International HRM Report: Wesfarmers' Expansion into the Indian Market

This report analyzes the international expansion of the Australian company Wesfarmers into the Indian market, focusing on key International HRM (IHRM) functions and challenges. The report begins with an executive summary and table of contents, followed by an introduction to IHRM and the rationale for selecting India as the expansion country. It compares the cultural differences between Australia and India, examining surface, hidden, and invisible cultural aspects. The report then addresses the various HR issues Wesfarmers will face in India, including cultural diversity, language barriers, and labor regulations. The core of the report focuses on key IHRM areas: recruitment, training and development, and performance management, highlighting differences, similarities, and associated issues in both countries. The report concludes with recommendations for effective IHRM practices and an implementation plan to support Wesfarmers' successful expansion into India. References are included to support the analysis.

COVER PAGE
NAME : RAGHUPATHI SETHURAM K
STUDENT ID: 11725799
SUBJECT: CROSS CULTURAL & INTERNATIONAL HRM
SUBJECT CODE: HRM514
WORD COUNT: 2558
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: 1

This document represents the national and corporate culture.
The IHRM examines various personnel issues that organizations
abroad have to face, discusses the key functions of IHRM and
also offers specific IHRM recommendations and a brief
implementation plan. The purpose of this document is to walk
you through creating the key components of this document and
to provide examples of appropriate content for each section.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Page no
Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 3
COUNTRY SELECTED FOR EXPANSION……………………………………………………………………………….. 5
Cultural differences with Australia…………………………………………………………………………………….. 5
Overall view of the various HR issues the organization will have to face in the foreign…. 8
country
Reflect on the key International HRM areas………………………………………………………………………. 9
Recruitment ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 9
Training and Development ……………………………………………………………………………………………….. 11
Performance Management ………………………………………………………………………………………………. 13
Recommendations……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 14
Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 16
References ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 17
INTRODUCTION:
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IHRM involves all decisions and management practices
that directly affect people working for the organization.
When there is an expansion of organization
internationally, under IHRM we need to examine the HR
functions such as Recruitment, Training, compensation,
performance management, international relocation
services, benefits and taxes, etc. As we are choosing
Australian organization for expansion, the country I
choose is INDIA and its surface culture, hidden culture,
invisible culture for comparison. Why because, INDIA has
a massive marketplace which stands in 7th place in the list
of largest markets with 60% GDP and has numerous
cultures which might be pretty exciting and without
difficulty adoptable. And in this essay we are going to
discuss about the expatriates under IHRM key area
functions, by comparing with other country and its
culture.
“WESFARMERS” is the Australian company that I have
chosen for this report. Wesfarmers is one of the top
largest companies in Australia by market capitalization.
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Wesfarmers started in 1914 in the Western Australian
Farmers Cooperative, and has now developed into one of
Australia's largest listed companies. Wesfarmers
headquartered in Perth, in this year review includes:
home improvement, outdoor living and construction
materials, general goods and clothing, office and
technical products, chemical and fertilizer manufacturing
and Sales, Distribution of industrial and safety products,
and Gas handling and distribution. Wesfarmers is one of
Australia's largest private sector employers, with
approximately 107,000 team members and is owned by
more than 487,000 shareholders. The areas they serving
are Australia, New Zealand, India, Ireland.
Motto is:
“Delivering value today & tomorrow”
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COUNTRY SELECTED FOR EXPANSION:
India is the quick-developing trillion-greenback economic
system and ranks 5th overall and gives many benefits for groups
in search of expansion possibilities. The purpose to do business
in India is stable economy, digital competitiveness, business
reforms, massive consumer market. India is a land of historic
civilizations. India's social, economic, and cultural
configurations are the goods of a lengthy procedure of
regional enlargement.
Cultural differences with Australia:
Surface Culture
Australia doesn’t have robust non secular mores governing
dress nor obsessive worries with signaling distance from
poverty. Specifically, girls frequently put on shorts or mini-
skirts that display a brilliant of skin, Australian guys have
popularity for dressing down. When it comes to food it’s a very
multicultural society, where you will find food of Chinese,
French, Indian, Italian, Japanese, Mexican, Thai, Vietnamese,
etc. Mostly they choose traditional and organic foods.
The caste and religious values of India influence people's dress.
In general, Indians are quite conventional about skin exposure.
Indian women wear simple, colorful clothes, no matter how
humid the climate is, and they will be careful not to expose too
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much skin. Traditional menswear in India tends to adapt to the
climate. In India, food culture is influenced by climate, land and
natural resources. North Indians eat chapatti, roti and south
Indians take rice most of the times.
Hidden Culture
The main values of Australians support equal rights and equal
opportunities. As we all know, Australians are open-minded
and outgoing, and believe that everyone has the right to try
fairly. And we don’t see many religions in Australia when
comparing with India. Raising children in Australia is based on
mutual respect and equal treatment of your children.
Encourage parents to listen to their children's thoughts and
ideas and negotiate with them instead of giving them orders.
The two main principles of Indian culture are human values and
integrity. Human values refer to moral, spiritual and ethical
values, while holism refers to unity or unity. Over the centuries,
India’s Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Jains, Sikhs and various
tribal populations have undergone a major cultural integration.
India is the birthplace of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism
and other religions. The well-built emotional bond between
Indian parents and children in their early childhood is
considered to be long-lasting. People are bound by their
responsibilities to family, parents, children and society.
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Invisible or Implicit Culture
Australia’s oldest surviving cultural tradition and some of the
world's oldest surviving cultural traditions are the cultural
beliefs of Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders.
Most Aborigines in Australia have a belief system based on
dreaming or dreaming time, which refers to the time when the
ancestors created the land and culture, as well as the
knowledge, practices and identities of individuals and
communities. Australia does not have an official state religion
and the Australian Constitution forbidden the Commonwealth
from establishing churches or interfering with religious
freedom. When the Commonwealth was formed in 1901,
Christianity had a lasting influence on Australia
The name "India" comes from the Indus River. Local believers
call this river “Sindhu”. And Indian culture started on the basin
of river Sindhu. The Persian invaders changed it to Hindu,
where 84% of the country recognized as Hindu. Various literary
forms such as the Ramayana, Mahabharata, Bhagavatam and
other epics and Upanishads laid the foundation for the
cultivation of Indian lifestyle, philosophy and moral values.
Their language gave the continued renaissance with a
magnificent prominence and enriched it with rich literature.
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Overall view of the various HR issues the organization
will have to face in the foreign country:
According to Lu and Bjorkmann (1997) the biggest challenge facing
global human resource managers is to understand the extent to which
and to what extent human resource policies and procedures can be
standardized in a global context. Therefore, from recruitment,
selection, training, performance evaluation, compensation
management, etc. there are also environmental factors, such as cultural
differences, language differences, and the current labor laws of the
sending country.
Cultural Diversity: A core issue of international human resources
is to understand and maintain cultural diversity.
Language Barrier: Multinational companies must also fight
language barriers. Language barriers may occur between employees,
or between employees and management.
Rules, Regulations and Labor Rights: Safety regulations, work
practices, and compensation may vary from country to country.
Coordinating employment policies, labor administration and labor
relations is an arduous task for the international business.
Benefits and Compensation: Both are the pillars of every HR
strategy. (Focuses on work-life balance of employees)
Training and Development: To develop their skills in global
marketing, international business development. HR may offer
language classes, extra training to employees.
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Reflect on the key International HRM areas
The key IHRM functions that are chosen are Recruitment, Training &
Development and Performance management.
RECRUITMENT:
Recruitment is the process of finding and encouraging candidates to
apply for positions in the organization (Biswas, 2012). Every
organization follows certain standards and methods in their selection
process, which will help them, find the right candidates for the right
positions. The selection process Covers core areas such as behavior,
attitude, skills, motivation, and personality tests. Stonner,
Freeman and Gilbert (2000) Said that the purpose of recruitment is to
provide a large enough group of candidates so that managers can
choose the people they need.
Internal recruitment sources include searching for candidates within
the company, global talent management checklists, internal global
leadership plans, former/current expatriates, nomination, internal job
posting/intranet, international succession planning plans.
External recruitment sources are candidates from outside the
organization, employee recommendations, job fairs, company
websites, headhunting companies, professional associations or
networks, competing companies, universities and colleges’ global
leadership programs.
Differences and Similarities
The recruiters conduct interviews in several stages in order to select
suitable candidates for the position. The structures and functions of
human resource management in the two countries are similar. The
human resource departments of large companies have different sub-
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departments, while in the small companies of the two countries; this
task is only performed by one person. People in India are only
developed at the level of large organizations, and the personnel
profession is qualified to select suitable candidates for the position.
There seems to be a lack of suitable recruitment plans and meetings in
small organizations, and Australia has quite competent human
resource section (Aswathappa & Dash, 2020).
Australia is competitive and expensive. Therefore, if you hire the
wrong person and don't find the person you are looking for, you
may make a mistake and lose money at a critical stage of your
business, preventing you from reaching your full potential.
Issues faced in recruitment function area:
Salary, benefits and working environment are important factors in
hiring employees. In a difficult economic environment, many
companies have cut their benefits, which make it more difficult to
attract the best candidates. Employees selected based on unethical
issues such as nepotism, sexual harassment and discrimination do not
have the correct knowledge and skills, which greatly affects their
personal performance and the performance of organization and it also
creates issue to HR recruitment. All selection and recruitment methods
should be practical and effective (London, 2001)
Examples:
Lack of Experienced Candidates in the Local Region
Competition from Larger Organizations
Compressed Work Week, less qualified people
Self-Employment Opportunities, Inefficient talent sourcing.
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Training and Development
Training and development is designed to cultivate the professional skills
of employees and the development of managers and executives or
prepare employees for managers, although in a broader sense, it
involves the career development of all employees. W hen it transfers a
large number of employees to international positions, the T&D function
presents a new kind of more complex nature.
According to Oatey (1970) Training improves a person's ability to
perform tasks. Training contributes to the social and intellectual
development of employees, which is very important for the promotion
of productivity levels and the development of human resources in any
organization.
According to Yoder (1970) in today's working environment, training
and development are far more appropriate than pure education,
because only when the learning process goes beyond simple routines
can human resources reach their full potential.
Differences and Similarities
In India training executives on basic tools for new employees will help
them transition to a new management ethics. Exercise courses are
managed by the HRM of the administrative department to cultivate
talents and productivity to improve the efficiency of the workplace.
Wesfarmers is primarily responsible for the training and development
with respect to its company associates. It involves specific job and
professional training for full-time, part-time and temporary associates.
The training program includes development team members' technical
skills, product knowledge, customer service, and teamwork &
leadership skills. In recent years, with the development of business
models, building data and digital skills has become a major
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development issue. Our company continues to invest in technology to
authorize home work and remote training and development. The
company also places greater priority on leadership training to support
well-being and mental health.
In Australia, the literature on training barriers tends to focus on their
relationship to the vocational training system. A survey by Allen
Consulting Group (2006) showed that employers recognize the
difficulty of adjusting training according to job requirements;
insufficient government funding incentives; and problems with the
training system, including lack of flexibility and inability to obtain
appropriate training.
Issues faced in Training & Development function area:
Trainers often ignore the content of the plan, which needs to be well
organized into sections or parts. The trainer should understand the
basic needs of the end customer. Training should not only focus on
lectures and texts in a classroom environment, but should also focus
on refreshments and informal meetings to discuss topics. Most trainers
still prefer to use the same PowerPoint presentations or gyan courses,
but these courses do not work.
Examples:
Coping with change, Engaging Learners, Provide
Consistent training, improve learning efficiency and
Quantification of training effects.
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