Human Resource Challenges at SONY: Case Study Analysis

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Human Resource Challenges at SONY
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Brief introduction of the organization.............................................................................................3
Brief summary of the case...............................................................................................................3
Identification of key issues in the case............................................................................................4
Secondary issues in the case............................................................................................................4
Theories & concepts for the international business.........................................................................4
Introduction to themes.....................................................................................................................5
Answering the questions..................................................................................................................5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8
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Introduction
It is very difficult for each & every business organization to implement all its business strategies
in accordance to the changes prevailing in the business market. All these kinds ofchallenges are
being faced by Sony. The complete management of HR of the business organization Sony played
an essential role in enhancing the highest position & faith in the competitive business market.
The complete report includes the implementation of effective business strategies in order to
enhance the higher level of standards at both the local as well as the international level.
Brief introduction of the organization
The business organization SONY was established in the year 1946 in Tokyo by Akio Morita and
Masaru Ibuka. It deals in the wide varieties of products & services including the systems of play
stations, cameras, televisions, computers, smart phones, laptops, music players, semi-conductors
& many more. The business organization of SONY works with around 132,000 employees
within the business organization across the whole World. The company is earning the maximum
amount or profits & revenue around the whole World including the one third part out of the
amount of annual sales of SONY in the country of Japan, 20 percent of sales in Europe & North
America, 10 % from the country of China along with the other countries of Asia & the remaining
percentage from all over the remaining parts of the World (D'Netto, et. al., 2014).
Brief summary of the case
The strong yen & the global recession hugely impacted the business organization of SONY
because of which it suffered a lot. This casehappened in the year 2001. This case hampered the
overall organizational profitability & the overall amount of profits got reduced. Because of the
reduction in profits, SONY had to close down its 16 plants to reduce the number of
organizational employees. Various problems of management were also been faced by the
business organization in the year 2005 because of which a large number of jobs were being cut
down. All these managerial problems resulted in the severe problems faced by SONY in relation
to all the employees among the different countries of the World. SONY also faced the problems
of a different culture which prevail in different nations or the countries in which SONY operates.
Each & every nation has different legal systems, technologicalequipment, economic conditions
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& the level of infrastructure (D'Netto, et.al. 2014). The most effective as well as the efficient
approach is being implemented by SONY which is the “Integrity Approach” in order to develop
& also maintain the standard level of balance among the complete workplace. In order to
effectively operate among the whole country, SONY developed a high level of standards at the
Global level apart from only depending upon the host country or the nation. All these types of
challenges are been identified in the case for which the standard strategies are to be developed &
implemented by SONY effectively & appropriately.
Identification of key issues in the case
Various issues are being identified which are faced by SONY & because of which the overall
organizational productivity & profitability was getting hampered & the business organization
was also losing all its potential as well as the loyal customers. One of the major issues was the
high impact of the global economic recession in the year 2001. This issue resulted into the high
rate of unemployment & the inflation got increased up to the maximum level & the growth of the
money got slowed down which resulted into the slower pace of growth in the whole economy.
Another issue was the reduction in the number of organizational profits because of the
appreciation of yen againstthe dollar (de Jesus, et.al. 2015). The people spent the lower amount
of their earned income in the case when the dollars are low as compared to the currency of yen &
the main reason behind this is that the money earned by the people has the less buying power.
The depreciation in the dollars results into the lower amount of prices among all the domestic
goods & the effective services when the prices of other foreign goods & services get increased.
The key managerial problems are also the increasing issue faced by the company in the year
2005 because of which the company had to reduce the number of all its employees in order to
maintain the balance among the overall organizational cost (Dhillon & Gupta, 2015). All these
major issues resulted in the closure of all the business firms in the country of US in order to
move the production to the pace of Mexico in order meet up the standard amount of cost. The
huge level of exploitation was being found in the workplace of SONY in the host country which
leaded towards the ineffective violation of all the human rights.
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Secondary issues in the case
The top most issue at the secondary level is the new & increasing competition in the business
market. It has been identified that the severe competition is being faced by the Play Station from
the system of Nintendo Wii. The second secondary issue was increasing the level of faith in the
overall workplace of SONY with the help of implementing the effective philosophies of the
Human Resource.
Theories & concepts for international business
Various effective as well as the efficient theories of business management are being developed &
implemented by the business managers of Sony in order to expand its business up to the
international level. The effective integrity approach is being pursued by the company in order to
enhance all its manufacturing units at the international level & hence crossing the limits of all the
standards which can be seen only at the local level. Another effective theory was the Universal
employment standard for setting up the benchmark in order to manage the level of internal
performance along with transferring all the talented experts among the different countries. All
the related practices & standards are being applied & implemented for expanding the business at
the international level all over the world (Ghazzawi & Cook, 2015). The effective meetings are
being conducted & organized by the HR managers with the effective HR executives & the
organizational employees in order to formulate the effective plans & business strategies to
enhance the key strengths of the business organization along with leading towards the effective
enhancement of the corporate performances of different individuals working in the business
organization. All these were the effective theories which were being applied by the HR managers
of Sony in order to expand their overall business at both the international as well as the domestic
level (Day, 2014).
Introduction to themes
Following were the questions which were being demonstrated in the case:
What was the best approach for enhancing the process of staffing along with the organizational
operations at the international level?
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How the programs of training & development can be improved in order to match up with all the
standards at the international level?
What are the effective measures or the steps that can be taken & implemented in order to
improve the CSR for managing the overall organizational operations?
How the mind set of all the organizational managers can be promoted at the global level?
How the strategies can be formulated & developed in order to balance those contingencies which
can arise in the future?
Answering the questions
The business managers of Sony has decided to hire the most efficient & talented employees for
enhancing the spirit of all the business entrepreneurs along with ensuring the effective skills of
communication & developing the critical or logical thinking.
High levels of plans are being formulated by the managers of Sony for providing the high level
of training to all the employees leading towards the effective qualities of leadership in the
effective & in an efficient manner.
In order to develop the concept of CSR, the business organization developed the integrity
approach for enhancing corporate support among all the employees. This approach is very
effective in ensuring the benefits & developing the creative skills for each & every
organizational employee.
The universal standards are to be set by the managers of Sony to operate the organizational
operations at the international level. This effective strategy will also lead towards the developed
global mind set among all the managers (Barney, 2014).
Various new & effective policies are being framed by Sony in order to grab the new culture. The
high level of confidence can be encouraged among all the employees with the help of vocational
courses.
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Conclusion
It has been concluded that equal business opportunities are being enhanced to all the
organizational employees for providing them with the innovative facilities which will increase
their level of confidence. The global standards are also being set by the business managers of
Sony to develop the organizational faith among all the individuals working in the business
organization. The effective theories of management & unique approaches were also being
implemented in order to not only identify but also resolve all the challenges of the human
resource which impacted the business operations of Sony adversely.
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References
 D'Netto, B., Shen, J., Chelliah, J., & Monga, M. (2014). Human resource diversity
management practices in the Australian manufacturing sector. The International Journal
of Human Resource Management, 25(9), 1243-1266.
 Dhillon, I., & Gupta, S. (2015). Organizational Restructuring and Collaborative
Creativity: The Case of Microsoft and Sony. IUP Journal of Business Strategy, 12(1).
 Ghazzawi, I. A., & Cook, T. (2015). ORGANIZATION CHALLENGES AND
FAILURES: A THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK AND A PROPOSED MODEL.
 Day, G. S. (2014). An outside-in approach to resource-based theories. Journal of the
Academy of Marketing Science, 42(1), 27-28.
 Barney, J. B. (2014). How marketing scholars might help address issues in resource-
based theory. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 42(1), 24-26.
 de Jesus, K., de Jesus, K., Figueiredo, P., Vilas-Boas, J. P., Fernandes, R. J., & Machado,
L. J. (2015). Reconstruction accuracy assessment of surface and underwater 3D motion
analysis: a new approach. Computational and mathematical methods in medicine, 2015.
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