Index Page

Acknowledgement 2

Question no 13-4

Question no 2.5-7

Question no 38-9

Question no 410-11

Question no 512-13

Reference.14

1|Page
Acknowledgement

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Mr. Terrence Perera lecturer of Institute of
Personnel Management for her guidance and encouragement to do my case study.

I wish to thanks the members of my family who assisted me with this case study.

And also I would like to thanks my friends of Institute of Personnel Management who gave their
help during the period of lectures.

2|Page
Question No 01
What do you mean by competitive advantage? Explain as to how do you formulate HR
Strategies enabling to get such advantages in the competition in cruise business?

Competitive advantage is generated by a firms ability to produce goods and services at a lower
cost than its competitors .this gives the firm the ability sell its goods and services at a lower
price than its competition or to generate large margin on sales .competitive advantage are
attributed to a variety of factor , including cost structure, brand ,quality of product offering
,distribution ,network ,intellectual property and customer support

When we go through Princess Cruise case study it was important to first establish a durable
industry and they have done remarkable job so far, following ways those hr strategies enabling to
get such advantages in the competition in cruise business such as

Work life balance

Work life balance means the employer may be open to flexible work arrangement such
as alternative scheduling, telecommunicating and compressed workweeks, a competitive
advantage is gained through providing employee with opportunities to achieve work life
balance so they remain productive and engaged contributors to the organization ,hr
planning is necessary to launch these program however small business must carefully
weigh how successfully workplace flexibility can be modifying work hours or reducing
the time spent in the office could cripple some business units ,especially when employee
work cross functionally to support more than one area of the business.

Compliance

In many organization ,HR is responsible for compliance with employment laws ,this critical
components of hr saves companies the expense of hiring lawyers to defend employment action
or settlement costs for claims arising out of unfair employment practices its especially
important for small business that could be hit hard by legal claim .whether by tangible
consequences such as litigation expenses or intangible consequences such as the loss of
reputation ,business with as few as 15 employee are subject to federal lobar and department law s
HR implements workplace polices consistent with federal ,state and local law, polices range
from affirming the employers commitment to equal opportunity employment to seemingly
insignificant matter such ad coffee breaks, all of which support organizational structure and
mitigate the company risk of liability for claims from employee and applicant, money saved

3|Page
enables the organization to build its wealth and consequently, improve its business reputation
and competitive advantage

Recruitment

Strategic planning such as developing recruitment initiatives at nursing schools before

graduation ,gives employers competitive edge against industry counterparts in attracting
qualified candidates .business with limited capital and resources for top flight recruiting method
should look to creative ways of reaching qualified candidate such ad open house and small
scale social event that give potential applicants a closer look at the organization .another
alternative for small business recruiting is to develop employee referral programs that tend to
attract candidate with professional traits and value like those of current employees.

Compensation

Salaries and wages arent the only reason employee stay with their employers, but workers
who believes their compensation and benefits are fair and competitive are likely to think twice
before leaving an organization that provide them tangible reward for their talent ,smaller
business may have advantage in this area because the often can be flexible in setting wages and
salaries more so than large corporation with rigid wage scales.HR planning that includes
compensation and benefit analyses reveals area for improvement concerning the employers
compensation structure .HRs assistance in ensuring a sound compensation structure can increase
the organizations appeal to employees giving it s a competitive advantage from the employee
retention perspective .

Performance Measurement

Hr departments generally are responsible for creating performance management system these
system enable periodic rating of employee job performance through annual evolutions,
disciplinary warnings and improvement plans ,small business generally have cohesive work
environment that lend themselves to more opportunities to engage workers on individual
,personal level when they realize an employer genuinely is interested in their success .high
performance level when they realize an employer genuinely is interested in their success high
performance employees give organizations a competitive advantage because they productive
,enthusiastic and fully engaged in their responsibilities, hr planning is necessary for monitoring
the employers performance management process, training supervisors to produce unbiased
feedback and adapting the system to meet the need of employees and employer

4|Page
Question No 2
Write a report role of HR Manager as a strategic partner explaining his /her contribution
towards cooperate and business strategies use example relevant to the above case study

Being a strategic partner is understood as a long term relationship to achieve defined objectives
common to all partners, some people refers to HR as a business partner

Making HR as strategic partner is perhaps of the best approach to making human resources as the
most important assets in an organization

In the context of strategic human resource management .the hr functions and activities are
intended to ensure the organizations financial success ,As partner your Hr people and
employee in the various areas of organizations operations must not get in the others way
,partners dont hinder one another. Instead, they support each other to achieve common objective
with the purpose of attaining the overall objectives including business objectives

There are some who believes the implementation of hr strategies partnership is not easy hr
people themselves may hider its implementation A strategic plan will ensure that your people
will carry out their own specific role in their assigned area of operation in particular with other
employee .this is part of the plan to make HR as strategic partner. It incorporates the HR vision
and Mission that help pull HR people in the same direction

Making HR as Strategic Partner

Make effective use of your human resources information system (HRIS) to handle easily
administrative HR tasks. Employees can make sure use of the self service facility online .this
saves time and reduce cost, fully involve your human resource in HR System development that is
supportive of business strategy development and implementation .those promotes ownership

Appoint an HR head who understands well the strategic partnership relationship between
organizational strategy and human resources, it is said that someone who is an expert in every
aspect of the hr function will fit the bill but you may not easily find someone of this caliber, you
may have to identify someone form within your organization and groom him or her for this
important role in a knowledge economy,HR has an opportunity to become a strategic partner
,knowledge and information are required to formulate ,implement and review strategies ,decide
to become a knowledge organization

5|Page
Ensure that HR Manager and HR professionals

Learn how to link hr practices to your organizational business

develop business acumen to understand how a profitable business is run
contribute to business decision
customer oriented

Why there is need to make HR as Strategic Partner?

Effect of globalization on the business landscape

Competency and talent management
To increase productivity of the labor force and thus profitability of the organization
Competency and talent management
Changing business environment
Onset of information technology and the vast amount of knowledge used during the
activities of organization

Translating business strategy in to action

HR as a strategic partner when and if HR spend more time in the organizations planning
,designing and development ,organizations do this to achieve its mission and
objectives,HR must become part of the business team, involved in planning at the highest
level ,changes in HR management are inevitable hr managers and hr professionals are in
the strategic position in providing the leadership in change management .however HR
managers are not without challenges, enhance the position of HR as Strategic partner by
ensuring that teamwork exists in your organization.

HE manager is a key person in ensuring that people play a strategic role in the
organization, activities carried out by the hr department ,working in cooperation with
each other and every member of the workforce is essential .this can help your
organization to success in achieving its plans.

6|Page
Provision of Human Resource Services

It is through effective delivery of human resource services that you can make human
resource as strategic partner

Use a simple approach ,more effective use of technology and either serve most of your
customers or serve a sector exceptionally well, all of us are aware that customers include
both internal and external customers strive to serve both well .

In the case of internal customers ,concentrate on employees at the strategic and tactical
level and make sure HR is involved at both level ,if not there is not much that HR can
contribute towards improving organizational performance ,but it doesnt mean we ignore
employee at operational level ,serve well those involved in day to day operations of the
organization that are close to where the money ,there are the employees whose activities
generate revenue for organization ,its necessary that identify these positions and the
employee holding those positions

7|Page
Question No 3
How do you maintain the Intellectual capital of this company?

When companies undergo a major organizational change relationship between teams and
between managers and employee are altered and new collaborative relationship are formed
,rendering confusion about who holds what subject matter knowledge and affecting an
organizations ability to respond quickly and effectively to customer and market demand

Among other factors there there are three major catalysts that can institute organizational
changes today and in the future: a generation of baby boomer is retiring ,the economic downturn
is continuing to cause layoff and increased number of mergers, acquisitions and divestitures are
creating organizational confusion with mass exoduses of employee ,organizations are at risk of
losing the competitive advantage furnished by their knowledge workers expertise .

A compelling reason to support these knowledge workers can be found when organizations come
together through a merger or acquisition, in this situation companies usually fail to recognize
their synergies because they do not have the appropriate technical infrastructure to manage
employee knowledge and activities, these companies may have two team working on similar
projects without knowledge of each other in addition employees often recreate the wheel because
they are not familiar with or aware of the completed work or expertise of the other employee in
the newly formed company

The next step in the process is usually deploying search strategy ,companies need to be able to
find the information that is sorted in different formats throughout their organization such as
databases ,documents and emails ,with search technology employee can efficiently and quickly
search varied repositories both internal and on the web form a single interference .

Knowledge management solution bind these technologies together and provide an entry point to
the knowledge that exists within an organization ,knowledge management solution take the
document management and search solution one step further by organizing the information by
subject in a taxonomy and by linking the experts within a company to subject matter topic the
expertise employees can then put the information available in to context by collaborating with
the subject matter experts within their organization

Help organization to gain competitive advantage by allowing information to be easily accessible

and readily available to employee allow outside vendors customers and business partners to work
more efficiently together ,eliminate employee rework thereby saving time.

Implementing knowledge management solution may face resistance form employees who dont
wish to change the way the they work and do not see the benefit of knowledge environment
however organizations can employee several tactics to prevent this resistance from hindering the
success of knowledge management activity.

8|Page
Embed collaborative technologies in to the knowledge management solution collaborative
technologies such as instant massaging e meetings and presence awareness make it easier for
workers to find ,contact and confer with the subject matter experts within their companies,
enabling workers to do their jobs better and faster. present the technology to workers along with
a change management strategy, managers can work with internal teams to educate workers on
the benefit of sharing knowledge as well as provide them with how to tutorial on how to best use
knowledge management technologies, in addition companies can alter the way in which
employee access other technologies to make the knowledge management solution a greater part
of the average workday.

Though the short term returns on investment are significant it is the long term benefit that
provides an even larger return to companies, giving them a sound and efficient way to preserve
existing intellectual capital and manage future corporate knowledge.

Knowledge management technology plays a critical role in managing the major organizational
changes to which all enterprises are subject including mass retirement and layoff and or mergers
and acquisition, this technology has the capability to aid in the smooth transactions necessitated
by these changes to ensure corporate longevity and to ultimately distinguish the success stories
from those companies that merely survive.

9|Page
Question No 4
Discuss barriers to implement Hr strategies successfully in a multinational company?

Global expansion is a goal for many organization and reality for others, having company location
in many countries can help increase the reach,, influences, and of course revenues of
organization while bringing different perspective and ways of working in to the mix, however
there are many challenges to training a global workforce that must be taken into consideration to
keep productivity, systems and the quality of company services consistent across borders.

I. Cultural differences
Cultural differences may make it difficult for companies to understand the motivation and
expectation of employee in an areas, there are business ethics courses and cross cultural,
communication courses that can be extremely helpful in training and managing
workforces in different countries, having a deep understanding of cultural norms and
tailoring training to accommodate these custom can help to make training much more
effective than attempting to translate and use existing training guide.

II. High Training cost

Before expanding globally it is very important to understand that training a global
workforce will be much more expensive than training a team at home, training program
must be reconstructed with sensitivity to cultural customs, effective metaphors and
language and the ability to be clear communicated online or by a travelling training team
Many organizations make the mistake of allocating a small budget for cross- border
training which can cause major issues when it comes to workforce competency,
employee retention and productivity in the newly established location.

III. Time zone differentiation

Time zone differentiation can hinder the effectiveness of using webinars and
collaboration for training for the best result time zone differences should be taken in to
consideration ahead of time so that training can be scheduled for times that make sense to
the location, making training modules available anytime or dispatching training teams to
the area for a period may help to overcome time zone challenges

10 | P a g e
IV. Linguistic diversity
Language barriers are the number one most commonly cited challenge to training a
global workplace. In Europe there are over 230 languages spoken and in Africa there are
over 2000 languages spoken with variations in dialect causing different connotations
even among areas that speak the same language
To overcome language barriers, it may be helpful to hire several employees from the new
area that speak both the local language and the language that the bulk of organizations
training materials are in these employee can be invaluable when translating restructuring
the materials, training a new workforce for the area and taking costumer calls.

11 | P a g e
Question NO 5
Assuming that the princes cruise has about 300 surplus staff, make suggestions to
board of directors with regard to them

If the unplaced employee situation remains unresolved the department may formally
declare an employee surplus to the requirements of the department, the identification of
an employee must be made on objectively assessed grounds related to sustainability for
the work to be undertaken in the department and by reference to relative efficiency if
there is more than one employee suitable to undertake the work,
The executive directors, regional director or another responsible manager should do
following things

trade union membership or participation in union activities outside working hours,

or with the employer's consent during working hours

make every effort to ensure that an employee is not identified as surplus where
there are compelling personal compassionate grounds pertaining to that person

temporary absence from work because of illness or injury;

Ensure that the employee identified as surplus is counseled on the redeployment

procedures (the employee may bring a support person to the meeting, who may be
a representative of their union).

consider any submissions from individual employees on reasons for not being
considered;

part-time employment or resumption from leave;

employee(s) full name, work location and record number

description of duties being undertaken while surplus;

seeking office as, or acting or having acted in the capacity of, a representative of
employees;

12 | P a g e
 Absence from work during maternity or other parental absence.
Once the identification process has been completed, the Executive Director,
Regional Director or other responsible manager must advise Corporate HR Services
of the employee(s) identified ensuring the following details and documentation are
provided:
the filing of a complaint, or the participation in proceedings, against the employer
Identification of the redeployees manager within the work unit for co-ordination of
redeployment action.
The declaration of employees as surplus to workplace requirements is a process to
facilitate redeployment to other vacancies and is not a substitute for dealing with
unsatisfactory performance or misconduct issues. This does not however preclude
an employee who is the subject of unsatisfactory performance or misconduct
processes from being declared surplus for genuine surplus reasons. Where this
occurs any procedures that are underway should continue. Redeployment must not
be used to change the employment status of an employee.

Where the identification of an employee as surplus requires a selection to be made

between two or more employees, the selection will be made by reference to objective criteria.
The Department will ensure that surplus employees are provided with meaningful work during the
redeployment period.

any specific details relating to what the employee may be seeking through
redeployment (e.g. duties, location, classification)
consider any suggestions made by an employee or the relevant union(s) which may
provide an alternative to redeployment

13 | P a g e
Reference
www.gogle .com
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/competitive_advantage.asp

14 | P a g e