M016 - Evaluating International HRM Strategy at Hewlett-Packard

This report provides a comprehensive human resource management analysis of Hewlett-Packard, focusing on strategies to enhance organizational performance. It compares different HR strategies based on various models and theories, examining their impact on organizational performance, employee commitment, and workforce quality in a global context. The report includes a PESTEL analysis to assess the political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal factors in the company's host country, the United States, highlighting its economic and technological advantages. The analysis covers key HR functions such as recruitment and selection, training and development, and reward management, emphasizing the importance of aligning HR practices with the company's strategic goals. The report concludes with recommendations for establishing a joint venture, including local recruitment and expatriate staff relocation, to ensure the successful integration of the company's operations with its joint venture partner.

Running head: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AT HEWLETT-PACKARD
Human Resource Management at Hewlett-Packard
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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Table of Contents
Introduction:..................................................................................................................3
Company profile:...........................................................................................................3
Industry drivers:............................................................................................................4
Host country profile:..................................................................................................4
PESTEL analysis:.....................................................................................................4
Why to go there?.......................................................................................................8
HR theories:..................................................................................................................8
Universalistic approaches:........................................................................................8
Configurational approaches:.....................................................................................8
Contingency approaches:.........................................................................................9
HRM strategy................................................................................................................9
Recruitment and selection:.......................................................................................9
Training and development:...........................................................................................9
Reward management:.............................................................................................10
Conclusion:.................................................................................................................13
Recommendations:.....................................................................................................13

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Executive Summary
The following report deals with the human resource management analysis of Hewlett
Packard where the primary focus is given on the necessary human resource
strategies that are needed to be taken to increase the organizational performance.
The report deals with the comparative study of the different human resource
strategies based on different models and theories. In the latter part of the statement,
global analysis is being made to demonstrate how these strategies affect the
organizational performance, employee commitment and workforce quality of various
organizations. A brief pestel analysis is also projected here to show the political,
economic, social, technological, environmental and legal characteristics of the host
country of the company which allows the growth of the organization and helps it
stand out in global business.

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Introduction:
Human Resource Management is a planned way of approach to managing
the people working in an organization so that the business achieves its maximum
gain in the competitive market. The role of the Human Resource of a company
comprises of managing the performance of the employees in a strategic way
focusing on the policies of the organization and recognizing employee’s benefit by
arranging proper training and development program, adequate recruitment and
selection and managing reward for them (Wright, 2018.). Managing human
resources deals with problems related to performance management, developing
safety and wellness for the employees, arranging employee motivation program and
maintain the suitable workplace culture and environment (Zell, 2018). This human
resource management report of Hewlett-Packard is developed to assess the human
resource strategy of the organization and based on it specific recommendations are
made on the process of how the business of the company will establish a joint
venture in the market and the necessary steps that should be taken in terms of
recruiting staffs locally and also managing the relocation of some expatriate staffs to
plan the new venture alongside those of the company’s joint venture partner.
Company profile:
Among the hardware companies in the world, Hewlett-Packard is the second
largest company in the world. Among the multinational companies based in America,
Hewlett Packard is one of them having its headquarter in Palo Alto, California
(Burgelman, McKinney and Meza, 2016). It offers a wide range of hardware
including personal computers, supercomputers, networking products and also
provide services related to supporting and maintenance of the device. Hewlett-
Packard software includes IT information management and business intelligence
applications (Vartiak, 2016). The operations of the company can be broadly
categorized in several sectors which includes the enterprise storage and servers,
imaging, personal system group and many more. The company markets to wide
range of consumers, government agencies, small and medium sized businesses to
over 170 countries (Eesley, and Miller, 2018). About three hundred and twelve
thousand employees work for HP which has a market capitalization of nearly two

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billion dollars. The company is traded on the New York Frankfurt’s Lima and Mexican
Stock Exchanges (Sikka and Lehman, 2015). The founders of the company
established some management concepts concerning human resource management
which includes active participation of the administration and emphasizing on the trust
and openness within the organization which has been known as the HP way and
became the platform for employee satisfaction and successful growth of the
company.
Industry drivers:
The main focus of Hewlett Packard is on reconstructing its business to gain
longterm benefits. The company dissociated its stake to an IT service provider in
Bangalore named Mphasis Limited. Besides it decided to expand its business in
software and IT services and agreed with Micro Focus International Plc and
Computer Sciences Corporation (Sharma and Angmo, 2014).
Host country profile:
Hewlett Packard has some host countries. Among them, the primary host
country of it is the United States. The company has its headquarter at Palo Alto,
California in the US. The state of the USA is among the world’s foremost military and
economic strength with added global interest. The country is highly developed and
has the largest economy in the world as per nominal GDP and stands second among
the largest economy as per PP (Leigh and Du, 2015). Though the country has a wide
disparity in income and wealth, still it ranks well in terms of socioeconomic
performances.
PESTEL analysis:
Hewlett-Packard is recognized to be the most significant hardware brand in
the world. During the past few years, the company faced a significant hit as the sales
of PCs has declined. A PESTEL analysis is thus evaluated based on how different
forces have affected the company:
Political: In the United States, personal ownership takes away most of the market
system and decentralized decision making authority is given to both private
businesses and home. The amount of production from the business sector proves

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the independent system in the US. About one third of this output productivity goes to
the government (Gil de Zúñiga, Molyneux and Zheng, 2014). This scenario proves
that both the private sector as well as the consumers itself has a significant role in
the corporate area than the political position. The government plays a vital role in
governing the business sector in terms of incorporating business laws which include
protection of property right, and prohibition of certain business practices. Ensuring
the safety of the product is another central issue that the government reflects in its
laws.
Economic: The economy of the United States is one of the largest in the world. The
decision of the people develops a major of its market-based businesses. Records
showed that the annual purchase of the consumers has an average of about 5 trillion
dollars per year. This record proves that local customers are purchasing about 80%
of the market goods. Studies on recent statistics showed that the US GDP is at
$41,800 per capita with a growth of nearly about 3.5% (Kolmakov, Polyakova, and
Shalaev, 2015). Due to the active business sectors, the economy of the US is very
much pronounced. HP plays a vital role in the production sector of the country where
it produces computers, engines, and other hardware related products. However,
there are some economic issues in the US which can affect the prosperity of
financial condition and the strategic plan needed for its growth. Problems like the
rate of unemployment in the country, where reports showed that a considerable part
of the young generations in the state fails to complete their graduation and hence
leads to redundancy.
Social: the United States is the third most populated country in the world. The total
population estimates to around 296 million. A diverse society exists in the US in
terms of nationality, religion, and race (Capraro, Corgnet, Espín and Hernán-
González, 2017). This diversified nature of the country helps in performing open
trade and the arrival of immigrant labors in the country. This growing rate of
immigrants in the country leads to the need for computer and technology
advancement. Still, there are some issues regarding employment in the country.
About sixteen states in the country provide wages which are higher than the usual
rate in per hour basis while 26 states offer national level wags to its workers. Thus

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there is indifference among the payment of wages in the country. In addition to this,
there is also discrimination in the number of female employees in comparison to
male employees. The rate of unemployment in the US is directly related to the
education level where it is seen that about 1.8% of the graduates are unemployed.
Technological: Being one of the most technologically advanced countries, the major
of its employment sector depends on computers and advanced gadget systems to
do their work activity. This helped in the growth of the company of Hewlett-Packard.
It is also noted that the job openings in the computer sector have also increased
giving a chance to computer professionals to prosper in their field. People of the
United States has accustomed themselves with the use of a computer-based system
for paying bills, booking tickets, shopping and many more (Stayton and Mangematin,
2016). About 84 million citizens have internet access in their home. This shows that
the country is technologically advancing.
Environmental: the US has all total a diverse geographic feature, environment and
biota scenario. This diversified nature attracts many tourists in the country from
Japan, Brazil, Mexico, China, and Canada. Different countries have different legal
norms concerning environmental factors. In the United States, Florida and Texas
have different environmental liabilities in case of any environmental disasters. Before
starting with the new market, the company should look into the standards of
environmental laws which are required to operate their business such as the climate
change, regulations related to air and water pollution, lookout for eco-friendly
products and support towards renewable energy resources (Baranenko et al., 2014).
The United States faces some of the environmental issues in consideration of the
weather conditions. The country has recorded about 2188 weather disasters since
1980. The catastrophe of 2017 marked about $1billion economic damage disrupting
daily life.
Legal: Each state in the US has its government legal structure. Business operating
in particular states comes under their respective legal scheme. The country of the

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US treats its national and foreign peoples equally. The employees are working there
in the US can expect a fair trial from the judicial system of the country. A firm
operating in the state needs to evaluate the legal conditions that can affect its
business. Some of the statutory factors that need to be considered by Hewlett-
Packard before entering in a new market are- discrimination law, Employment law,
consumer protection law, anti-trust laws in computer system industry and health and
safety law.
Analysis of USA’s factors concerning the PESTEL analysis:
Globalization- With the beginning of the 21st century, the United States stands
on top in the economic ladder (Steger, 2017). The US has revived its economy by
engaging with the rest of the world. But with the starting of the new era, the
globalization of the US has slightly changed. Many criticisms have come from the
citizens where two organizations are mainly aimed at one is the International
Monetary Fund and the other is the World Trade Organization, whom the US has
helped to stand out and lead in terms n of creating disputes in trade within the
country.
Consumer behavior- The consumer behavior of the US plays a vital role in
any international business that tends to take place in the US market. The consumer
behavior of the United States is somewhat different from the rest of the western
countries in the world. There is a variable factor that affects the consumer behavior
in the US market place like demand and structure of the market, characteristics of
buyers, the process of decision making by the consumers and their buying patterns
(Dawes, Meyer-Waarden and Driesener, 2015). The crisis arising globally has led to
consciousness among the consumers in America. They are now tending to move
towards less expensive brands. The application of consumer credits is very much
high. According to the data of the Federal Reserve, the debt of credit card exceeded
USD 1 trillion setting a new mark in the American market.
The capital investment in the US supports advanced technology- The
commercialization of the advanced technology trends. US enterprises are dealing
with science and technology leader in the world market.

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Why go there?
Due to all the economic, technological advancement, the United States stands
as the most appropriate host country for Hewlett-Packard to spread its business out
in the American market.
HR theories:
Universalistic approaches:
Researches over the years have found that effective HR practices have led to
the improvement of performance in the company. To improve the performance scale
of Hewlett-Packard, the first approach of HR theories that can be applied is the
Universalistic Approach. This universal HR practice includes comprehensive training,
selective staffing and cross-utilization (Alam and Mukherjee, 2014). This theory
states that people working in the firm possesses skills and knowledge that are
valuable for the firm. Therefore, investing to increase the employee skills to get
increased productivity depends solely on the firm.
Configurational approaches:
To develop a better understanding of the structure and function of an
organization, the configurational approach is very much required. The configurational
approach provides a strategic plan to the organization by maintaining internal
consistency between the different variables which has a strong influence on the
efficiency of the organization (Bailey et al., 2018). The theory states there exists a
minimum number of constellations in an organizational variable that reflects almost
all types of existing corporate practices; hence coordination among those will result
in the success of the organization.
Contingency approaches:
The contingency theory states that there exist certain situational factors that
directly affect the relationship between the independent and dependent variables of
an organization. Independent variables are the causes of the change in the
dependent variable whereas the dependent variable is the responses affected by the
independent variable. The theory states that there is no specific way by which the
organizational behavior can be changed, it solely depends on the prevailing situation

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(Jerry and Souai, 2014). There are certain variables that affect organizational
behavior, and the company needs to apply trial and error measure to identify those
factors.
HRM strategy
Recruitment and selection:
Recruitment and selection are one of the necessary policy that needs to
implemented appropriately in an HRM strategy. Managers of an organization
consider this process to be one of the most critical ones because from this process
the best suitable individuals get selected for a particular post of the organization from
a pool of applicants (Ekwoaba, Ikeije, and Ufoma, 2015). A screening process
supports the process.
In some cases, the screening process cannot always simplify the recruitment
selection because of the presence of certain other factors like legal consideration,
the pool of the applicants, the hierarchy of the organization, the speed of making
decisions, selection criteria and the probationary period (Berman, 2015). Finding the
best match for the intended post makes an organization beneficial in achieving
success. It adds value to the organization. So to find out the best, strategic human
resource approach is expected in the organization. After the selection process,
retention of the employee is another major factor that organization should look upon
by maintaining reduced turnover rates and increasing the morale of the workplace
culture. Supporting this strategy increases the efficiency and the gain of profit of the
organization.
Training and development:
To withstand the competitive environment in the market place, the company
must invest in the training and development program of the employees ( Kadiresan et
al., 2015). It is the sole responsibility of the Human Resource Department of the
company to provide proper training programs for the employees selected for a
specific job position. There are several ways by which the training and development
program of the employee can be enhanced like-
1. Developing a multi-rater feedback system

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2. Conducting useful surveys for the employees
3. Developing a succession plan and leadership programs
4. Improving the overall performance management system
5. Designing applications for rewarding and recognizing the employee
6. Customizing the team building and providing solutions for the development of
the company.
The human resource department of Hewlett-Packard has noticed that
employees in the company need an extended training development program
including working in groups and basic employment programs.
Reward management:
Reward management is another essential part of the HRM strategy which
helps in motivating the employees, maintain internal and external equity and helps to
develop financial sustainability. There are two types of rewards namely extrinsic and
intrinsic rewards. Extrinsic rewards satisfy the basic needs of the employee while the
intrinsic rewards satisfy the esteem needs of the employee (Sultana, 2014). As a
result of such bonuses and compensation program the business production output
from the employees also increases. Apart from production, it raises the efficiency
and cooperation among the workers.
The following HRM strategies hence help in achieving the workforce flexibility,
quality, employee commitment, adaptability and strategic integration within the
organization. To implement this strategy, two types of designing policies of HRM has
to be kept in mind:
1. Soft HRM- The elastic human resource model considers the employees as an
essential resource for the company to gain competitive benefit (Ihuah, 2014.).
In this model, utmost priority is given to the needs of the employees and the
necessary strategies are taken to motivate them for work by providing reward
and recognition.
2. Hard HRM- The hard human resource model treats the company employees
as resources. It deals with the linking of the business planning process, the
resources required for the business and the cost of the funds (Collings, Wood

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and Szamosi, 2018). The model identifies the need for workforce in the
industry and manages the recruitment strategies of the company.
Recommendation: Among the two approaches, the one that would be beneficial
to the company solely depends on the company’s strategic plan. In the hard
method, it is expected that a more productive workforce will be developed, but
the basic needs of the employees will be less focused. To achieve great
planning, strategic integration and high workforce flexibility it is recommended to
use the soft approach of the HR model where the reward and recognition of
employee performance will be more effective. As a result of which the employees
will give their full dedication in the workplace thus achieving the expected gain
from the competitive market.
Comparative study of HR systems globally:
Global HRM includes all the critical aspects of an organization like the payroll,
talent management strategy that is operating on a global basis.
1. Organizational Performance: For any organization, the performance is
very much important. Three significant areas which enhance the
performance of the organization are the development of the employees in
the organization, management of compensation of the organization and
the citizenship behavior of the organization. Globally it is seen that with the
proper training and compensation program of the employees the
performance of the organization gradually increases.
2. Employee Commitment: The relationship between employee motivation
and organizational commitment is directly related. Organizational
commitment is equal to that of emp,oyee commitment. Globally it is seen
more the employees are motivated more they are committed towards the
company’s objectives. Employees with ongoing commitment fee an
emotional attachment to the organization and thus will have greater
dedication to contribute to the company’s gain.
3. Workforce Flexibility: Maintaining workforce flexibility increase the morale,
employee motivation and the ability to retain their talent. Expanding
workforce flexibility means increasing the teamwork rather than individual
action. Useful collaboration during the working hours will, therefore,