Viacom's Human Resource System   Term Paper ID:27277 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Examines how Viacom's Human Resources staff of just 35 people manages a major transnational corporation with approximately 83,500 employees in over 90 nations.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Examines how Viacom's Human Resources staff of just 35 people manages a major transnational corporation with approximately 83,500 employees in over 90 nations. Paper Introduction: Viacom, Inc.'s Human Resource System Introduction to Viacom Viacom Inc. together with its subsidiaries and divisions, according to its 1996 10-K, is a diversified entertainment and publishing company with operations in four segments: 1) Television Networks and Broadcasting; 2) Entertainment; 3) Video and Music/Theme Parks; and 4) Publishing (10K, 1996, 1). Through the Networks and Broadcasting segment, the company owns and operates MTV, Showtime, Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite, VH1 and 11 broadcast television stations. Through the entertainment segment, which includes Paramount pictures and Spelling Entertainment Group Inc., the company produces and distributes theatrical motion pictures and television programming. Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. If you receive a formal complaint from a government enforcement agency, contact Viacom HQS immediately (Bridging the future..., 1997, 22).Viacom's Recruiting Policies Although Viacom as a company seldom hires, the individual companiesthat comprise Viacom are aggressive recruiters. Curiously, employees interviewed atWestwood, Paramount, and Blockbuster all expressed annoyance at the website. Both offices were told about theresume experiment, and both expressed surprise and both said they wouldinvestigate and notify back by e-mail. To counteractthis lack of culture, the company has spent millions developing a web site(http://www.viacom.com/) that lets the prospective job seeker and thecompany employee alike browse a bit and see what the company is all about.There they find a statement of mission (several in fact, and briefbiographies of some of the managers) and most important, a listing of allthe companies that Viacom owns. Job seekers are invited to click on one of the employment categories.The site also boasts a search engine that lets the prospective browser seekjob availability in all of the Viacom businesses. In fact, a staff of less than 35 people handles that job. a staffing services company, reveals that 19percent of human resources departments are currently outsourcing at leastone of their departments' functions. . Viacom owns businesses in the following countries: Argentina, Ecuador,Peru, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Guatemala, Canada, England, France, Italy,Germany, China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Borneo, Java, Australia, Egypt,Greece, Iceland, Russia, Georgia, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, and 67 othercountries. The most popular programs beingoutsourced include:* pension plan record keeping* 4 1(k)/profit sharing record keeping* group benefits claims administration* government report preparation* asset consulting (Perrone, 1997, 19).But outsourcing does not end there: Nearly half the human resources executives surveyed by Olsten said they also have outsourced or are considering outsourcing their training departments. Inthis sense, even though the U.S. Reuters Business Report. Companies have a narrower scope ofchoice in regard to personnel management than in the US" (Brewster, 1995,4). We work with the key people when their company joins ourfamily of companies to make sure there is an understanding of our overallcorporate goals concerning HR situations and management" (Viacom, 1997). Those who lack emotional intelligence lead lives scarred by unhappiness, broken marriages, poor physical health, and desperate children.How do you determine a potential employee's EI? The operational philosophy, according to the HRofficial in New York who answered certain interview questions for thisanalysis is one of "pre-damage control. andCanada (1 -K, 1996, 1). How that isdone is the topic of this analysis. "Ahands-off, laissez-faire attitude is the only way to handle HR," sheconcluded (Viacom, 1997).Viacom's Hiring Policies Because, as noted above, each country Viacom does business in hasdifferent rules and regulations concerning hiring and recruitment, only theUnited States policies will be dealt with here. We now have four people instead ofone. Viacom and itsaffiliated companies -- some 3, in number -- employ approximately 83,5 people, of which approximately 33, are full-time salaried employees (1 -K, 1996, 4). Although Viacom operates all over the world, and employees can, intheory, look for advancement through the ranks and across the globe, thiskind of cross-fertilization has yet to materialize. hiring policiesunder the Viacom guidelines are transmitted to a purchased company within3 days after Viacom purchases it. These range from global strategies in which the firm uses a standardized approach in all of its national markets to multidomestic strategies in which the MNC adopts a differentiated approach in each national market" (Hoffman, 1994, 74).Viacom's Communications Policies For a communications company, Viacom has a curious blend of incredibleemployee communications systems (e-mail, X-Mail, Internet, Intranet, VideoConferencing, Newsletters, Memo Briefings, Policy Statements) yet there isa curious lack of consistent communication among and between divisions.One of the directives from Viacom Headquarters to all division andsubsidiary HR managers (a number estimated to be between 812 and 2416,depending on who you talk to and how the company structure is interpreted)is that the HR manager will establish an "upstream/downstream"communications network where employees are kept informed of all sorts ofcompany policies and developments. Hofsted, G. 26: 1(21). Thus, today's MNCs pursue a wide variety of strategies. Journal of International Business Studies. Section 2 deals with enforcement agencies, of particular concern toViacom because, as a $29-billion company with annual sales of $3 billion,it is considered a "deep pockets" target. Thus far, there has been noresponse.Viacom's Outsourcing Policies Viacom Headquarters strongly recommends outsourcing as many of thetraditional HR functions as possible, and in the introductory packet, givesa wide number of outsourcing contacts and companies. To determine if there wasa company-wide hiring attitude in effect, applications and resumes weresent to the Web Sites of Blockbuster, Paramount, Spelling Entertainment,MTV, Westwood Studios, and Viacom Headquarters. together with its subsidiaries and divisions, accordingto its 1996 1 -K, is a diversified entertainment and publishing companywith operations in four segments: 1) Television Networks and Broadcasting;2) Entertainment; 3) Video and Music/Theme Parks; and 4) Publishing (1 K,1996, 1). Above all, document every step of the process as a defense against a possible lawsuit. Each of these web siteshas interactive employment placement, inviting the prospective employee tosearch the site for jobs available and E-mail or fax resumes. Leading the growth, as is the statedpurpose of the HR manual, is another story. Westwood's goal is to provide better benefit plan administration andbetter dispute-resolution processes and to increase employee satisfaction"(Westwood, 1997). In addition, ParamountParks owns and operates five theme parks and one water park in the U.S. While, thecompany regularly employed programmers from England, the Viacomorganization was now dealing with transfer requests from employees in otherdivisions around the world who wanted to work in the interactive division.The interviewee stated: "We agreed to bring a lot of the potentialemployees in as temp workers on a contract basis, because we were spendingall of our time dealing with immigration and green card permits and allsorts of headaches" (Westwood, 1997). . Or, the prospectiveemployee can click on a vast number of linked web sites hosted by the moviestudios, TV networks or publishing companies that Viacom owns, each oneoffering jobs. Journal of Managerial Issues. (1997). Unfortunately, noguidelines were given. Given this set of statistics, the first impression would be thatthe human resources office at Viacom's Global headquarters in New York Citymust employ thousands of employees to keep track of all the human resourcesobligations. For example, Westwood is a successful computerCD-ROM game producer and has sold its products worldwide. "HR is such a complex process in a single company,and it becomes more complex in a multi-national, like we're now part of. The next question asked the Westwood source was "How has being boughtby Viacom affected your HR operation?" The response was that, "it hasincreased ten-fold. Viacom, Inc.'s Human Resource SystemIntroduction to Viacom Viacom Inc. Generic strategies for subsidiaries ofmultinational corporations. We have spent most of the last year getting ouremployee manuals up to its standards. Section 1 deals withequal opportunity laws and covers specific general and internal versions ofthe following: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; The Civil RightsAct of 1991; The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA); The RehabilitationAct; The Vietnam Era Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974; TheEqual Pay Act of 1963; The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA); andharassment law. In that seminal work, he argues that thestrategic orientation to MNCs emphasizes that a central concern ofmanagement is the development and implementation of the MNC's strategy.Control and coordination requirements emanate from Viacom's HR strategyrather than Viacom's HR edicts: The current strategic perspective stresses that MNCs need to develop competitive advantage by being responsive to different strategic requirements such as product and market diversity and economic efficiency. More firms turn to outsourcing HRfunctions. The Viacom document is divided into sections. SEC, 4-2949533 Ross, S. (1997, July 7) Overseas firms replacing expatriates withlocal talent. It's a lot of headaches. Through the Publishing segment that includes Simon & Schuster,Macmillan Publishing USA, and Prentice Hall, the company publishes anddistributes educational, consumer, business, technical and professionalbooks, and audio-video software products in 3 countries. has many rules concerning employment (anti-discrimination, equal opportunity, workplace safety, etc.), America, asBrewster (1995) points out, has "comparatively less legislative controlover (or interference from, or support for) the employment relationshipthan is found in most of Europe" (Brewster, 1995, 7). References Brewster, C. complete your degree to qualify for the next promotion). (1997, April 7). The only responses were to the name that sounded most Western.This was followed by phone calls to several of the companies humanresources departments, and only two, Westwood Studios in Las Vegas andViacom Headquarters took the calls. As Hofsted points out in her 198 study, national cultural differencesand employee-related values are reflected in legislation, which has beenseen in the HR field as a significant reflector of national values. The agencies explained in this section are theEqual Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC); The Office of FederalContract Compliance Programs (OFCCP); and the State Human RightsCommission. The only difference in the resumes was the choice of name. All in all, consideringthe enormity of the Viacom operation, the HR function seems to be, at thevery minimum, keeping up with growth. "It's hard enough to get promoted to another division," grumbled oneBlockbuster Manager, "without inviting the whole world into the system"(Blockbuster, 1997) When it was suggested he take the complaint to his HRresource, the manager replied he didn't know who that was. EI includes self- awareness and impulse control, persistence, zeal, self-motivation, empathy and social deftness. Especially dealing with the internationalaspect" (Westwood, 1997). Viacom. "It's an attempt to establish a Viacomculture," said one executive, "since that is a primary concern. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. 18: 19A(2) 1 -K, Viacom, Inc. Perrone, E. (198 ). Arecent survey by Olsten Corp. Available: http://www.viacom.comPhone Interviews: Westwood Studios Inc., Las Vegas, NV (Cited as Westwood, 1997) Viacom Inc., New York City (Cited as Viacom, 1997) Blockbuster Video, Seattle WA (Cited as Blockbuster, 1997) Paramount Pictures Inc., Hollywood CA (Cited as Paramount, 1997) This document, some thirty pages inlength, summarizes the main legal requirements under which it will berequired to operate (Bridging the future..., 1997). Through the entertainment segment, which includesParamount pictures and Spelling Entertainment Group Inc., the companyproduces and distributes theatrical motion pictures and televisionprogramming. In turn, it will examine: Viacom'shuman resource policies; its hiring policies; its recruitment programs; itsoutsourcing policies; and most important, its communications policies.Viacom's Human Resource Policies Because of the range of Viacom's activities in foreign countries, andits overall corporate philosophy of buying up existing companies andassuming a general "hands off" attitude towards them (as long as profitprojections are met), the Viacom headquarters human resources office isdivided into sector groups, rather than the traditional HR organization ofpeople assigned to benefits, oversights, training, hiring, motivation, andso on (Viacom, 1997). Bridging the future: Viacom human relations manual (1997, July 2)Viacom Inc. 14 Viacom. Fivedifferent names suggesting five different ethnic backgrounds weresubmitted. One HR professional at Viacom explained that European nations exhibitmore stringent controls over recruitment policies and methods, controlsover firing procedures and causes, analysis and verification of educationalcertification, and a wide range of quasi-legal regulations (dress,attitude, language, and so on) that an employee is allowed to use in theoffices or companies.The sectors of the HR department in New York oversee the general personnelpolicies of the businesses within their sectors, and communicate with themanagers through TELEX, classified landline, e-mail, and secure Internetand Intranet sites. The source mentioned that in France, Germany, and Sweden (her sector)there are probably 1 , laws that regulate what the company has to do interms of pay, on health and safety, working conditions, (lighting, wallcolors, temperature, and so on have their own sets of requirements. The U.S. Hoffman, R.C. A fictitiousresume was created showing a background as a computer programmer with vastexperience on Web site construction and management (a category mostprominent on all the Web sites). It seems like a unique way to let employees see theirchances for career advancement. Through the Networks and Broadcasting segment, the company owns andoperates MTV, Showtime, Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite, VH1 and 11 broadcasttelevision stations. In other words, when word getsout that a company has been bought by Viacom, word quickly spreads amongthe regulatory agencies. That's possible, since in 11 years since the company was founded, ithas absorbed more than 3, individual companies (and of course thosecompanies' subsidiaries and divisions) into the Viacom fold. Through the Video and Music/Theme Parks segment, which includes theBlockbuster family of businesses and Paramount Parks the company owns,operates, and franchises videocassette rental and sales stores worldwideand owns and operates music stores in the U.S. 6: 69(19). This is a necessary organizational step since few of the nations thatViacom does business in have employment protection laws similar in fact orin philosophy to the broad code of regulations governing an Americancompany when dealing with employees. Ithink the best we can do is just try to keep a lid on things and hope forthe best," said the source at Westwood Studios, who wishes to remainanonymous. Curious, helooked in the company directory, and found several names, all of which, hewas to discover, had either left or been promoted. Indianapolis Business Journal. And more than a third of the respondents said they enlist outside firms to handle the administration of temporary employees (Perrone, 1997, 2 ).A source at Westwood Studios, one of Viacom's latest acquisitions in LasVegas said that "There is a cost savings, but [saving money] wasn't ourgoal. One recent Intranet Memo to all humanrelations directors gave these tips for finding the right employees: Look for Emotional Intelligence instead of just IQ. Cultures consequences: International differencesin work-related values. (1994, March 22). The following expert demonstrates type of overall contentin this section: Counsel the employee who complained on things he/she can do differently (e.g. [On-line]. Companywide, more than a dozen languages are spoken, more than 2 different national sets of employment and labor laws are enforced, and asystem of advancement both horizontally and vertically exists for employeegrowth. This is totallyconsistent with a major trend toward outsourcing among HR departments. These qualities mark those who excel in real life and are stars in the workplace. We want to know if there is goingto be a problem of some sort -- a strike, a protest, a boycott, so we canalert the Viacom legal team ahead of time" (Viacom, 1997). This section is filled with cautions and suggestions about dealingwith employees. One German authority points out that "the major difference between HRMin the US and in Western Europe is the degree to which [HRM] is influencedand determined by state regulations. In this respect, Viacom appears to be handling its HR requirementscompany wide by adopting the generic-strategic MNC approach analyzed byHoffman in his 1994 study. (1995, March 1).Towards a 'European' model of humanresource management. The hiring guidelinesgiven by Viacom headquarters to its new acquisitions are just that:inspirational guidelines and motivational tid-bits along the "1 MinuteManager" line of presentation. Does Viacom,then, supervise the personnel activities in the different nations?"Impossible. We're abig company but we're so big, a lot of us don't even realize what we own"(Paramount, 1997). If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.

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