Analysis of Strategic Human Resource Management at Carlsberg: A Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Carlsberg's strategic human resource management. It begins by outlining the company's strategic HR priorities and details the 'Winning Behaviours' strategy, explaining its rationale and implementation. The report then explores how this strategy aligns with other HR practices, such as equity and diversity, workforce planning, and social responsibility. It also discusses the difficulties Carlsberg faced while implementing the strategy in Malaysia, primarily due to increased input costs and employee-related challenges. The report concludes by assessing the potential effectiveness of the 'Winning Behaviours' strategy in the Australian context, offering recommendations for successful implementation, and emphasizing the importance of employee support and cultural adaptation. The analysis highlights Carlsberg's commitment to employee development, sustainable practices, and maintaining a strong position in the global brewing industry.

Running head: STRATEGIC HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Strategic Human Resource Management
Name of the Student:
Name of the Company:
Author note:

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1. Introduction
Corporate strategy is often formulated on executive floors at the headquarters of the
companies. For making them live within an organisation, the employees as well as the middle
management are required to be involved and make a sense of it (Soderberg, 2015). This
report shall elaborate on analysing the strategic HR management at Carlsberg. It is to note
that Carlsberg is one of the leading brewing companies in the world and was established in
1847 by J.C. Jacobsen (Chesbrough et al., 2018). It is headquartered at Denmark. This paper
shall highlight the strategic HR priorities that are pursued by Carlsberg and at the same time,
will discuss the rationale of implementing the strategy of “Winning Behaviours” at the
company. Furthermore, it would also shed light on how this strategy of “Winning
Behaviours” align with the other HR practices such as: equity and diversity; workforce
planning and development; social responsibility; and work-life balance (Anneli & Vera,
2015). Also, the paper shall analyse the difficulties that were faced by the company while
implementing this strategy in Malaysia. Lastly, how well the 'Winning Behaviours' strategy
would work in an Australian context, along with recommendations for how such an
implementation could be successfully managed would be provided.
2. Discussion
2.1. Strategic HR priorities pursued by Carlsberg.
Carlsberg is pursuing the HR strategy of “Winning Behaviours”. It is developed as an
initiative by the top management at Carlsberg Group for improving the global integration in
international organisations (Coulson-Thomas, 2015). The managers and expatriate of
Carlsberg try to give a sense of Winning Behaviours in many ways and the employees at the
company are required to bring in their own local ideals of leadership into play when they try
to make a sense of the preferred attitudes and behaviours and at the same time, turn them into

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day to day practices. The whole process of creation of new strategic concept in the
sociocultural contexts is facilitated at the company within the HR department and the
communication department of the company, who play a significant role as the agents of
change in the ‘glocal’ strategy process (Hatch, Schultz & Skov, 2015). It draws upon the
observations and interviews and the documents that are collected at the headquarters of the
company in Denmark and in the subsidiaries like Malaysia and China. It is to note that the
company strives for becoming an attractive and sustainable company by means of developing
its level of commitment and engagement as well as its professional attitude that can be said as
the significant factor that is related to its organisational growth. With the help of developing a
proper winning culture within the company, Carlsberg strives for being successful.
Moreover, it is to note that the Labour Rights and Human Rights are considered by
the company as important factors as of the ways by means of which the company can easily
preserve its industry process. Business operations conducted by the company in different
nation are on the basis of same values provided by the company (Guest, 2017). The main
foundations of the development of the human resource strategy of Carlsberg is dependent on
the continuous flow of care that is taken for the employees of the organisation. With the
same, it is also to note that the development and growth of the organisational employees is
regarded as a notable aspect that is related to efficient operations within the company and this
helps it in making a leading brand within the industry. The company has provided an
immense level of opportunities for the employees as they regard them as an asset for the
organisation (Harvey, 2018). With the same, they also offer them some training based
opportunities for their career development in various different parts of the world.
2.2. Rationale of implementing the ‘Winning Behaviours’ strategy

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It is to note that the “Winning Behaviours” strategy was implemented by Carlsberg on the
basis of the development of the company’s Shared Services. The five aspects of the strategy
are as follows:
a) Carlsberg provide high empowerment levels to its employees in order to ensure that they
can bring in some significant differences in the work process. The company faced
ownership based challenges on the basis of both team and individual. Furthermore, it is
also to note that the organisational management has not permitted higher level of fear of
failure among the employees for overcoming the activities performed by them
(Carlsberg.com, 2019). The development and growth of the organisational employees is
regarded as a notable aspect that is related to efficient operations within the company and
this helps it in making a leading brand within the industry. The company has provided an
immense level of opportunities for the employees as they regard them as an asset for the
organisation
b) The management of the company strives for developing winning solutions for leading the
development of various winning solutions on the basis of the steps that could be taken by
the company. The market size is a significant fact that helps in influencing the proactive
organisational nature (Carlsberg.com, 2019).
c) It is to mention that Carlsberg is highly engaged with its society and community. The
organisational employees are greatly responsible for improving the business sense levels
on the basis of positive contribution that is given. There has been an implementation of
the “Glocal” strategy on a global basis in local context (Carlsberg.com, 2019). The
employees at the company are required to bring in their own local ideals of leadership
into play when they try to make a sense of the preferred attitudes and behaviours and at
the same time, turn them into day to day practices.

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d) The main strength of Carlsberg are unity and strength and these help the company in
maintaining the operational levels within the industry. It provided high degree of respect
to the differences that prevail in the culture, people and brands that are responsible for
developing best behaviours (Carlsberg.com, 2019). The company develops the best
practice in respect to the organisational growth as well as on the basis of it winning
nature.
e) For Carlsberg, its customers are at its heart. It considered them during the decision
making process. The organisational management put themselves in the place of customers
for understanding their needs and preferences. The strategies and the plans of the
company are thereby based on the insights and the continuous evaluation of the different
strategies to improve the working experience.
2.3. How Carlsberg's 'Winning Behaviours' strategy align with other HR practices
The main foundations of the development of the human resource strategy of Carlsberg
is dependent on the continuous flow of care that is taken for the employees of the
organisation. With the same, employees maintained their process of work within the industry
by means of communications that have been developed along with the management
(Collings, Wood & Szamosi, 2018). The work and private lives of the employees are
managed by the organisation by means of implementing strategies that were implemented.
Furthermore, it is also to note that the HR management is regarded as a notable aspect that is
potential of influencing the organisational process. The managers and expatriate of Carlsberg
try to give a sense of Winning Behaviours in many ways and the employees at the company
are required to bring in their own local ideals of leadership into play when they try to make a
sense of the preferred attitudes and behaviours and at the same time, turn them into day to
day practices. For instance, there has been an implementation of the “Glocal” strategy on a
global basis in local context (Dameri et al., 2019). The whole process of creation of new

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strategic concept in the sociocultural contexts is facilitated at the company within the HR
department and the communication department of the company, who play a significant role as
the agents of change in the ‘glocal’ strategy process (Migliaccio, 2018). It has been applied
by the company in order to ensure that the local management can adapt to the various
processes of business that include local needs.
2.4. Difficulties the company faced when implementing the strategy of “Winning
Behaviours” in Malaysia.
Carlsberg Company has faced some significant difficulties while implementing the
strategy of “Winning Behaviours” in Malaysia because of the increase in the input costs
(Gertsen & Soderberg, 2012). The management of the company had developed this plan of
implementing the strategy in Malaysia for accomplishing the incurred costs on the basis of
the product prices. The company at the branch of Malaysia has been hit by the other costs that
are in relation to developing of aluminium cans that are being used for offering customers the
products (Marvel, Davis & Sproul, 2016). With the same, the company also needs to increase
the product prices as well as that of the different types of raw materials which are being used
for developing the products. Furthermore, it is also to note that the cost based challenges that
are been faced by the organisation also have a significant impact on the means of which the
company is capable of holding its place within the industry for long duration. Costs that are
based on the employees of Carlsberg also need to be decreased by the Carlsberg in order to
ensure that it could maintain the production costs (Hatch & Schultz, 2013). The potential of
growth that has been developed by the company is also influenced in significant way because
of the issues that are being faced by Carlsberg on the basis of applying the approach of
“Winning Behaviours”. Privileges that are been provided by the company to the employees in
different parts were not provided in the context of Malaysia.

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2.5. Effectiveness of 'Winning Behaviours' strategy in Australian context and
Recommendations
With the help of developing a proper winning culture within the company, Carlsberg
strives for being successful. The “Winning behaviours” strategy developed by Carlsberg if
implemented in Australia as well, will prove itself to be effective for the company in order to
maintain profitable operations in the Australian region (Maiorescu & Eberhardniger, 2016).
A situation of win-win will be developed and will be related to the various different ways by
means of which the different levels of profitability could be increased. Development and
growth of a united and collaborative working environment could also be expected as a result
of successful implementation of this strategy. This will further help in improving the
revenues and the degree of services that are provided by them.
4. Conclusion
Hence, from the above analysis it can be concluded that Carlsberg is effectively
conducting its business. It has been fruitful for developing an effective position in diverse
nations due to its proper implementation of the strategy of “Winning behaviours”. However,
there are some issues that are been analysed in detail in this report. The company has faced
certain issues in implementing the strategy in Malaysia. It has been influenced by the costs
that were built on the human resources and production management. The employees of the
company can help it in maintaining its operations nation-wide by supporting the strategy and
implementation by the value that they provide. The whole process of creation of new
strategic concept in the sociocultural contexts is facilitated at the company within the HR
department and the communication department of the company. Carlsberg strives for
becoming an attractive and sustainable company by means of developing its level of
commitment and engagement as well as its professional attitude that can be said as the

7STRATEGIC HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
significant factor that is related to its organisational growth. With the help of developing a
proper winning culture within the company, Carlsberg strives for being successful.
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