Analyzing Carlsberg's 'Winning Behaviours' HR Strategy Globally

This case study report delves into Carlsberg's 'Winning Behaviours' strategy, examining its alignment with HR priorities and practices. It explores the rationale behind the strategy's implementation, focusing on enhancing employee productivity, organizational effectiveness, and profitability. The report analyzes the difficulties Carlsberg faced in implementing the strategy in Malaysia, considering cultural and social trends, and assesses the potential success of the strategy in an Australian context, offering tailored recommendations. The analysis covers the alignment of 'Winning Behaviours' with equity and diversity, workforce planning and development, social responsibility, and work-life balance, providing a comprehensive overview of Carlsberg's HR approach. The report concludes with recommendations for a market-adaptable approach and stakeholder feedback to improve strategy implementation.

Running head: HUMAN MANAGEMENT PRACTICE
Human management practice
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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Introduction
There are different elements in relation to the human resource management are being
followed by the contemporary business organizations. This is mainly due to the fact that business
situations are different for different business organizations. Hence, the approach towards the
human resource management process should be different based on different business situations.
The differences and diversity are more for the large scale business entities because they are
operating across the world and facing different cultural factors (Jackson, Schuler & Jiang, 2014).
For instance, Carlsberg is one of the leading beer manufacturers in the world with having their
operations across the world. Thus, they are having the requirement for standardized yet adaptable
approach of the human resource management to get succeeded in the business. On the basis of
this situation, they have initiated winning behavior strategy for their global workforce. However,
there are different factors that should be considered in reviewing the winning behavior strategy
(Alfes et al., 2013).
This report will discuss about these factors that will include the human resource priorities
being considered by Carlsberg along with the rationale behind the implementation of winning
behavior strategy. In addition, the alignment of the winning behavior strategy with the different
Human Resource practices. Difficulties being faced by Carlsberg in implementing the same in
Malaysia will also be evaluated.
Human resource priorities of Carlsberg
It is identified from the given case that the major human resource priorities of Carlsberg
are enhancement of the employee productivity and performance, organizational effectiveness,
organizational culture and initiating profitability. It is identified that the core objective of the

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human resource management of Carlsberg is to increase the winning behavior among the
employees. The must win attitude of the employees of Carlsberg will only help in getting the
higher business opportunities in the long term. In addition, the must win attitude of the
employees is focused due to the reason that it will increase the employee performance in their
workplace (Kranar, 2014). Organizational culture is also being prioritized as it will determine the
performance and effectiveness of the employees in the workplace along with their level of
satisfaction. Thus, it can be concluded that business growth and performance is the key objective
of Carlsberg in terms of their human resource management.
Rationale of implementing the winning behavior strategy
One of the major reasons of implementing the winning behavior strategy is to increase
the organizational effectiveness in competing in the market. This is important for Carlsberg due
to the reason that they are trailing behind their competitors in the global market. In this case, they
are having the need for winning behavior strategy in the workplace to increase the performance
of the employees. With the help of the winning behavior strategy, Carlsberg is being able to
enhance the winning mentality of the employees and this will help them to gain the
competiveness (Hatch, Schultz & Skov, 2015). In addition, it should also be noted that increased
competition in the market is also demanding Carlsberg to increase their competitiveness and
performance within the limited available resources. In this case also, winning behavior strategy
is also helping them in gaining higher sets of competitiveness with the same level of resources
(Hatch & Schultz, 2017).
It should also be noted that Carlsberg was facing the issue of lower level of customer
centricity in their business operation. This caused lack of acceptances of their new products

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among the targeted customers. Thus, with the implementation of the winning behavior strategy,
customer centricity is targeted to be the base of the business strategies of Carlsberg. Thus, the
business strategies including the product approach will be based on the trends of the market and
taste and preferences of the customers. Thus, it can be concluded that with the help of the
winning behaviors strategy, the major objective of Carlsberg is to get more adhered with the
market trends (Lambreti, 2013). Lastly, it is also identified that implementation of the winning
behavior strategy is also helping in building the common organizational culture across the global
operation of Carlsberg. This is helping in the managing a standardized approach of
organizational culture and employee management process of Carlsberg across their global
operation is getting more standardized. Hence, this is proved that there are number of reasons of
implementing the winning behavior strategy by Carlsberg (Bedarkar et al., 2016).
Alignment of the winning behavior with human resource practices
Irrespective of the fact that the implementation of the winning behavior strategy is having
positive outcomes for Carlsberg but it is also important to align it with different human resource
practices. One of the major human resource practices of Carlsberg is the equity and diversity,
which is important for them because they are having their operations in different regions across
the world having diverse workforce (Kehoe & Wright, 2013). In this case, it is identified from
the case that winning behavior strategy is based on glocal approach. This denotes the fact that
differences and diversity in the global workforce of Carlsberg are being considered in designing
the winning behavior strategy. With the help of the glocal approach, standardized process of the
winning behavior strategy is being implemented on the global operations of Carlsberg along with
being adaptable towards the regional differences (Schulz, Chowdhury & Van de Voort, 2013).

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This is helping them in implementing the core process of winning behavior strategy across their
operations along with accepting the local trends.
Another major human resource practice of Carlsberg is the workforce planning and
development. This refers to the extent to which they are managing and developing their global
workforce. From the case, it is identified that separate program is being followed by them in
terms of engaging the senior management teams in the winning behavior strategy. This is
proving the alignment between the two elements due to the reason that engaging the senior level
management in the winning behavior strategy is helping Carlsberg is having higher sets of
involvement of the internal stakeholders across all the levels (Shaw, Park & Kim, 2013).
Moreover, involvement and engagement of the senior level management is also ensuring the fact
that determination of the needs and requirement of the employees in terms of the implementation
of winning behavior strategy is effective and proper. In addition, it is also identified that a set of
ten leadership competencies is being identified and they are being further developed for the
performance management systems. This is also denoting that effective talent and performance
management program is being followed in the implementation process of winning behavior
strategy (Collings, Wood & Szamosi, 2018). This is proving that this new strategy of Carlsberg
is well aligned with the workforce development and planning.
In terms of the social responsibility, it is also identified that winning behavior strategy is
well aligned. This is due to the reason that in the case it is identified that employees are
motivated and encouraged in taking up volunteering activities, which denotes that social aspect is
included in the winning behavior strategy. It is also identified that winning behavior strategy is
focused towards the holistic process of the corporate social responsibility and developing
employees in having the positive attitude towards the fulfillment of these activities (Phipps,

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Prieto & Ndinguri, 2013). Corporate social responsibilities are important more for Carlsberg due
to the reason that they are operating in the alcohol sector, which is being affected by the negative
publicity. Thus, it can be concluded that winning behavior strategy is well aligned with each of
the important human resource practices of Carlsberg.
Identification of the difficulties in implementing in Malaysia
The major difficulty being faced by Carlsberg in implementing the winning behavior
strategy in Malaysia is the different cultural and social trends. This is due to the reason that
Malaysia is Islam dominated country with having lower level of acceptances towards the
alcoholic products. Thus, the market opportunities for Carlsberg are limited in the country. This
is also affecting them in terms of sourcing human resources and developing them. This is due to
the fact that employees are skeptical in accepting and doing job in the alcoholic sector. Even
with the implementation of the winning behavior strategy in the Malaysian operation, the
negative attitude of the employees cannot be reduced. Another major difficulty being faced by
Carlsberg in implementing the winning behavior strategy in Malaysia is the differences in
languages (Deepa, Palaniswamy & Kuppusamy, 2014). This is due to the fact that language is
different between the home and host country of Carlsberg and the local language and other
cultural factors of Malaysia are different majorly with the global trends. This is also stated in the
case that the local employees in Malaysia are facing the problem of having the idea and
understanding of the approach and vision of winning behavior strategy and on the other hand, the
leaders are also facing the issues in communicating with them in their local languages. Thus, the
standardized approach of the winning behavior strategy cannot be maintained in the process.

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It is also identified due to the conservative approach of the Malaysian society,
advertisement and marketing of the alcohol based products is banned. This is posing challenges
for Carlsberg in creating the publicity and brand identity in the country and increases the
employer branding. Thus, it can be concluded that there are number of challenges being faced by
the Carlsberg in implementing the winning behavior strategy in Malaysia.
Implementation of the winning behavior strategy in Australia
Different countries are having different social and cultural factors and thus the negative
and positive factors associated with the implementation of the winning behavior strategy will
also be different. In the case of implementing it in Australia, the major positive factor will be the
long term orientation of the Australian society. This is due to the reason that as per the cultural
dimensions, Australia is having normative approach, which denotes that employees from
Australia will be more aligned towards achieving short term outcome (Den Hartog et al., 2013).
This cultural factor of Australia is well aligned with the approach of winning behavior strategy
due to the reason that this strategy is based on enhancing the employee performance within short
time span. It is also identified that the lower sets of power distance in the Australian society will
also help Carlsberg in implementing the winning behavior strategy. This is due to the reason that
the low will be the power distance between the stakeholders; the more will be the connection and
coordination among them. Thus, Carlsberg will be able to achieve the higher level of
coordination among the stakeholders in terms of the winning behavior strategy.
It is also identified that Australian society is masculine, which will also have positive
impact on the implementation of winning behavior strategy. This is due to the reason that the
winning it all approach of the winning behavior strategy will be well aligned with the

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masculinity of the Australian society. The Australian employees will be motivated and engaged
with this concept. However, on the other hand, it is also identified that Australian society is more
inclined towards the uncertainty avoidance. This will be challenging for Carlsberg due to the
reason that Australian employees will resists change in the existing process and practices. Thus,
the implementation of winning behavior strategy will face difficulties in terms of this dimension.
Recommendations
It is recommended that Carlsberg should initiate and follow the market adaptable
approach in implementing the winning behavior strategy. This is due to the reason that initiation
of the market adaptable approach will help in accepting the local factors in Australia and amend
the program accordingly. In addition, it is also recommended that prior and post implementation
of the winning behavior strategy, feedback from the involved stakeholders should be gained.
This will be beneficial in having the understanding about the expectations and requirements of
the Australian employees. Accordingly, winning behavior strategy should be implemented. Post
implementation also, feedback of the employees will help in identifying the limitations and
shortcomings and amending accordingly.
Conclusion
This report concludes that winning behavior strategy is having number of advantages for
Carlsberg and these will help them in gaining long term business viability. In addition, it is
identified in this report that there are number of challenges being faced by them in implementing
the same in the Malaysian operation and a few will also get emerged in implementing it in
Australia.

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