Strategic Human Resource Management at Carlsberg: A Case Study Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Carlsberg's strategic human resource management (SHRM) approach, specifically focusing on its 'Winning Behaviors' strategy. The report begins with an introduction to SHRM and its significance in a globalized business environment, highlighting the importance of aligning HR practices with organizational goals. It then delves into Carlsberg's strategic HR priorities, including globalization, culture, and leadership, and explains the rationale behind implementing the 'Winning Behaviors' strategy, which aims to foster a unified company culture and enhance employee engagement. The report further examines how this strategy supports various HR practices such as workforce planning, social responsibility, and diversity management. It also addresses the difficulties encountered when implementing the strategy in Malaysia, considering cultural and linguistic challenges. Finally, the report assesses the applicability of the 'Winning Behaviors' strategy in an Australian context, providing recommendations for successful implementation, and concludes with a summary of the findings and recommendations for Carlsberg's future HR strategies. The report uses relevant academic references to support the analysis.

Strategic Human Resource Management
6/7/2019

SHRM 1
Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Strategic HR Priorities Pursued by Carlsberg.................................................................................3
Rational for implementing the strategy of Winning Behaviour..................................................4
Carlsberg's 'Winning Behaviours' strategy align with other HR practices......................................5
Difficulties faced when implementing strategy in Malaysia...........................................................6
'Winning Behaviours' strategy in an Australian context..................................................................7
Conclusion and Recommendation...................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10

SHRM 2
Introduction
In the dynamic environment, the business that is performing their operations in the
competitive and globalised environment needs effective strategic human resource management.
SHRM is a exercise of enticing, retaining, and accomplishing the workforce for their personal
benefits as well as the organisation as the whole. HR practice is aligned with the other
departments of the organisation and this collaboration effectively contributes in working together
(Taylor, Doherty & McGraw, 2015). The aim of report is to evaluate case that is linked with
“Winning Behaviours” strategy of the Carlsberg. The strategy is adopted by company in the
global market with the motive to enhance the performance by forming the common culture
within the organisation for the personnel. The same culture will be followed by the employees at
the workplace that leads to the same understanding and eliminate the confusion towards the
organisation goals and objectives.
The case of the Carlsberg is all about the new strategy that is related to Winning
Behaviour strategy that is adopted by company. The case shows that Carlsberg Company came
into existence in the year 1847 in Denmark. It offers the employment opportunities to approx.
41,000 employees that are majorly involved in the selling and production with approx. 500
different brands of the beer (Soderberg, 2015).

SHRM 3
Strategic HR Significances Followed by Carlsberg
Globalisation: - It is referred as the growing internationalisation of the economic system. The
motive of globalisation is to focus on the formation of the borderless global economy, movement
of finance, products, and services and many others (Brewster, Chung & Sparrow, 2016).
Carlsberg strategy is clearly visible from the case that shows the integration of the organisation
in the global market (Brewster, Vernon, Sparrow & Houldsworth, 2016). HR of the company
manages the practices in the global market. In the case, this has been found that the company has
expanded their business operation at numerous places and they have integration with the
companies like Scottish and Newscaster brewery, Baltic Beverages and many others.
Culture: - The culture of the organisation is one of the effective strategies that lead to the
success of corporate (Bailey, Mankin, Kelliher & Garavan, 2018). Carlsberg always focuses on
the culture of the due to which it brought the strategy related to it. This culture helps the
company in aligning all the activities to work in the effective manner that contributes in attaining
the goals of organisation.
Leadership: - One of the major strategies that are adopted by Carlsberg is leadership as they
took the step of bringing the new strategy that can contribute in achieving the success
(Armstrong & Taylor, 2014). This is clearly visible in the case that the company implement the
strategy according to the time and their needs which shows that they get involved in determining
the aligned 10 leadership competencies that helps them to take the right decision for performance
management, change in organisation, allied with the engagement survey as well as business
review (Wilton, 2016).

SHRM 4
Rational for applying strategy of Winning Behaviour
The reason due to which Carlsberg implemented the Winning behaviour strategy is to
form common group culture so that the employees of the company are aligned with each other on
same path without any harm (Rastgoo, 2016). The new strategy of the Winning behaviour
concept majorly absorbed on five actions that include together we are tougher, we are work for
victory, our customer and customers are at heart of every single choice we make, we are
involved with culture and we are authorized to bring the change. In Carlsberg case, this is very
clear that they believe in working together in order to win the heart of customers as the
willingness behind it is that they work together towards the common goals (Rastgoo, 2016). The
company believe that if the employees are engaged and they work together they can easily
accomplish the goals.
The purpose of presenting this plan is to bring into line this stated behaviour with strategy
in the worldwide market. Along with this, the integration was its global method to HRM and it
remains align with local wants, constraints as well as interests (Albrecht, Bakker, Gruman,
Macey, & Saks, 2015). It is every essential for company to respect local culture, their values
because this makes the company to win the confidence of local people to perform effectively
with the company. In addition, the case shows that to accomplish the future development as well
as success, the company brought the strategy of Winning Behaviours. The strategy is adopted
with the motive to engage with the employee as this linked to the positive movement within the
company. Kahn’s (1990) is achieved with the implementation of the strategy that shows personal
role engagement which implies with the authentic expression of the work, physical and
emotional approach. The engagement helps the company to work in the effective manner and to
form the physical and emotional approach that contributes in accomplishing the organisation

SHRM 5
goals (Mello, 2014). The strategy major develops the culture among the employees through
which they can engagement within the organisation in order to take the right action that
contributes working together within the organisation.
Carlsberg's 'Winning Behaviours' approach supports HR practices
In the case study, the company accepts winning behaviour approach that is linked to
different practices of HR that are performed by them within the organisation (Nankervis, Baird,
Coffey & Shields, 2016).
Workforce planning and development
HR practice include the workforce planning as well as development as this is procedure
through which business can easily forecast, evaluate and plan for supply and demand for the
workforce (Budhwar & Debrah, 2013). The planning and development of the workforce
effectively contributes in improving the operations of the company. Carlsberg HR performs
activity of the planning and develops as they initiate training workshop that improves behaviour
of employees within the organisation. The training to employees is conducted by Carlsberg
through workshop that enhances the capability size in local performance management system.
The training helps the staffs to apply the winning behaviour in their daily work (DeCenzo,
Robbins, & Verhulst, 2016).
Social responsibility
In the present world, the company perform their business operations in the global market
where they deal with the wide range of activities that are required to perform by them. One of the
activities that are essential to be performed by the company is related to the corporate social

SHRM 6
responsibility of company (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart & Wright, 2017). HR of company plays a
vital role, as they are the one who promote the social steps taken by company for the betterment
of community and people. The focus on the new strategy of the Carlsberg is on CSR initiative
that major welcomed by subsidiary as it is filled well with the present focuses on the work that is
volunteer as thus assist in forming the trustworthiness of brand being an accountable creator
alcohol (Soderberg, 2015). This shows how the strategy of the company gets align with HR
practices that are performed by them in market.
Equity and diversity
HR performs the practice in which they ensure that they are able to manage the equity
and diversity within the company (Tarique, Briscoe & Schuler, 2015). Carlsberg Company has
made the strategy to work in the multicultural country where there is presence of the three ethnic
groups that include Malay, Chinese, and Indian. Further, they have operations at different places
where the HR of the company manages the equity and diversity. This strategy makes HR of
business to employee candidates at different places (Barak, 2016). This shows that the strategy is
linked with practice of HR.
Difficulties faced when implementing strategy in Malaysia
The application of approach does not remain easy for company in any of market (Bratton
& Gold, 2017). In the Malaysia market, the Carlsberg also deals with the different issues when it
comes to applying the strategy. The country is equipped with the presence of the multi-culture as
it has the presence of ethnic groups like Malay, Indian, and Chinese. The local language that is
adopted by the company is affects the implementation of the strategy because of the cumbersome

SHRM 7
transformation of Winning Behaviour. The linguistic affects, as company is not able to align with
its people due to presence of vast range of people (Collings, Wood & Szamosi, 2018).
Further, another issue that is faced by the Carlsberg Company is related to its on-going
issues that are faced by them when it comes to selling the alcohol. The country is equipped with
the predominately Muslim that affects the beer advertisement as it is banned and heavily taxed.
In addition to this, the company majorly deals in the different countries such as Scottish and
Newscaster brewery in UK, Baltic Beverages present in Russia and many others. This is the
reason due to which they find themselves in difficult because according to every company they
need to change their operations according to customer demand that varies a lot.
'Winning Behaviours' strategy in an Australian context
The 'Winning Behaviours' strategy would work in an Australia because of language. It
has been found that Australian people have one common language in the market that is English
and this language reduce the issues of language. The culture of Australia is western which makes
them to follow the common language that reduce the issues in managing the workforce and
operations in Australia and makes the strategy to work well (Buller & McEvoy, 2012).
Australian people culture is western culture due to which they consume the alcohol on
different occasions (Haak-Saheem, Festing & Darwish, 2017). The advertisement of beer can be
done effectively without any issues because there is no predominately culture in Australian
market. Thus, the advertisement will lead to improvement in the sales and rise in revenue.
The strategy of the Winning Behvaiour will be successful in the market when they
implement the change strategy of Kotter’s 8 Step Model (2014), Lewin’s model (1951) or any

SHRM 8
other. This change strategy implementation makes it effective for the company in the context of
Australia (Hossan, 2015). The theories of change are essential to consider because the country
include multi-cultural people due to which they need to manage them.

SHRM 9
Conclusion and Recommendation
In the end of the report, it has been found that the report evaluate Case study of Carlsberg
company. This report shows analysis of planned HR significances that are followed by the
Carlsberg Company with the justification of why strategy has been adopted by company.
Further, it analyse Carlsberg Winning Behaviour strategy that get aligns with HR practice. In
addition, Carlsberg faced the issues in applying the strategy in Malaysia. In Australian market,
strategy can be applied with the proper recommendations that help in making it successful in the
market.
In the Australian context, Winning behaviour strategy can be applied by company effectively.
The below are some of the recommendation that contribute to makes the implementation could
be successful managed.
 It is recommended to the Carlsberg company to implement the Lewin’s model (1951) in
which the changes takes place in three stages that include Unfreezing, moving and
refreezing. The market of Australia is dynamic due to which there is possibility of the
change in the culture (Wojciechowski, Pearsall, Murphy & French, 2016). According to
change, company needs to bring changes in the strategy and within the organisation that
can be done with the effective implementation of this model. This model will be effective
and suitable for the company because of less scope of change in Australian context.
 The successful implementation of the strategy is possible when the company evaluate the
competitors that they find within the market. The competitors can affect the working of
the Carlsberg in market. Thus, it is suggested to company to evaluate competitors exists
in the market so that they can deal with them.

SHRM 10
References
Albrecht, S. L., Bakker, A. B., Gruman, J. A., Macey, W. H., & Saks, A. M. (2015). Employee
engagement, human resource management practices and competitive advantage: An
integrated approach. Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and
Performance, 2(1), 7-35.
Armstrong, M., & Taylor, S. (2014). Armstrong's handbook of human resource management
practice. Kogan Page Publishers.
Bailey, C., Mankin, D., Kelliher, C. & Garavan, T. (2018). Strategic Human Resource
Management (2nd ed). Oxford University Press. Oxford, United Kingdom.
Barak, M. E. M. (2016). Managing diversity: Toward a globally inclusive workplace. US: Sage
Publications.
Bratton, J., & Gold, J. (2017). Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave.
Brewster, C., Chung, C., & Sparrow, P. (2016). Globalizing human resource management.
Routledge.
Brewster, C., Vernon, G., Sparrow, P., & Houldsworth, E. (2016). International human resource
management. Kogan Page Publishers.
Budhwar, P. S., & Debrah, Y. A. (Eds.). (2013). Human resource management in developing
countries. Routledge.
Buller, P. F., & McEvoy, G. M. (2012). Strategy, human resource management and performance:
Sharpening line of sight. Human resource management review, 22(1), 43-56.

SHRM 11
Collings, D. G., Wood, G. T., & Szamosi, L. T. (2018). Human resource management: A critical
approach. In Human Resource Management (pp. 1-23). Routledge.
DeCenzo, D. A., Robbins, S. P., & Verhulst, S. L. (2016). Fundamentals of Human Resource
Management, Binder Ready Version. John Wiley & Sons.
Haak-Saheem, W., Festing, M., & Darwish, T. K. (2017). International human resource
management in the Arab Gulf States–an institutional perspective. The International
Journal of Human Resource Management, 28(18), 2684-2712.
Hossan, C. (2015). Applicability of Lewin's change management theory in Australian local
government. International Journal of business and Management, 10(6), 53.
Mello, J.A. (2014). Strategic Human Resource Management 4th ed. U.S: Cengage Learning.
Nankervis, A. R., Baird, M., Coffey, J., & Shields, J. (2016). Human resource management:
strategy and practice. Cengage AU.
Noe, R. A., Hollenbeck, J. R., Gerhart, B., & Wright, P. M. (2017). Human resource
management: Gaining a competitive advantage. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill
Education.
Rastgoo, P. (2016). The role of human resources competency in improving the manager
performance. Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis,
64(1), 341-350.
Soderberg. (2015). “Winning Behaviors” at Carlsberg. Case Study.

SHRM 12
Tarique, I., Briscoe, D. R., & Schuler, R. S. (2015). International human resource management:
Policies and practices for multinational enterprises. Routledge.
Taylor, T., Doherty, A., & McGraw, P. (2015). Managing people in sport organizations: A
strategic human resource management perspective. Routledge.
Wilton, N. (2016). An introduction to human resource management. Sage.
Wojciechowski, E., Pearsall, T., Murphy, P., & French, E. (2016). A case review: Integrating
Lewin’s theory with lean’s system approach for change. Online journal of issues in
nursing, 21(2).