Sales were particularly disappointing in the UK, M&S’ main market. While revenues have been more or less constant, the company had greatly increased its buying volume for the autumn 1998 and spring 1999 clothing lines, based on extremely positive assumptions about trading conditions. M; S had also expanded its floor space by nearly 1 million square feet (or 9 percent) following the acquisition of a competitor’s stores (Merriden, 2000). But when sales failed to materialize, M&S hastily reduced forward orders of goods.
This damaged the balance of inventory because as popular goods sold out, the company lacked the usual injection of fresh merchandise and still had to clear unsold goods. The result was exceptionally dreary stock on the shelves (Merriden, 2000). Supermarket giant TESCO employs about 180, 000 staff in the UK, with more than 240, 000 staff across the globe, making it among the the largest private sector employers in the world (Parrish, 2003). TESCO is committed to identifying, developing and promoting its employees’ talents and its current track record in this regard is both good and transparent. Marriott International, Inc. is a leading worldwide hospitality company.
Its heritage can be traced to a soft-drink stand opened in Washington DC in 1927 by J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott. Today, Marriott International has nearly 2, 800 lodging properties in 70 countries and territories around the world (Marriot International Inc 2007). The Inland Revenue is the tax assessment and collection agency arm of the Civil Service organisation in the UK. Since income tax was introduced on a temporary basis in 1842, the main developments have been the introduction of pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) in 1944 and Self-Assessment in 1997/8.
In 1999 the Inland Revenue employed over 52, 000 people, of whom around 9, 500 were part-time (Currie ; Procter, 2003). More organisations are restructuring their human resource departments to reflect the true partnership with operational managers throughout the firm. In many cases, a human resource generalist is permanently assigned to a business unit- almost in a consultant’s role. This individual then learns this business and develops an understanding of the drivers of this business. This understanding is then translated into a better grasp of how they can assist their business unit in meeting its business level objectives (Buhler 1999).
With this structure, this HR generalist provides all the HR support for this unit and simply draws upon specialists in the corporate HR department. For instance, the HR generalist assigned to a specific business unit may conduct a needs assessment and identify particular training needs. The corporate HR training specialist may then be called upon to actually deliver the training program (if the generalist is not qualified). This structure allows for more flexibility and can be more responsive to the needs of the various business units.
The HR individual assigned to the SBU really learns the business and can translate the business needs to specific support in the HR department. Some organisations choose to structure in a more centralized manner with a corporate human resource department that supports each of the strategic business units. The HR department includes specialists who provide the same services to all the Strategic Business Units of an organisation (Refer to Appendix: Table 2). That is, a given training specialist may deliver a training program to all the employees of all the business units.
Managers from the operational units are given support from the entire HR department (Buhler 1999). This structure allows for HR employees to become resident experts in their given field and the managers throughout the organisation benefit from this expertise (Refer to Appendix: Table 1). Unfortunately, some firms find themselves being less responsive to the business unit’s specific needs and instead simply offering what they have – versus delivering what is needed.
