Analysis of IHRM Issues and Recommendations for Alpha Services

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the international human resource management (IHRM) issues faced by Alpha Services, a global company. The report begins with an introduction to strategic human resource management (SHRM) and its importance. It then provides a brief overview of the Alpha Services case study, a public listed organization with headquarters in India and subsidiaries in Melbourne and Shanghai. The core of the report identifies and discusses three dominant IHRM issues: excess centralization, especially in India; excessive flexibility in workplace and HR policies; and talent management and global staffing challenges. For each issue, the report provides a detailed explanation of the problem and its impact on Alpha Services. The report then offers three suitable recommendations or courses of action for addressing these IHRM challenges. Finally, the report concludes with a recommendation of one suitable solution, providing a strategic approach to improve the effectiveness of IHRM practices within Alpha Services.

Running head: MANAGEMENT OF A GLOBAL WORKFORCE
Management of a Global Workforce: Alpha Services
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note:

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction............................................................................................................................2
2. Discussion..............................................................................................................................2
2.1 Brief Idea of the Case Study............................................................................................2
2.2 Identification of Three Dominant IHRM Issues and Challenges faced by Alpha
Services..................................................................................................................................3
2.3 Three Suitable Recommendations or Courses of Actions for the Issues faced by Alpha
Services..................................................................................................................................7
3. Conclusion and Recommendation of one Suitable Solution................................................10
References................................................................................................................................12

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1. Introduction
Strategic human resource management or SHRM can be referred to as the significant
practice for attracting, retaining, rewarding as well as developing employees or staff for the
advantages of the entire organization and employees (Noe et al., 2017). SHRM is one of the
most important and significant competitive advantages, which are being undertaken on a
serious note for taking appropriate decisions. With such distinctive approach of SHRM, it
becomes quite easy for the organization to support the objectives and it is referred to as a
basic necessity for compensation and legal compliance. The strategic human resource
management uses the subsequent opportunity and talent in the entire department for making
all other departments much more effective and stronger (Brewster et al., 2016). It ensures a
good chance of company success. Alpha Services is a popular public listed organization in
New York and Mumbai Stock Exchange. The following report will be outlining a brief
discussion on the popular case study of Alpha Services, with three dominant IHRM issues,
faced by them. Suitable solutions would be provided to these solutions with recommendation
of one solution.
2. Discussion
2.1 Brief Idea of the Case Study
Alpha Services is a public listed organization in New York and Mumbai Stock
exchange. It was established in the year of 1987 and they had been providing numerous
distinctive and significant services to their customers. The strategies of this particular
organization include HQ in India with subsequent subsidiary offices in Melbourne and
Shanghai, China, since Melbourne is a developed market and Shanghai is a developing
market. The second strategy of this company includes trying to localize workforce in diverse
geographical locations and the entire globalized management team is trying to make the

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system global (Thite, 2012). Alpha Services is termed as one of the top 5 Indian consulting
and information technology service organizations with the total turnover of around 2.5 billion
US dollars. The major business segments of this organization involve software products and
BPO or Business Process Outsourcing. They even have focused on few of the distinctive
business strategies for becoming much more ambitious and entrepreneurial. Alpha Services is
operating in 44 countries as well as with 45000 professionals.
The entire organizational structure of this company is decentralized and they have
involved distributed leadership and employee empowerment. There exists a non-hierarchical
working environment, to ensure that every employee is treated with equality. They try to
motivate and empower employees for acting like the CEO and hence giving the way for
employee retention. Moreover, thy have initiated AlphaWay, which is a key tool of IHRM
after involvement of suppliers and customers.
2.2 Identification of Three Dominant IHRM Issues and Challenges faced by Alpha
Services
IHRM or international human resource management can be stated as the collection of
few activities, which target HRM at the respective international level. It eventually strives for
meeting each and every organizational goal and then achieving competitive advantages over
the competitors at both international and national levels (Cascio, 2015). This type of HRM
majorly consists of some of the most significant functionalities of human resource
management like recruitment, selection, performance appraisal, training and development and
even dismissal being done at the specific international level as well as extra exercises like
expatriation of management and global skills management. The IHRM is majorly concerned
with the basic handling of HR at the MNCs and for including 3 distinctive types of staff,
which are home country staff, host country staff and other third country staff. International
human resource management is often considered as extremely complicated and it majorly

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affects the external factors like institutional factors and cultural distances (Bratton & Gold,
2017).
In spite of having several distinctive advantages and features in the business, Alpha
Services has been facing few of the significant and noteworthy dominant issues related to
international human resource management. They have been measuring their outcomes with
the help of Alpha Metrics such as 5 Rs and 6 Ps. These metrics ensure that the respective
company is gaining better advantages from their business, however, there had been three
dominant issues of IHRM, which are reducing the total speed of growth and development in
the business in a global market (Cavusgil et al., 2014). Three distinctive issues of
international human resource management faced by Alpha Services are as follows:
i)
Excess Centralization, especially in India: The first and the foremost dominant
issue of international human resource management in Alpha Services is that the level of
centralization, present in the company is extremely high, in comparison to others. The
centralization is the major procedure, through which each and every vital activity of a
company become concentrated in the geographical location group (Jackson, Schuler & Jiang,
2014). The major activities in this procedure involve planning, decision making, framing the
policies and strategies within business. It substantially moves the most vital planning and
decision making powers in the centre of the company. The entire act for implementing
centralization within the business is quite important after better delegation. Hence, after
subsequent authority to take up the vital decisions could be easily and promptly spread with
authority delegation. It could be easily completely immediately when the entire concentration
is being provided at the phase of decision making for all positions. Since, Alpha Services is
an India based organization, the majority of the authorization is in India itself and as a result,
the employees and workers in the other parts of the world are not able to work properly

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(Collings, Wood & Szamosi, 2018). Due to this issue, the entire administrative department of
Alpha Services comprises of highly centralized power.
Although they follow a structure of decentralization for managing their employees
and staff, it has been a vital requirement for them to complete the concentration in a better
manner. The several duties of the respective organizational authority are extremely well
defined in the centralized governing body. Alpha Services has been focusing on decision
making process for making it absolutely clear and direct (Cascio, 2015). This type of
centralized power eventually maintains a larger encompassing interest for state welfare that is
being ruled effectively and providing major advantages from the increase in power and
wealth of the state. However, Alpha Services has allowed high level of centralization and for
this purpose, the support as well as attention to each and every department might not be
eventually balanced. Furthermore, they have been facing delay in the work information and
even governmental inefficiency. There had been major discrepancies within economy or
information resources within the country of India and all other locations are vital. The entire
focus of this particular organization is on India and hence the total capacity of centralized
business for holding the accountable authority (Sparrow, Brewster & Chung, 2016). This
particular issue of IHRM has created major problems amongst the other countries.
ii)
Excess Flexibility in Workplace and HR Policies and Practices: The second
important and significant dominant issue of international human resource management in
Alpha Services would be excessive flexibility in their business. They are focusing on flexible
work force structure so that they are able to accommodate maximum employees with
working in a standardized schedule (Wilton, 2016). The personal issues are well managed
without much complexity and hence every staff member can work in a previously determined
number of weekly hours. However, it eventually varies on the basis of every personal
requirement. Since, Alpha Services is a globalized organization, they often face issues related

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to organizational equality and scheduling a work place meeting. It is required for
teleconferencing and videoconferencing and due to the flexibility in work place, Alpha is
unable to resolve the issues in an effective manner.
Employee cohesiveness is the next significant concern that is being raised due to
excessive flexible work place in Alpha Services. Due to the lack of hierarchy present in the
organization, the employees are unable to understand the importance of flexibility and it is
reducing the employee camaraderie in the most unique manner (Kramar, 2014). They have
been working as an informal and casual teams and as a result, the cooperative spirit is
completely diminished. Moreover, since Alpha Services is a global organization, different
employees from different countries are adopting few of the most distinctive aspects of
country culture. This could give rise to the reduced and non-existent coverage at the specific
times and productivity would be reduced. Moreover, a potential revenue loss takes place due
to such issues. One of the major challenges that is being faced by them due to extra flexible
work place is that there is absolutely no control and coordination within subsidiaries and HQ
(Nankervis et al., 2016). The standardization of the HR policies and practices are highly
concerned and the various managers in the overseas subsidiaries have the belief of being
excess centralization of power within the corporate office as well as decisions undertaken by
them.
iii)
Issue of Talent Management and Global Staffing: Another distinctive and vital
issue of IRHM faced by Alpha Services is the subsequent issue of talent management. Since,
it is a diversified organization, they have talents from all over the world. The management of
Alpha is unable to strengthen the brand value and recognition of the organization within the
entire world. Previously they were referred to as the service provider of high quality services,
however, in current situation, the quality of services has decreased and the organization has
been facing few of the most significant problems within the entire business (Tyson, 2014). As

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the employees are from different parts of the world, all of them together are not forming an
effective team and service quality of Alpha has degraded majorly.
Another reason for such problems is their unique style of hiring strategies. There had
been an inexperience with the technology and ineffective leadership within the business and
hence it was needed for them to bring out few distinctive measures for resolving such issues
and also enhancing the overall effectiveness in business. The employee turnover is also
impacted with this type of global staffing as Alpha Services becomes unable to manage the
entire compensation demands. Moreover, they are also having an unappealing company
culture due to the lack of coordination amongst 45000 employees in 40 different countries.
There is a linguistic barrier in 90% of the total employees amongst the non speaking
countries, such as China and it is yet another vital reason for talent management issues within
the company.
2.3 Three Suitable Recommendations or Courses of Actions for the Issues faced by
Alpha Services
Human resource management mainly emphasizes on proper recruitment and even
hiring of the most suitable staff so that they are being provided with all types of development,
training, benefits and compensations, which are required for becoming successful in a
company (Paillé et al., 2014). However, the SHRM undertakes all such distinctive
responsibilities a step further after proper alignment these responsibilities with all other
objectives of separate departments. The human resource department, which eventually
practice strategic management majorly ensures that each and every objective is being aligned
with goals, values, vision and mission of the company. This type of management helps the
organizational HR department to strategically develop its subsequent plans for better
recruitment, training or even compensation on the basis of certain objectives to ensure a high
chance of organizational success.

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It is quite important for the respective organization to proactively manage their
individuals and it eventually needs thinking ahead as well as planning of certain ways for the
organization so that they are able to fulfil the requirements of employees and achieving goals
of the organization. SHRM helps the business in keeping their business values much harder
in comparison to others (Sheehan, 2014). It helps to link the HR with each and every strategic
goal and objective for successfully improving the overall performances and then developing
relevant organizational culture, which could foster better innovation, competitive advantages
and even flexibility.
The above stated problems or issues of IHRM are extremely vulnerable for the
organization of Alpha Services. These are needed to be eradicated on time for bringing high
effectiveness in the business. Three suitable recommendations or courses of actions for each
and every issue faced by them with detailed analysis are as follows:
i)
Solution for Excess Centralization, especially in India: The most suitable and
effective recommendation or solution for resolving the problem of excess centralization,
majorly in India would be identifying the source of issue. Since, Alpha Services is an Indian
organization, they have been focusing on India and the authority is also present in this
particular country (Albrecht et al., 2015). For resolving this particular issue of excessive
centralization, it is being recommended that the business divisions should be done effectively
and each and every major business division or sector should contain one of the authorities,
who would have the power to guide the other staff and employees, not only in India. This
would ensure a positivity in the business and employees and they would be feeling equal like
the rest of the employees, working in India and issues for centralization in India would be
eventually resolved.

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Every division could eventually manage their compliance and hence would exist no
complaints against the authority of India. Moreover, a group of individuals should be
appointed in every office ad in every country, so that employees are able to share their point
of views under any type of problem or pressure (DeCenzo, Robbins & Verhulst, 2016). It is
estimated that the entire solution would take around 6 months to get completely implemented
and the responsibility should be given on the manager. He would even be responsible for
taking periodical follow ups for the issue. However, there is one negative impact of this
particular issue, which would be employees facing issues in sharing their problems with the
person appointed due to his or her personal problems.
ii)
Solution for Excess Flexibility in Workplace and HR Policies and Practices:
For solving this particular issue of high flexibility in the workplace and HR policies and
practices, they should focus on their current hierarchy structure (Stone et al., 2015). They do
not have any hierarchy to be maintained and it has resulted into an informal organizational
structure and hence the work culture is getting lost completely. It is needed to maintain the
work culture in an effective manner and this type of flexibility issue could be resolved after
incorporation of proper structure and hierarchy in the business. Alpha has provided the
opportunity to their employees to behave like CEO in the organization and as a result, most
of the employees are not working properly. This particular approach is needed to be
eradicated on an effective manner for ensuring that every employee has an immediate boss or
authority, whose instructions are required to be followed by them (Noe et al., 2015). As a
result, the employees would be able to understand the importance of flexibility.
The entire organization without any type of hierarchy could not effectively hold the
executives, employees and managers accountable. Therefore, it is highly recommended for
Alpha Services to include hierarchy structure in the business for managing a globalized work
force and also resolving the issues of excess flexibility within their business. The negative

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aspect of having a hierarchy in business would ensure a complete dependability on the
authority (Taylor, Doherty & McGraw, 2015). The employees have to take each and every
step after discussion with their managers. However, apart from this factor, the effectiveness
of this recommendation is much higher. The timeline for this recommendation would be
around 2 months for all offices and the manager is responsible for bringing such changes.
iii)
Solution for Issue of Talent Management and Global Staffing: The final issue
of global staffing and talent management in Alpha Services could be resolved with the help
of proper strategies of hiring. They currently comprise of extremely poor hiring strategies and
ineffective leadership. This is a vital and noteworthy issue of IHRM, which should be
resolved as soon as possible (Storey, 2014). Since Alpha has talents from different parts of
the world, there had been an issue of talent management and global staffing. To solve this
specific issue, it is highly recommended for them to appoint an appropriate or suitable leader,
who can take the responsibility of selecting appropriate talents and employees in the business.
This particular issue of talent management even would reduce the complexities in
resolving any issue that is being faced by the employees after working in the organization and
that they are unable to share with their colleagues or management (Marler & Parry, 2016). A
proper recruitment of talent would increase the chances of employee satisfaction and
retention in the entire office sector. Furthermore, it would help in achieving organizational
goals and objectives in the most effective and easiest manner as employees would be
encouraged to work in Alpha Services. Moreover, linguistic barrier would be resolved if
every office would have a leader, who could speak in regional language. The timeline for
implementing this recommendation would be around 3 months and the leader would be
responsible for this change (Stewart & Brown, 2019). The negative aspect of this particular
recommendation is that the leader might not be able to understand the entire problem of all
employees.

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3. Conclusion and Recommendation of one Suitable Solution
Therefore, from the above discussion, it can be concluded that strategic human
resource management is one of the most vital and significant requirements in a business,
which eventually ensues that high effectiveness and efficiency is being obtained without
much complexity. It involves entire functionality of human resources as the basic strategic
partner for formulation and deployment of the organizational strategies by few human
resource activities like rewarding, training, selecting and recruiting. There is an explicit
connection within the human resource policies and practices for strategically aiming at
company’s environment and the organizing schema helps in linking the individual HR
interventions for keeping mutual support. The above report has clearly outlined a detailed
analysis of the case study of Alpha Services with international human resource management.
They have been facing 3 dominant IHRM issues in their organization. The first issue was
excess centralization, majorly in India. They have been focusing on their business in India
and as a result, the employees in different parts of the world are not following instructions.
The second issue is of excess flexibility in the workplace and HR policies and
practices. These issues are mainly related to organizational equality and work place meeting.
Due to the presence of high flexibility, they are unable to implement new HR policies and
processes. Another dominant issue is related to talent management and global staffing. The
management is unable to strengthen their brand value. This report has identified three suitable
courses of actions for these 3 issues. To resolve issue of excess centralization, Alpha should
divide their business effectively, with one of the authorities in each section. The second issue
of excess flexibility could be resolved by involving appropriate hierarchy structure. The third
issue of talent management and global staffing could be resolved by appointing a suitable
team leader for selection of correct talents in the business. Suitable recommendations are also
provided in the report for Alpha Services.