Globalization and HRM Strategies
James L. Duncan
Dr. Sue Golabek
Business (325)
November 4, 2012
Strayer University

Provide a brief description of the enterprise (e.g., their industry, size, location, number of employees). FedEx Express Company is a package services organization based in Memphis, Tennessee. They offer transportation services and house the world’s largest variety of shipments. In recent years, this company changed their services to offer other services besides express shipping. By FedEx expanding their services, it has helped their business grow in size now operating in eight different companies under the FedEx umbrella (History of FedEx, 2012).
FedEx Express is the first overnight courier service that runs next day air service as wells as time-certain global service. FedEx Express controls the world’s largest domestic aircraft fleet, to include a large fleet of wide bodied domestic aircraft. This allows the company the capability of carrying more cargo shipments than any other airline or shipping company (History of FedEx, 2012). FedEx Ground assures day-confident delivery for Canada and the United States at a cost savings, when compared to the Express side of the company. They operate a huge fleet of vehicles that has independent owner and operators. These drivers are independent contractors that manage specific delivery routes and areas (History of FedEx, 2012). In addition to the two companies listed above, FedEx Corporation also has six other operating companies under its umbrella: FedEx Home delivery, FedEx Smart Post, FedEx Freight and FedEx Custom Critical (History of FedEx, 2012). These are subsidiary of FedEx Corporation, delivering packages and freight to more than 375 destinations in nearly every country each day. The main facility with its global "Super Hub" is located at Memphis International Airport. FedEx Express has several other hubs with locations at Indianapolis International Airport, the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, Oakland International Airport, Newark Liberty International Airport, Fort Worth Alliance Airport and Miami International Airport (History of FedEx, 2012). International regional hubs are located at Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport, Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, Toronto Pearson International Airport and Cologne Bonn Airport. The hub at Piedmont Triad International Airport is awaiting opening due to a downturn in package volume. FedEx Express employs over 300,000 employees worldwide (History of FedEx, 2012).
Assess the impact of globalization, cultures, and labor markets on the human resource management function of your selected MNE. The globalization of the business world has been an intense issue of research in current years. With many meaningful researches and well disputed topics of the last century, there are compromise thoughts about its impact in society. The business world has been expected to be on the go and be able to change on the drop of a dime. This is because of the changing environment of technology. The human resource area has also been affected greatly by the recent trends in the globalization of business. Companies dealing with human resources are required to deal with special interest groups, who seek to further a cause or to protect something. Iraj Mahdavi writes about the social implications of the changing nature of business in relation to globalization (Jackson, 1997). FedEx has experienced a sharp rise in their customer base over the past decade. They have also experienced the unpredictable nature of transportation, which has raised stock prices as well. FedEx literally serves the entire world by delivering and picking up letters, packages, and other things from one place to another. FedEx is an example of a flawless company that has the ability and able to make some adjustments (Jackson, 1997). Once carrying the majority of their mail in trucks, they now have jets which carry the mail from place to place. Frederick Smith the founder of FedEx was a pioneer in the human resources field. He opened the company's website in 1994, catching the online wave of popularity on its way up, and riding those waves to success. Customer’s was allowed to do their business online, which in turn made his job easier. With the entire cyber world issue, conducting business with customers over the internet eliminated concerns like a paper trail and the gap in communication that would otherwise exist (Jackson, 1997). If a company wants to find true success on a global scale, they must be able to make certain changes and sacrifices. Expansion and globalization has changed the way business is being handle and the way that people deal with people. It has become less personal, but much more accessible. Problems and concerns are being addressed and more people are being served by businesses that are willing to do business in a global economy (Jackson, 1997). Human Resource in some companies is viewed as an administrative function and ignored the needs and opportunity to align with its strategic plans. In situations where HR is included in the strategy of an organization, the position does not go beyond a forecasting function. The main reason that HR is not aligned with globalization strategy of most organization is that it does not hold a seat at the strategic planning table. Multinational enterprises have an understanding and certified respect of the differences in how human resources are managed between countries. Because countries often have unique cultures, it is assumed that multinational enterprises should understand the cultures in which they operate in to successfully manage their human resources. The most usually known structure for comparing local cultures is distinguished by four dimensions of background (individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, and power distance), but a fifth dimension called time orientation, has recently been add (Jackson, 1997). Diversity, which is the core of labor, has been acknowledged more recently in the labor markets and unemployment levels. Unemployment levels reveal the required labor relative to the supply. Diversity in the U.S. labor market is developing better in terms of gender, age, and ethnicity, even though demographic diversity varies obviously between occupations and across status levels. The suggestion of growing diversity seems to be mostly ignored by HRM researchers, just as the allegation of conflicting degrees of homogeneity across segments of the labor market (Jackson, 1997).
Analyze the international business strategy of your selected MNE and discuss its specific human resources requirements. Strategic human resource management can be defined as the linking of human resources with strategic goals and objectives in order to improve business performance and develop organizational culture that foster innovation, flexibility and competitive advantage (Karim, 2010). SHRM in an organization means accepting and involving the HR function as a planned partner in the creation and execution of the company's strategies through HR activities such as recruiting, selecting, training and rewarding personnel. The main goal of the strategic human resource or SHRM is the improvement of the way HR is managed in a planned approach in the organization, with the connection to the ultimate goal of the improvement of the organizational performance (Karim, 2010). This is critiqued by its power on the corporate tactic of the company, and the concern of the customers and shareholders. HRM can help to determine the HR needs in order to support the strategic objectives as well as to ensure that all of the employees are selected, trained, evaluated as well as rewarded in ways that helps to achieve the objectives of the business” (Karim, 2010). Above all, the combination of the HR programs with the goals of the entire organization can help to increase the value of the organization. Much of the responsibility for the management of human resources is delegated down the line. Human Resource Management experts are faced with more and more issues of employee participation, human resource flow, performance management, reward systems and high assurance work systems in the perspective of globalization (Karim, 2010). Answers and methods that worked in a local environment, do not work in a worldwide environment. Cross-cultural issues play a major role here. The major concerns that HR experts and top executives involved in SHRM encountered in the first decade of the 21st century are internationalization of market integration, increased competition, which may not be local or even national through free market beliefs, swift technological change, new ideas of line and general management, regularly shifting ownership and secondary corporate climates (Karim, 2010). With cross-cultural economic issues relentlessly shifting from settled to evolving countries, SHRM also echoes some of the main modern-day challenges faced by Human Resource Management. These challenges are aligning HR with foundational business tactics, demographic developments on employment and the labor market, combining soft skills in HRD and lastly Knowledge Management (Karim, 2010).
Discuss what the IHRM function could do to improve the productivity and competitiveness of your selected MNE. I believe that the human resource teams of FedEx should develop new international human resource policies that take cultural differences into account. FedEx must know what its competitors are up to and the direction they are going in so that they can combat their activities and gain the competitive advantage. FedEx should also attempt to sign corporate clients up on long term multi-services contracts to serve them better and give them more options. Contract negotiation will allow FedEx to set fixed prices, which will make accurate estimates of staffing requirements and future revenues and expenses. FedEx physical network of technology should be used as well to differentiate FedEx from its other competitors. Establishing an alliance with e-business and logistic specialist can also be used for communication between employees and the consumers. They should also consider working with the governments, employer organizations and trade unions. Lobbying the government for policy changes like enterprise agreements and collective agreements with a valid union will guarantee the best interest of the employees and employer are met. All nations US, Europe and Asia have different culture. To gain in-house consistencies FedEx will need to work with the local communities and governments. These are people who understanding of how business is done in the different countries. This will help them understand where and what went wrong and what direction they should head. FedEx should organize a global development management committee, which will meet regularly to discuss any potential overseas opportunities and seek out any potential problems that could arise when doing business in new markets. This global development management committee will include people from a number of countries, backgrounds and departments and will report directly to the FedEx executive officer.

Reference
History of FedEx Operating Companies (2012). Retrieved July 25, 2012 from http://about.van.fe dex.com/fedex-opco-history

Jackson, S.E., (1997).Understanding Human Resource Management in the Context of Organizati ons and Their Environments. Retrieved on November 1, 2012 from http://memberfiles.fr eewebs.com/84/90/65819084/documents/UnderstandingHRManagementinthe Contextof intheContextofOrganizationsandthei.pdf

Karim, Z., (2010). Strategic Human Resource Management Retrieved on October 31, 2012 from http://www.scribd.com/doc/54465180/FEDEX-Strategic-HRM