Introduction
The argument that welfare work was a business proposition, not charity, shifted responsibility from the shoulders of the individual entrepreneur to the more abstract entity of the modern corporation. Welfare work took shape as company- or plant-wide policy rather than as special favors granted on a case-by-case basis at the employer’s discretion. Whereas nineteenth-century employers had exercised benevolent paternalism as isolated individuals, those who engaged in welfare work participated in a national movement that defined labor relations as an essential management responsibility. A few firms adopted employment stabilization as a conscious part of their welfare programs. Welfare managers used their understanding of the relationship between home and work lives to argue for shorter hours as well. Although higher wages, steady employment, and shorter hours were deemed essential, welfare advocates never believed that these alone could solve the labor problem ( 2002).
Welfare advocates offered workers a broad agenda of programs designed to inculcate the middle-class work ethic and foster a desire for a middle-class standard of living. Of the two strategies, economic and cultural, the latter proved to be the most popular among welfare advocates and came to dominate the actual practice of welfare work (2002).Two factors account for this development. Most obviously, employers resisted both the challenge to their authority and the costs associated with raising wages, stabilizing employment, and shortening hours. Hired welfare workers generally reinforced their employers’ preference for cultural strategies over economic ones. On a practical level this minimized the potential for conflict between welfare workers and their employers. It focused the welfare worker’s energies in an arena where she, rather than her employer, could claim expertise teaching and enforcing proper standards of conduct. Welfare workers supported decisions to charge all expenditures for employee welfare to a single welfare account. There was little dispute that some features, such as libraries and company bands, should be charged to welfare work. However, features that touched production phases of a firm’s operations could generate controversy (2002).
While welfare workers placed better lighting, ventilation, and clean drinking water high on their list of priorities, these often required structural improvements that were traditionally charged to production departments. Production managers naturally had little interest in seeing welfare managers make decisions that affected their departmental costs (2002). An important thing that business owners should be concerned of is the welfare of the employees. Employees who are properly cared for can work well and they can be an asset of the company. Employees who are properly cared for can be competitive with employees of rival firms. The paper will discuss about the unique IHRM issues faced by Cirque du Soleil as a global organization. The paper will discuss about the strategy of Cirque du Soleil to overcome these issues. The paper will discuss about adequacy of their strategy. The paper will also feature recommendations may help the company improve its operations.
IHRM issues of Cirque du Soleil
As the global economy expands, as more products and services compete on a global basis and as more and more firms operate outside their countries of origin, the impact on various business functions becomes more pronounced. Practitioners in all business functions must develop the knowledge, skills, and experience in the international arena which will enable them and their firms to succeed in this new environment. This new reality is just as true for the HRM function as it is for other business disciplines, such as finance or marketing, which often get more attention. In the case of HRM, internationalization can take many forms (2004). Today most firms experience one or more aspects of international HR management, and the successes or failures of these firms are often a function of how well they handle their international HRM concerns. Because of these pressures, a whole new set of responsibilities within the human resource function have developed. In order to build, maintain, and develop their corporate identity, multinational organizations need to strive for consistency in their ways of managing people on a worldwide basis ( 2004).
Yet, in order to be effective locally, they also need to adapt those ways to the specific cultural requirements of different societies. While the global nature of the business may call for increased consistency, the variety of cultural environments may be calling for differentiation. Famous for their strong cultures and socializing efforts, national cultures continue to play a major role in differentiating work values. These issues are at the forefront of discussions within the IHRM function, as it helps employers to develop the balance between localization and globalization, and as it tries to figure out how to do that within its own areas of responsibility (2004). Sensitivity to local conditions can be quite complementary to strong corporate loyalty, rather than these being mutually exclusive orientations. HR professionals need to learn about the fundamentals of global business. They cannot assume a global strategic role without understanding global strategy ( 2004).
And that in turn is complemented by an understanding of how their firms’ principal global competitors plan and execute their global HR strategies, what tools and methods they use to build their organizational competencies, and what implications for competitiveness arise from their actions. This understanding of global strategy, cultural differences, and HR capabilities requires a thorough globalization of the HR function by developing a cadre of HR professionals with international perspective, knowledge, and experience (2004). One of the unique IHRM issues faced by Cirque du Soleil is how to recruit employees who are willing to perform for such a various kinds of audience. Another IHRM issue is the touring problems wherein the members of the touring group encounter temptations to get out of the group while they are on the road. Moreover an IHRM issue is when the company’s high wire walkers get home sick. These issues can cause distractions for the company to perform well. It also causes the organization to lose its focus of delivering the best show for its viewers. The company uses various strategies to counter such issues
Strategy of Cirque du Soleil
The world of work and organization has become increasingly demanding and turbulent. There are eight major challenges currently facing organizations. These are globalization, responsiveness to customers, increasing revenue and decreasing costs, building organizational capability, change and transformation, implementing technology, attracting and developing human capital, and ensuring fundamental and long-lasting change (2004). Thus, levels of competition among organizations have increased. Most organizations can copy technology, manufacturing processes, products, and strategy. However, human resource management (HRM) practices and organization are difficult to copy, thereby representing a unique competitive advantage. To be successful in the future, organizations will have to build organizational capability. HR professionals and HRM practices will be required to create value by increasing organizational competitiveness. Traditional views on competitive advantage have emphasized such barriers to entry as economies of scale, patent protection, access to capital, and regulated competition ( 2004).
More recent views have highlighted a different source of competitive advantage, a firm’s human resources and human capital. New demands facing organizations as a result of heightened competition, globalization, and technological advances have put a premium on creativity and innovation, speed and flexibility, as well as efficiency. The critical firm assets do not appear on a balance sheet but reside, instead, in people and management systems. The role of firm strategy, human resources, and HRM in firm performance is being rethought. Rather than seeing the HR function as a cost, an HRM system that supports a firm’s strategy should be seen, instead, as an investment, a strategic lever for the organization in creating value ( 2004). Performance increases because employees work both harder and smarter. Employees work harder because of greater job involvement, greater peer pressure for results, and the economic gains based on high performance. In addition, effective HRM practices are likely to reduce the direct and indirect costs of employee grievances. Finally, performance benefits are likely to be seen in the elimination of jobs whose main responsibility is to monitor people whose main job, in turn, is to monitor other people (2004).
Hiring and maintaining employees is a big task for business. Company’s have different concerns before they can hire the employees. One concern is the welfare their employees will have once they entered the company. Part of the hiring process is making sure that the employees will feel and know that the company is making use of appropriate strategies that will prioritize their needs. The company’s strategy involves good communication between the management and its personnel .The managers tries to talk to their performers whenever they feel that a certain performer is not doing the best he/she can. Another strategy for the company is to ensure that the cultural differences of the performers are respected. This helps lessen conflicts and it helps reduce the homesick feelings of some of the employees.
Adequacy of the strategy
The different strategy the company uses not only gives the company a unique identity but it provides them with leverage to compete with other firms. The different strategy provides enough assistance for the company to maintain a good relationship with the personnel. It also provides assistance for the company for it to lessen any brewing troubles in the company. These troubles can be brought upon by intrinsic need of every performer added with conflicts stemming from the disrespect of another person’s uniqueness. The strategy helps the company in creating a better and stronger relationship with its performers. It gives the employees the idea that the company is the one that will really provide them with the right treatment. The strategy helps the company in creating a better image with clients. When clients know that the company treats well its personnel, they will be enticed to watch it shows. The strategies used by the company give it an opportunity to distant itself from other competitors. With a different kinds of strategy means clients can be given an alternative choice of service thus they can mark the company as a better provider of service. Moreover the strategy helps the company in using their personnel to their full capacities. The strategy gives the company an access to the ideas and feelings of the personnel. The company can find out about what the employees really needs and through this the company can find out means to motivate the employees and make them provide better service to the clients with their full capacities and capabilities. Lastly the strategy helps in making sure that the company remains competitive over other firms.
Recommendations
Cirque du Soleil should make sure that they will give motivation to the employees so that the company will have better relationship with, employees will work faster, be more accurate in the performance they make and service they provide be productive and contribute to the company’s competitiveness. Moreover the company must ensure that any appraisals and measurements of performance must be conducted in a fair way so that employees will be motivated to work and there will be no human resource issues in the company. Appraisals can create various changes to the performance of an employee; a tarnished appraisal may ruin the relationship of the company and the employees. Cirque du Soleil should also make sure that they will assist in giving job satisfaction to employees so that there would be low instances of rallies and protest and employee turnover which could greatly affect the business operations and it can make the company loose its road to success. The company should strengthen on its policies that will maintain the company’s relationship with its performers. More policies should give more humane treatment to the personnel and it should give the personnel additional capabilities to air their concerns and ideas. Finally the company should use other strategies to maintain a good relationship between the company and the employees. Other strategies could be in the form of promotions, team building activities or other events that can help strengthen the relationship between the company and the employees. This could provide an opportunity for the company to grow, be competitive, have competitive advantage and be successful.
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