Analysis of Carlsberg's Strategic Human Resource Management Practices

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Carlsberg's strategic human resource management practices, specifically focusing on the 'Winning Behaviour' strategy. The report begins by outlining the HR priorities pursued by Carlsberg, which centered on fostering a winning culture, developing employee capabilities, and aligning subsidiaries with local values. It then delves into the rationale behind the 'Winning Behaviour' strategy, emphasizing its role in aligning with the company's global strategy, developing the brand, uniting employees, and developing the workforce through training. The report examines how the 'Winning Behaviour' strategy aligns with other HR practices, including workplace culture, engagement, empowerment, performance management, training and development, and diversity management. Furthermore, the report analyzes the difficulties Carlsberg faced when implementing this strategy in Malaysia, particularly concerning teamwork across different ethnic groups and the dominance of Islam. Finally, the report provides an analysis of how well the 'Winning Behaviour' strategy would work in an Australian context, considering the country's individualistic culture and high beer taxes, offering recommendations for effective implementation in Australia. The report provides detailed insights into Carlsberg's HR practices and the challenges of implementing a global strategy.

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Carlsberg’s Winning Strategy
STRATEGIC HUMAN RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT – 985355

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Table of Contents
Introduction.......................................................................................................................3
Human Resource Priorities Pursued by Carlsberg...............................................................3
Reason Behind The Winning Behaviour Strategy................................................................4
Aligning Winning Strategy With HR Practices....................................................................5
Difficulty Faced While Implementation Of Winning Behaviours In Malaysia.......................6
Winning Behaviour In Australia.........................................................................................7
Conclusion.........................................................................................................................8
References.........................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
Human resource management is an approach that is aimed at improving the work conditions
for the employees of a company and establish better relations between employers and
employees to achieve a high performing workforce (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart, & Wright,
2017). Human resource managers perform a number of core and non-core functions, such as
recruitment and selection, performance management, employee motivation, etc. to achieve
their aims and objectives.
In this report, we will analyse the case of Carlsberg, which is one of the leading global
companies in the field of alcoholic beverages (Chesbrough, Bogers, Strand, & Whalen,
2018). We will gain a deeper insight into the human resource practices adopted by Carlsberg
that were aimed at strengthening the market position of the company through a better pool of
human resources.
Human Resource Priorities Pursued by Carlsberg
Human resource management can focus on multiple areas to increase the efficiency and
productivity of the employees. In general, these areas are identified through multiple surveys
and questionnaires or through employee feedback forums (Bratton & Gold, 2017). Business
organizations tend to gather extensive data related to the workplace conditions that might act
as a barrier for the employees to meet their performance objectives. For example, inefficient
areas can include workplace culture, employee skill and competencies, employee well-being
issues, high turnover rates, etc. (Collings, Wood, & Szamosi, 2018)
The human resource priorities perused by Carlsberg are related to its workplace culture and
developing people capabilities and capacities. Carlsberg’s human resource management
department started working towards the establishment of a winning culture throughout its
subsidiaries and aligning them with the local values and culture of each of the subsidiary
(Hatch & Schultz, 2017). Carlsberg focused more upon establishing a workplace culture
where the employees could demonstrate a winning behaviour by showing a greater team
work and a will to achieve success. To achieve a better and high performance oriented

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culture, the company also ensured that the employees are empowered and engaged in their
work.
The company also focused on performance management system in order to ensure that the
employees are able to demonstrate the winning behaviour in their day-to-day routine.
Rewards were given to the employees who were able to demonstrate winning behaviour in
their routine, in order to reinforce the right behaviour. Further, training and development
programs were also implemented to help the employees in embedding the winning behaviour
components in their work lives. Thus, the main priority of the company was to implement a
workplace culture that could make the employees give a greater value to win in the market
(Hatch, Schultz, & Skov, Organizational identity and culture in the context of managed
change: Transformation in the Carlsberg Group, 2009–2013., 2015).
Reason Behind The Winning Behaviour Strategy
The winning behaviour strategy was aimed at fostering a competent culture in the
subsidiaries of the company. The strategy was a part of the concept of must win battles that
was suggested by the CEO of the company Nils Smedegaard Andersen. The reason for
implementing the winning behaviour strategy at Carlsberg is discussed below:
First of all, the most important objective behind the implementation of a winning behaviour
strategy was to align the winning behaviour with the global strategy of the company and also
represent local needs side by side. This would help the company in ensuring management of
its human resources at an international level in a better way. It would also ensure that a
standard culture prevails in the subsidiaries of the company that are spread all over the world.
Secondly, the implementation of the winning behaviour strategy was to develop the brand in
the global market. The strategy extensively focused on empowering and engaging the
employees to perform better in their jobs and ensure that they meet their performance
objectives. Through better performance, the company also aimed at increasing its profitability
in the beer market. Thirdly, the winning strategy of the company also aimed at uniting its
employees through a group culture and values. The company stressed upon the need of
working in teams and keeping in mind that they are socially responsible towards their

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customers and to the society on the overall. Lastly, the winning strategy was also aimed at
developing the workforce through training and development programs.
Aligning Winning Strategy With HR Practices
The winning strategy implemented by Carlsberg is one effective strategy that addresses a
number of human resource management areas. The company implemented this strategy at a
global scale i.e. throughout its subsidiaries present in the different parts of the world. The
company used it to carefully plan and align its international human resource management
practices with the objectives of the company. The way in which the winning behaviour
strategy is in alignment with the human resource practices are discussed below:
First of all, workplace culture is an important human resource management practice that has
to be planned and implemented by the managers. The culture of a workplace are a set of
values, ethics, practices, morals, etc. that govern the behaviour of the employees. The
winning strategy was in alignment with the cultural practice of HR as it stressed upon the
need to implement a culture where team work was promoted and accepted by the employees.
Further, it also fostered an environment where the employees were driven by their need to
achieve success and achieve an increase in the profitability for their company (Cravens,
Oliver, Oishi, & Stewart, 2015)
Secondly, the new winning strategy implemented at Carlsberg also was in alignment with
engagement and empowerment practices found under human resource management.
Empowerment is a concept that aims at providing the employees with a certain degree of
autonomy in the decision making process while engagement is a concept that aims at keeping
the employees highly involved in their jobs and in the organisation (Kumar & Pansari, 2016).
The new strategy aimed at empowering the employees and keeping them engaged to increase
their performance.
Thirdly, the new winning strategy was also aligned with the performance management
system of the company as it was linked to engagement surveys and business reviews. The
employees working at Carlsberg started receiving awards that were based on their ability to
demonstrate a winning strategy behaviour.

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Fourthly, the winning strategy was also aligned with the training and development program
of the company. The training and development program implemented by the company were
aimed at developing competencies and skills in the individuals that would allow them to
incorporate the winning strategy behaviour in their work routine. The training and
development programs were also used in measuring the local performance of a subsidiary.
Lastly, the winning strategy also aligned with diversity management practices by allowing
the managers to make changes in the winning strategies in accordance with the national
culture or conditions of their subsidiaries. Thus, the winning strategy was made a ‘glocal’
strategy i.e. a mix of global and local preferences, which was helpful in aligning the strategy
with diversity management in an international business context (Cho, Kim, & Mor Barak,
2017).
Difficulty Faced While Implementation Of Winning Behaviours In
Malaysia
A country where the company had been operating was Malaysia, which provided certain
hurdles to the implementation of its winning strategies. Malaysia was a country that was
dominated by three different ethnic groups i.e. Indian, Chinese and Malay (Halim, et al.,
2015). The Malaysian subsidiary was one of the oldest subsidiary of the company, which
made it important for the company to implement its winning behaviour strategy in Malaysia.
The problems faced by the company in implementing winning behaviour in Malaysia are
discussed below:
First of all, the winning behaviour of the company was based on the principle of working
together as teams to fulfil personal as well as organisational goals and objectives. In a
subsidiary where the employees belong to three different ethnic groups, promoting team work
can be a difficult task and can require a lot of careful planning and monitoring. The winning
behaviour strategy, which was planned as an international human resource management
strategy, had to be changed according to the local conditions of the Malaysian subsidiary. As
a result, the local company implemented a strategy of its own alongside the winning
behaviour strategy. At Malaysia, FAST (fearless, ambitious, smart, team) exercise was
implemented to align the local culture of the Malaysian subsidiary with the global culture of
the company (Scheel, Tange, & Olsen, 2011).

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Secondly, another major issue that the company faced while trying to operate in Malaysia
was the dominance of Islam in the country. Malaysia is a Muslim country where beer was
heavily taxed and its advertisement was also banned. To counter this problem, the company
continued to lay focus on its corporate social responsibilities, which fitted well with the
society and helped the company in establishing itself as a responsible alcohol producer in the
Malaysian market.
Winning Behaviour In Australia
Australia is a large country where 84% of the beer is manufactured locally in the country
itself. The beer industry in Australia accounts for 1% of the country’s total GDP and the
government has imposed heavy taxes on beer as well. The taxes on beer are as high as 42% in
Australia, which increases the prices of beer in the country to a large extent. According to a
research carried out by Fiftyfive5 for Lion Nathan, around 9.1 million Australians enjoy beer
while 6.7 million out of them are regular beer drinkers (Brewers Association, n.d.).
Therefore, the country has a huge potential for beer manufacturing companies as it has the
necessary resources and customer pool available for the success of an alcoholic brand. The
problems that Carlsberg is most likely to experience while trying to implement a winning
behaviour in Australia are discussed below:
First of all, Australia has been characterised as a highly individualist society. On the
Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, Australia has a score of 90 that means that the culture in
Australia is highly based on individualism (Hofstede Insights, n.d.). In the Australian culture,
the employees are more self-reliant and tend to work as individuals rather than working in
teams (Triandis, 2018). This would prove to be a problem for the company in implementing a
winning behaviour as it is solely based on the principal of team work whereas the Australian
population is highly individualist. To counter the effect of individualist culture in Australia,
Carlsberg will have to lay a greater stress on team work and team building activities. The
management will have to communicate the importance of synergies, which are created only
while working in a team. Further, the management will have to ensure that the barriers to
team building are dealt with in an appropriate way. The management can form teams, provide

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Carlsberg’s Winning Strategy
performance objectives to individual team and offer rewards according to the performance
shown by a team (Moore, Everly, & Bauer, 2016).
Secondly, the high rates of taxes on the beer industry in Australia will also make it difficult
for the company to achieve its objective of achieving a higher profitability through its
winning strategy. The high rates of taxes will increase the cost of the company’s products and
to keep up with the competition, the company might have to reduce its own margins to
compete with the rival firms on the basis of a cost strategy. Therefore, the objective of
achieving a higher profitability might not work as much as it would work in any other
country than Australia. To deal with this issue, the only option that the company has is to
minimise its own margin by a narrow amount and increase the brand value of its products
(Lee, Tseng, & Chu, 2016). This would result in an overall increase in the sales and will help
the company in becoming more profitable in Australia.
Conclusion
Carlsberg has designed an efficient strategy of winning behaviours that is based on certain
core values that are important to the business of the company at a global scale. Some of the
components of the winning strategy are such that they might not appeal to the management of
certain subsidiaries. To deal with this, the company has also set forward a proposal to make
changes to the strategy to make it more appealable to the local management of foreign
subsidiaries. The strategy perfectly aligns with some important human resource management
practices, such as training and development, performance management, workplace culture,
etc. Therefore, the winning strategy of the company will prove to be effective for Carlsberg
in managing its human resources at an international level with a greater ease. The strategy
will also help the company in achieving a competitive edge in the market and fulfil its
objective of achieving a higher profitability.

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