It is a common phenomenon to observe that two business enterprises opened at the same time within the same geographical location and serving similar customers, yet one of the businesses thrives well while the other fails terribly. This leaves the observer in a school of dilemma on the kind of magic employed by the managers whose business enterprise thrives. However, there exist no magic power behind business success; the secrecy is the difference in human resource management between the two business enterprises.
The current dynamics of the global market demands that managers need to greatly bank on the intangible assets, such as employee commitment and creativity, long-term alliances, brand quality, and societal reputations, instead of just emphasizing on tangible assets, such as capital and business structures ( Max & Clarkson, 1995 ). For instance, the managers need to look for strategic ways of balancing both the internal and external factors that greatly affect the workforce planning and the overall organizational success ( Max & Clarkson, 1995 ). In order to clearly illustrate how the company’s strategic plans affect the performance of a business organization, this paper compares selected external and internal factors that influence two organization; the United Airlines in U.S and the PPS.tv Company in China.
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Background Information
The United Airlines
The United Airlines is an American-based airline headquartered at Willis Tower in Chicago, Illinois (Larry, 2018). The company offers both domestic and international route network, particularly across the Asia-Pacific region (Larry, 2018). The United Airlines forms one of the world’s largest airline alliances, the Star Alliance (Larry, 2018). Therefore, the United Airlines forms an integral part in connecting the Americans to the rest of the world. However, the United Airlines has been facing several challenges that greatly expose the company to pressures of downfall. For instance, the March 28, 2018 incidence (where one of the employees, Dr. David Dao was dragged in the plane by his fellow employees in front of the customers) is clear show that the company’s culture is rotten (Yohn, 2018). Therefore, the United Airlines is an example of companies that have poor human resource managements.
The PPS.tv Company
PPS.tv Company on the other hand is a Chinese peer-to-peer online video provider that ventures with capital backing from Qiming Venture Partners (Anthony et al., 2008). It offers video contents, such as movies, sports, and TV shows in one of the world’s competitive markets, the China’s Online Distribution Market (Anthony et al., 2008). The company therefore, faces steep competition from the other more than hundred video providers in the marked. This implies that PPS.tv Company management must lay down sound strategies that may help the business remain competitive within the competitive nature of the China’s Online Distribution Market in order to survive now and in the future.
Despite the steep competition that the PPS.tv Company faces in the market, the company has consistently been recording great success over the years. In fact, the wake of 2008 saw PPS.tv Company reach its pivotal stage of expansion (Anthony et al., 2008). This is a clear indication that PPS.tv Company enjoys one of the best managerial teams in the world. Besides, the company’s great success is attributed to the good human resource management and the company’s good culture.
Comparison of the Internal Factors between the United Airlines Company and the PPS.tv Company
This paper will use the term “internal factors” to refer to all business forces within an organization that affect the company’s success, either directly or indirectly ( Javidmehr & Ebrahimpour, 2015 ). The main internal factors include the company’s leadership and the employees’ strengths ( Javidmehr & Ebrahimpour, 2015 ). It is worth to note that proper management of these internal factors within the company is the key to the company’s success. More notably, unlike the external factors, the company has the power to control its internal factors. The difference in the strategic plans regarding the company’s ability to manipulate its internal factors is what creates the difference in various companies’ success ( Javidmehr & Ebrahimpour, 2015 ). In this case, two companies, United Airlines and PPS.tv, are compared in terms of the way they control their internal factors.
Starting with leadership, it is observed that PPS.tv enjoys one of the best leadership styles in the world. For instance, the PPS.tv CEO Gong Yu has established a transformational kind of leadership that has been propelling the company towards success (Anthony et al., 2008). This is evidenced by the fact that Gong Yu is always ready to be accountable for the company’s outcomes; whether good or bad. He readily accepts when there occurs a short-coming in his company and works towards finding a long lasting solution to any challenge that the company faces. No wonder PPS.tv is the most competitive video provider company in the China’s Online Distribution Market. The United Airlines on the other hand has been facing great challenges in its operations due to poor leadership. For instance, the United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz only accepts to take charge when there are good report outcomes in his company; otherwise, when there is bad report in his company he inclines his blames on his junior employees (Yohn, 2018). This has resulted into poor culture in the United Airlines Company leading to great decline in the company’s success.
The second comparison goes to the employees strengths in the two companies. The PPS.tv company has well-laid down strategy to ensure that its employees are constantly kept motivated through promotions, good salary payments, and talent promotions ( Esmaeili, 2015 ). This has helped the company to retain its top talent hence making the company offer the best quality services to its customers leading to high levels of customer satisfaction. No wonder PPS.tv has expanded its customer growth to reach over 50 billion users (Anthony et al., 2008). The United Airline on the other hand lacks strategies of strengthening its employees. The best example is the March 28, 2018 incidence where one of the employees, Dr. David Dao was dragged in the plane by his fellow employees in front of the customers, showing how the United Airlines has been experiencing a rotten culture (Yohn, 2018). It is also reported that the company has some cases of some employees complaining of gender discrimination (Yohn, 2018). Consequently, the United Airlines Company has been experiencing serious drop in its profitability due to lack of employee strengthening.
Comparison of the External Factors between the United Airlines Company and the PPS.tv Company
There are two main factors that affect both PPS.tv and United Airlines companies; the competitors and technological advancement. PPS.tv Company is situated within the China’s Online Distribution Market that harbors more than hundred other video providers. Consequently, PPS.tv faces steep competition from these other similar companies. This has prompted the PPS.tv management to lay down various strategies to counter the steep competition it faces. For instance, PPS.tv has currently improved its viewing experience, its sharing speed, and has expanded its services to reach the global market ( Igbal, Akbar & Budhwar, 2015 ). The company has also been keen on addressing its stakeholder needs in order to foster its quality production towards enhancing customer satisfaction ( Igbal, Akbar & Budhwar, 2015 ). In summary, the steep competition that the PPS.tv Company faces has worked towards helping the company advance quickly in terms of growth and profitability.
The United Airlines too faces competition from the other airlines in the Asia-Pacific region. However, since the company is a member of the Star Alliance, it receives relatively low competition from other similar companies. This explains why the company leadership has been reluctant to work towards improving the organizational culture. Lack of steep competition in the United Airlines operational market has therefore, affected the company negatively, as the company is not keen on offering quality services to its customers. Consequently, the company is recently experiencing a significant drop in its growth and profitability.
In terms of technological advancements, both PPS.tv and the United Airlines are facing great challenge accruing from the dynamics technology ( Igbal, Akbar & Budhwar, 2015 ). The two companies rely greatly on technology in offering their services to their customers. For instance, PPS.tv uses technology to share its videos online to all its viewers, while the United Airline uses technology in its activities, such as flight communications, geographical mappings, and whether forecasting. The current level of fast changing technological advancement therefore, means that the two companies must remain its workforce updated on the current technologies; thus offering great challenges to the two companies, as the companies incur a lot of cost training its employees on the new technologies.
Specific Countries of Influence
The four factors influencing workforce planning as discussed in this paper are leadership, employee strengths, competition, and technological advancements. These factors are mainly influenced in developed countries where there is steep competition for market forces. These countries include the United States, China, England, Israel, Japan, Brazil, and German. These developed countries have well-developed infrastructure and most of their populations are living above poverty levels, thus need products and services that are of high quality ( Igbal, Akbar & Budhwar, 2015 ). The industries and companies operating in these countries therefore, need to be keen on all the internal and external factors that affect the planning of their workforce in order to yield high levels of customer satisfaction.
References
Anthony, K., Chen, R.E., Rackoff, A., & Wong, W.Y. (2008). PPS.tv and China's Online Video Distribution Market. 1-12.
Esmaeili, N. (2015). Strategic management and its application in modern organizations: International Journal of Organizational Leadership 4: 118-126.
Igbal, M.Z., Akbar, S., & Budhwar, P. (2015). Effectiveness of Performance Appraisal: An Integrated Framework: International Journal of Management Reviews. 17: 510–533.
Javidmehr, M., & Ebrahimpour, M. (2015). Performance appraisal bias and errors: The influences and consequences: International Journal of Organizational Leadership 4: 286-302.
Larry, O. (2018). "Best & Worst of Aviation 2017: Airlines and Alliances" . Forbes. (Online).Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/larryolmsted/2017/12/21/best-worst-of-aviation-2017-airlines-and-alliances/#687f98202556
Max, B., & Clarkson, E. (1995). Stakeholder Framework for Analyzing and Evaluating Corporate Social Performance: The Academy of Management Review. 20(1): 92-117.
Yohn, LD. (2018). How to Fix United Airlines' Culture Problem. (Online).Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/deniselyohn/2018/03/28/how-to-fix-united-airlines-culture-problem/#4d9b8373fd3d
