University HR Case Study on Agilent Technologies Leadership Strategies

This case study examines Agilent Technologies' HR practices, focusing on the company's transformation under CEO Barnholt and its subsequent challenges. It highlights the importance of communication strategies within the human resource management department and the impact of internal issues on overall company functioning. The analysis delves into the company's objectives of global expansion, customer satisfaction, and the development of leadership qualities within the organization. It also explores the strategies used for recruitment, selection, and the leadership styles employed, emphasizing the need for a decentralized organizational structure and efficient managerial guidance. The case concludes with action planning, stressing the importance of commitment, employee satisfaction, and effective communication to achieve business goals.

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HR CASE STUDY
Contents
Gaining familiarity.....................................................................................................................4
Recognizing symptoms..............................................................................................................5
Identifying goals.........................................................................................................................6
Conducting the analysis.............................................................................................................8
Making the diagnosis.................................................................................................................9
Doing the action planning........................................................................................................10
Reference..................................................................................................................................11
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HR CASE STUDY
Gaining familiarity
Hewlett-Packard famously known as HP initiated a separate business as Agilent
Technologies in the year 1999. The primary functioning of the newly formed company was
related to tests and measures, healthcare solutions, chemical analysis, semiconductor products
and much more. With the rapid vigilance and targeted outlook, the CEO of the company,
Barnholt took Agilent Technologies to a height of massive organizational transformation and
making it the company with largest IPO of Silicon Valley by 2.1 million dollars. The change
was seen in the culture of the organization as well focusing on the operations, corporate
strategies and human resource practices. Currently, the company is dealing with over forty
countries and operating their business with customers from over 120 countries. They have
been employing 46,000 employees, and thus, the CEO strives to focus on the development of
effectiveness and efficiency of the company. Present company analysis says that Barnholt is
focusing on the development of human resource practices and strategies of the company that
primarily follows the ethics, innovation, style and motivation of HP. However, he has
introduced three new factors to boost up the functioning that is speed, accountability, and
focus. It is seen that for expanding their reach in the market, CEO has put sole emphasis on
the external market and competition rather than internal along with manufacturing, R&D,
market, and exposure (Lozada, 2000).
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HR CASE STUDY
Recognizing symptoms
In order to increase the productivity and cultural prosperity of the company, the CEO is
concerned with developing the communication strategies amongst the human resource
management department. The main issues that the company is facing are regarding the
communication system and sharing of information in the interdepartmental formation
(Graham, 2008).
The communication of the management with the employees is the main internal issues that
create the impact on the overall functioning of the company. It is known that Agilent follows
the innovative and structural development strategies just like HP; however, the company puts
more emphasis on accountability and speed of the working environment. The company
should put more stress on the spacing the dedication on intranet and training facilities.
Training is the most important part of the practical strategy to guide the new employees as
well as the existing ones to cope up with the changing market situations. The communication
plans of the management and the employees have to be efficient enough (Bradley, 2005).
Marketing promotions customer satisfaction can only happen when the company has
sufficient set of Management and efficient managers.
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HR CASE STUDY
Identifying goals
After forming the company, the CEO of the company has set objectives for the employees of
the company which will be followed by each and every level staffs because the objective of
the company is spread their business world- wide. For spreading the business worldwide,
they had to make some strategy which will help them to do business overseas. The things
which are followed by the company are to maintain the discipline inside the office premises.
After this, they focused on the customer satisfaction. They believe that the customer
satisfaction is the most important factor of the company because if the customer is satisfied,
they will be loyal to the company they become a medium for promoting the goodwill of the
business. They believe that by the good will of the company the company can do a lot of
business because people will get attracted by the goodwill then they will see the product what
they are launching and will see the utility of that product which will be launched by the
company. This will make the financial growth of the HP. Their motto to build or create the
different type of printers and personal computers with modernizing features. These inventions
are the particular attraction of the customers. All these matters lead to the profit of the
company which will be the main target not only for the hp but any company will come to the
market or in the business. The do research that if they want to make more profit in the
market, then they have to beat other companies and have to make them the leader of the
market by launching the variety of things with modernizing functions in reasonable prices. So
it will attract the customers and sell them the good product, and by these, they will make the
profit by leading the market. Although we all know that HP's innovation is the beat
innovation than any others company who are in the competition of desktop and printers.
Though there are very fewer companies, who use to sell the variety of products like hp.
Companies like Lenovo, Dell or Asus use to sell only desktop and other accessories, but hp
has a different stream like the variety of printers and the inks which are used in the printers.
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HR CASE STUDY
So these gave them the extra advantage of doing the business in all format of the market. Hp
is a company which is not only popular in Australia but also popular in all over the world for
their innovative products and usefulness (Chaffey et al. 2009).
On the other had of the business they need the appropriate leader who will lead them to the
door of the success for that they chose some person in the company who have the leadership
qualities and can develop the qualities by the help of the companies’ atmosphere. The
company uses to create the leader who will be effective for the company in the future. They
have understood that in the multinational business a company has to create leader for the
future because the present leader will retire from his term, and after completing the term the
company don't have to find another person from the outside or don't have hired any external
person to serve as a leader for that they create the leader who will be ready to lead after the
terms of term of the present leader. That is why the company doesn't have to face any crisis
during any problem. They treat their leader so properly that a new leader will be comfortable
to lead the team as he or she wanted to lead. The leader of the company believes that the
company will flourish when the leader and all the workers collaborate with each other by
removing each other egos. With the help of this unity, the company always speed up their
work that might be the planning of a new product, manufacturing, launching, marketing or it
might be selling. For the speed of their work, they head from any other companies in the
world (Chimhanzi, 2004). Maintaining good relationship is an art most requirements in the
company so that the managers can guide them efficiently as well as the employees can enjoy
satisfaction and is motivated.
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HR CASE STUDY
Conducting the analysis
The tools and the technology that is suggested to be used n this situation for developing the
human resource strategies of this company are conducting appropriate recruitment and
selection procedures. Agilent Technologies has been a flourishing company and have created
a tough competitive market for its competitors however in order to smoothen their operation
and gain a larger market share their operational strategies, and the functioning has to be clear
enough. Communication can be boosted through various communicative procedures initiating
the good relationship of the management with the employees. The company focuses on
enlarging their market stretchability and therefore, finds skill and efficient candidates who
will help the company to foster better innovation and increase the productivity of the
company. Recruitment and the selection procedures consist of screening, skill test,
proficiency test and mock interviews of the candidates. A large bunch of applicants is
categorized and filtered based on their eligibility and qualifications. Ten the selected
candidates go through different proficiency test both theoretical and practical. Finally, the
mock interviews take place and potential candidates are allotted with their position (Sen,
2005). Managers are the ones who guide The Other employees and direct the functional units
of the company.
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HR CASE STUDY
Making the diagnosis
The leadership style involved in Agilent Technologies shows that there exist differential
perspectives of the style of the CEO and the other subordinate managers. The authoritative
and democratic style is the two dominating approaches existing in the company. However,
the behavior of the employees is assessed and controlled by the leadership styles that forms a
well-developed monitoring approach for doing better for the company. The main problem
that exists within the company is proper communication and organizational culture. The
management must focus on making their working environment more decentralized and
restructure their business formation. The importance of finding skill employees can only be
executed when the organizational structure follows the decentralized method that is allotting
the authority to transfer the responsibilities to the lower section of the management. The
leadership style involved in these procedures is the mostly democratic style that enables the
employees to share their views and suggestion regarding any issue of the company. The
managerial heads are bound to analyze these feedbacks from the employees and formulate
their strategies regarding decision making (Ferrell and Hartline, 2012).
The managers are taken as the most important person of the company who operate the
functional strategy of the company. It is the responsibility of the HR managers to link up with
different departments and look at their operations. However every individual department have
their own managers who act as team leaders to guide the rest of the members for working
efficiently and effectively towards a company goal. It is necessary to identify the goals of the
company so that the manager himself is aware of what to do and what not. That is how he
will be able to guide his employees and make them work efficiently.
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HR CASE STUDY
Doing the action planning
The company must not procrastinate in operating their recovery strategies from the burning
issues that is harming the organizational culture and function directly. In order to achieve the
goals and business objectives, the commitment of the management has to be prioritized. The
potential of the efficient employees has to be utilized by the company for breaking through
innovation and their targeted planning. For creating the employee satisfaction, proper reward
system has to be introduced that will not only review the progress of the employees but will
also motivate them to bring in better development and growth of the company, both socially
and economically. The managers and the other employees have to gain the familiarity with
their work and relationship.
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HR CASE STUDY
Reference
Bradley, F., 2005. International marketing strategy. Pearson Education.
Chaffey, D., Ellis-Chadwick, F., Mayer, R. and Johnston, K., 2009. Internet marketing:
strategy, implementation and practice. Pearson Education.
Chimhanzi, J., 2004. The impact of marketing/HR interactions on marketing strategy
implementation. European Journal of Marketing, 38(1/2), pp.73-98.
Ferrell, O.C. and Hartline, M., 2012. Marketing strategy, text and cases. Nelson Education.
Gankema, H.G., Snuif, H.R. and Zwart, P.S., 2000. The internationalization process of small
and medium-sized enterprises: an evaluation of stage theory. Journal of Small Business
Management, 38(4), p.15.
Graham, H., 2008. Marketing strategy and competitive positioning. Pearson Education India.
Jensen, H.R., 2001. Antecedents and consequences of consumer value assessments:
implications for marketing strategy and future research. Journal of Retailing and Consumer
Services, 8(6), pp.299-310.
Keh, H.T., Nguyen, T.T.M. and Ng, H.P., 2007. The effects of entrepreneurial orientation and
marketing information on the performance of SMEs. Journal of business venturing, 22(4),
pp.592-611.
Lozada, H.R., 2000. Ecological sustainability and marketing strategy: review and
implications. Seton Hall University.
Sen, R., 2005. Optimal search engine marketing strategy. International Journal of Electronic
Commerce, 10(1), pp.9-25.
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