HRMT20026: Carlsberg Case Study Report on Winning Behaviour's Strategy

This case study report provides a comprehensive analysis of Carlsberg's 'Winning Behaviour's Strategy'. It begins by outlining the strategic HR priorities pursued by Carlsberg, including developing a common group culture, enhancing employee capabilities, expanding brand image, and increasing profits. The report then delves into the rationale behind implementing the 'Winning Behaviour's Strategy', emphasizing its alignment with other HR practices such as equity and diversity, workforce planning and development, social responsibility, and work-life balance. It further examines the difficulties encountered during the strategy's implementation in Malaysia, considering cultural and religious factors. Finally, the report evaluates the strategy's potential effectiveness in the Australian context and offers recommendations for successful implementation, drawing on relevant academic research to support its arguments.

Running Head: Carlsberg Case Study Report
Case Study Report on Carlsberg’s Winning Behaviour’s Strategy
Name of the student:
Institute Affiliation:
Page 1 of 16

Running Head: Carlsberg Case Study Report
Executive Summary
Carlsberg, founded in 1847, is world's fourth largest brewery. Analysing
different strategic human resource management policies, the strategic HRM priorities
adopted by the company will be analysed. The company has come up with Winning
Behaviour 's strategy based on some prescribed behaviours that should be adopted
by the company. The strategy talks about working as a team with a strong will to win.
The strategy also talks about contributing to society. The strategy will be evaluated
against other strategic HRM policies to find out whether it is in alignment with other
strategic HRM policies. After analysing the implementation process of the strategy in
Malaysia, a list of recommendations will be made about the process of implementing
the strategy in Australia.
Page 2 of 16

Running Head: Carlsberg Case Study Report
Table of Contents
Executive Summary............................................................................................................................2
Introduction..........................................................................................................................................4
Strategic Human Resource Priorities in Carlsberg........................................................4
Development of a common Group Culture..................................................................5
Development of Capabilities and Capacities of people.............................................5
Expanding the brand image...........................................................................................6
Increasing profit in the key beer markets....................................................................6
The rationale for implementing Winning Behaviour’s Strategy....................................6
Alignment with other HR strategies..................................................................................8
Difficulties faced in Malaysia.............................................................................................9
Effectiveness of the strategy in Australia and Recommendations on the
implementation..................................................................................................................10
Recommendations............................................................................................................11
Conclusion.........................................................................................................................................12
References........................................................................................................................................13
Page 3 of 16

Running Head: Carlsberg Case Study Report
Introduction
Carlsberg is a Denmark based company that was founded in 1847. The
company survived in an atmosphere of intense competition. They enjoyed a number
of takeovers and finally ranked fourth among the largest breweries in the world. In
this report, a detailed analysis of the Winning Behaviour’s Strategy will be performed.
The Strategic human resource priorities of the company will be discussed in details.
The reason for adopting the strategy will be analysed. The strategy will be analysed
to evaluate whether it aligns with the other popular HR practices. The difficulties the
company has faced while implementing the strategy in Malaysia will be covered.
Finally, how effective the strategy will be in the Australian context will be evaluated
and recommendations will be done on the execution of the strategy in Australia.
Strategic Human Resource Priorities in Carlsberg
Strategic Human Resource management is directly related to the long term
performance of the organization. SHRM can be seen as a link between human
resources and strategic goals and objectives so that the overall performance of the
organization can be improved (Harzing&Pinnnington, 2011). SHRM leads to high-
performance work systems and connection has been found between HPWS and
company performance. Not only by recruiting valued employees, but also by
implementing Ability-Motivation-Opportunity theory the individual as well as
organizational performance get enhanced. Through training and development of the
employees, motivating them, giving them opportunities to perform impart a positive
effect on the workplace that encourages the employees to perform better and create
a High-Performance Work Station. In Carlsberg, the limitation of resource-based
Page 4 of 16

Running Head: Carlsberg Case Study Report
View theory seemed to be failing. In RBV, the external factors are often not
considered while considering the competitive advantage of the organization. SHRM
seems to be a better option for the organization. While trying to figure out SHRM
policies the company stood by their priorities. Priorities that influenced the HR
policies are discussed below:
Fig 1. Winning Culture (Cooke, 2018)
Development of a common Group Culture
It is very important to develop a common group culture. By providing rewards and
benefits based on performance, all the employees can feel motivated to perform
better (Mello, 2016). The work culture becomes fair. Developing an organization
culture irrespective of locations and nationalities of people enhances innovation at
the workplace and makes it transparent to the employees. As a result, the overall
performance of the organization gets increased.
Page 5 of 16

Running Head: Carlsberg Case Study Report
Development of Capabilities and Capacities of people
Through HRD program, capabilities and capacities of the employees get developed.
Training and development programs play a significant role here. Training enables to
unleash the potential of the individual to perform better whereas development has a
broader impact (Cooke, 2018). Development is to equip an employee with such
capabilities that he/she gets prepared for the future. Training can be individual, group
and organizational. Individual training help build new skills to enhance individual
performance where group training enables innovation and organizational one
increased organizational performance (Zehir et al, 2019). Moreover, development of
individuals helps increase the overall performance of the individuals.
Expanding the brand image
It is very important for Carlsberg to expand their brand image. Through CSR
activities brand images can be made strong and can be expanded (Søderberg,
2019). Social Activities help organizations to become more acceptable among
people.
Increasing profit in the key beer markets
The main aim of any organization is to increase sales, thus profits. Carlsberg is no
different from that. The overall increased organizational performance leads to
generate more revenue. Choosing SHR policies carefully can lead to an increase in
more profits (Brewster, 2017). Some studies reveal that adopting proper SHR
policies led to increased sales of new products and services.
The rationale for implementing Winning Behaviour’s Strategy
Carlsberg currently has 41000 employees around the world. While analysing
the rationale of “Winning Behaviour’s strategy”, the RBV or resource based value
Page 6 of 16

Running Head: Carlsberg Case Study Report
theory must be referred to. Resource-based view theory focuses on acquiring proper
resources to gain a competitive advantage over the competitors. According to this
theory, internal resources are given maximum importance. Human resources are
evaluated based on four attributes such that valuable, rare, imperfect imitability and
non-substitutable(Pudelko, Reiche&Carr, 2015), In this case, the overall competitive
advantage of the organization lies in the successful recruitment of the proper
resource. But, it has been observed that the recruitment of a skilled employee is not
enough. Training and development, motivational factors such as rewards and
benefits are equally important to enhance the performance of the employees. Apart
from that, reports state that the relationship among employees and the physical and
mental well-being have an effect on the overall performance of the employee. RBV
speaks about the value of the resource but fails to clarify the term value(Du Plessis,
2010). Moreover, while trying to define the competitive advantage of the
organization, this theory almost ignores the external factors. Thus, in an organization
like Carlsberg, RBV becomes somehow irrelevant when it comes to enhancing the
performance on an organizational level.
Fig 2. Core Values of Carlsberg (Schultz & Hernes, 2019)
Considering the other aspects of SHRD, Carlsberg needed a strategy that will
help them continuously develop the competencies and skills of the employees so
Page 7 of 16

Running Head: Carlsberg Case Study Report
that they can work towards the organizational goals and objectives. Moreover, the
company needed a work culture where the employees feel motivated and
encouraged to work harder. A strong sense of motivation is really important here. A
sense of working as a team was required to enhance the overall performance. As
Carlsberg sells beer, it is very important to convey the message to the mass that
they are responsible alcohol sellers. CSR activities can be a great help to create
goodwill and a transparent brand image (Dowling, Festing & Engle, 2013). If the
Winning Behaviour’s strategy is analysed, it will be clear that all these
aforementioned criteria are met through this strategy perfectly. The five aspects of
Winning Behaviour’s Strategy encourage people to work as a team, to win, to work
towards the organizational goals, to make the employees feel valued and to engage
in CSR activities (Schultz & Hernes, 2019). At the same time, the strategy takes the
local obstacles and culture into account. The global still the local approach of the
strategy makes it more relevant as it takes care of the external as well as the internal
factors that might affect the growth of the organization.
Alignment with other HR strategies
In the following section, whether Winning Behaviour’s alignment Strategy is in
alignment with other HR practices will be discussed.
Page 8 of 16

Running Head: Carlsberg Case Study Report
Fig 3. Key Strategies (Cogin & Williamson, 2014)
Equality and Diversity:
One of the emerging HR practices nowadays is equality and diversity. This
practice encourages an organization to recruit people from different background to
be it language, nationality or culture. People from different background help generate
a wide array of ideas that leads to innovation. This practice helps create a workplace
culture where every individual is respected irrespective of their different background.
If all the five aspects of Winning Behaviour’s Strategy are carefully analysed, it will
be clear that the strategy is encouraging employees to work as a team towards
organizational goals to win the competition (Dessler, 2013). At the same time, the
strategy is talking about everyone being empowered to create a difference. This
statement motivates people to work harder as it instils a sense of being valued by
the organization. So, it is clearly visible that the strategy adopted by the organization
totally aligns with equality and diversity practice.
Workforce Planning and Development:
Page 9 of 16

Running Head: Carlsberg Case Study Report
Workforce planning and development involves steps such that: analysing the
workforce present, anticipating and determining the future needs, finding out the gap
and identifying and implementing solutions to bridge the gap (Reiche et al, 2016).
HRM does the same by preparing the job opportunities in the organization after
going through the database of the current employees, assessing demand and
supply, recruiting, assessing, training, appraising and compensating employees
(Cogin & Williamson, 2014).Proper workforce planning and development leads to a
strong team of employees who are highly skilled and are capable to contribute
towards the organizational growth. Again the five statements of the Winning
Behaviour’s Strategy aims to do the same thing by building a strong team of values
individuals that are pledged to win.
Social Responsibility:
One of the aspects of Winning Behaviour’s Strategy is “we are engaged to
society” (Carbery& Cross, 2013). One of the most practices HR practices is CSR
activity that enforces the organization to work for society. Carlsberg also meets their
social responsibility by adopting Winning Behaviour’s Strategy.
Work-Life Balance:
Work-life balance refers to the balance between one’s personal and
professional life. People need a balance between the work hours and hours
allocated to other areas of life such that relaxation, family and friends. Work-life
balance is required for the mental and physical well-being of a person (Carbery&
Cross, 2013). Winning Behaviour’s Strategy does not directly talk about work-life
balance, it only talks about the “must win battles” attitude and the way to grab the
market.
Page 10 of 16

Running Head: Carlsberg Case Study Report
Difficulties faced in Malaysia
Malaysia is a country that is home to three cultures: Malay, Chinese and
Indian. The values of these cultures are different. In true sense, the company faces a
diverse workforce. It is comparatively easier to instil the sense of a team among
people belonging to the same culture and values. In a workforce where people from
different culture merge, chances of argument due to a different opinion and different
values occur (Beardwell& Claydon, 2017). A chance of disrespecting someone else’s
value emerges. Apart from that, different languages also became a problem.
Translating the strategy in local language became a task. But analysing the
difficulties, the company introduces various measurement criteria to evaluate the
competency level of the strategy among the employees. The company created role
model awards as well. People who adopted the Winning behaviours on a daily basis
were awarded.
Malaysia is a Muslim country. The religion forbids its people to consume
alcohol. Carlsberg is into beer. There was a chance of the creation of a negative
image among people of the country. Selling alcohol could have been earned
negative points for the company. It was extremely important for the company to build
a brand image and goodwill among the people (Anon, 2019). They needed to make
people understand that they sell alcohol responsibly while valuing the local culture
and values. This came as a real challenge to the company. Getting engaged in
social activities helped the company. One of the behaviours talks about getting
engaged in society. The company took part in various CSR activities that in turn
helped them create a good brand image among the locals.
Page 11 of 16

Running Head: Carlsberg Case Study Report
Effectiveness of the strategy in Australia and Recommendations on the
implementation
92% of the Australian isCaucasian, 7% are Asians and rest 1% belong to
other aboriginal groups. While implementing Winning Behaviour’s Strategy in
Australia, the work culture in Australia needs to be analysed carefully (Armstrong
&Baron, 2010).Australians work a lot in working hours. Australians work hard during
working hours. They mostly work 38 hours a week. They hardly say no to any extra
work. At the same time, they don’t hesitate to air their opinion. They are frank,
straight forward and love to share their opinions and questions in case they don’t
agree with others.
Some other aspects of Australians include:
 They believe in freedom of speech, freedom of religion.
 They respect personal space.
 They have respect for different culture and values.
 They believe in equal opportunity irrespective of colour, creed and culture.
 Australians are peaceful.
After analysing the Australian culture, it becomes clear that implementing
Winning Behaviour’s strategy won’t be much difficult in Australia. The five aspects of
the strategy talk about working together, winning together, working towards an
organizational goal, giving everyone equal opportunity and working towards the
benefit of society (Armstrong, 2012). As Australians believe in having opportunity
irrespective of gender, religion, nationality, colour and culture, the work culture in
Australia is already in alignment with Carlsberg’s strategy. Australians are hard
working. They believe in peaceful co-existence. It seems that Australia is somewhat
ready for the implementation.
Page 12 of 16