International HRM: Axiata Group Berhad - Challenges & Solutions Report

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Axiata Group Berhad's international human resource management (IHRM) practices. It begins with an introduction to IHRM and the company, then explores the various approaches used by Axiata for international training and development, including ethnocentric, polycentric, geocentric, and regiocentric approaches. The report details Axiata's core values and employee-centric strategies. It then analyzes the challenges faced by Axiata as a multinational corporation (MNC), such as market imperfections, tax competition, governmental unreliability, market withdrawal, and lobbying. The report concludes by suggesting methods to improve the shortcomings of international training and development, offering insights into how Axiata can further optimize its IHRM strategies to address these challenges and enhance its global operations. The analysis is supported by relevant references. The report is intended for students seeking to understand IHRM in the context of a real-world MNC.

International Human
Resource
Management
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Table Of Contents
INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………………3
Axiata Group Berhad………………………………………………………………………….3
CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………………..9
REFERENCES……………………………………………………………………………….10
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INTRODUCTION
IHRM refers to the expression which is used by companies that manages their HR
pursuit at an global level. IHRM includes representative HR functions such as hiring, choice,
production administration, teaching and development and payment. These are analysed at an
worldwide level. International human resource management also encompasses additional
activities such as emigrant administration, multiple industrial relation activities, global
succession planning and so on. In this report, the analysis has been done on the approaches
taken by the selected MNC for the purpose of managing the international training and
development. Also the analysis has been done on the challenges faced by the MNC company.
(Khalfan, and et.al., 2016). The research has been done on the methods suggested for the
purpose of shortcomings of international training and development. The chosen organisation
is Axiata Group Berhad. It is the company which is also known as Axiata. The company also
known as the TM International Berhad is a Malaysian multinational telecommunications
mixture with wide operations in Asia. It provides the prepaid and post paid mobile services,
television broadcasting and cable television services. Their main focus is on the emerging
new markets in ASEAN and South Asia.
Axiata Group Berhad
The company is largest wireless carriers in the country. On the global level, supplying of
telecommunication and the investment holding and consultancy services are the main work. It
was first incorporated on 12 June 1992. In 2008, Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad is the
main board on which the company got listed. (Ferdous, and et.al., 2015). Their tagline is
Advancing Asia which shows that in which direction the company is aiming on growth
within asia. The company has interests in mobile operators in Malaysia, Nepal, and
Cambodia. It has important post in India and Singapore. The company had one hundred fifty
million subscribers all over in the asia. The company has also employed around 12000 people
in the eleven countries. The company has its chief challenger across the Indonesian Market.
Celcom in Malaysia “XL” in Indonesia, Dialog in Sri Lanka, “Robi” in Bangladesh these are
considered under the brand name, the organisation’s mobile branch and links operated under
this brand name. The founder of the company is the CEO named as Jamaludin Ibrahim. He is
the former IBM engineer who joined Axiata in 2008. The chairman of Axiata is named as the
Datuk Azzat Kamaludin.
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In the general terms, it is important that each company has to make a plan for managing its
training and development. They can use different kinds of approaches through which
successful training and development can be done. It has been described in the following
manner:
 Ethnocentric Approach : Under this kind of approach it becomes effective in the case
of filling the senior management positions when the organisation feel that there is lack
of intelligent individuals in the host country. It is important that to see this approach
in an effective manner to maintain a unified corporate culture. Its knowledge has to
be transferred to the foreign operation it is the requirement of the firm.
 Polycentric approach: Under this kind of approach, within their own country the aim
is on recruiting the host country people to manage the subsidiaries. This kind of
approach has some advantages in terms of that the firm has to suffer less likely from
the cultural myopia. (Bozsik, and et.al., 2020). It also less expensive in terms of
implementation purpose.
 Geocentric Approach: Under this kind of approach, the best type of people has been
used under this category. It doesn’t matter that they are from which countries, what is
their geographical background. In this way, an international professional has been
developed. With unifying culture and informal management network this approach
becomes consistent in the manner. This kind of approach has some of their
advantages. It includes that it enables the firm to make the use of best kind of human
resources. In the different number of cultures the professional feels like that they are
working in their home country.
 Regiocentric Approach: Under this kind of approach, the company has divided its
operations into different geographic regions and also moves their staff within a
particular region.
In the general terms, at the international human resource management they have to make a
proper planning and strategy for the purpose of execution in the realistic manner. The
company needs to analyse that what is the current requirement of the market and with the
changing period of time it is important to consider also the technological advancement. They
have to train their employees in such a manner that they can confidently work at the
international level. (Qureshi, M. A., 2015). They have to plan a roadmap for their employees
according to their qualities and appoint them in the particular department and also they need
to be shifted for other departments for their personal and professional growth. In this way,
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they can learn in the overall manner and develop their personality from every aspect. Human
resource should be strategise at the international level in such a manner that the execution
becomes successful. (Liu, W., 2018). At the international level, it is important ot understand
that the approach regarding their employees and their new employees should be very much
serious and effective in nature so that they can fulfil their roles and responsibilities in an
effective manner. It’s the company’s responsibility to make understand their employees that
what are their policies , what are their norms, what are the rules and regulations so that they
do not cross their discipline area and decorum of the country.
There are some approaches which has been used by the company in managing its
international training and development. The company believes in the employees divergence
which is necessary for structure and comfort the ruthless benefits. Divergence encourage for
the contemporary intelligence and which supports in tackling with work dares through
dissimilar perspectives. The company has managed by attracting and nurturing the right talent
its person capital investment and support the personal well-being and professionalism in
terms of their career with the company’s support system. (Nyandiko, J. A. and Ongeri, L.,
2015). The core values of the company is uncompromising integrity and exceptional
performance which is embraced across Axiata Group. The company’s approach towards their
employees is that in the overall market the first approach is to do the right things and have
respect for the diversity of employees. The company always motivate for making the
difference with the support of job responsibilities and for the purpose of taking the
ownership. In this competitive and changing environment, where the thing which is constant
is the change so it is important that for the employees to keep always ready to face the latest
industry development.
The training programmes provided by the company ensures that they have the expertise and
intelligence which instilled with agile and digital which is required for growing the business
now and in the future also. (Otoo, and et.al., 2019). The training provided by the company
aims on the online platforms and strategic business priorities. This gives an opportunity for
employees push their boundaries into the transformative digital landscape and to broaden
their scope. Due to the presence of geographical region with the support of diverse social
norms and cultural values. This gives a drive to the seniors of the company to provide such a
kind of working environment which is respectful and welcoming for everyone. The
company’s approach towards their employees is that to protect the international fundamental
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rights of employees. The company also ensures that they can provide their employees with
work life balance nature so that they can perform in their jobs with their full potential.
The company’s approach is that they operate themselves in such a environment where young
and hungry population exist for opportunities. The company already realised that the future of
the country is on the shoulders of this young population. They have the plan to create the
chance and authority to shape minds and brings out the best potential from the talented
persons. The company has also made commitment in the year 2011 to invest into youthful
flair growth scheme which is bespoke for the purpose of country calender with the farther
desire to execute in all their markets. (Muraga, D. K., 2015). The programme also gives an
opportunity to have such kind of leadership which is equipped with the expertise and
compatibilities of a future CEO. An example is there which shows that company has taken
initiative for the training and development of employees as well as the fresher or students
also. Indonesia has the most all inclusive and lengthy-administrative youthful guidance
schemes which is named as the XL Future Leaders programme who has nurtured around
65000 students and gives the 700 scholarships for the non-beneficial students.
In terms of general manner, the competitiveness has been hindered in the international
markets where there are some challenges faced by the MNC which transact the business. It
can be described in the following manner:
Market Imperfections: When the company at the global level enters into the international
market they have face different kinds of imperfections. Sometimes the company enters into
new market without taking analysis regarding their laws, local customs and business
practices of such particular country then the manager’s ability got reduced with respect to the
forecast of the business. (Langwell, C. and Heaton, D., 2016).Their profits also get reduced
due to reason of the barriers regarding the tariff. Transportation costs is also one of the reason
due to which the chances of increasing the profits get reduced.
 Tax Competition: There are some countries and some sub national groups who
compete with each other for the purpose of establishment of MNC facilities,
subsequent tax revenue. (Chen, J. and Li, W., 2015).For the purpose of competition, it
is important that regional political districts and countries to offer incentives to MNCs.
These incentives can be in the form of tax breaks.
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When these incentives got failed, they have limited their chances of becoming famous to
foreign investment and due to which they have to face challenges.
 Governmental unreliability: At the international level doing business, many
MNCs have to face challenges of political instability. Due to the absence of
reliable government authority, this kind of problem has occurred. Due to this kind
of event, work rate has been added, risk of doing business has increased and for
the purpose of forecasting the business trends it reduces the manager’s ability.
corruption is also associated with the governmental instability and due to the weak
legal frameworks which reduces the foreign investments.
 Market Withdrawal: It has the important impact on the government policy majorly
through the threat of market withdrawal due to the size of multinationals. It can be
explained through an example where healthcare system wants to reduce their costs
some countries have tried to force the pharmaceutical companies to license their
patented drugs at a very lower cost. (Maksimović, M., 2017). When they faced
such kind of threat in the market they have withdrawn themselves which often
leads towards the limited availability of advanced drugs.
 Lobbying: Multinational corporations have influenced the range of business
concerns which is from the perspective of tariff structures to environmental
regulations. Corporations lobby tariffs is for the purpose of restrict competition of
foreign industrialists. For every tariff category that one multinational wants to
have reduced, there is another multinational that wants the tariff raised.
The Axiata group has to face net loss and the dividend also gets slashed down. It also warned
that the performance got vulnerable due to growing competition and tax and regulatory
challenges in some of its major markets. The company has also faced the foreign exchange
losses and acquisition costs which has expanded the overseas. At the global level, the
company has to face greater competitive market pressures and regulatory challenges. The
company also faced the weak financial performance and there is uncertain investment climate
also. (Yaghi, A., 2016). The company faced the revenue loss also due to which the
subscriber base also get shrinked out.
There are some methods that can be used to improve the shortcomings of international
training and development in the company. First thing is that to do the analysis about the
training and development programme so that it needs to be find out why is it not being
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effected. Is there any shortcomings in the programme. What is the focus of their programme
which do not grasped by the employees at the international level. All these questions should
be answered in a positive manner so that they can make improvement in the training and
development programmes. It can be also rectified through conducting seminars for the
purpose to make understand the need of these kind of training and development programmes.
It is also required that they understand that what is the current requirement of the company at
such an international level which needs to be inbuilt in a positive manner into their
employees. On the daily basis, a motivational and enthusiastic environment should be created
so that employees get motivated towards their tasks. (Njuguna, and et.al., 2015). The
company needs to make understand their employees that how much it is necessary to compete
with other countries and how much they need to do hard work to stay consistently strongly in
the market. Training and development at the international level can be improved through
make more learning flexible and accessible. Through this way, employees do not feel that
they are burdened to follow these training and development programmes. The company can
also take initiative to use the tools that serve remote workers and in office-teams. Through the
digital media and conferences the training and development programmes can be made more
interesting and effective and attractive to their employees . Through these ways employees
get bound towards these programmes and it will not feel like burdensome on their shoulders.
While working on the international level, there are lots of pressure and tensed environment is
also there.
For the purpose of improving this condition in the company, it is important that the company
conducts some Yoga therapies and some exercises classes so that it will give benefits to the
employees so that they can get back to their work with more energy and with full enthusiasm.
Small breaks should be given so that it will give the chance to their employees to rejuvenate
themselves. The training and development programmes somewhere give information about
the other departments also so that it will attract the employees and bound the employees for
longer period of time. (Davis, P. J., 2017). Giving knowledge about other departments will
enhance the knowledge of their employees as well as their personality also. Now they
become more confident and in some emergency situations they can handle the work of some
other departments also. For removing the shortcomings from the training and development
programmes of the company it needs the effort from both the sides. It includes from the
company side as well as from their employees side also. So that proper execution can be
dome in an effective manner with positive results.
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CONCLUSION
International human resource management is very important at the global level.
Human resource management is related to the every aspect of the employees of the company
at the international level. It can be professional issues, their recruitment, their on boarding
and exit facilities, their biometric etc. There are also many other aspects which can be
included in the human resource management. It is important that to use different kinds of
approaches for improving the training and development programmes of the company. And if
any problems arises then it becomes difficult to manage the human resource at such an
international level. There are some shortcomings which can arises when it need to be
implemented in a realistic manner. So its important that to rectify them and implement them
in a positive manner. (Tomicic-Pupek, and et.al., 2017). There can be challenges while
finding out the solutions for those problems but this can rectified through proper planning,
strategy and execution in the positive manner.
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REFERENCES
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Strategic Human Resource management. Economic and Social Development: Book of
Proceedings, pp.678-684.
Davis, P. J., 2017. How HR can create competitive advantage for the firm: Applying the
principles of resource-based theory. Human Resource Management International Digest.
Njuguna, and et.al., 2015. The influence of selected human resource management practices
on employee satisfaction in the technical university of Kenya. Indian Journal of Commerce &
Management Studies, 6(2), pp.73-78.
Yaghi, A., 2016. Is it the human resource policy to blame? Examining intention to quit
among women managers in Arab Middle Eastern context. Gender in Management: An
International Journal.
Maksimović, M., 2017. Human resource management and religions in Japan.
Langwell, C. and Heaton, D., 2016. Using human resource activities to implement
sustainability in SMEs. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development.
Muraga, D. K., 2015. Strategic human resource management practices and performance of
parastatals in Kenya. Unpublished Doctor of Philosophy Thesis: Kenyatta University.
Otoo, and et.al., 2019. Impact of human resource development (HRD) practices on
pharmaceutical industry’s performance. European Journal of Training and Development.
Liu, W., 2018. High-involvement human resource practices, employee learning and
employability. Career Development International.
Qureshi, M. A., 2015. Human resource practices in Pakistan banking sector: A conceptual
framework including personality traits, emotional intelligence and employee
performance. International Journal Of Scientific And Research Publications, 5(1), pp.78-95.
Bozsik, and et.al., 2020. The Role of Human Resource Management Indicators in Social
Enterprises with Special Regard to the Social-Cooperatives. European Journal of Social
Sciences, 3(2), pp.60-75.
Ferdous, and et.al., 2015. Barriers to the implementation of human resource information
systems. Asian Journal of Management Sciences & Education, 4 (1).
Khalfan, and et.al., 2016. Investigating the role of human resource management in assisting
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Arabia. International Journal of Knowledge Management Studies, 7(1-2), pp.117-135.
Nyandiko, J. A. and Ongeri, L., 2015. Effectiveness of strategic human resource management
on organizational performance at Kenya Seed Company-Kitale. Journal of Emerging Trends
in Economics and Management Sciences, 6(1), pp.1-5.
Chen, J. and Li, W., 2015, March. The relationship between flexible human resource
management and enterprise innovation performance: a study from organizational learning
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capability perspective. In International Conference on Informatics and Semiotics in
Organisations (pp. 204-213). Springer, Cham.
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