International Human Resource Management Report: Emirates Airlines

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the international human resource management (IHRM) practices of Emirates Airlines. It begins with an executive summary and introduction, highlighting the importance of HRM in a service-based organization. The report then delves into the application of HRM theory into practice, critically reviewing existing HRM practices at Emirates, including talent acquisition, employee motivation, and diversity management. It analyzes the importance of HRM in overcoming challenges and improving organizational performance. Furthermore, the report explores leadership theories, critically reviewing trait and contingency theories and assessing their suitability for Emirates' international plans. It discusses behavioral dimensions required in managing human resources in a new foreign context, identifying key challenges, analyzing strategies for attracting local talent, and integrating cultural differences. The report also analyzes best practices in IHRM, drawing comparisons with other organizations. The conclusion offers recommendations for changes in practices and perspectives in managing human resources, including the impact of these changes on the international nature of Emirates Airlines.

Running head: INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
International Human Resource Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
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Table of Contents
1. Executive Summary......................................................................................................3
2. Introduction......................................................................................................................3
3. Application of Theory into Practice..........................................................................5
a. Review of Existing HRM Practice..........................................................................5
i) Critical Review of Existing HRM Practices of Emirates Airlines..............5
ii) Analysis of Importance of HRM and Practices in Organization and
Influence on Overcoming Challenges for Better Performance...................6
a. Review of leadership theories...............................................................................8
i) Critically review Two Theories on Leadership..............................................8
ii) Assessment of Suitability of One Leadership Theory for International
Plans of Emirates.........................................................................................................9
c. Discussion of Behavioural Dimensions Required in Management of
Human Resources in New Foreign Context of Emirates Airlines.................10
i) Identification of Key Challenges Faced by Emirates in International
Environment................................................................................................................10
ii) Analysis of Strategies to Attract and Recruit Local Talents.................11
iii) Integration Cultural Differences for Responding to Challenges........12
iv) Critical Analysis of Various Influences of Behaviour in Organizations
and Interface with Management in Integrating and Balancing................14
d. Analysis of Best Practices in IHRM.....................................................................14
i) Analysis of the IHRM Related Practices of Other Organizations..........14

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4. Conclusion and Recommendations.......................................................................15
a. Recommendations for Change of Practices and Perspectives in
Managing Human Resources in Change from domestic to Multinational
Set Up................................................................................................................................15
b. Analysis and Discussion on Impact of Change on International Nature
of Emirates Airlines.......................................................................................................17
References................................................................................................................................19

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1. Executive Summary
The report has thrown light on identifying as well as analyzing the various types of
HRM strategies which has played a crucial role in cultivating the business operations in a
successfully. From the entire analysis of the existing HRM practices, it can be identified that
Emirates Airlines provides the motivation to the employees that improves their morale in
performing the different tasks and it helped in growing the productivity of the company. In
addition, trait and contingency leadership theories have been identified that helped in
improving the overall scenario of the workplace while shifting their focus in the international
market. While shifting in the international market, it can be identified that there should be
proper compensation and performance management package that has helped the other
companies such as Qatar Airways and British Airlines in gaining competitiveness in the
market in comparison to the other companies.
2. Introduction
In the current business environment, the human resource should not
be overlooked by the different companies as it is treated as management of the
framework that constitutes management of people along with work while they are working
towards the desired goals. It is considered to be one of the main activities in all the companies
wherein the different individuals are being employed as HR management as is inevitable
consequence of starting and growing an organization (Wintersberger 2017).
Emirates Airlines is one such service-based organizations, which is
known to be the best company in terms of the quality and the service,
which is provided to the different customers. Emirates is the largest airline
company, which is based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The airline

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company is the subsidiary of The Emirates Group, the Dubai government
owns it fully, and it is operating more than 3600 flights per week from the
hub at the International Airport of Dubai. The company is operating in
more than 150 cities in more than 80 countries across the six continents.
There are more than 64768 employees working with Emirates and there
has been increase in revenue to US$ 13.3 billion.
Emirates Airlines, which is the service company tries to implement
the different practices related to the human resource management as
their main process and the company is performing it in an effective
manner. The practices related to human resource management at
Emirates helps them in becoming tremendously competitive, safely
sensitive along with competitive service industry (EmiratesAirlines.com 2019).
The respective airlines are focusing mainly on the different kinds of HR
department, as it will be beneficial in assuring that the quality of
personnel that have been selected by the company is trying to provide
the different services to the customers as well as maintaining the different
standards that are set by them for the different customers present in the
market.
In addition, it can be identified that HRM is one of the important
functions of the companies that will be helpful in meeting the different
kinds of aspects of the company. There are different subfields of the HRM
which should be incorporated by Emirates Airlines that includes the
following:

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 Micro HRM which helps in analyzing the HR related practices and policies
(Mahoney and Deckop 1986)
 Strategic related HRM is concerned relating systematic approaches which
will be connecting to become broader context and it will be helpful in
serving the company (Sriram et al. 2019)
 The international HRM is concerned relating to the company which is
operating in different borders.
The orientation along with training of the employees play crucial
role with high quality as well as skills that have proper interest in working
in Dubai and it will be appropriate in managing the different activities
appropriately. The human resource management helps in facilitating
professional growth along with maintaining better relationships between
union along with management that proves to be suitable for success of
the firm and achieve competitiveness in the market. Lastly, with the
different kinds of HR practices, it will be improving the economy as the
different effective HR related practices lead to high profitability along with
better performance by the company to expand the overall brand image of
the company appropriately.
3. Application of Theory into Practice
a. Review of Existing HRM Practice
i) Critical Review of Existing HRM Practices of Emirates Airlines
The human resource department of the Emirates Airlines refers to
the handling of the operations in respect to the manpower along with

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development of the various strategies that will be beneficial in improving
and grow the business of the respective organization. Emirates Airlines is
constantly focusing on the different activities of the Human Resource
Department, which assures the quality of the personnel who have been
selected for providing the different kinds of services to the customers of
the company and maintaining the standards of the company for their
customers who improve their experience with the company in an
appropriate manner (Robbins, De Cenzo and Coulte 2016).
The human resource department carries the different tasks, which
includes the proper understanding of the job requirements along with
developing the various policies for encouraging the aspects related to
leadership that satisfies the employees and results in the greater
performance from them. In addition, Emirates have large number of
employees that involves more than 54000 employees who comes from
160 nations. The different employees who are employed at Emirates are
the ones who are highly skilled along with trained effectively to meet the
different high-performance standards of the Emirates Airlines
appropriately (Reiche et al. 2016). The number of employees comes across
from the different countries wherein it showcases that the culture of
Emirates is friendly and favorable for working of the individuals who do
not belong from UAE. There is inclusion of diversity in the management
that helps the employees in showcasing their ideas that will be beneficial
in managing the different kinds of the activities appropriately.

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As commented by O’Hagan, Gunnigle and Morley (2017), there is proper
work life balance is provided to the employees of Emirates Airlines and it
is considered to be the best in the world and the different employees are
aspired to work in stable as well as inspiring working conditions which are
developed within it. It provides the life insurance to the different
employees along with providing them with medical aids for the finance
that is required to the different employees along with family members.
ii) Analysis of Importance of HRM and Practices in Organization
and Influence on Overcoming Challenges for Better Performance
As there is inclusion of diversity in the management of the company
Emirates Airlines, it can be identified that Emirates provides employees
with large number of options in career, which encourages the employees
to maintain proper consistency in the performance of employees along
with loyalty towards the economy appropriately (Noe et al. 2017). In addition,
the human resource department of the company develops the different
policies that inculcates the long term along with short term planning
relating about the requirements of the staffs and develops the different
solutions that will be helpful in managing the problems in a more effective
manner. The different policies related to human resource management
includes the aspiring the different individuals from foreign countries and it
assists in delivering with attractive opportunity to work with Emirates
Airlines (Niluthpaul, Khaled and Kohinur 2016).
Moreover, the different policies that are being developed by the
company Emirates includes the studying, analyzing different job

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requirements along with position required in airlines (Morschett, Schramm-
Klein and Zentes 2015). The Human Resource Department of Emirates needs
to deal with providing the optimum work life plan to the different
employees working with Emirates, which will be providing them with the
required security along with dedication towards the tasks performed by
them. In the current competitive and complex business environment, it
can be analyzed and seen that high standard of performance is essential
and is required in various companies and it is the major duty of the HR
professionals to ensure that the same has been achieved in an optimal
manner as well (Marchington 2015). In case of Emirates Airlines, there are
huge number of employees is huge, the company needs to focus and
develop a proper system that would automatically analyze the reasons for
the absenteeism among employees.
In addition, the human resource department of Emirates Group will
be helpful in supporting the vision of the company through creation of
innovation and flexible solutions related to human resource. The
respective solutions will be beneficial in supporting the business growth
along with commercial targets that will be balancing the interests of the
company along with requirements of the line management (Korczynski
2002). Moreover, the human resource business of Emirates supports teams
which will be ensuring effective relations with employees through
assistance of professional compliance with the different policies and
procedures and the remuneration along with planning team will ensure
that Emirates Group has the practices which will be enable them to attract

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along with retain high caliber workforce across the different locations
wherein Emirates have their presence (Jalloh and Jalloh 2016).
a. Review of leadership theories
i) Critically review Two Theories on Leadership
As commented by Hornstein (2015), the trait theory of leadership is
the early assumption wherein the different leaders are born along with
due to the belief wherein the leaders possess the correct type of traits
which includes understanding the followers along with needs analysing
the competence of the tasks which will be performed by the leader.
Furthermore, the trait leadership style will be flexible and adaptable to
different situations which will be helpful in improving the scenario and
gain competitiveness. The major advantage of the trait leadership theory
includes that it will be valid as it helps in serving as the yardstick against
which the traits of leadership of the individuals can be assessed and
lastly, it is considered to be naturally pleasing approach which can be
adopted by the managers in the different companies.
On the other hand, Guest (2017), has commented that the
contingency theory is the organizational theory which claims that there
is no such best technique to organize the corporation, to lead the
organization and make the decisions. In accordance to the contingency
theory, it can be identified that there is no universal aspect to manage
and the organization subsystem and design must be able subsystems in
addition to the overall environment. The main advantage of the respective

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theory is that it provides simple rule of thumb for identification of the
leaders who are best for the situations and it takes the situation into
account for determination of leader’s effectiveness (Florén, Rundquist and
Fischer 2016).
After the analysis of the different styles of leadership, it can be
identified that there are different transformational and transactional
leadership styles. As per transformational style, the leaders try to engage
the employees in the process of decision-making approaches which will be
able to foster their morale and productivity of the entire organization as
well. On the other hand, transactional leadership style, it mainly focuses
on supervision of the tasks performed by the different employees along
with entire performance of the company. It features both negative as well
as positive reinforcement as such leaders are reactive and they try to take
suggestions from employees, however the final decisions will be taken by
the employer (DeCenzo, Robbins and Verhulst 2016).
ii) Assessment of Suitability of One Leadership Theory for
International Plans of Emirates
In the context of the Emirates Airlines, it can be identified that the
most appropriate style of leadership, which can be incorporated is Trait
Theory of Leadership. The respective trait model is based on the
different characteristics of the leaders and it is used in order to analyze
the effectiveness of the leaders. The few traits, which are essential, are
honesty, extrovert, forward looking approach along with competence, that
will prove to be supportive for overall success of the company. In case of

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Emirates Airlines, the higher officials of the company Emirates can adopt
the trait aspects of the leadership as it will be helpful for them in
achieving the different goals and it will increase their ability to lead in the
market as well (Debroux 2017).
Through the application of the respective approach of leadership,
leaders in the organizations tends to be higher in things such as
extroversion along with self-confidence and the future behavior can be
ascertained (Cullet 2017). The trait theory is helpful in gaining clarity for
understanding the behavior of the future aspects as the respective theory
provides few benchmarks that are required to be achieved by the
company. As Emirates is one of the award-winning airlines with network of
added 150 destinations and through application of the traits by the
managers of the company, it will be helpful for the business in scheming
the different expansion opportunities.
The other major trait of the respective theory is the flexibility along
with adaptability in expanding the business operations in the future. The
flexibility is the major strength that can be adopted by the higher officials
of the Emirates Airlines that will be providing them with strategic
dimensions,as it will be creating more opportunities for the firm. The other
trait that is necessary is the ability in executing the functional business
expansion strategy through involvement of the team members, which will
be beneficial for the overall success of the firm appropriately (Collings,
Wood and Szamosi 2018). The communication, adaptability as well as flexibility
are the major strengths that should be adopted by the managers of