Norge Portugal's Bussiness Issues and Hr Policy

I. INTRODUCTION

Norge Electronics (Portugal), SA is the smallest subsidiary of the large Scandinavian multinational, Norge Electronics. Its business purpose was the sale, installation and maintenance of sophisticated equipment for textile manufacturer. Joao Silva was the administrative director and was responsible for "professionalize" HR management in Norge Portugal. In this case, we will analyze to find out what Silva changed in HR management and how changes were implemented?

II. NORGE PORTUGAL'S BUSSINESS ISSUES AND HR POLICY

Norge Portugal implemented the "Total service" to its customers which meant that:

* Always take care customers. At least once per quarter, a technical team of firm will go to customers' factory to inspect equipment.

* Never hesitate to help customers' problem even with a competitor's equipment.

* Norge's unique selling proposition is its guaranteed increase in productivity.

The philosophy of "total service" to customers also becomes the Business strategy of Norge Portugal and drives the Human Resources policies in Staffing, Compensation and Performance Management. The role of Staffing is choosing the right person for company. Meanwhile, the Compensation and Performance Management will motivate employees increase their productivity with superior performance. Both of these policies aim to the efficiency operating in Norge Portugal.

First, the determinants of staffing choices are based on 4 factors: Context Specificities, Company Specificities, Local unit Specificities and IHRM practices. However, in Norge Portugal, the staffing choices mostly were up to the Context Specificities, Company Specificities. In particularly, Silva hired an accountant to specialize on accounting report. He also hired secretaries for each Director to support their works as well as more orderly fashionable. Because of the overworking of Fonseca, Silva hired Nuno for the job of Client Controller. Moreover, as its business purpose, Norge could hire the staffs without the college degree if they had been an excellent technique in equipment.

Secondly, the Compensation includes: Base Salary, Allowances and Benefit. For the purpose of employees' loyalty and motivation, the employers should have the suitable Compensation Policy to balance the satisfactions of staff and the firm's objects. Therefore, Silva made the salary surveys for comparing the salaries of Norge with the general Portuguese pay market. From that, Silva had the reasonable adjustment in Norge's Compensation Policy.

In additional, Performance Management will directly impact on the improvement of employees. In Norge Portugal, the Job-descriptions were done by managers and subordinates and Silva proceeded to job-evaluation. Based on that information, the performance criteria and goals were set up. Besides that, Silva also established the Pay-for-performance system responds to the outstanding performance and under-performance. Employees would receive the right appraisal for their performance. So, it would motivate their working attitude as well as superior performance.

III. MANAGEMENT OF ORGANIZATION CHANGE

Management of Organization change is the framework for managing the effect of new business processes, changes in organization structure within an enterprise. Employees are the key factor for company's operation. Therefore, once making the change in organization the managers need to pay more attention to their employees they need to analyze and identify the relationship between them and employees. To know clearly about this link,we can refer to the Psychological Contracts "Iceberg" model. In this case, Silva also hired a consultant company to carry out a study of Norge Portugal's climate. The results of climate study showed that:

* 80% employees perceived the company, the missions and objective

* 60% people felt satisfying with their jobs and getting the supports from the company in work

* 45% staffs thought they understood and accepted company's vision and the management styles were supportive of employees and helpful in getting work done, especially, the empowerment ways.

* 30% employees agreed they were supported in working from HR Polices as well as other Departments. They also thought their compensations were good and competitive with other firms.

These data proved that Norge Portugal had a good fundamental relationship with their employees. In other cases, the data were lower than Norge