1. AGC’S GLOBAL HUMAN CAPITAL GOALS
BY: KENNETH C HOLMES
STRATEGIC HUMAN CAPITAL MANAGEMENT
PROFESSOR: JAMES LANE
CTU ONLINE
MARCH 1, 2015
PHASE 2: INDIVIDUAL PROJECT

2. HUMAN CAPITAL GOALS Definition Clear strategic direction
Human capital management goals
Strategic objectives
Implementation plan
Management communication plan
Accountability system
Strategic human capital management is the corner stone in aligning human capital strategies with the organization’s mission, goals, and objectives through analysis, planning, investment, and management of human capital programs. Implementation of the Human Capital Plan is key for building and achieving a highly effective, performance-based organization by recruiting, acquiring, motivating, and rewarding a high-performing, top quality workforce. The plan ultimately becomes the roadmap and guidebook for continuous improvement, and the framework for cultural and organizational operations transformation. (N.A., 2005).
According to (N.A., 2005) human capital planning is the method by which an organization designs a cohesive framework of human capital policies, and practices to achieve a shared vision integrated with the organization’s strategic plan.
A clear strategic direction requires a comprehensive understanding of the organization’s strategic and performance plans, vision, budget constraints, internal and external drivers impacting human capital needs, makeup of the current workforce, requirements and expectations of stakeholders, customers, senior management, and needs related to human capital to achieve a clear strategic direction (N.A., 2005).
This process begins with the collection, discussion and review of strategic documents and workforce information (workforce demographics and analysis), and collected data from customers, stakeholders, and key senior leaders about their requirements and challenges. This step will help define the vision of the organization and its workforce.
It is essential to develop a vision of the kind of future workforce needed. This vision will establish the framework of the state of human capital for the organization to achieve its mission and goals. The data collected will focus on gaps between the current and desired state of the workforce and the core human capital functions.
The strategic direction helps identify and clarify the human capital management goals, and will be the cornerstone of the plan. The goals are categorized by talent, performance management and leadership. Examples include: attracting and retaining a high-performance workforce with professional and technical skills; continually educating and developing your workforce skills; and allocating your human resources to efficiently respond to changing workloads (N.A., 2005).
Human capital goals will include:
Hiring personnel with the best educational qualifications, talent, skills, expertise and competence.
Developing realistic induction and training programs for new and current personnel.
Providing continuous skill development to maintain performance, and keep up with advancements in technology education.
Retaining and recruiting valuable employees.
Strategic objectives describe specifically how the goals will be accomplished, and should account for all human resource actions and flexibilities. Strategic objectives, policies and human capital goals need to be set to achieve the same mission, and should be set for long-term to ensure employees are satisfied with their jobs and perform their best (N.A., 2005).
Strategic objectives include:
Delegating employee responsibilities based on skills, educational qualifications, expertise and areas of interest.
Assigning a team leader to assign responsibility and guide employees to achieve the objective.
Authorize team managers/leaders evaluate feedback from employees to monitor their performance.
Managers/leaders must interact with team members regularly to understand their expectations of the system, and track organization growth.
Attracting and retaining a high-performance workforce with the appropriate education, technical and professional skills, and competency to perform.
Develop long-term plans for the number and type of employees needed.
Implement staffing process that is flexible and delegates managers the authority to make staffing decision consistent with long-term plans.
Implement processes to quickly reassign or rotate employees to functional areas with high workloads.
The implementation plan describes the actions required for implementing the strategies and achieving the objectives. The implementation plan describes the tasks or activities that will happen, who is responsible, the resources required both human and financial, and the timeframes (N.A., 2005).
The management communication plan defines the channels by which the goals and plans will be obtained, and any modifications to those plans. It is important management communicate with their staff to ensure full compliance and goal attainment.
The accountability system identifies how success in the implementation of the strategy or objective will be measured and tracked, helps analyze loopholes in the plan, and ways to correct them. Specific targets should be identified to describe the level of performance or rate of improvement needed. These measures should help drive desired behavior and provide direction to others on what they need to accomplish. The measures enable the organization to test its progress in achieving goals (N.A., 2005).

3. Organizational goals Organizations are social systems
Increase long-term health and performance
Transform culture into a structured system
Empower leaders and employees
Create a conflict resolution structure
Enhance quality, speed and decision making
Enhance efficiency and profitability
The main premise of organizational development is that all organizations are social systems, and the objectives of an organization are customized to suit the requirements of various situations within the organization. All personnel must accept and work with the rules and guidelines of their organizations on a daily basis, and the actions and performance of those very people create the results the organization is working to achieve (N.A., 2014, and McGunagle, 2012).
Organizational goals are in place to increase an organizations long-term health and enrich the lives of its members. We must understand the overall mission of these goals is to ensure the organizations profitability and sustainability. Organizations without any goals or guidelines in place will achieve exactly what they set out to do, NOTHING.
Organizational development (OD) emphasizes organizational culture, transforming the culture into the structured system that all members live by. It influences the way people work, using planned change based on research and action to increase motivation, remove obstacles, and make change easier. The OD transforms the organizational culture (shared beliefs, values, and behaviors) by working with social and technical systems such as culture work processes, communication, and rewards. It is important to note that OD is based on research and not case studies, because case studies can be interpreted differently depending on an individuals belief structure, while research into human behavior isolates and tests key assumptions and relationships, and is more reliable as a basis for change. Organizations where continuous improvement is the norm, and is not viewed as an initiative is the ideal situation (N.A., 2014).
The objectives of a company are focused on empowering leaders and employees by educating them about the company mission, and making them valued participants in the planning process, which enables employees to align their mission with the mission of the company, and keep employees united to achieve the common goal. It is also important to provide continuous education to all employees to keep pace with advancements in technology, continually create technological advances, and motivate highly skilled employees (McGunagle, 2012).
Creation of a conflict resolution structure is necessary to motivate employees to solve organizational problems instead of avoiding them. Providing employees problem solving authority sharpens their skills and improves their performance, so they grow in their position, and work effectively to their fullest potential in achieving company targets. Developing good communication channels between employees and management is also essential, the absence of communication channels may give rise to communications gaps which can become a big obstacle in uniting employees and resources. An effective communication channel develops trust, cooperation and helps strengthen ties between employees and management, and helps ensure the success of the organization (McGunagle, 2012).
Employees participation in the planning process encourages responsibility and drives them to work effective implementation of the organization’s plan. Participation increases the quality of their work, speed, decision making, and customer satisfaction to better attain the targets and objectives of the company (N.A., 2014).
Organizational development aims to create a friendly and reasonably stress free workplace where employees and management are encouraged and motivated, through communication, participation and input, conflict resolution, employee education, trust, motivation and acceptance of change. When employees have a full understanding of how important each are to the process, the end result is better efficiency and company profitability (McGunagle, 2012).
Key benefits of organizational development (N.A. , 2014):
Increased profits (cost reductions for nonprofits).
Improved innovation.
Improved customer satisfaction.
Improved product and service quality.
Improved cost efficiency.
Improved organizational flexibility.
Increased personal feeling of effectiveness.
Job, work and life satisfaction.
More specific organizational goals (N.A., 2014):
All employees in all area have the same or similar goals. Primarily improved efficiency/cost reduction/profitability.
Communication is open both laterally and vertically, and all relevant facts and feeling are shared, so people can learn from these experiences.
Decisions are made by people with the most relevant, and direct knowledge.
The reward system reinforces positive organizational health.
Conflict is treated and resolved constructively, and not suppresses or permitted to interfere with productivity.
Processes and structures are based on present needs, so they are efficient and helpful for all.
People are rewarded for success and not punished for failure of innovation or creativity; so innovation is high.
Customer needs are always known and on the minds of leaders and employees.
It must be understood that human capital goals are inexplicably tied to the organizational goals, because you must have organizational goals first to tie in with human capital goals, and it is the human capital that will obtain the organizational goals. It is vital to understand that without the highly-skilled professional workforce, the organizational goals will never be obtained.

4. ALIGNING HUMAN CAPITAL GOALS WITH ORGANIZATIONAL GOALS
Establish strategic business goals and objectives
Effectively communicate the goals and objectives
Assess the organizational structure
Assess employee fit with company goals and objectives
Fill the gaps between capacity and vision
Implement, measure, and modify
For starters, human capital management is an approach that views people as assets whose current value is measureable, and whose future value can be enhanced through investment. Human capital is not just people and numbers, it includes the skills, talent, experience, motivation, and collective abilities within the entire organization. It takes a great leader to raise their human capital to their peak, and distribute their skilled people and resources to maximize action and rewards, and track their success. Using the right tools will improve the chances of individual and organizational success (N.A., 2015).
All to often an organization will lose site of its target goals because they get caught up in the day-to-day functions of the business. On that premise, it is essential that strategic business goals and objectives are established prior to their human capital goals and plan. To stay on track, organizations must continually maintain the most productive allocation of employee resources and provide continuous feedback, to maintain focus and ensure appropriate adjustments to the objectives are made (N.A., 2015).
For goals to be obtained, it is necessary for an organization to effectively communicate their goals and objectives to all employees, to ensure they are clearly understood, to guide the employee to perform their function, to include the employee in the communication loop, and to make the employee part of the solution (N.A., 2015).
Assessing the current organizational structure is necessary for proper vertical and horizontal alignment. To determine the necessary actions, the following questions will guide the process (N.A., 2015):
Are the functional positions in place to support the mission and objectives?
Are there clear reporting lines to support structure and functional assignments in place?
What accountability mechanisms are in place?
Is there proper coordination of individual positions and resourced to ensure efficient and effective application?
Next it is essential to assess employee fit with the company goals and objectives. The following questions will ascertain organization readiness, and help formulate a proactive plan (N.A., 2015):
Do your employees have the appropriate awareness and understanding to do their jobs?
Do your employees possess the expertise, efficiency and talent necessary to do their jobs?
Do your employees have the authority, clearance, discretion and motivation to complete their assigned tasks?
Are there other necessary skills and traits required to meet the needs of the organization?
The next step is to fill in any gaps that exist between the current capacity and vision. The following questions will help determine the answer (N.A., 2015):
What additional knowledge, skills and abilities must be acquired to aid existing human capital to achieve objectives?
How will you fill the capacity gaps (training, staff elimination, securing new staff)?
What are the development plans?
To ensure the success of any business strategy, the organization must implement routine plan evaluation to measure, and modify its success. Prior to the new program launch, it is necessary to formulate a process for live-performance tracking, identify obstacle, and taking the appropriate corrective action. The measures and modifications must take into account (N.A., 2015):
What parts of the goals and objectives have been achieved?
What were the obstacles?
What should be done differently going forward?
For managers, supervisors, and staff to be uniformly committed to achieving the organization’s goals, leadership must align their human capital with the organization’s mission and goals. It is necessary that leadership develop and commit to a reliable, effective process for determining readiness, initiating appropriate change to all organization resources, and tracking and rewarding success. It is essential that this be routine to optimize the success of the plan.

5. HUMAN CAPITAL PROBLEMS in today’s workplace
Building global leadership
Employee retention and management engagement
Reskilling of HR
Talent acquisition and access
Not ready to respond to global trends
Use of Operational workforce planning
Use of traditional management planning
Building global leadership and managing organizational change are currently the most urgent needs in the workplace. The facts will say everything: 38% of organizations rate leadership as most urgent, and the need is at all levels, geographies, and all functional areas, and is accelerating. This need is driven by changing expectations of the workforce, increasing globalization, and the speed and extent of technological change and innovation. The reality is technological knowledge is outpacing people skills by 2:1.CEO’s want their leadership to be proactive, and anticipate change, not just react to it (Schwartz, 2015, and Samdahl, 2013).
Employee retention and management engagement is the second biggest issue. On this matter, HR, top leadership, and all levels of management are involved, and they need to work together to solve this issue. This matter exists for one simple reason, organizations need to redefine their engagement strategy, and move from just retaining people to attracting them, and create a passionate and compassionate place to work (Schwartz, 2015).
The reskilling of HR comes in third place. Currently HR generally performs as an administrative function. Their current methods of measurement generally include headcount, turnover-rate, time-to-fill, and minimal if any application of workforce analysis (Schwartz, 2015, and Samdahl, 2013).
Talent acquisition and access comes in fourth place. It is becoming increasingly difficult for organizations to obtain the highly-skilled personnel because of increased global competition, advances in technology, keeping educational pace with those advances, social media, and changing workforce expectations (Schwartz, 2015).
Sadly for 2014, organizations are increasingly unprepared to respond to the 12 global trends. Let the facts speak for themselves: only 16% were ready, while 36% were not ready; over 40% were not ready to address talent and HR analytics, HR technology, and performance management. It is a sad state when 60% or organizations are firm about readiness being important or urgent (Schwartz, 2015).
Today, most organizations concentrate their efforts on operational workforce planning, which includes tracking headcount, turnover-rate, and other traditional methods of measuring human capital progress and needs, but not on strategic workforce planning. (Samdahl, 2013).
Today, far too many organizations apply more traditional management planning methods, and not performance management. With the statistics showing the lower performers using traditional methods, and the high performers using performance management, the results should be no surprise (Samdahl, 2013).

6. Resolving today’s human capital problems
Build global leadership
Engage management in employee retention
Reskill HR
Improve talent acquisition and access
Improve global trend readiness
Engage workforce planning
Engage performance management
Building today’s global leadership requires establishing managerial leaders with cross-cultural experience from around the globe. This comes in many forms including (Schwartz, 2015, and Samdahl, 2013):
The use of expats (ex-patriots) who are persons from the states sent to another country to live and work for a period of time.
This requires individuals who are able to adjust to change, adapt to new cultures, and able to accept diversity.
Cultural training will be necessary, as well as language studies (unless already speaks language).
May require arrangement for moving their family within a specified time frame.
The transferring a current leader to a location they are from, where they are familiar with the culture and the language, to fill that leadership position.
The hiring of leadership from that region with the appropriate training and skill set to perform the position.
Using external methods including:
The use of head hunters, which are professional recruiters hired to find pre-screened, pre-qualified personnel for a fee or percentage of salary.
Internal recruiters who will perform credit and security checks, and provide conditional employment based on the results.
The use of professional graduate student internships, who usually provide younger, energetic recent grads who will work for a lower salary.
Engaging management and employee retention is a two-fold process (Schwartz, 2015).
First managers need to be made part of the recruiting process, and establish a strategy to attract the ideal employee by creating an environment where passion for the position, compassion for the employee, embrace new technology, and appreciation and respect for innovation and ideas are engrained.
Secondly, organizations need to actively recruit using social media including LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and corporate branding to attract the best, most educated, highly-skilled employees.
Reskilling HR is a multi-step process (Schwartz, 2015, and Samdahl, 2013).
First, HR needs to acknowledge their current assessment methods are antiquated, and do not work for today’s market.
Secondly, HR will need to adapt to being a performance function, and become part of the solution by apply workforce analysis, and exceling at measuring, analyzing and drawing conclusions from workforce data to provide the foresight, and hindsight they need quantify the value, ROI, quality of movement, and quality of attrition of their human capital.
With more than 50% of HR groups stating that workforce analysis is important, but only 14% indicating they have the effective capability, that is a major statement, and a huge gap.
HR also needs to place more emphasis on strategic workforce planning which focuses on what is needed to lead the business, and it ensures they are prepared to anticipate and adapt to change.
They need to reestablish and transform their relationships with global issues, local business leaders, local colleges and universities to obtain the employee with the education, skill set, and competence to perform today’s highly-skilled positions.
They need to provide the continued education necessary to keep up with changing technological advances, and to maintain their highly-skilled employees.
Improving Talent acquisition and access ties directly to reskilling HR (Schwartz, 2015).
Organizations need to keep pace with their global competition to better compete for the highly-skilled personnel.
They need to provide continuous education to upskill their personnel, and keep pace with advances in technology.
They need to create a continuous presence on social media
They need to focus on their marketing, branding, and changing workforce expectations to make AGC a place where people want to have a career.
To address the 12 global trends (shown on the next slide), organizations need to (Schwartz, 2015).
Organizations first need to address they have issues with addressing the 12 global issues.
They need to take the measures necessary to address each issue, and be proactive in anticipating change rather than reacting to it.
Engaging strategic workforce planning (Samdahl, 2013).
Is vital and will have the most impact on market performance because it focuses on what is needed to lead the business, and it ensures they are prepared to anticipate and adapt to change.
With two times as many high performance organizations over lower performers using strategic workforce planning, the results should be no surprise.
Engaging performance management (Samdahl, 2013).
Performance management uses a purpose driven approach that fuses strategic and tactical approaches to manage their organizational performance, and ensures daily execution of strategies, objectives and goals.
With 2.5 times as many high performance organizations over lower performers using performance management, the results should be no surprise.

7. Human capital issues for 2014
Human capital issues for 2014 include: leadership, employee retention and engagement, reskilling HR, talent and acquisition access, workforce compatibility, talent and HR analytics, global HR and talent management, learning and development, performance management, HR technology, overwhelmed employees, and diversity and inclusion.
The need for local leadership: 38% have an urgent need, 48% find it important, 11% find it somewhat important, and 3% find it unimportant.
The need for employee retention and engagement: 26% have an urgent need, 53% find it important, 17% find it somewhat important, and 4% find it unimportant.
The need to Reskill Human Resources: 25% have an urgent need, 52% believe it is somewhat important, 19% believe it is important, and 5% find it unimportant.
The need for talent and acquisition access: 24% have an urgent need, 51% find it important, 20% find it important somewhat important, and 5% find it unimportant.
The need for workforce capability: 15% have an urgent need, 60% find it important, 21% find it somewhat important, and 5% find it unimportant.
The need for talent and HR analytics: 20% have an urgent need, 51% find it important, 22% find it somewhat important, and 6% find it unimportant.
The need for global HR and talent management: 21% have an urgent need, 51% have an important need, 21% find it somewhat important, and 8% find it unimportant.
The need for employee learning and development: 11% have an urgent need, 59% have an important need, 24% find it somewhat important, and 5% find it unimportant.
The need for performance management: 18% have an urgent need, 50% have an important need, 24% find it somewhat important, and 8% find it unimportant.
The need for updated HR technology: 21% have an urgent need, 47% have an important need, 24% find it somewhat important, and 8% find it unimportant.
Overwhelmed employees: 21% have an urgent issues, 44% believe it is an important issue, 27% believe it is somewhat important issue, and 8% find it unimportant.
The need for diversity and inclusion: 16% have an urgent issue, 43% believe it is an important issue, 30% believe it is somewhat important issue, and 11% find it unimportant.
With 75% to 90% of employers finding leadership, employee retention, talent acquisition and workforce capability the top four issues: there is an urgent need for skilled and capable local and global leaders; an urgent need for HR to retain and secure skilled, talented, and competent employees; and an urgent need for firm’s to encourage and provide upskilling education to retain and secure the skilled, talented, and competent employee. Without skilled leadership and personnel, company goals will not be achieved.
(Schwartz, 2015)

8. Readiness for global trends
The statistics for global trend readiness are as follows:
For workforce capability: 15% of respondents have the workforce capability, 61% of respondents somewhat have the workforce capability, and 24% of respondents do not have the workforce capability.
For employee learning and development: 24% of respondents are ready to provide continued training, 51% or respondents are somewhat ready to provide continued training, and 25% of respondents are not ready to provide continued employee training.
Employee retention and engagement: 17% have the desired employee retention and input, 52% are working to achieve the desired employee retention and input, and 30% need serious help in regards to their employee retention and input.
Employee diversity and inclusion: 20% have the desired employee diversity and input, 46% are working to achieve the desired employee diversity and input, and 34% need to seriously address this issue.
Leadership: 15% have the desired qualified and capable leadership, 50% are working to achieve the desired level of qualified and capable leadership, and 35% need to seriously secure the desired qualified and capable leadership.
Reskilling HR: 15% have transformed HR into a performance function, 49% are working toward completion of transforming HR into a performance function, and 37% need to transform HR from an administrative function into a performance function.
Global HR and talent management: 16% have the necessary global talent to perform, 47% are working toward acquiring the global talent to perform, and 37% have nowhere near the global talent they need to perform properly.
Talent acquisition and access: 13% have the necessary talent to achieve their goals, 49% are working to secure the talent necessary to achieve their goals, and 38% need to acquire the talent to achieve their goals.
Performance management: 15% are applying and reaping the rewards of performance management, 42% have somewhat achieved the level of performance management desired, and 43% need to acquire and apply performance management skills to reach their goals.
Overwhelmed employees: 10% have addressed their human capital needs and resolved the issue, 47% have somewhat addressed their human capital needs and are resolving the issue, and 44% need to address the issue before it becomes serious.
Improved HR technology: 15% have improved their HR technology, 40% have somewhat improved their HR technology, and 45% need to improve and revamp their HR technology.
Talent and HR analytics: 11% have applied workforce planning and analysis to HR, 43% have somewhat applied workforce planning and analysis to HR, and 46% need to apply workforce planning and analysis to their HR function to make it a performance function.
With no more than 15% of employers having addressed performance management, overwhelmed employees, improved HR technology, and talent and HR analytics, 85% of today’s employers need to address and make the necessary corrections to compete and succeed in today’s global economy.
(Schwartz, 2015)

9. AGC’S HUMAN CAPITAL PROBLEMS
No employee input
No cultural awareness or respect
No continued education for employee growth
No managerial cultural education
Lack of knowhow about foreign transaction
No cross-cultural management team
Employees leaving to work for competition
Under AGC’s current culture, the Process Culture, employees adhere to the processes and procedures of the organization. Feedback and performance reviews do not matter much, and the employees abide by the rules and regulations, and work according to the ideologies of the workplace. This style is common in government organizations (N.A., 2013). The current Autocratic management style, management takes full responsibility for all decision making without regard for employee ideas or suggestions. It is a system where employees follow the rules and policies formulated by management, and are not encourage to understanding or accept the company’s mission, and makes no connection between employee coaching, growth, satisfaction and productivity. While this style is effective when a quick decision needs to be made, This style of management is isolating, uninspiring and non-motivational for employees at every level, creates a negative environment, and is actually detrimental to AGC’s mission. The two style work well together, but have the same effects (N.A., 2013).
One of the reasons for employee dissatisfaction is the lack of, or absence of cultural awareness and respect. It is important to understand that failure to identify cultural issues and take action can lead to culture shock, which includes: feelings of isolation, being worried and anxious, reduced job performance and high nervous energy and helplessness. Firms that do not address and respect cultural differences will have difficulty communicating, managing conflict and misunderstandings, creating leverage and cultural compatibility, developing relationships, building credibility and trust with clients. In a nut shell, discouraging culture creates a situation with no shared values, lack of trust, a blame culture, puts the focus on problems instead of opportunities, no celebration of diversity, non-tolerance for failure, and loss of confidence in leadership and the management system (Bibikova, 2015).
On the issue of continued education and growth, firm’s working to retain and acquire highly-skilled and educated talent have established employee education programs to continually update employee skills to keep pace with technology, improve professional competency, encourage growth, and retain and secure the best talent available. Firms that do not encourage continual education, will find it hard to retain and recruit highly-skilled employees.
Many companies conduct business on an international basis, these transactions make economic sense, and are essential in today’s global market. While these relationships are profitable when successful, they depend on a company being able to understand and apply international, cultural differences. Managers not only needs to understand cultural differences, they also need to actively participate in cross-cultural training to acquire the knowledge and skills to be the cultural liaison. Businesses and managers are finding international cultural intelligence and competence more important than ever to succeed in today’s global economy (N.A., 2015).
When conducting foreign transactions there are many common practices that must be understood. For example: eye contact in the USA is an easy way to connect with people, and indicate straightforwardness and honesty; in Arab culture it is considered respectful, and too little as disrespectful; English culture views it as respectful, but too much makes one feel uncomfortable; and in South Asia it is generally considered aggressive and rude. In the Arab world it is disrespectful to show the soles of your shoes. In India it must be understood you never serve beef at a gathering, because cattle are highly regarded and considered sacred. In Arab, Asia and Latin American countries building a relationship is a prerequisite for business transactions. It often requires lengthy meals with long discussions about non-professional topics to establish their trust and build the relationship (Bibikova, 2015).
The lack of or absence of a cross cultural management team has created a situation where AGC’s mission and goals have become lost in transition. Their management team comes from the Mid-West United states, and those individual have no cultural understanding of the three global regions: Asia (subsidiary A), Africa (subsidiary B), and South America (subsidiary C). The lack of cultural awareness has create a rift in manager-employee relations, their highly skilled personnel are leaving AGC because they do not feel respected or appreciated.
The mission of cross cultural management (CCM) is to align the variety of cultures in the company’s workforce to the local culture. Managers should achieve effective results by recognizing and adapting to the different work styles and cultures, and achieve harmonious coordination while seeking to build strong relationships through personal rapport and reputation, and maintaining high motivation levels (Member., 2013).
For example, a workplace with multiple nationalities required the blending of different cultural values, practices, preferences, and approaches to assigned tasks. This situations requires management (human resource specialist) to coordinate the individuals into a multi-ethnic team to achieve the desired goals. Failure to do this, or coordinating improperly can result in a cultural void, resulting in employees performing individually or the development of smaller groups (Member., 2013).
For example, high attention on cross-cultural management is necessary when dealing with Eastern and Western cultures, which presents consistent differences in many aspects. Western attitudes want to preserve their pride and the egalitarian system most of the western companies opt for when structuring the staff line, and the Eastern culture want to save the face or the preference of hierarchic system in eastern companies (Member., 2013).
The side effect of not ensuring continued employee education, employee discouragement, and void in cultural awareness is that employees are leaving to work for AGC’s competition in large numbers. This becomes a real problem when trying to retain and hire the best talent, and retain AGC’s current position as the global leader in circuit boards for HD television screens, and other high technologies. Because the talent required to continue and maintain our current position are leaving, the situation is potentially costing AGC their position and the skilled personnel to maintain that position.

10. AGC’S HUMAN CAPITAL GOALS
Transition to Academy Culture and Democratic Style
Implement continuous education training
Implement cultural awareness education
Assemble cross-cultural management team
Retool HR
Implement the plan
Establish accountability
First step: AGC must establish or reestablish clearly understood strategic direction and goals.
In order for AGC to achieve their current position, they had goals in place to direct their resources. Unfortunately AGC lost sight of that mission, and has found them selves in a serious situation. AGC is in danger of losing its position as global leader of circuit boards for HD-TV screens. This situation is unfortunate, but redeemable.
I recommend the AGC strategy and mission be to continue to design and manufacture the finest quality circuit boards for HD-TV screens, and the expansion of their circuit boards into all devices requiring circuit boards, which are most.
I recommend AGC establish a code of conduct and code of ethics. This will protect AGC in the event of unethical or illegal practices, and is required by U.S. law for all corporations. It is fact that if an AGC employee is involved in illegal or unethical behavior, and there is not code of conduct in place, AGC can be held liable, which would include fines and penalties. I will also add if an employee is terminated for so-called violation of company policy, and there is no written policy in place, the company may have to pay unemployment. In essence, if it is not documented, it did not happen.
AGC should focus heavily on research and development to continually improve quality, costs, efficiency, and technology to keep pace with their global competition.
I recommend the establishment of reward programs based on the say-on-pay program which links employee compensation to sustainability results for its entire workforce. Every employee’s annual bonus would be based on the firm’s performance on measures including: product energy efficiency, completion of renewable energy and clean energy projects, the company’s reputation for environmental leadership, and reducing the company’s carbon footprint (Luber, 2010).
I recommend a reward program based on sales, and technological input. Basically sales people will receive bonuses for their sales efforts and technology input resulting in product advancement. They will be part of the team.
Second step: AGC must establish their human capital goals.
I recommend AGC transition from their current Process Culture to the Academy Culture. Under the Academy Culture, roles and responsibilities are delegated based on an employee’s background, education and work experience; education is taken seriously, and ensured by management to continually upgrade the skills and knowledge of all employees to improve professional competency; and employees are encourages to stay and grow as human capital assets. This culture is commonly used in fields with highly-skilled employees including educational institutions, universities and hospitals (N.A., 2013).
I also recommend AGC transition from their current Autocratic management style to the Democratic style of management. Under the Democratic style, feedback and open discussion about organization plans and ideas is welcomed and encouraged, the style seeks to create positive communication between management and employee, and makes the employee part of the decision process and part of the solution (N.A., 2013). The Democratic style would be more beneficial for all parties, and the company mission and bottom line, because it creates a corporate culture where managers and employees feel empowered, and that they are part of AGC’s big picture.
Since the Academy Culture ensures continuous education, AGC would initiate a continuous education program to ensure all employees continually upgrade their skills and knowledge, improve professional competency, and keep pace with technological advances. The program would include refresher and continued education courses, as well as industry certification training, testing and issuance. Continued education will also stimulate employee growth and help maintain the skilled employees AGC needs to maintain their mission. Of course, if AGC is paying for the education, training and certification, the employee will be required to stay in AGC’s employ for a minimum period of time.
I recommend AGC adopt cultural awareness programs to aid management in adapting to and coordinating AGC’s multi-cultural staff, as well as effectively communicating AGC’s goals and mission to all employees.
I recommend a managerial cultural education program for managers going overseas, which would encompass: international cultural difference training, international business practice training, training on acceptable behavior and body language for different cultures, and foreign language training and education.
I recommend AGC establish a cross-cultural management team consisting of management personnel from each subsidiary to provide input and guidance to corporate headquarters, help AGC by providing cultural awareness training and managerial cultural education training, help corporate understand how their policies and mission will translate to those divisions, and communicate AGC’s goals and mission effectively to employees in those divisions to ensure achievement of AGC objectives.
AGC also needs to establish the lines and order of communication so managers and employees can communicate their needs and questions. Managers should report to their plant manager and headquarters, and employees should report to their immediate supervisor.
I also suggest the application and use of an AGC hotline for employees to ask question pertaining to policy, and report suspicious and illegal behavior.
I recommend HR become a performance function, and apply workforce analysis, which includes: exceling at measuring, analyzing, and drawing conclusions from workforce data to provide the insight, and foresight they need to quantify the value, Return on Investment (ROI), quality of movement, and quality of attrition of their human capital resources (Schwartz, 2015, and Samdahl, 2013).
With only 14% of HR organizations indicating effective capability, AGC needs to be onboard with workforce analysis.
HR also needs to establish and emphasize strategic workforce planning which focuses on what is needed to lead the business, and ensures they are prepared to anticipate and adapt to change (Samdahl, 2013).
HR also needs to reestablish and transform their relationship with global issues, local business leaders, local colleges and universities to obtain employees with the education, skills, and competence to perform today’s highly-skilled positions.
AGC management and HR both need to part of the recruiting process, and establish a strategy to attract the ideal employee by creating an environment where passion for the position, compassion for the employee, embrace new technology, and appreciation and respect for innovation and ideas are engrained.
AGC and HR both need to create their presence and actively recruit using social media including LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and corporate branding to attract the best, most educated, highly-skilled employees.
Third step: AGC must implement their new game plan.
This implementation will require a complete overhaul of their current program, but the effort and expense will be well worth it. I firmly believe once AGC takes the initial steps, their effort will be greatly appreciated by all employees, and their issues with employee departure will be eliminated or minimized.
Implementation involves determining the tasks and activities necessary to initiate the plan, who is responsible, the resources required both human and capital, the time frames to accomplish implementation.
Implementation plans can be developed for each process, and at different levels of detail.
The new plan must be communicated to each division leader, so they can communicate and implement the new parameters to their staff.
I believe once the new reward system is in communicated and in place, AGC will make major advances in their R & D, technology, efficiency, cost savings, and their global image with both industry and consumers.
Last step: Establish accountability system (N.A., 2005).
The accountability system identifies how success in the implementation of the strategy or objective will be measured and tracked. Specific targets should be identified to define the level of performance or rate of improvement needed. These measures should help drive desired behavior and provide direction to others on what they need to accomplish. The measures enable the organization to test its progress in achieving goals.

11. CROSS CULTURAL TEAM Definition Why is a cross-cultural team important?
Purpose for AGC
Expats
BCI’s
The I-Lead program
Global recruitment criteria
As stated by (Shivakumar, 2011), cross cultural management is the study of differences in cultures that exist in the changing demographics of the world and particularly with regards to an organization, and managing it by learning and practicing to benefit organizations geographically. Cross cultural management is very important for understanding the dynamics within an organization because of its ethnic and cultural diversity.
Understanding cultural differences is necessary for understanding and interpreting what is necessary and unnecessary, what is acceptable and unacceptable, and what is good for one and not be good for another between varying cultures. It is because of corporate cultural diversity that organizations need to understand and adapt to the various cultural groups within an organization, to minimize or eliminate any gaps, and to align organizational culture with local culture to ensure they are in sync with each other. Harmony of the organizational and local cultures is essential for the success of the organization, and ignoring the differences may challenge the organizations existence to their detriment (Shivakumar, 2011).
A cross-cultural management team consisting of management personnel from each subsidiary will provide input and guidance to corporate headquarters, help AGC by provide cultural awareness training and managerial cultural education training for, help corporate understand how their policies and mission will translate to those divisions, and communicate AGC’s goals and mission effectively to employees in those divisions to ensure achievement of AGC objectives.
Building AGC’s cross-cultural team.
Expats (ex-patriots) (Jonsen, 2008 and Lane, 2015):
The use of expats (ex-patriots) is one method. Expats are western “experts”, who are sent overseas to represent the organization, and manage their interests, for a specified period of time.
Common industry examples: banks, oil companies and technology based firms.
Expats are effective if they can adapt to the new culture, are able to accepts the diversity, are satisfied with the host country, and can accept the quality of life in that country. Basically they must be a good fit and be competent.
The major problem with using expats is they often cannot adjust to change or the new culture, are unable to accept the diversity, are dissatisfied with the host country and cannot accept the quality of life.
There are many issues associated with the use of expats including compensation, family issues with the move, financial costs of the move, and high level of turnover.
It is common for a detailed financial explanation of every aspect of the move to be provided for the organization and the individual involved.
The return on investment (ROI) is usually expected to be 10 fold (10 times the cost of the move).
The ROI will account for all costs associated with the assignment, evaluation of the purpose and value of the assignment, what other organizational gains preceded the assignment, the logistics of the move (exchange rate effect on the ROI, and the evaluation of the productivity and end results.
Bi-cultural-intermediaries (BCI’s) (Jonsen, 2008):
BCI’s are people who have lived in different countries, and have first-hand experience with at least two cultures.
Western companies often fill executive roles with Chinese from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, or Chinese nationals who have studied and worked abroad.
The issues with using BCI’s include: they can be expensive and are not always loyal to their employer.
IATA cross-cultural leadership program (the I-Lead Program) (Jonsen, 2008):
Identify two cultures that need to collaborate.
Identify leadership and leadership talents from each culture, to develop intelligent cross-cultural integration and collaboration.
Identify appropriate pairs of co-leaders who are willing to be team players, have high growth potential, an open mind, and empathic nature.
Identify real projects to enhance the learning experience.
Identify a realistic time frame, usually three to six months for startup activities, content delivery and evaluation.
Share practices both good and bad, and adopt an enquiring instead of a judgmental mindset.
Adapt for the next cross-cultural challenge, because markets and cultures can differ, so replication is not recommended.
Two considerations for expats, Bi-cultural-intermediaries and IATA Leaders (Jonsen, 2008):
Most expats work for international companies with their roots in Western European/American culture, which are more individualistic, with lower power distances. Translation, younger leaders can state their ideas and opinions without any issues arising.
For example, junior employees for the USA or the UK can put out their ideas and suggestions, and volunteer for leading tasks.
In sharp contrast, China, India and most Asian cultures are highly collectivistic, with high “power distances”. Translation, junior Chinese, East Indian and Asian junior employees are extremely cautious and make sure senior team members speak first.
If using younger expats, age will be a factor in how well their ideas and opinions will be received.
Global recruitment criteria (Lane, 2015):
Strong people orientation
Strong communication skills, ability to speak a common language.
Technical knowledge and strength.
Ability to work independently, and strong individual work ethic.
Team orientation.
Practices participative or transformational leadership style, both style work with a team and lead by example.

12. REFERENCES
Bibikova, V. K. (2015). Managing Cultural Differences. Retrieved from
Jonsen, B. B. (2008, October). Cross-Cultural Leadership. Retrieved from
Lane, J. (2015, February 23). Strategic Human Capital Management, Live Chat 3. Retrieved from human resources/live chat 3
Lubber, M. S. (2010, April 26). Tying Compensation to CSR Performance. Retrieved from compensation-to-csr-performance
McGunagle, D. (2012, May 8). Global Workplace & Sustainable Business Model Blog. Retrieved from of-Organizational-development
Member, B. L. (2013, August 14). The Importance of Cross-Cultural Management. Retrieved from cross-cultural-management 
N.A. (2005). Key Components of a Strategic Human Capital Plan. Retrieved from tool 1.pdf
N.A. (2013). Management Style - Meaning and Different Types of Styles. Retrieved from style.html

13. REFERENCES
N.A. (2013). Types of Organization Culture. Retrieved from
N.A. (2014). What is Organizational Development? Retrieved from
N.A. (2015). Aligning Human Capital with Business Goals and Strategic Objectives. Retrieved from f
N.A. (2015). International Cultural Differences. Retrieved from
Samdahl, E. (2013, January 23). The 4 Most Crucial Human Capital Issues of Retrieved from blog/2013/01/23/the-4-most-critical-human-capital-issues
Schwartz, J. (2015). Human Capital Trends 2014 Survey. Retrieved from findings