HRMT20026 Report: Strategic HRM and Business Strategy at Carlsberg

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Carlsberg's strategic human resource management (HRM) and its alignment with business strategy. It examines the company's 'winning behavior' strategy, its implementation across various cultures, and its implications in different geographical contexts, specifically Malaysia and Australia. The report explores the justification of the 'winning behavior', its alignment with HR practices, and the challenges of applying it in diverse cultural settings. It references key HRM theories such as Adams' equity theory, Victor Vroom's expectancy theory, and institutional theory to provide a theoretical framework for the analysis. The report also offers recommendations for the successful implementation of the 'winning behavior' strategy in the Australian context, considering cultural nuances. Overall, the report aims to provide insights into the complexities of global HRM and the importance of aligning HR strategies with the overall business objectives, drawing on the real-world case study of Carlsberg.

[Human resource management]
Carlsberg

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Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................1
Analysis of HR strategy of Carlsberg..........................................................................................................2
Justification of “Winning behavior”............................................................................................................4
Aligning “Winning behavior” with HR practices........................................................................................5
Implications in Malaysia.............................................................................................................................7
Recommendations for implementation of “Winning behavior” in Australia context...................................8
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................10
Bibliography..............................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
Solid company culture is an essential aspect for every organization. To establish a strong
HR strategy and aligning it with the organization’s strategy across the company helps to shape
the company’s overall strategy (Ahmad, 2015). Strategic alignment increases the productivity of
the employees and the organization.
The Purpose of this report is to assess the overall strategy peruse by Carlsberg and also
the implications of implementing the strategy in different countries with the underlying theories.
By the end of this report, the reader would be able to understand how an organization has to
align HR strategy with the organization’s strategy so that it can achieve the success and sustain it
for long-term.

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Analysis of HR strategy of Carlsberg
Carlsberg introduced an HR strategy in order to develop its brand across the cultures. In
2002 The CEO of Nils launched a strategy based on Must-win -battels concept and the intention
was to develop the common group culture across it’s the countries where the company operates.
Later it developed a winning culture. However, some of its employees disagree with this new
strategy as they believe that the word “winning” was not compatible with the culture of the
company (Søderberg, 2015).
As Carlsberg merged and takeovers many companies from UK, China, France, and
Russia, therefore the company makes strategy in order to assess and understand the different
cultures and collaborate with them through introducing new strategic culture plan which called
“Winning behaviors”.
This new strategic plan was to aligning the organization’s value and goals and
collaborating with the senior staff of the newly acquired and existing companies. Carlsberg’s
aims behind this strategy were to motivate and leaders and employee to work together as one
team and apply these behaviors on a daily routine also establish better relationship across
company and its subsidiaries. Adams equity theory states that employer and employee
relationship can have significant impact on organizational performance (Mira, 2019).
One of its purposes was to communicate its values of “winning behavior” five together,
we are together, we are stronger and we want to win, we are each empowered to make a
difference and we are engaged with society, amongst the employees all over the world. And to
communicate these behaviors all over the world the company utilizes posters, broachers and
company’s websites also shares with the management around the world (Søderberg, 2015).

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In addition, the company also added some rewards benefits for those employees who
have adopted these behaviors and contribute to business goals and these remuneration benefits
was to motivate employees to equally contribute to strategies. Motivating employee is an
essential process for every company. Victor Vroom's expectancy theory also states that the
employee of the company gets motivate when they believe their great input will lead to better
output and they perform well in order to achieve objectives and get rewarded (Pheng, 2018).
Justification of “Winning behavior”
The company introduced a strategy based on the concept of “winning behaviors” and
endorsed five values of the company Together, We are together, We want to win, Our customer
and consumers are at the heart of every decision we make, We are each empowered to make a
difference, we are engaged with the society. By implementing this strategy the company works
together as one team and works for the same goal. “We are together” states that the company
works across cultures and have many subsidiaries and have employees all over the world with
the diverse culture.
As institutional theory also assess that in order to understand the structure and strategy of
the organization one has to understand the behavior of the organization and how organization
manage workforce together with diverse culture background (Biesenthal, 2018).
The company maintains collaboration with its staff members across the world. The
behavior “we are engaged with the society” states that the Carlsberg engaged with the society
and serves its services with social norms which help to collaborate effectively with the society.
Collaboration helps to grow the network and helps in the growth of the business in turn.

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The behavior our customer is at the heart of every decision we make, serves the message
that the company makes the decision in order to meet its customer’s expectations. And it is
important for any business in order to survive in the competitive environment and wins the battle
(Martinaityte, 2019). In addition, provide customer satisfaction the company conducts survey
between customers and receive feedback from them. The company’s priority is to provide a
better customer experience. Overall the company also applies the customer-centric approach.
The customer-centric approach, in theory, states the business puts its customer first and makes it
a priority to provide better customer experience (Mishra, 2018).
Overall By applying this concept of “winning behavior” the company establishes a better
relationship within the other leaders and staff members in order to work together as a team for
the same goal of the company collaborate effectively amongst society and serve its services with
social norms. Their customers are important stakeholders and company works in order to meet
the customer’s expectations.
Aligning “Winning behavior” with HR practices
Carlsberg strategy Winning behavior promotes the behavior of Together and we are
together that serve the concept of equity and diversity. Equity and diversity is the HR strategy
where organizations collaborate across the employee with different cultures and society (Capper,
2018). After acquisition and takeovers there were many employees with different culture and in
order to motivate them to work closely and together with the company’s strategy “Together we
are stronger” in order to aligned HR strategy of equity and diversity. With this strategy, the
company respects the differences in culture brand people. The company provides many policies
for equality and diversity. The Carlsberg group employed around 40000 people and a high

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degree of cultural diversity. The company recruits develop and support and promote its employee
without regard for gender, color, caste, language, religion and other distinguished characters.
Apart from this the company’s strategy we are each empowered to make a difference
aligned with the remuneration strategy. Rewards and remuneration is an important concept of
HRM. A good reward and recognition influence the employee performance as the employee feels
good to get the rewards and recognized by their good performance also they try works better in
order to get these (Fisher, 2015). With “We are each empowered to make a difference” the
company motivate its employee and empower them to share unique ideas also develops their
skills. Carlsberg conducts training and development program and encourage employee who has
ever failed in some area and helps to develop the skills and overcome their failures. Overall the
company remunerates those employees who deliver better performance.
Training and development program is on of the main aspect of the human resource
management strategy. As Reinforcement theory states that Training and development program
helps to increase employee and organization’s productivity and training and development
program has to be aligned with the organization strategy (Corr, 2016). Carlsberg applied this
theory well as the company aligned this strategy with the company’s “winning behavior strategy.
When it comes to social responsibility Carlsberg strategy “we are engaged with society”
serves a message for social responsibility. It is essential for an organization in order to make a
better relationship with society and its stakeholders for the success of the organization. Many
companies consolidate measures that are intended to ensure and improve the welfare of society
all in all. These measures usually alluded to as authoritative social obligation, empower the
association to exist together in agreement with the legislature, the network everywhere and its

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condition (Crowther, 2018). “We are engaged with the society” introduced its ethical framework
and Social responsibility. The company is a social and environmentally responsible ad it makes
its business successful. The company makes a positive contribution towards societies and
communities in which the company operates. According to its code of conduct statement, there
are policies in order to maintain a safe work environment. The company listens and engage
stakeholder while decision making and that helps in meeting the society’s expectations.
Implications in Malaysia
Carlsberg’s Winning behavior strategy in Malaysia was quite unsuccessful as the country
has different ethnic groups with different cultures such as Chinese Indian and Malay. And it is
difficult for the company to handle the three groups of people in respect of language and attitude.
People with different background can have different perspective and behavior and it is difficult
for the company to handle and sustain customers with different culture and behavior (Wieczorek-
Szymańska, 2017). Culture diversity also can cause when applying with the workforce. To
establishing a better relationship and collaborating with a different culture is the key issue for
many businesses also it is an essential aspect for the growth of the business. With the diverse
culture workforce, there are some issues can be faced by the organization such as different
communication can be misinterpreted and can be difficult to understand across cultures and
language and Conflicting working styles across teams (Rice, 2015).
In international business, it is essential for the company to adopt social norms and
behavior of the country in which the company operates. Malaysia is a multicultural country, and
it would be more difficult to handle operate in one country with three different cultures. Hofstede
theory provides six dimensions that assess the behavior of different county culture.

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However, the company also utilizes the strategy in order to handle the diverse workforce
by implementing the new strategy which was FAST (fearless, ambitious smart and team) which
helps its employee to work together. The aim of this strategy was to empower employees to use
the same cultural language as headquarter but in respect of the FAST program. On the other side
culture, diversity with the workforce can benefit the company to look at all problems from every
angle. The Practitioner/Consultant Approach also focuses on the positive aspects of diverse
workforce. It states that the results often innovative with the diverse (Ungar, 2015) workforce
and the company can also utilize as its philosophy as its diverse workforce with diverse
perspective can handle all group of customer. Hence it is essential for the business.
Recommendations for implementation of “Winning behavior” in Australia context
In the culture of Australia, the HR of the Carlsberg has to assess and understand the
current culture. According to Greet Hofstede theory in Australian culture leaders and employee
listen to each other and share information and consult with each other (Maakip, 2017). Therefore
HR has to collaborate with leaders of the company to enhance and implement the plan and
empower employees to share their feedback on this. The leaders of the company should provide
a clear definition of the company’s “winning behavior” strategy and what are the behaviors the
strategy contains.
With the individualism perspective, Australians believes in individuality. People put
themselves and their immediate family on priority (Hosgtede Insight , 2018). Carlsberg has to
communicate and define the company’s “winning behaviors” strategy and how it will impact on
their personal life in a positive manner. However “together we are together” might not work with
the Australian as people believe in individuality. Therefore Carlsberg has to align some personal

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benefits for the employee while communicating the company’s “Winning behavior” strategy.
While assessing the Australian culture it is assessed that people work to win and have proud of
their success. Carlsberg has to involve employee while promoting and implementing the strategy
and where they can contribute to the company’s success and how it will reflect their own
success. The Hofstede dimension of long term orientation states that the Australian respects their
traditions focus on quick results (Hosgtede Insight , 2018) and therefore management team of the
company has to provide some short rewards and remuneration policies they do not believe to
works for the future.
While building the company’s “Winning behaviors” strategy the most significant job for
the leader is to get buy-in from imminent employees before they even join the organization. So
as to do this, the organization's message of maintainability ought to be coordinated into their
manager image and used to pull in the possibility to which this is significant. Also, the HR needs
to adjust organization's system to the work-life balance and more noteworthy impetuses as
Australians place a higher level of significance on recreation time, go about however they see fit
burn through cash as they wish.
Apart from this HR can play an important role in aligning company objectives with the
individual objectives so that employee works perform well and contribute to success. HR can
make the biggest impact effectively communicate about the company’s “winning behavior”
strategy by consulting and collaborating with leaders and align the company’s performance
management process with its 5 behavior strategy. Later leaders have to reward employees who
perform well and whoever the demonstrated the “winning behavior” in their daily life. Also, it is
critical to identify the best practices areas of focus. Carlsberg can also have to provide some
required training to employees. When characterized, HR needs to guarantee the offer for the

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change is clear (how might this benefit the organization and for the representatives) and there
must be 100% purchase in from the top. Therefore strategic alignment of HR strategies and
business strategy according to country culture increase the performance of the Carlsberg and also
can make Carlsberg number one brand across the world (Stewart, 2019).

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Conclusion
IT can be concluded that Carlsberg is the largest organization and achieved success by
following its HR strategies and business strategies. The company acquired many organizations
from many countries; therefore they introduced strategies and making collaboration amongst the
workforce across the world. In order to collaborate and maintain a diverse workforce, the
company made a strategy “Winning Behavior” and shared it through the websites and hoarding
and introduced. And that strategy helped the company to establish as a brand.