Human Resource Management Case Study: Altessa Motors' Challenges

This case study analyzes the human resource management challenges faced by Altessa Motors, a car manufacturing company, in an international context. The assignment examines the reasons behind team members questioning Schmidt's authority, focusing on her misinterpretations of the Chinese education system and training methods, as well as underlying causes such as underestimation of the Chinese education system and lack of cultural understanding. It suggests alternative approaches Schmidt could have taken, such as conducting training programs in China and integrating old and new training methods. Furthermore, the case study explores the meaning of expatriate failure, highlighting factors like family stress and cultural inflexibility, and provides insights on how an HR manager could address these issues. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of adapting HRM strategies to navigate international challenges and improve business performance. References to books, journals and online resources are provided.

Case Study
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................3
QUESTION 1.......................................................................................................................................3
1. Reasons why the team members are questioning Schmidt’s authority........................................3
2. Suggestions that Schmidt could have done differently................................................................4
QUESTION 2.......................................................................................................................................4
1.......................................................................................................................................................4
2. Meaning of expatriate failure means...........................................................................................4
CONCLUSION....................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES.....................................................................................................................................6
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INTRODUCTION
Human Resource Management (HRM) is relating to the management of human resources. It
is the most important function of every organization which design with the aim of maximizes the
employee performance in the context of achieves the business objectives. The primary concern of
HRM is management of people within the firm and focus over development of strategies and
policies in the favour of the workforce. It is also responsible for the organizational development that
generates the culture at the workplace. HRM can be considered as a frequent mentor of the
employees that look towards the issues of them. The present essay is based on Human Resource
Management (HRM) in an international context. To understand its importance, a case study of
Altessa Motors is taking into the consideration. It is car manufacturing company that has been
started in Germany in 1960.
QUESTION 1
1. Reasons why the team members are questioning Schmidt’s authority
The reasons by which the team members of Altessa Motors are questioning Schmidt’s
authority can be divided into two sections. First is her mistakes and second one was underlying
causes of those mistakes. By considering the first section, on the basis of the given case study, it has
found that Schmidt had unable to correctly understand the reason of high turnover at Chinese
dealership. In her statement, she had stated that there was no history of growing up of any deal with
the company. So no one had any experience in running a dealership. In this context, she had advice
to training their personnel by leaving old beliefs of training. Second mistake was she had
misinterpreted about the China education system and gave the suggestion to do not conduct training
programs in China because of different education system. The reason is Schmidt had thought that if
Altessa Motors organizes its training programs in China then the personnel will retain information
differently and learn it in different manner. So, these were the two major reasons by which the team
members are questioning Schmidt’s authority.
Now, by considering the second aspect of the reasons, it has found from the case study that
there were various caused of above stated mistakes of Schmidt. These causes were underestimating
the China education system; suddenly change the training pattern, not understanding the culture of
employees before plan a training etc.
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2. Suggestions that Schmidt could have done differently
By considering all facts and details of given case study on Altessa Motors, it has been
determined that Schmidt was responsible for her mistakes. There are some suggestions present that
could be used by her to make her decisions in different manner. In this context, the first one is
conduct product training program in China also. The reason is a different educational system could
assist the employees to understand the things and content of the training event in more effective
manner. It may be possible that this decision could improve the Chinese dealership in automobile
sector. On the other hand, by aligning the old and new training methods, Schmidt could make his
decision more effective. By doing this, it could assist in minimize the resistance of the staff
members towards the accepting the changes in training process. Along with this, it could help in
retain the personnel at high rate as compare to its competitors.
QUESTION 2
1.
If I was at the place of HR manager in Altessa Motors then I will take decisions that would
completely different from Schmidt. In order to retrain the personnel, I will provide flexible learning
options to the staff members. It will help in engage the employees in more learning and
development activities. Along with this, I will plan online training programs that will completely
base on Chinese educational system. This will allows the workers to learn the contents of training
from different way as ordinary educational system. On the other hand, in order to retain China
dealership in the automobile market, I will develop a competitive benefit packages that would fit
according to the employees needs. In addition to this, I will plan some contests and incentives
related activities that help in keep the personnel to motivate and feeling important for Altessa
Motors.
2. Meaning of expatriate failure means
Expatriate failure can be defined as a posting that either end prematurely or is considered
ineffective by senior management. These failure rates are high and can vary between 20% and 50%
and it does depend on the country. There are different reasons behind this is such as family stress,
culture inflexibility, emotional immaturity, responsibility overload etc. In any organization, this
situation may be occurring because of poor expatriate selection. For an effective international
staffing, technical and managerial skills are not only sufficient. It is most important to give attention
to interpersonal skill that helps cross culture adjustment. On the other hand, if the management has
increased the responsibilities over particular staff members then it creates a condition of expatriate
failure. In this situation, it is not possible for the employee to make balance between the
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professional and personal life. While, most of the time, the personnel face difficulties at the time of
make adjustment in a new social and culture aspect in a new reason. It also becomes the reason of
expatriate failure. From the researches, it has been determined that social contexts such as positive
social contact with local nationals and social networks have brought positive influence on the
expatriates’ adjustments, stress-coping, problem-focused and emotion-focused coping issues. In this
context, it becomes essential to avoid or minimizing expatriate failure.
CONCLUSION
From the above essay, it can be concluded that at international level, human resource
management has not easy task for the management. To deal with different changes at the workplace,
it has essential for the HR to adopt new and unique strategies to deal with personnel issues. By
taking right decisions and appropriate development of policies, a company can manage its human
resources at international level. It has helped in coping with new changes and has improved the
business performance in right direction.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Online
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