HR Strategy Report for Tesla's Expansion into the Chinese Market

Electric carmaker Tesla has signed an agreement with Chinese authorities to build a factory in Shanghai. As the Vice-President of Human Resources, the Board has informed you of their internationalization strategy. Furthermore, the Board has decided that all the functional heads such as the Marketing or Finance head for the Chinese operations will be senior managers from the US, who will be expatriated to China to set up the operations. The rest of the staff for the Chinese operations would be the locals.  You, along with the other senior managers have been asked to strategize for the multinational nature of your organization.

You have been given two weeks to study the various HR related aspects and submit a report that are likely to influence Tesla’s HR strategies in the Chinese market.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-44789823

https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/pages/the-road-to-inland-china.aspx

The details of the expected project report format is given below:

Executive Summary (300 words)

Summarize the entire report in not more than one A4 size page.     

Critically review and analyse the importance of HRM and its practices in an organization with specific focus on how it helps in overcoming business issues/ challenges for better performance.

Identify and critically discuss some of the key challenges that Tesla is likely to face in the international environment and critically analyse how that would affect the HRM practice at Tesla (the external environment in the international market)

Critically review the different HRM policies that would be impacted by the internationalization of Tesla and how these policies would enable Tesla to overcome the challenges faced in the new market

You should conduct a review of relevant academic literature using at least 6-8 articles taken from reputed research journals/ article publications, as well as in addition consider any other secondary literature reports, company data/ any other relevant data, to critically analyse the available literature. The literature review should discuss how differences among countries affect HRM at organizations with international operations

Discuss the cultural differences between USA and China and use Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory to analyse the same

Review and critically synthesise the integrating cultural differences that results out of your internationalization plans and the organizational plans to respond to these challenges.  

Discuss the different strategies to attract and recruit local talent. What are the advantages of choosing a host-country national staffing strategy?

Discuss the behavioural dimensions that would be required in the management of human resources in the new foreign context of your organization. (800 words)

Critically review any two theories of leadership (trait, behavioural, contingency).

Assess the suitability of one of the leadership theory that you have analysed in the context of your organization’s international plans and appropriate to the culture. The analysis should include a careful consideration and justification of the factors determining the chosen leadership style.      

Asses the role of IHRM and its impact on global organisation. Identify some of the key HRM challenges facing organisations working internationally. (1500 words)

Explain how the selection process of expatriates differs from a domestic process.

Discuss the possible expatriate training topics and the importance of each

What are the other activities that you would need to focus on related to expatriate management?

Analyse another MNC for their international HRM best practices, with a special focus on compensation and performance management of expatriate employees.

Conclusions and Recommendations: (700 words)

Conclude the report and provide recommendations for the change of practices and perspectives required in managing human resources in the change from domestic to multinational set up.