COM 230 Module 8 Global and Strategic HR Example

Strategy, People and a Partner Overseas: A Strategic HR Plan for a Community Credit Union

Student Name

Business Administration Program, Aspen University

COM 230: Human Resource Management

Instructor Name

Month Day, Year

Strategy, People and a Partner Overseas: A Strategic HR Plan for a Community Credit Union

Over this course, Blue Ridge Community Credit Union has examined turnover, fair treatment, a new universal banker role, recruiting, training, performance management and pay. Each decision was made separately. The board now asks two questions: do these HR practices add up to a coherent approach that supports the credit union's strategy, and should Blue Ridge use an overseas contact center partner to answer member calls overnight? This closing paper answers both.

The Strategy and the Behaviors It Needs

Blue Ridge does not compete on price; large banks and online lenders can offer better rates on many products. It competes on personal service and community ties: members are known by name, problems are solved in one visit, and the credit union supports local causes. Its strategy, in other words, is quality enhancement.

Schuler and Jackson (1987) argued that firms pursuing different competitive strategies need different behaviors from employees, and that HR practices should be selected to encourage those behaviors. A quality enhancement strategy needs relatively predictable and repetitive behavior, a long-term focus, a modest amount of cooperation, high concern for quality, a moderate concern for quantity and commitment to the organization's goals. HR practices that support it include explicit job descriptions, employee participation in decisions about work, a mix of individual and group criteria for performance, egalitarian treatment, some employment security and extensive training.

Aligning Practices With the Strategy

Why Alignment Matters

Wright and McMahan (1992) reviewed theoretical perspectives on strategic human resource management. Under the resource-based view, a workforce gives lasting advantage when its skills are worth something, uncommon, difficult for rivals to copy and difficult to replace with something else. The behavioral perspective holds that HR practices work by eliciting the employee behaviors a strategy requires. Cybernetic, agency and transaction cost perspectives explain how firms control and coordinate people. Resource dependence and institutional perspectives explain why firms sometimes adopt HR practices for reasons other than strategy, such as power or imitation. For Blue Ridge, the resource-based view explains why experienced, knowledgeable staff who know members can be an advantage that large banks cannot easily copy.

The Overseas Partner Question

The board wants members to reach a person at any hour. Staffing a night shift in Asheville would cost about $420,000 a year. A contact center partner in the Philippines has offered to answer overnight calls for about $140,000. The decision has HR implications as well as cost implications.

Hofstede (1980) surveyed employees of a multinational corporation in more than forty countries and found that national cultures differed on dimensions including power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism and masculinity. He argued that management theories developed in the United States reflect American culture, such as relatively low power distance and high individualism, and may not apply elsewhere. Practices that assume employees will challenge supervisors or act independently may work differently in cultures with higher power distance.

A Plan for the Partner

If the board proceeds, the partner should handle only routine overnight requests, such as balance questions, card locks and password resets, with complex problems scheduled for a call from a Blue Ridge universal banker the next morning. Blue Ridge staff will train the partner's agents on its products and service standards, and quality measures will match those used for Blue Ridge staff. Because agents may be less likely to escalate problems to supervisors on their own, the escalation rules will be explicit and written. The arrangement will be reviewed after six months on member satisfaction and first-call resolution. Blue Ridge will also visit the partner's site before signing, to see how agents are trained and supervised.

Where the Practices Still Fall Short

Reading the practices together also reveals gaps. Schuler and Jackson's quality strategy calls for employee participation in decisions about work, and Blue Ridge has little: universal bankers have no regular way to suggest changes to procedures. The plan adds a quarterly branch meeting in which bankers review member complaints and propose fixes, with the regional manager responding in writing. A second gap is succession: Blue Ridge has no plan for replacing its branch managers, half of whom are within five years of retirement. The development path from teller to loan officer should extend to branch management, with two universal bankers per region identified each year for a manager track.

The People Side of the Partner Decision

Using a partner also affects Blue Ridge's own staff. Some employees may see it as the first step toward moving their jobs abroad. Denise will explain that the partner covers only hours when no branch or Asheville contact center staff work, and that the arrangement does not replace any current position. Universal bankers who make the next-morning callbacks will receive notes from the partner, so the handoff must be designed with their input. These steps protect the trust that the earlier modules worked to build.

Next Steps

Denise will present the alignment table to the board as Blue Ridge's HR strategy, explaining how each practice traces back to the quality service the credit union competes on, propose the two gap fixes and recommend a six-month pilot with the partner, with a decision to continue based on member satisfaction, first-call resolution and staff feedback.

Conclusion

Schuler and Jackson show how HR practices should follow strategy, Wright and McMahan explain why aligned practices can create advantage and Hofstede shows why practices may need adapting across cultures. Blue Ridge's HR decisions, read together, support a quality service strategy, and a limited, carefully managed partner arrangement can extend that service without undermining it.

References

Hofstede, G. (1980). Motivation, leadership, and organization: Do American theories apply abroad? Organizational Dynamics, 9(1), 42-63. https://doi.org/10.1016/0090-2616(80)90013-3

Schuler, R. S., & Jackson, S. E. (1987). Linking competitive strategies with human resource management practices. Academy of Management Executive, 1(3), 207-219. https://doi.org/10.5465/ame.1987.4275740

Wright, P. M., & McMahan, G. C. (1992). Theoretical perspectives for strategic human resource management. Journal of Management, 18(2), 295-320. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920639201800205