Tesco was first discovered in 1924. Jack Cohen makes its first
stall in the Tooting in November 1930 and after experimenting from this stall he open his its
shop at 54 Walting Street, Burnt Oak, Edgware etc. The organization open their first supermarket
in the Maldon in 1956. The name has been recorded in the Guinness Books of Records of the
company as the largest shop in the Europe.
In 1950s and 1960s, the company grows it business and owned more than 800 shops with
the merger and acquisitions. The motto of the founder was “ pile it high and sell it cheap” which
increase the sales of the company. It also expand it business by introducing the Club card which
makes their customers to purchase products online. In 2010, Tesco made a short films called
Paris Connections which was released on 6 September. Dave Lewis became the chief Executive
Officer of the Tesco company on 1 September 2014. There were almost 1200 workers in the
company in June 2017. Dave Lewis was step down as Chief executive Officer of the company in
October 2019 and new CEO was appointed namely Key Murphy. The company also put
limitations on some of its products like rice, soap, eggs etc. because they wanted that everyone
should access that products. It has also set up and expand its business operation sin eleven other

countries of the world which makes the company to increase its growth in the international
market.
Outlining the international HRM issue
One of the HRM issue that Tesco is facing is the performance management. The major
issue in international HRM is managing and understanding cultural diversity, legal requirements,
careers and talent management, communication issues, business environment, employee
engagement, compensation system and other management styles (Ererdi and et.al., 2020). These
challenges are discussed upon global staffing process, training and learning development and
other cultural diversities. There are following HRM issues may affect the performance
management of the Tesco which are as follows-
Organizational culture- It is an environment that develops in a company from shared
values and norms. To achieve goals, the company must maintain positive work environment. The
firm must build communication strategy, teamwork, collaboration and focus on core values and
norms such as innovation ideas. The good organizational culture boots the performance of the
company and makes strong corporate culture. Tesco should increase the productivity, supports
the business goal and improves the performance of the company in order to mange the HRM
issue. For Example, if the cited firm is not responding to the problems of the customers that will
affect the performance management of the company.
Career related issues- Repatriation is a system of returning to home country from
international assignment after completing the task or some other problems. This is the major
problem faced globally, social factors like family factors that may affect re-entry and work
adjustment. In career issues, negative perceptions of the support provided by managers during
repatriation. The performance management makes the employees to mange the task and projects
in the company by having the training programmes. The main aim of the career based
performance management is to develop the career development of the employees of the Tesco
but if company does not follow this leads to the HRM issue in management.
Talent management and staffing policies- Recruitment and selecting staff is another
difficult task which needs to be maintained by HR. The manager understands the challenges of
diversity provide training and learning program. Staffing policies includes the selection and
recruitment of skilled employees for a particular post in the firm. HR managers has to look into
the policies of international business while recruiting staff. Policies like polycentric, geocentric

and ethnocentric approach. The cited organization can have the new techniques and methods in
order to develop the talent by having the proper performance management in the business.
Enhancing the performance of the staff maintains the productivity and profitability of the
company. Tesco must not discriminate the employees related to the performance, they must
motivate which maintains the performance management issue.
Selection process- Every company tends to follow some methods and techniques for their
selection procedure that helps them to find out the right candidate for the right job. HR needs to
recruit and select candidates on the basis of their interest, qualification, specialization, skills,
experience technical expertise, language skills and interpersonal skills. According to experts,
more than 20% of the employees want to relocate to developed countries. The performance
management of the Tesco depends upon the selection and hiring of the right people in the
organization. It makes the employees to take part in the decision-making by which it increases
the performance of the company. For instance, If the cited organization not have proper
performance management it will not able to evaluate the work and select the best one.
Training and development- After selection, the HR needs to focus on training and
development. All company has different staffing strategies which will decide the degree of
challenges globally human resources' management. Apart from this, the balance between the
localization and standardization of HR practices and policies needs to be managed. Strategies
have to be developed to solve issue like cultural difference and international labour relations for
effective functioning of the organization globally. In the organizational culture, managers
arrange development programs that enhance the leadership skills which will help to improve
employee’s motivation, performance of the company and makes the proper management in the
organization. For example, If the Tesco is providing training to their employees but it does leads
to braincase in the performance than the performance management must check where they are
lacking.
Analysing international HRM issue or problem
Pay and compensation- The total payments that the company give to an employee and
worker in exchanges for the work they do for business is compensation. The HR manager of
TESCO needs to maintain compensation for effective skill-based pay, incentive pay, wages and
salary levels and budget. It is one of the biggest expenses for company as it is more than regular
paid wages to an employee. The HR team needs to pay on the basis of skills, experience and

qualification. Pay for performance policies in compensation management, increase employee
salaries on the basis of performance and efforts that advances the company's goals. Due to
various reasons, employee compensation may get affected (Schotter, Meyer and Wood, 2021).
Factors like economic conditions, government control, globalization, cost of living standard and
labour market conditions. Example- If the economic condition is not stable then it will create
problem for employees such as they are not able to maintain their living standard and satisfy
their basic needs.
One of the most serious Covid- 19 pandemic related compensation and pay challenges is
deciding how to manage a more distributed workforce. Due to this, many employees are looking
at moving from expensive locations to less costly area.
Performance management- It is a corporate management tool used by Tesco Plc that
helps them to monitor and analyse employee's work. It is helpful to create a positive environment
where employees can perform to the best of their abilities in order to offer the highest quality
work in most effective and efficient way (Global HRM: issues, challenges and strategies, 2021).
Performance management trends focus on people success and more data driven approach.
Analytics tools for people and other technology that can support performance management in the
company will help management team be more include in every aspect of the staff members' life
cycle. Providing feedback is the most effective means of performance management because it
helps to achieve goals for the future requirements.
Performance appraisal is an area that experiences a great deal of difficulty when it is
translated into various cultural environments. Due to cultural beliefs and attitudes ratee
discrimination can influenced. According to (Ozbilgin, 2020), self-confidence in the
international performance appraisal was influenced strongly by cross culture, cultural differences
and values. Some experts say that culture is one of the most important factors that must be
considered when evaluating and analysing international, subsidiary employees. For example- If
employees working in the company has Cultural and language difference such issues cause
professional misunderstandings. It creates a communication gap between top management and
bottom management, this leads to low productivity, underperformance, also affect reputation of
company. Due to such issues, it is hard to create an international human connection. Sometimes
it leads to various problems like employee retention and navigating regulations and laws.

Tesco plc top level management team needs to look into variations in work practices
between the subsidiary and parent multinational company. HR of Tesco plc needs to manage
international appraisals and maintain comparative data in order to measure worker productivity.
Implications of Covid-19 over the performance of employees- The coronavirus
pandemic has grandly shaken all organizations, creating a complex environment for human
resources, employees and managers. Practitioners who need to find out solutions to ensure the
business continuity and to support their working partners such as employee, staff members
workers to cope up with this extraordinary crisis. According to (Khan, 2021). The principal goal
of this study is to investigate the main challenges and to provide detailed information about
future direction in HRM. For example- due to coronavirus major challenges faced in
performance management is the productivity level of employee’s performance were negatively
affected. In fact, measuring employee's performance at individual level during the pandemic can
be challenging, considering the modification of the working conditions such as working hours,
work from home and over time working. So, it increases lack of communication, work stress,
over burden of work, family distractions and role conflicts. During remote working employees’
performance and their efforts is also totally dependent on managers. In many companies, top-
level management might not accept the use of remote working because they might consider that
it negatively affects the employees' performance, which can ultimately lead to the utilization of
micromanagement. In such scenario, it can create lack of trust, which affect the relationship
between supervisor and employees. Solutions- By defining effective criteria before making any
decisions about employees is the basic step the company can take. Tesco plc managers can bring
people together and work as team and encourages idea sharing in order to solve the problems.
The managers of the Tesco plc must focus on communication, make connections with staff
members and provide performance feedback to their employees, this will create effective
motivation among employees (Gupta, 2022). In this way, they can develop the individual
performance and solve issues relating to productivity.
Employees from some cultures may be less likely to let their voices be heard in the
company. Integration across multicultural teams can be difficult task for management team.
Sometimes professional communication can be difficult to manage and understand across culture
and languages globally (Hauff and et.al., 2021). There are many challenges experience by team
managers and administrative department. For example- Due to languages difference, Cultural

and creative sectors, these are among the hardest hit by the pandemic, with big cities and
countries often containing the greatest share of jobs at high risks. Issues like working conditions,
working hours, remunerations and physical or mental state is faced by members of company.
From the above-mentioned issue, it is evaluated and identified that there are many global
HRM challenges which can affect employee engagement, decision-making process and
management style of the TESCO.
Recommendations of International Human Resource management
From the above analysis of the issues of the international human resource management of
the Tesco company, there are some recommendations for the organization to overcome from that
issues which makes the company more profitable in the market. The recommendations are:
The culture of the organization must be as per the human resource working there. The
company must focus on the cultural policies of the business which makes their employees to
work better in the organization.
The organization may face the issue regarding the cultural differences as it is a
multinational company dealing with the different countries. Tesco plc must comply with the
values and beliefs of different countries by doing the proper research of that country. It can also
check another company of that particular country that how that company manages the human
resource. Tesco can apply those values and beliefs in order to overcome the issue of cultural
differences.
The cited organization issue regarding the talent management can be overcome by them
by recruiting the best international human resource management as a global staffing in the
company. Tesco must provide the training to their workforce for the better development of the
organization. By making proper strategies and objectives the human resource of the organization
can be properly managed.
As the company deals with the employees of the different nations it may create issue of
coordination and communication gap between them. The organization must develop a good
communication system with the international employees, make them participate in the decision-
making of the company. This makes the international human resource being valued and it makes
the international staff to coordinate with the organization.
The organization should provide the better training to their employees which helps in the
development of the business on the international level. Trained employees are more efficient in

their system of work. This provides an opportunity to the human resource to get promotion in
their work and feels them motivated in the company.
The company must have new and innovative technology which makes the employees to
work faster and efficient with the optimum resources. The HR team must provide their
employees their employee benefits like providing healthcare facility, on-job training etc which
makes them motivate in order to achieve the organizational goal.
The company must recruit and do the best selection process for the organizational goal.
The best global staff helps the company to make company more profitable in the multinational
market.
The organization should have good management system which helps the company to
make their staff focused on the planed goal. Tesco plc must also check the laws and policies of
different countries and it can also check the human resource management of that different
countries that how they are managing the staff of their company. The company can use those
laws and policies of different countries for having the best international human resource
management in the organization.
CONCLUSION
From the above study it has evaluated that the company must have good international
human resource management. This report describes the meaning and importance of the
international human resource management like to maintain the cultural diversity, global staffing
the company must have international HRM. Further this report evaluates the overview of the
Tesco company and history of the Tesco a multinational corporation. It also evaluates the
outlines the issues related to the international human resource management and analyses on those
issues like organizational culture, cultural differences, talent management, selection process,
coordination and communication gap, trends and future challenges, re-entry and career related
issues, training and development etc. At last, this report describes the recommendations to
overcome from the above-mentioned issues faced by the Tesco company like company must
check the cultural diversities of different countries before doing global staffing, can give proper
training to their staff for maintaining talent etc.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Barrena-Martínez, J., López-Fernández, M. and Romero-Fernández, P. M., 2019. Towards a
configuration of socially responsible human resource management policies and
practices: Findings from an academic consensus. The International Journal of Human
Resource Management. 30(17). pp.2544-2580.
Brewster, C., 2017. The integration of human resource management and corporate
strategy. Policy and practice in European human resource management. pp.22-35.
Cooke, F. L., 2018. Concepts, contexts, and mindsets: Putting human resource management
research in perspectives. Human Resource Management Journal. 28(1). pp.1-13.
Ererdi, C. and et.al., 2020. International HRM in the context of uncertainty and crisis: a
systematic review of literature (2000–2018). The International Journal of Human
Resource Management, pp.1-39.
Farndale, E. and et.al., 2020. Human Resource Management Journal: A look to the past, present,
and future of the journal and HRM scholarship. Human Resource Management Journal.
30(1). pp.1-12.
Gupta, K., 2022. Impact of Knowledge-Based HRM Practices on Organizational Performance:
Mediating Effect of Intellectual Capital. International Journal of Knowledge Management
(IJKM). 18(1). pp.1-22.
Hauff, S. and et.al., 2021. Exploring necessary conditions in HRM research: Fundamental issues
and methodological implications. Human Resource Management Journal. 31(1). pp.18-36.
Khan, I., 2021. HRM in Libraries: Issues and Challenges in the Indian Perspective. Journal of
Advanced Research in Library and Information Science. 6(2). pp.1-6.
Ozbilgin, M., 2020. International human resource management: Theory and practice.
Bloomsbury Publishing.
Schotter, A. P., Meyer, K. and Wood, G., 2021. Organizational and comparative institutionalism
in international HRM: Toward an integrative research agenda. Human Resource
Management. 60(1). pp.205-227.
Wood, S., Wrigley, N. and Coe, N. M., 2017. Capital discipline and financial market relations in
retail globalization: insights from the case of Tesco plc. Journal of Economic
Geography. 17(1). pp.31-57.
Online
What is International Human Resource Management. 2021. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.geektonight.com/international-human-resource-management/>.
Global HRM: issues, challenges and strategies. 2021. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342871809_GLOBAL_HRM_ISSUES_CHAL
LENGES_AND_STRATEGIES>.