Project Report

Heilbronn University

Internationale Betriebswirtschaft - Interkulturelle Studien

Internationale Betriebswirtschaft - Osteuropa

IHRM Projects

ADVANTAGE DIVERSITY – THE S-PLAN

“Shebabco searches Spanish Specialists”

submitted to

Herr Prof. Dr. Dietmar Högel

from

Frederike Eder (171786)

Jennifer Heinrich (171787)

Anna Hoffmann (171547)

Julia Kuhnigk (171836)

Ramona Mozler (172172)

Nha To (178129)

Yara Yehia (180137)

Summerterm 2012

Executive Summary

We, as HR professionals of Shebabco Company, are aware that global talent has

never been more mobile as today. Opportunities for workers have expanded with

globalization and barriers to their cross-border movement have fallen as countries

actively promote inflows to redress domestic skill shortages and to quicken

economic growth.

These factors have been decisive for our company to develop a new recruiting

strategy, as we are recently struggling to fill vacancies, both in the divisions of

management and production, with suitable talents from our domestic labor market.

Therefore, our strategy should not only assure the occupation of those vacancies,

but also lead the company to an advantageous position in the market. Nowadays, it

is inevitable to attract and persuade international talent, in order to

make good a deficiency in the field of skill shortage in the domestic labor market. In

order to establish this new recruiting strategy, we have developed the ―S-Plan‖,

standing for ―Shebabco searches Spanish Specialists‖. It is a persuasive strategy

and policy perfectly adjusted to Spanish talents. The plan describes the strategy

that Shebabco will use in the future, in order to attract Spanish specialists for long-

term employment in Shebabco‘s headquarter, located in Germany. As Spain

belongs to the crisis-ridden economies in Europe and is recently facing a

notoriously high unemployment rate, we are eager to use Spain‘s current

disadvantage to our full capacity, as we are aware of the positive contribution

skilled people can make to our company‘s development progress. In our new-

developed policy, we further make use of the probably most important success

factor of our company - its well established reputation. Not only Germany as host

country is said to be a centre for higher education and research, which helps

Shebabco Company to reach its aim of attracting the world‘s best and brightest, but

also the company‘s unique esteem of being ―employer of choice‖, offering its

employees different kinds of self-actualization. These facts obviously support and

facilitate our search for Spanish talent. However, a good reputation and a unique

esteem are not sufficient in order to attract talent from abroad. As described in the

following, we would like to achieve this goal through reaching the potential target

groups in the most effective way, including first and foremost young university

graduates, currently young unemployed and people with dependent families. In

order to successfully do so, we have chosen the most suitable recruiting and

communication channels for this challenge. Those include amongst others most

importantly the internet but as well as job centers, newspapers, head hunters and

the internal recruiting channel which is our Spanish subsidiary. Once we have

aroused their interest, we will make use of our persuasive assignment policy, which

offers the potential employees different kinds of incentives, both material and non-

material ones, and support in order to overcome all possible impediments, e. g.

intercultural trainings, language courses and other preparatory activities. Those

incentives have been established after submitting all impediments to a very careful

examination. In order to perfectly adjust them to each other we have divided them

into three main categories: Legal, personal as well as language and cultural

impediments.

We are highly convinced that our company will benefit from this strategy and will

successfully reach its goal of filling vacancies in the management as well as

production departments with Spanish specialists in order to profit from their

knowledge and skills.

I

Table of contents

Table of contents ....................................................................................................... I

Definition Sheet ....................................................................................................... III

1. Shebabco and its advantage strategy................................................................ 1

2. Advantage strategy of attracting talents from abroad ........................................ 2

2.1 Former practice ............................................................................................... 2

2.2 Target groups .................................................................................................. 3

2.2.1 Young graduates ...................................................................................... 3

2.2.2 Young unemployed people ....................................................................... 3

2.2.3 People with dependent families ................................................................ 4

2.3 Recruiting channels ........................................................................................ 4

2.3.1 Internet ..................................................................................................... 4

2.3.2 On-campus posters and flyers .................................................................. 5

2.3.3 Higher education careers advisers and ―The milkround‖ .......................... 6

2.3.4 Job Centre plus ......................................................................................... 6

2.3.5 Local and national newspaper .................................................................. 6

2.3.6 Commercial recruitment agencies and head hunters ................................ 6

2.3.7 Internal recruitment – Subsidiary as a recruiting channel ......................... 7

2.4 Impediments to the S-Plan .............................................................................. 7

2.4.1 Legal impediments .................................................................................... 7

2.4.2 Personal impediments .............................................................................. 7

2.4.3 Language and cultural impediments ......................................................... 8

3. Assignment policy .............................................................................................. 9

4. Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 11

5. References ...................................................................................................... 13

6. Appendices ...................................................................................................... 14

6.1 Project Proposal ............................................................................................ 14

6.2 Team Organigram ......................................................................................... 16

6.3 Project Definition ........................................................................................... 17

6.4 Stakeholder Analysis .................................................................................... 18

6.5 Stakeholder Matrix ........................................................................................ 21

6.6 Work Breakdown Schedule ........................................................................... 22

6.6.1 Work Packages ....................................................................................... 22

II

6.6.2 Tool preparation ...................................................................................... 23

6.7 Gantt Chart ................................................................................................... 24

6.7 Network Chart ............................................................................................... 26

6.8 Status Reports .............................................................................................. 28

6.8 Task Assignments ......................................................................................... 33

6.9 Action Plan .................................................................................................... 39

6.10 Risk Log ...................................................................................................... 40

6.10.1 Risk Profile Questions .......................................................................... 42

6.11 Responsibility Matrix ................................................................................... 44

6.12 Communication Plan ................................................................................... 46

6.13 Meeting Agendas ........................................................................................ 48

6.14 Closure Report ............................................................................................ 60

6.15 Team Rules ................................................................................................. 61

6.16 Team Progress Report ................................................................................ 62

6.17 Team Building Report – Personal Diaries ................................................... 65

6.17.1 Frederike Eder ...................................................................................... 65

6.17.2 Jennifer Heinrich ................................................................................... 67

6.17.3 Anna Hoffmann ..................................................................................... 69

6.17.4 Julia Kuhnigk ........................................................................................ 72

6.17.5 Ramona Mozler .................................................................................... 74

6.17.6 Nha To .................................................................................................. 76

6.17.7 Yara Yehia ............................................................................................ 78

6.18 Supplementary Material .............................................................................. 80

6.18.1 Article „Spanische Fachkräfte gesucht‖ ................................................ 80

6.18.2 Article „German fever in southern Europe?‖ ......................................... 82

6.18.3 Article „Eurokrise und die Folgen― ......................................................... 84

6.19 Visualized Strategy of Shebabco ................................................................ 85

6.20 SWOT Analysis ........................................................................................... 87

6.21 European Union membership ..................................................................... 88

6.22 Spain – Country Analysis ............................................................................ 89

6.23 Spain – PESTEL Analysis ........................................................................... 93

III

Definition Sheet

Assignment Policy: A document that defines all procedures, processes,

financial and non-financial incentives as well as support

an impatriate can expect during his or her assignment.

Impatriate: A foreign employee who comes to the country of the

headquarter and who will then work for the company for

a period of time.

Impediment: A fact that can make it difficult for a foreign employee to

work abroad for a period of time, these facts might be

cultural impediments, facts concerning the salary and

benefits, the integration of his or her family, etc.

Long-term contract: A contract for an employee whose assignment will last

for a minimum of four years.

Short-term contract: A contract for an employee whose assignment will last

for not more than one year.

1

1. Shebabco and its advantage strategy

Shebabco is one of the leading international companies in manufacturing products

for toddlers, young mothers and young families; it employs 37,000 people in

around 47 countries worldwide. Shebabco manufactures its products in 89

manufacturing sites worldwide. It focuses on safety, efficiency, quality and

environmental impacts following Shebabco standards and management systems.

Bearing in mind employees‘ life, Shebabco is considered as one of the best

employers worldwide, as it helps the employees to achieve both professional and

personal goals through offering more ways to take advantages of opportunities,

more chances to succeed and grow and better directions in which to pursue their

careers.

The number of German language learners in European states increased

dramatically by the economic crisis. This is really beneficial to Germany because it

is facing a lack of skilled labor force. In Spain, the number of young people

attending German language classes increased by 35% in 2010-2011. Media outlets

in Germany call this ―German fever‖. Zoraida Guijarro Cayuela, a Spanish journalist

living in Germany said that ―there is a real German fever in Spain now‖, this was

mentioned in her article ―Welcome to Germany, Welcome to Unemployment

Benefits‖ in the newspaper ―Berlin Tagesspiegel‖. Guijarro also predicted that

Germany would recruit Spanish people because youth unemployment reached

about 50% in Spain and at the same time, Germany is facing lack of skilled and

qualified talents, so this is considered a win-win situation for both countries.

Shebabco, as a German company, is facing a skill shortage in the fields of

production and management and it aims to achieve market leadership in Europe by

2020. John Taylor, the representative of Shebabco‘s HR-Function on the Board,

stressed that the company should import young talents from abroad, especially

university graduates. As we mentioned before, Spain has a high youth

unemployment rate, so Spain would be the best choice (Whittle, H. & Zeier, K.

2012).

Our recruiting strategy, the ―S-Plan‖, which stands for ―Shebabco searches

Spanish Specialists‖, will be described in the following pages by representing the

project‘s concept of action.

2

2. Advantage strategy of attracting talents from abroad

2.1 Former practice

One possibility – that seems to be simple at first – to collect ideas how to establish

our new strategy and how to implement it on the Spanish market, is to do some

benchmarking. This means to investigate in research about how other companies

are operating on this similar concern.

The results of our intensely study on the internet has lead us to a German IT-

Consulting-company called ―abat AG‖. According to the article ―Spanische

Fachkräfte gesucht‖ that was published on 19th July 2011 in the German online

magazine ―Zeit Online‖, the company started to fill their vacancies with Spanish

talents as they were not able to find enough suitable specialists in Germany. To

start their, as they call it ―European experiment‖, representatives of the company

travelled to Spain‘s capital Madrid to present their idea of recruiting Spanish

applicants for long-term in Germany. Offered options like fixed contracts, social

security, a wage far above the current starting salary in Spain and other incentives

created an interest that was overwhelming (Oeing 2011).

The next step for abat AG to realize their ideas was to advertise on the internet and

to contact universities (one being the former learning center of one Spanish

employee within the company). This attracted promising applicants that had the

needed willingness to move to Germany and that met one of the few basic

requirements of having German language knowledge. As stated by CEO Heinrich

Meisterknecht the company does not expect expert knowledge as long as the soft

skills are appropriate.

abat AG also helps the new employees to integrate and to board-on in the

company as well as in the country. For instance, they provide the Spanish

employees with senior consultants functioning as a mentor. Furthermore, they have

got a company apartment being available for a transitional period.

As the company has collected throughout positive experiences, they want to

adhere to this strategy and find further Spanish talents for their expansion in

Germany.

3

2.2 Target groups

In order to easily approach the suitable target groups and successfully recruit them,

we have defined most of their working and living behaviors, which might affect their

decision to move to Germany. Our three main target groups are young graduates

(including bachelors, masters and graduates from vocational schools), currently

young unemployed people and people with families.

2.2.1 Young graduates

Borghans (2010) showed that the mean age at graduation in Spain is 24.4 which is

the lowest among the European Union. In Germany the average is 27.4. This

young age of graduation in Spain is actually an advantage for our company since

there is a tendency that the younger the people are, the more open they are to the

world and the more challenges they are willing to take.

This group is considered the most inexperienced group among the three groups

since they have just graduated from university. They might have a strong

theoretical foundation and a mind with full confidence, yet practical experience is

the only thing they lack.

2.2.2 Young unemployed people

A lot of information going on has showed that the current situation is very bad in

Spain. A bleak picture into the Spanish labor market is however an advantage for

us because ambitious young people at home often seek opportunities elsewhere,

more readily than older people with dependent families.

This group is the most active one in terms of looking for new jobs compared with

the other two target groups. Since they are in a situation of desperately looking for

a new job to make a living and to devote their knowledge from previous studies, we

do not need to spend that much effort as we spend on the other groups in order to

attract them.

Unlike the young graduates, we cannot reach the unemployed in large amount.

Thus, it could be a bit more challenging for us to choose a suitable recruiting

channel.

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2.2.3 People with dependent families

Identical to the young unemployed people, we cannot reach people with dependent

families in large amount. It is easier if we deal with unemployed people with

dependent families, because their families could be the cause to make them go

abroad. However, if we are dealing with people with families that are currently

having a job it is much more difficult to persuade them to work for us. Also, they do

not actively look for us but the other way around.

Usually, people with dependent families confront much more challenges than

independent people when they have to decide whether to relocate or not. Apart

from offering those people a well-paid job and various benefits, we also have to

consider barriers their families might face when going abroad. Finding a suitable

job for their spouses or an appropriate school for their children should always be

taken into consideration.

However, in this crisis situation in Spain, we are convinced that Spanish talents are

strongly motivated to make a change for their own careers and the future of their

families, although there are challenges in moving to Germany.

After defining our target groups it is important to think about how to attract them in

the best way. In the following, the different possibilities in reaching future

employees are described.

2.3 Recruiting channels

2.3.1 Internet

The Internet is an integral part of young people, including young graduates and

young unemployed people. Furthermore, by using the Internet, we could also reach

our third target group, which are people with dependent families. That is why we

should proactively maintain the flow of new information on the internet. Moreover,

since we have chosen the Internet, it is not recommended that we take

newspapers into account because the information in newspapers is not up-to-date

and usually young people do not read newspapers that regularly.

Using the Internet, we can take advantages of the low cost in comparison with

other traditional media. Moreover, we can reach more applicants and process the

applications faster.

5

There are numerous available employment websites. The most notable among

them is Monster.com. Using this website, we can reach potential applicants at the

national level. The price of the service depends on the duration of the job postings,

views, and the number of clicks. Digging deeply into employment websites,

www.recruitmentspain.com is another noteworthy website in the eyes of potential

applicants. It is mostly similar to other jobs application websites, yet it is vastly

known in the young Spanish labor force. The service costs 10 euro per vacancy to

place an advert and to keep it there until it is fully filled.

There is another solution to our Internet recruiting channel. Taleo is a well-known

platform, provided by Oracle, in terms of talent management software and services.

Using Taleo, we can easily sort the applications, manage the data in the long run,

and have a benchmark for our applicants, etc. Moreover, there are up to 5000

companies using Taleo to recruit people, which make this platform familiar to

countless job seekers. Beyond from talent acquisition, there are many other tasks

which Taleo can help, namely measurement, goals alignment, compensation,

learning and development, and providing specific analytics on particular fields.

However, it is necessary to invest a lot of money at the beginning to acquire the

system as well as to have it customized upon our requirements. Another service

which is similar to Taleo is jobs2web, which is more specialized on recruiting

platforms.

Although we can use the existing platforms which are available everywhere on the

Internet, it is strongly advisable that we build up or acquire a platform to work - on

which we can list the job postings, receive and sort applications or scheduling for

interviews, etc. because we are aiming at a long-term recruitment strategy in

Spain.

2.3.2 On-campus posters and flyers

At first, we need to choose several universities in which the proportion of qualified

graduates is much higher than in other universities to be our partner universities.

Then, we can start sticking posters all around the university campuses to attract

the students‘ eyes and curiosity about our campaign. However, this recruiting

channel is not suitable for the specialized jobs.

6

It is recommended that we hire professional designers in Spain who are familiar

with the work and thoroughly understand Spanish working culture to conduct

posters and flyers.

2.3.3 Higher education careers advisers and “The milkround”

This is one of our main concentrations. We can cluster universities in every

region/area in order to facilitate the organization of career fairs. Doing it this way,

would help us to lower the cost rather than organizing career fairs at every

university. We could do it every semester in prior to the graduation of students.

Moreover, we could also send career advisers to the target universities regularly to

provide information and advice for the students. Most importantly, this would help

us to build up a new network and to keep in touch with the potential employees in

the long run.

2.3.4 Job Centre plus

Job Centre plus is a service offered by the government to match employers with

potential employees. In this situation, there must be a lot of Job Centre going on in

Spain. We could take advantage of this by establishing a network with the Spanish

government in which we can provide them with our needs and requirements for the

labors.

Using this channel, we do not have to pay any fees. However, it is hard to find

people with specific skills in Job Centre plus.

2.3.5 Local and national newspaper

Unlike young graduates, young unemployed people will actively search for

information in any available sources. That‘s why we could take newspapers into

account. However, we should also consider the cost factor of this recruiting

channel. The most prominent daily newspapers in Spain are ABC, El Mundo and El

País. Though, we still need to conduct more research and hold more consultation

from Spanish experts in order to choose the most appropriate newspaper to

advertise on.

2.3.6 Commercial recruitment agencies and head hunters

In this case, it is the best that we reach our potential employees via a third party

because agencies have better knowledge in the Spanish markets as well as

7

relationships to talents. Using this channel can help us to gain access to a large

number of suitable qualified candidates. However, the costs are expected to be

high. This recruiting channel can be applied for all three target groups.

2.3.7 Internal recruitment – Subsidiary as a recruiting channel

An advantage, Shebabco has over its competitors, is the presence of its brand

through the network of its subsidiary. Since the HR department of Shebabco in

Spain has been operating for years, the people there are informed about the

Spanish labor market, as well as internal workforce. Using internal recruitment

could be an option for Shebabco to recruit Spanish talents.

On the one hand, Shebabco can take advantages of in-house resources, retain

valuable employees and avoid recruitment costs and time. Moreover, going abroad

and working in the headquarter could somehow be the motivation for employees in

the Spanish subsidiary.

On the other hand, Shebabco should be cautious in using this recruitment channel

since its subsidiary may not have interest in losing its employees to the HQ and

having to recruit new people to fill those vacancies. This might cause a conflict

between the two parties. Furthermore, there is only a limited number of internal

applicants.

2.4 Impediments to the S-Plan

2.4.1 Legal impediments

The Spanish impatriates moving to Germany, due to an assignment at Shebabco

will not face any legal impediments when immigrating to Germany.

According to the principle ―Free movement of workers‖ of the ―Treaty on the

Functioning of the European Union‖, the Spanish impats are allowed to work at

Shebabco without needing a work permit and reside in Germany as long as they

are employed (see Appendix 6.21 ―European Membership‖).

2.4.2 Personal impediments

Shebabco‘s personnel has to recognize that personal motives of the Spanish

impats can be a real hurdle for immigration and consequently for long-term

employment. The Spanish impats and their families will have to cope with the

following impediments when moving to Germany:

8

First of all, the Spanish impats are concerned about the financing of their relocation

and stay in Germany. There will come up costs for traveling, rental costs for

apartments or cars, insurance costs and living expenses. To attract Spanish talent,

Shebabco has to provide compensation for these costs.

Further, many Spanish impats are concerned about their children‘s integration.

They need help to find appropriate language courses, kindergarten and schools for

their children (Levitz 2010).

Many Spanish impats and their spouses are driven by employment and career

anxiety. Obviously, the spouses of the Spanish impats do not want to give up their

careers and insist on employment opportunities in Germany when accompanying

their husbands during their assignment (Brookfield Global Relocation

Services2012).

The Spanish impats might be concerned about a clear career path at Shebabco‘s

subsidiary after having finished their assignment. If they are not offered a new

position at Shebabco, they will have to return to Spain and search for a new job,

which results at last in the loss of financial means.

2.4.3 Language and cultural impediments

The language and cultural barrier might keep Spanish impats from moving to

Germany. It will be challenging for them and their families to express themselves in

everyday life and communicate about business matters in German with their

colleagues (Gessat 2012).

The Spanish specialists might have problems to adapt to the German way of life

and Shebabco‘s business culture.

They might have difficulties to get along with the German working culture, as they

are used to start working around nine o‘clock in the morning and stop working at

about eight o‘clock in the evening. Between the hours of two and five, the Spanish

usually take an extensive lunch break and their traditional ‗siesta’, where they also

discuss business matters. The Spanish employees may be unmotivated by the

straight working rhythms in Germany, as they often enjoy long weekends due to

the numerous Spanish national holidays and are not used to work full time during

the months of July and August (InterNations GmbH 2012).

9

As the Spanish are quite easy-going, it might take them a long time to get used to

the direct communication style, seriousness and structured working process of their

German colleagues. The Spanish need to build up trust and personal relationships

in order to do business. The Germans however, are very task-oriented and

seperate their private from their business life, which might annoy the Spanish as

they are used to participate in social activities during their work breaks

(Kwintessential Limited 2012).

It is Shebabco‘s task to help the Spanish impats to overcome their impediments by

giving them support and guidance. Therefore, we have developed an assignment

policy in order to show potential employees the possible support of Shebabco

when moving to Germany.

3. Assignment policy

In order to be successful in attracting and also recruiting Spanish talent, we, as

Shebabco‘s HR-professionals, would strongly recommend an assignment policy,

which is perfectly adapted to our project‘s goals. In this policy, all the relevant facts

and processes that need to be considered during the assignment should be

included. Furthermore, the policy gives structure to the whole integration process of

an employee as well as includes all the important incentives you need to offer to a

possible candidate. Those incentives are developed in order to overcome possible

impediments which could prevent the Spanish talent from accepting an assignment

at Shebabco in Germany. The policy describes all relevant regulations concerning

the future assignment at Shebabco in Germany and gives information about what

can be expected during the period of the assignment. In the following part, the

content of such an assignment policy will be described more detailed and specific

examples will be mentioned.

First of all, concerning that the main goal is to attract talent from abroad, it is highly

important to offer this target group particular incentives. Concerning the financial

incentives a clear differentiation between short-term and long-term employment is

essential. Short-term assignees will receive basic financial support which includes

amongst others housing budget and refunds for travel costs. However long-term

assignees will be offered additional special financial support like COLA (Cost-of-

living-allowance) and different kinds of insurances as well as single payments like

10

costs for intercultural training, language courses, etc. However, there are also other

non-material incentives. The most important one of which Shebabco can make use

and take advantage of, is its unique image of the ―Employer of choice‖, which gives

the company a competitive advantage. Further incentives for the employee could

be his or her overall working conditions including the working time, the number of

leave days and for example paid leave days.

Moreover, it is important for the potential candidates to gain an overview not only of

the company itself but also of the working and living environment. Well-organized

―Look-and-See‖-Trips will help the future employees to imagine how work and life

in Germany and at Shebabco would look like. Included in this trip should definitely

be the following parts: Company tour and presentation, presentation of possible

accommodation in suitable living areas (in collaboration with real estate agents),

important institutions or government offices (e. g. city hall, schools, kindergarten,

shopping possibilities, hospitals, transport connections, etc.) and possibilities for

leisure time activities. The Look-and-See-Trip is necessary for the employee and

its family in order to make their decision whether to move abroad or not. As better

as it is organized, the higher is the possibility of a positive outcome.

Probably one of the most important parts of a successful integration of the

employee is a well prepared and organized intercultural training in advance of the

assignment. Future employees can make use of the intercultural training in terms

of gaining further skills. Such trainings should definitely include language courses

(not only for the employee but also for the spouse and children), business

interactions (behavior in meetings and negotiations, communication behavior),

history as well as political, economic and social issues of the specific country and

finally topics regarding the tradition and ethics in the host country.

Once the potential candidate has agreed to the assignment and arrived in the host

country, it is relevant to have a clear plan how to organize his or her ―Onboarding‖

process, as it helps the employee to integrate in to the new team and the company

itself. This mainly includes the introduction to the department and the team, a well

prepared working place with all the necessary tools, software, documents and

authorities that are needed. Moreover a mentor could act as contact person and

provide a job training plan to ensure that future tasks, projects and responsibilities

are clearly understood and the new employee will be familiarized with his or her

11

tasks. Another company presentation could communicate the values and cultures

of the company as they might be different to those in the home country. If the

integration into the new working environment is successfully completed, it is more

likely to receive good working results of the employee and an overall better

performance.

Last but not least, the integration of the whole family should not be disregarded, as

the satisfaction of the spouse and the children is decisive for the employee‘s

assignment development. It is very important to inform the families about

educational institutions and also support them to register and fill in necessary

documents. Furthermore, a wide offer of language courses, leisure time activities

and networking resources for the family should be provided in order to ensure a

perfectly smooth integration of the whole family.

4. Conclusion

We have now presented our sustainable strategy that is aiming at attracting

Spanish specialists for the Shebabco Company for long-term employment.

Reasons for this decision - to search for prospective employees abroad – are lying

in a shortage of specialists on our domestic, German market as already mentioned

in the introduction. We have chosen to focus on young graduates, as they are

highly ambitious to shape their future – avoiding a hopeless, unpromising future in

Spain, where unemployment rates are very high. So with our S-Plan strategy we

might first and foremost reach this target group. Furthermore, we decided to set up

an assignment policy for the incoming impats starting to work for Shebabco in

Germany. Reasons for this choice are to provide a framework for the whole

regulations, rights and duties and to avoid uncertainties and misunderstandings. It

gives a basis for Shebabco Company and for our new employees.

To conclude our project paper we would now like to mention some concrete

starting-points for the implementation of our strategy.

Firstly, we will organize a trip to Spain, sending some representatives of Shebabco

Company there. Building up the team of representatives, we would suggest

choosing some of our employees that are originally from Spain. These employees

might build the bridge to the home country nationals and will also ensure avoidance

12

of misunderstandings or ineffective communication that may occur due to language

barriers.

The trip to Spain aims at getting a picture of the local situation and should help us

to create identification with our project. We will meet with responsible persons of

our Spanish subsidiary and establish common ties with them. Our motivation is to

make use of their local networks to start our project successfully and effectively.

Furthermore, we will visit selected universities in Spain and we will talk to them

about our project and present them our ideas how to attract the students‘ interests

by sticking posters and flyers. Another idea to suggest the universities is organizing

a common ―day of recruitment‖ at their ground where we will advertise our

company as an attractive employer and will present our vacancies to the students.

We will arrange to have experts of Shebabco available at this day to answer

several questions of the interested students concerning this issue.

Another purpose of our planned trip to Spain is to find appropriate institutions that

will help us preparing our potential employees in terms of language and

intercultural training for the following residence in Germany. We will preliminary

identify possible institutions and will send enquiries for some kind of trial lesson on

location to get an impression of the quality and teaching style. Afterwards, we will

carry on negotiations with the considered institutions to identify arrangements.

Coordinating our proceeding in Spain is one part of the whole – the other one is

getting started particular belongings in Germany: contact potential brokers in

Germany, which will help to find appropriate accommodation for our talents; identify

suitable kindergarten, schools etc. to support the whole family to integrate and to

start its new life in Germany – this is the key factor to success – not only for a good

feeling but as well for our Shebabco Company as employer of choice!

13

5. References

Borghans, L. & Golsteyn, B. H. H. (2010): Job Mobility in Europe, Japan and the

U.S. Publisher: John Willey & Sons Ltd.

Brookfield Global Relocation Services (2012): Global Relocation Trends Survey

2010, http://www.articles.totallyexpat.com/global-relocation-trends-survey-2010/,

Read: 30.05.2012

European Commission's DG for Employment, Social Affairs & Inclusion (2012):

Free Movement – EU nationals,

http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=457&langId=en, Read: 30.05.2012

Gessat, M. (2012): Increasing number of immigrants arrive in Germany,

http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,15864426,00.html, Read: 30.05.2012

InterNations GmbH (2012): Working in Spain, http://www.internations.org/spain-

expats/guide/working-in-spain-15498, Read: 30.05.2012

Kwintessential Limited( 2012): Germany – Language, Culture, Customs and

Business Etiquette, http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-

etiquette/germany-country-profile.html, Read: 30.05.2012

Levitz, D. (2010): Immigrants are Germany's future, says integration commissioner,


Oeing, K. (2011): Spanische Fachkräfte gesucht,

http://www.zeit.de/wirtschaft/unternehmen/2011-07/abat-spanien-fachkraefte/seite-

1, Read: 27.05.2012

Whittle, H. & Zeier, K. (2012): German fever in southern Europe?,


14

6. Appendices

6.1 Project Proposal

Advantage Diversity – The S-Plan

Project Proposal Project Manager: Nha To

Sponsor: Mr. Taylor

Prepared by: Frederike Eder, Jennifer Heinrich, Julia Kuhnigk

Last updated: 15.05.2012

Project Goal

The goal of the project is to define a sustainable strategy, in order to attract young Spanish

specialists for the Shebabco Company for long term employment.

Problem Definition

The major problem of the project is its possible failure. This would lead to an advantage for

our competitors over our company and Shebabco would not be able to successfully reach

its goals.

Proposed Solution

We are engaged to focus on our goals continuously in order to identify risks and to solve

them immediately. This procedure will minimize risks and will help us to be successful in

reaching our overall goals of the project.

Opportunity Definition

Through establishing a successful project Shebabco will be able to attract and finally

recruit Spanish talent. This could lead to gaining a competitive advantage over our

competitors in the Spanish market and the positive effect of market leadership.

Project Selection & Ranking Criteria

Project benefit category

Compliance/Regulatory Efficiency/Cost reduction Revenue increase

The benefit of the project could be an increase of Shebabco‘s revenues through

a higher efficiency and productivity gained from new-employed qualified talents.

15

Project urgency

The submission of the project report will be due on June 12th, 2012. Until then

the concept for action needs to be completed.

The project presentation will take place on June 19th, 2012.

Scope

Major project activities

1. Research 2. Tool preparation

3. Project report 4. Presentation

Major Obstacles and Risks

1. Paper is not completed on time

2. Not everybody is participating in the group work

3. Somebody gets ill

4. Strategy is not suitable

5. Strategy is similar to our competitors

Schedule Overview

Estimated Project Completion Date: 12.06.2012

Major Milestones

Consultation 1 17.04.2012

Consultation 2 15.05.2012

Submission of project report 12.06.2012

Final presentation 19.06.2012

Impact of Late Delivery

There could arise a threat to the company‘s aim of achieving market leadership

in Europe, as well as a lack of qualified employees in the fields of production

and management. This could lead to a less effective overall performance of the

company. Our competitors could gain a competitive edge over our company on

the Spanish market and take the role of the market leader.

16

6.2 Team Organigram

17

6.3 Project Definition


Project Definition Project Manager: Nha To

Sponsor: Mr. Taylor

Prepared by: Julia Kuhnigk


Definition of Project Objectives:

The goal of the project is to define a sustainable strategy, in order to attract young Spanish specialists for the Shebabco Company for long-term

employment.

Specific develop a specific, individual and sustainable strategy

Measurable see the success of the project in employees‘ number, quality and fluctuation

Achievable conditions for Spanish talents have to be attractive and convincing

Realistic make efforts in keeping them long-term, not just short-term

Time terminated set up the strategy and concept for action until 12th June 2012

18

6.4 Stakeholder Analysis


Stakeholder Analysis Project Manager: Nha To

Stakeholder Role Profile

These questions will encourage the project team to consider a wide variety of stakeholders.

Use these questions to identify as many stakeholders as possible. After generating the list, you

may decide some of the stakeholders are represented by other stakeholders or will have so

little involvement in the project that you don‘t need to consider them and you may remove them

from your list.

This list is a starting point

Add questions to this list that fit your project environment. If you miss an important stakeholder

on one project, add a question to this list that will cause the next project team to identify that

stakeholder.

For each of the questions below answer the question: ―Who…?‖

Question All stakeholders that apply. Use

people’s names whenever possible.

1. Approves funding for this project? John Taylor (Representative of

Shebabco‘s HR-function on the Board)

2. Approves functional requirements? John Taylor (Representative of


3. Approves technical requirements? John Taylor (Representative of


4. Approves design decisions? Project team (Frederike Eder, Jennifer

Heinrich, Anna Hoffmann, Julia Kuhnigk,

Ramonoa Mozler, Nha To, Yara Yehia)

5. Approves changes to requirements? Project manager (Nha To)

19



6. Approves changes affecting schedule? Project manager (Nha To)

7. Will use the product or service produced

by the project?

Shebabco as employer of choice;

Spanish Impats

8. Set the organizational goals that drive the

necessity of this project?

Management of Shebabco;

John Taylor

9. Will assign people to the project team and

determine the hours per day they work on

the project?

John Taylor;

Project Manager (Nha To)

10. Approves contracts for suppliers? HR division of Shebabco in Germany

11. Is the manager or executive sponsoring

this project (will use their authority on

behalf of the project team to overcome

organizational obstacles)?

Management of Shebabco

12. Will manage the project (provide

leadership to assure tasks are assigned

and completed on time, cost and schedule

are monitored, issues are identified and

resolved)?

Project team under the direction of the

Project manager

13. Represents organization policies

governing this project?

Management of Shebabco;

HR division of Shebabco in Germany

14. Represents regulations or laws affecting

this project?

Management of Shebabco

15. Will have their work disrupted by this

project?

Spanish subsidiary of Shebabco

16. Will have to change their systems or

processes because of this project?

Spanish subsidiary of Shebabco; HR

division of Shebabco in Germany and

Spain

20



17. Will benefit from this project? (If this is a

large group, who will represent this

group?)

Shebabco as employer of choice;

Spanish Impats

18. Will perform the work on this project?

(This includes all vendors and

subcontractors as well as employees)

Project team under the direction of the

Project manager

19. Will participate in phase gate decisions to

approve moving the project to the next

phase?

Project team participates in phase gate:

Project manager approves moving

further

Stakeholder Alignment Questions

These questions will ask for a minimum amount of understanding about each stakeholder.

Use these for each stakeholder that has a high interest in the project or can have a high

impact on the project. The better you understand each stakeholder, the better prepared

you‘ll be to win cooperation.

21

6.5 Stakeholder Matrix


Stakeholder Matrix Project Manager: Nha To

Who? / What? Contribution Need

Project team (Frederike Eder,

Jennifer Heinrich, Anna

Hoffmann, Julia Kuhnigk,

Ramona Mozler, Nha To, Yara

Yehia)

Research of information and

implementation of a

successful strategy in order to

attract Spanish talent

Our know-how, participation,

research

Project manager (Nha To) Overall organization of the

project process; leads the

team; controls the process of

the project; reports to Mr.

Taylor

Organization of the meetings,

leading qualities, support of

the team

Management of Shebabco Gives support and keeps the

project team grounded

Support

John Taylor (Representative

of Shebabco‘s HR-function on

the Board; sponsor of the

project)

Gives support and advice;

gives framework of the project;

sets overall goals of the

project

Support and advices, network

connections

Spanish Impats Contribute their know-how and

manpower to the company;

Skills, talent, efforts, know-

how

Shebabco as employer of

choice

Attracts potential employees

by its image

Image

Spanish subsidiary Support in contacting people;

overcome language barriers;

networking

Network and know-how

HR division of Shebabco in

Germany

Organization know-how;

represent organization policies

Support and know-how

IHRM Projects group Nr. 4 as

competitor

Make it more difficult to fulfill

our project goal; take away

potential talents

Fairness, benchmark

22

6.6 Work Breakdown Schedule

6.6.1 Work Packages

Attracting qualified

specialists from Spain

Project preparation

Tool preparation

Work Breakdown Structure

Project name Team building

Team rules Team building

report

Research

Specific topics regarding the

project

Communication- and

Recruitment Channels

External

Employment and

Recruiting agencies

Head Hunting Job centers Internet Campus

Interviews

Government funded Training Schemes

Internal

Intranet Employees'

meetings and notices

Spanish labour market

Impediments to

immigration

Identify legal imoediments

Impediments to

immigration within EU

Act of Movements

for EU citizens

Identify personal motives

Cultural barriers

Spanish vs. German business culture

Family challenges

Employment related

impediments

determine solutions to overcome

impediments

Develop International Assignment

Policy

SWOT-Analysis

Best practice examples

Definiton of strategy

Assignment policy

Look and See trip

Intercultural training

Treatment rocommendat

ion

Financial support

Integration

Project paper

Structure Distribution

of topics Preparation of appendix

Project presentation

Creation of Powerpoint Presentation

Distribution of topics

23

6.6.2 Tool preparation

Tool preparation

Stakeholder matrix

Stakeholder Analysis

Project proposal

Team Organigram

Project Definition

Work Breakdown

Schedule

Status Reports 1-3

Closure Report

Task Assignments

Action Plan

Risk Log

Risk Profile Questions

Responsibility Matrix

Communi-cation Plan

Gantt Chart Network Chart Team Progress

Report

Personal Diaries

Team Building Report

Checklists

Kick-off Planning Control

Meeting Agendas

Minutes Supplementary

Material

SWOT Analysis Country

Analysis Spain

PESTEL Analysis

24

6.7 Gantt Chart


Gantt Chart Last updated: 07.06.12

Task Start date Completed

1 Hand-out assignment 03.04.12 03.04.12 1

2 Team Building (including reports and team rules) 03.04.12 19.06.12 78

3 Overall research 04.04.12 13.04.12 10

4 Defining questions and draft structure 13.04.12 17.04.12 5

5 Consultation with Mr. Högel (1st session) 17.04.12 17.04.12 1

6 Tools preparation 17.04.12 17.04.12 1

7 Work Breakdown Structure 17.04.12 24.04.12 8

8 Development of strategy 1st draft 17.04.12 17.04.12 1

9 Assignment of work packages 02.05.12 12.06.12 42

10 Tools management 17.04.12 12.06.12 57

11 Paper first draft 08.05.12 15.05.12 8

12 Consultation with Mr. Högel (2nd session) 15.05.12 15.05.12 1

13 Paper second draft 15.05.12 22.05.12 8

14 Completion of paper 22.05.12 05.06.12 15

15Completion of appendices (SWOT, PESTEL

analysis, Definition sheet and Executive summary)22.05.12 05.06.12 15

16 Presentation preparation 05.06.12 19.06.12 15

17 Presentation 19.06.12 19.06.12 1

1

1

1

Duration in days

1.4. 6.4. 11.4. 16.4. 21.4. 26.4. 1.5. 6.5. 11.5. 16.5. 21.5. 26.5. 31.5.

Hand-out assignment

Team Building (including reports and team rules)

Overall research

Defining questions and draft structure

Consultation with Mr. Högel (1st session)

Tools preparation


Development of strategy 1st draft

Assignment of work packages

Tools management

Paper first draft

Consultation with Mr. Högel (2nd session)

Paper second draft

Completion of paper

Completion of appendices (SWOT, PESTEL analysis, …

Presentation preparation

Presentation

25

1.4. 6.4. 11.4. 16.4. 21.4. 26.4. 1.5. 6.5. 11.5. 16.5. 21.5. 26.5. 31.5. 5.6. 10.6. 15.6. 20.6. 25.6.

Hand-out assignment

Team Building (including reports and team rules)

Overall research

Defining questions and draft structure

Consultation with Mr. Högel (1st session)

Tools preparation


Development of strategy 1st draft

Assignment of work packages

Tools management

Paper first draft

Consultation with Mr. Högel (2nd session)

Paper second draft

Completion of paper

Completion of appendices (SWOT, PESTEL analysis, …

Presentation preparation

Presentation

26

6.7 Network Chart

No Task Predecessor Start Date (in days) End Date (in days) Duration (in days)

1 Hand-out assignment 03.04.12 03.04.12 1

2 Research about HR aspects (recruiting channels, assignment policy, etc.) 1 04.04.12 13.04.12 10

3 Research about Spain (target groups, labor market, impediments, etc.) 1 04.04.12 13.04.12 10

4 Best Practice 1 04.04.12 20.04.12 17

5 Tools preparation 1 17.04.12 17.04.12 1

6 Work Breakdown Structure 2,3,4 17.04.12 24.04.12 8

7 Development of strategy 2,3 17.04.12 22.05.12 36

8 Tools management 5 17.04.12 12.06.12 57

9 Write Project Report 2,3,4,7 08.05.12 12.06.12 36

10 Preparation of Presentation 9 22.05.12 19.06.12 29

11 Submission of Project Report 1,9 12.06.12 12.06.12 1

12 Final Presentation 1,1 19.06.12 19.06.12 1

27

28

6.8 Status Reports


Status Report 1

Status Date Project Manager Sponsor

17.04.12 Nha To Mr. Taylor

Status Period from: 01.04.12

to: 17.04.12

Schedule performance All tasks are right on schedule

Issues requiring management attention

1. Team rules

2. Distribution of general tasks - Research

3. Decision who will be the project manager

4. Finding a project name

5. Work breakdown structure

6. SWOT analysis

Changes to scope, schedule, cost during this period

1. Meetings will take place on Tuesday during the course time

Major problems encountered and planned action to resolve

1. Project name not found yet – everyone should think of a name or it will develop itself during

the project

Major accomplishments in the past week

1. Everyone did research on his or her topic and did upload it in our dropbox folder

Major accomplishments scheduled for next week

1. Project work breakdown structure to be made on the four tasks ( a, b, c and d from the

assignment)

2. SWOT analysis to be done

3. Project name to be found

4. Follow Mr. Högel on Twitter

29


Status Report 2




to: 02.05.12



1. Work Breakdown Structure

2. Gantt Chart

3. Stakeholder Matrix

4. Team Building Report


1. Meetings will take place on Tuesday during the course time


1. Due to a mistake in our agenda not every team member took part in the last meeting on the

2nd May, but we cannot resolve this problem afterwards

2. We still have not found a project name and decided to choose one in the next meeting

3. We could not fully fill in the stakeholder matrix, because we do not know what ―need‖ exactly

means, we want to ask Mr. Taylor for advice


1. Work Breakdown Structure

2. Gantt Chart

3. Stakeholder Matrix

4. Team Building Report

5. Format of our paper

6. Development of our team rules

30


1. Starting to work on our paper

2. Risk Log and Risk Profile Questions

3. Responsibility Matrix and Communication Plan

4. Project Definition

5. Assigned tasks

6. Collect questions for our next meeting with Mr. Taylor

31


Status Report 3




to: 15.05.12



1. Distribution of work packages to team members

2. Risk log

3. Responsibility Matrix

4. Communication Plan

5. SMART Formula

6. Task Assignment

7. Project name

8. Working on our paper


10. Team Organigram


1. As usual, the meeting will take place on Tuesday during the course time


1. Part ―Impediments‖ too general, we decided to rework it

2. Yara could not follow Mr. Högel on Twitter, because he is twittering in German, we decided

that Ramona will now follow him


1. Distribution of work packages

2. Risk log and Risk Profile Questions

32

3. Responsibility Matrix

4. Communication Plan

5. SMART Formula

6. Task Assignment

7. Project name

8. Working on our paper

9. Project definition

10. Team Organigramm

11. Development of our team rules

12. Working on the Gantt-Chart continuously


1. Starting to work on our paper

2. Risk Log and Risk Profile Questions

3. Responsibility Matrix and Communication Plan


5. Assigned tasks

6. Collect questions for our next meeting with Mr. Taylor

33

6.8 Task Assignments


Task Assignment – Research Task assigned to Everyone

Assigned Date 04.04.2012

Task description Searching for information about the Spanish labour market, impediments, communication and recruiting channels, SWOT-Analysis, best practice examples and specific topics regarding the project

Completion criteria Consideration of all stakeholders and the information needed

Planned Start Date 04.04.2012

Planned Finish Date 13.04.2012

Predecessor tasks Hand-out of the assignment


Task Assignment – Tools Task assigned to Everyone


Task description Fill in all the tools that are needed for the project, like Stakeholder

Matrix, Project Proposal, Work Breakdown Structure, Status Report,

Task Assignments, Risk Log, Responsibility Matrix, Communication

Plan, Gantt Chart and Network Chart but include as well some

additional tools

Completion criteria Research must be done, strategy must be developed and the tasks for

every team member have to be defined, regular team meetings are

important



Predecessor tasks Research must be done, development of a strategy, definition of tasks

34


Task Assignment –Team Building Report Task assigned to Julia Kuhnigk


Task description Create and fill in a tool for our team building and team progress Report

Completion criteria Our team building has to be documented and filled in continuously



Predecessor tasks Forming teams for the IHRM Projects lecture


Task Assignment – Report:

Executive Summary Task assigned to Frederike Eder


Task description Write the executive summary for the first page of our paper,

summarizing all important aspects

Completion criteria Identify problems, methods, results and recommendations of our

concept for action and summarize it



Predecessor tasks Having the Project Report finished

35



Introduction Task assigned to Yara Yehia


Task description Writing an introduction for our project including some general

information to get started with the paper (Company overview, Labor

market overview, Aims of the project)

Completion criteria It should not exceed 300 word and it should cover the WBS clearly



Predecessor tasks



Best Practice Task assigned to Julia Kuhnigk


Task description Write part of our Project Report concerning best Practice / Benchmark

situation

Completion criteria Find relevant Best Practice examples which might be applicable to our

strategy



Predecessor tasks Doing research on this topic

36



Target Groups and Recruiting Channels Task assigned to Nha To


Task description Define target groups to attract in Spain and through which recruiting

channels we can reach them

Completion criteria Three target groups and at least three recruiting channels for each

group



Predecessor tasks Doing research on the employment situation in Spain, take information

from previous research of recruiting channels



Impediments Task assigned to Anna Hoffmann


Task description Analyze legal regulatory for EU citizens who aim to immigrate to

Germany due to labour purposes and their personal motives like family

challenges, cultural barriers and employment related impediments

preventing them from realizing their immigration plans

Completion criteria Find the relevant legal restraints for our project, look on Shebabco's

recruiting strategy from the perspective of Spanish employees and give

examples for their personal impediments



Predecessor tasks Doing research on this topic

37



Assignment Policy Task assigned to Frederike Eder, Jennifer Heinrich


Task description Describe the strategy how to attract the new employee and which

regulation and incentives/bonuses will be given to him/her

Completion criteria A strategy must be developed



Predecessor tasks Doing research on this topic and developing a strategy



Conclusion Task assigned to Julia Kuhnigk


Task description Write the conclusion for our paper, summarizing the most important

aspects of our paper and giving some future prospects how to finally

implement our strategy

Completion criteria Carefully revising all decisive factors that need to be considered in the

conclusion, as well as thinking about possible implementation

processes




38


Task Assignment – Presentation:

Establishment and Preparation Task assigned to Everyone


Task description Distribution of topics, preparation of presentation material, practice of

presentation

Completion criteria A real plan of the presentation topics and the progress of the

presentation have to be developed




39

6.9 Action Plan

40

6.10 Risk Log


Risk Log Project Manager: Nha To


Risk

ID

Rank Date

Found

Assigned Description Strategy Status Close Out

Date

1 1 13.04.12 Everybody Paper is not completed on

time

Stimulate the work On track 12.06.12

2 2 04.04.12 Everybody Not everybody is participating

in the group work

Find a suitable time for

all

members/Encourage

everyone to participate

19.06.12

3 4 04.04.12 Everybody Somebody gets ill Organize the work

another way

19.06.12

4 3 08.05.12 Everybody Strategy is not suitable Consult with Mr.

Taylor, further research

15.05.12

5 5 13.04.12 Everybody Strategy is similar to our

competitors

Try to be unique in

every case

12.06.12

41

Risk

ID

Rank Date

Found

Assigned Description Strategy Status Close Out

Date

6 6 22.05.12 Everybody We can‘t find a suitable day

for everyone because of the

holiday

Try to do it the week

after, we could meet 2

times that week

05.06.12

Description of fields:

Risk Id: A unique identifier

WBS: WBS number of the task(s) related to this risk

Rank: How important is this risk relative to others? Rank with 1=highest. No risks have the same rank.

Date found: Date risk became known. mm/dd/yy

Assigned to: Person who is assigned to manage this risk

Description: High level description of risk event, impact and probability

Strategy: What will be done to reduce the probability, impact, or both?

Status: On-going log of changes to risk, in order from most recent to oldest. Format: mm/dd/yy – action/update

Close out date: When did the risk probability go to zero? Describe in the final status. Remove any rank from this risk.

42

6.10.1 Risk Profile Questions


Risk Profile Questions Project Manager: Nha To


Project Team

1. How many people are on the team?

7 persons

2. What percentage of the team is fully dedicated to the project?

About 70 %

3. Which team members will spend 20 percent or less of their time working on this project?

-

4. What is the experience level of the team?

One team member didn‘t have any HR experience before; the others have had HR

lectures or have done an internship in HR departments before.

The experience level of doing project management is low.

5. Have team members worked together before?

Yes, two team members have known each other before and have already

worked together.

6. Is the team spread out geographically?

For the duration of the project it is not.

Customer

1. Will the customer change current processes to use the product?

It is more about adaption than about change.

2. Will the project require the customer to reorganise?

It is an adaption. The company has to adapt its strategy.

3. Are the customers in different departments? Companies?

Defining our customer as being the company Shebabco, the customers are within

one company in the end.

Technology

1. Will there be technology that is new to the development team?

No.

2. Will there be technology that is new to the users or customer?

Adapting our strategy might result in using new technologies.

3. Is there any new or leading-edge technology in the project?

No.

43

4. Are the product requirements clearly documented and signed by all necessary

stakeholders?

Yes, it is. Our requirements are taken down in our assignment policy.

5. Are the product requirements stable?

Yes, but might be adapted during the project process and due to experiences

made.

Executive Support

1. Is there a known project sponsor who is actively involved in the project?

Mr. Taylor.

2. Is there sufficient recognition, support and involvement from all the senior management required for the success of the project?

We are supported by the senior management in terms of financial and legal

support and recognition, but they are not actively involved in the project work.

3. Is senior management setting deadlines or budget limitations independent of the project manager's schedule and budget estimations? If so, are these constraints realistic?

Mr. Taylor has set deadlines, the senior management is no contact person for us.

We did not receive any deadlines from them.

44

6.11 Responsibility Matrix


Responsibility Matrix Project Manager: Nha To

This matrix describes the level of participation and authority for project stakeholders on major project activities.

E Execution responsibility. Stakeholder responsible for getting the work done. Not necessarily a decision maker, but drives the group to make

decisions in a timely manner.

A Approval authority. Final approval on accepting the outcome of this activity. Makes decisions.

C Must be consulted. As work is performed this stakeholder contributes information. Does not make decisions, but is asked for input prior to

decisions.

I Informed after a decision is made. Wants to stay updated on progress of this activity.

45

46

6.12 Communication Plan


Communication Plan Project Manager: Nha To

This communication plan describes our strategy for keeping the project‘s stakeholders sufficiently informed to avoid any disappointment

regarding cost, schedule, or quality goals.

Stakeholder Information needs Frequency Medium Response

Project Manager Information about the project progress (results, costs, schedule, performance)

Information about problems and the planned actions

Weekly

Daily

Meetings

E-mail or Telephone

Required in the meeting

As soon as possible,

but two days latest

Project Team Information about the project progress (results, costs, schedule, performance)

Keep the stakeholders up to date

Information about problems and the planned actions

Information about changes in the schedule

Weekly

Weekly

Daily

Daily

Project team meetings

E-Mail

E-Mail or telephone

E-Mail



but two days latest


But two days latest

47

Stakeholder Information needs Frequency Medium Response

John Taylor Information about the project progress

Information about problems and planned actions

Final result of project work

Every two

weeks

Every two

weeks

Once

Meeting

E-Mail

Presentation


Management of

Shebabco

Final Result Once Presentation Required within one

week

Spanish Impats Final Result Once Presentation

Spanish subsidiary Information about project progress

Final Result

Every four

weeks

Once

E-Mail

Presentation via E-Mail

Required within one

week

HR division of

Shebabco in Germany

Information about project progress

Final Result

Every four

weeks

Once

E-Mail

Presentation

Required within one

week

48

6.13 Meeting Agendas


Meeting Agenda 1

Meeting Date 15h30 – 16h30 Location

04.04.2012 Heilbronn University, cafeteria

Meeting Leader N/A

Meeting

Purpose

Kick-off meeting

Project Purpose Establish strategy in order to attract specialists from Spain

Participant Names Attended?

Frederike Eder

Jennifer Heinrich x

Anna Hoffmann

Julia Kuhnigk

Ramona Mozler x

Nha To

Yara Yehia

Agenda Item

Who‘s

Responsible

Time Allotted

1. Getting to know the project Everyone

Everyone will discuss about all the points in the hand-out assignment

2. Team rules Everyone

Establish team rules

3. Tools distribution Everyone

Discuss about all the needed tools as well as who will be responsible for which tools

4. A Platform for sharing information Everyone

Create a dropbox folder for the team to store and share necessary information

5. Project Manager Everyone

Choose a project manager for the team

49


Meeting Agenda 2

Meeting Date 15h30 Location

13.04.2012 Room A510

Meeting Leader Nha To

Meeting

Purpose

Discussion of research outcome and make necessary changes in the

structure



Frederike Eder x

Jennifer Heinrich

Anna Hoffmann

Julia Kuhnigk

Ramona Mozler

Nha To

Yara Yehia

Agenda Item

Who‘s

Responsible

Time Allotted

1. Gathering research information Everyone

Everyone will briefly present his/her research on topics that were assigned last time

2. Project name Everyone

Everyone will bring an idea for our project name

3. Draft structure Everyone

Define a draft structure for the project

50


Meeting Agenda 3


17.04.2012 X309 and Mitterer Bakery


Meeting

Purpose


structure



Frederike Eder

Jennifer Heinrich

Anna Hoffmann

Julia Kuhnigk

Ramona Mozler

Nha To

Yara Yehia

Agenda Item

Who‘s

Responsible

Time Allotted

1. Defining all unclear points Everyone

Define all the questions needed to ask Mr. Taylor in the consultation hours

2. Research Everyone

Do deeper research on the defined topics from last time

51


Meeting Agenda 4


24.04.2012 Room A510


Meeting

Purpose


structure



Frederike Eder

Jennifer Heinrich

Anna Hoffmann

Julia Kuhnigk X

Ramona Mozler

Nha To

Yara Yehia X

Agenda Item

Who‘s

Responsible

Time Allotted

1. Gathering research information Everyone

Everyone will summarize his/her finding according to the WBS defined last time

2. Project name Everyone

Choose a Project name based on everyone's proposal

3. Fixing project structure Everyone

52


Meeting Agenda 5


02.05.2012 Room A510


Meeting

Purpose

Discussion about WBS, dividing our work into tasks and figure out

other tools



Frederike Eder x

Jennifer Heinrich

Anna Hoffmann

Julia Kuhnigk

Ramona Mozler

Nha To x

Yara Yehia x

Agenda Item

Who‘s

Responsible

Time Allotted

1. Work Breakdown Structure Frederike and

Jennifer

We can divide our work based on the WBS and start working on our paper.

2. Gantt chart Nha

We will fill in the Gantt chart to keep track of where we are, what we have done and what we

need to do as well as specific time of those issues.

3. Find out what does ―need‖ means in the tool stakeholder

matrix

Ramona

Complete the stakeholder matrix during the meeting to have a base for further tools.

4. Tools responsibility matrix and communication plan Everyone

We will start filling in these two tools next meeting together

5. Team Rules Julia

Add some more team rules to ours. See script of Mr. Högel, part 5, beginning on page 24

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See Julia‘s proposals in the team rules document (written in green).

6. Tool – Risk log Everyone

We should discuss about the tool risk log, as we should do it continuously and haven‘t started

yet.

6. Project definition Everyone

Maybe we should think about setting our targets – see script part 2 page 21 (SMART-formula

for target definition)

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Meeting Agenda 6


08.05.2012 Room A510 or if occupied Foyer


Meeting

Purpose

Discussion about WBS, dividing our work into tasks and figure out

other tools



Frederike Eder

Jennifer Heinrich

Anna Hoffmann

Julia Kuhnigk

Ramona Mozler

Nha To

Yara Yehia

Agenda Item

Who‘s

Responsible

Time Allotted

1. Work Breakdown Structure Frederike and

Jennifer

We can divide our work based on the WBS and start working on our paper.

2. Gantt chart Nha

We will fill in the Gantt chart to keep track of where we are, what we have done and what we

need to do as well as specific time of those issues.

3. Tools ―Risk Log‖ and ―Risk Profile Questions‖ Everyone

Fill the tools in together

4. Tools responsibility matrix and communication plan Ramona,

Anna

Status report about filling in these tools

5. Team Rules Julia

Add some more team rules to ours. See script of Mr. Högel, part 5, beginning on page 24

55

See Julia‘s proposals in the team rules document (written in green).

6. Project definition Everyone

Maybe we should think about setting our targets – see script part 2 page 21 (SMART-formula

for target definition)

7. Assigned tasks Everyone

Report about how it is going. How do we proceed with the tool ―Task assignment‖? Does every

team member fill it in when receiving a task? Find a rule

8. Information: document in dropbox folder to collect

questions for team consultation with Mr. Taylor

Everyone

56


Meeting Agenda 7


15.05.2012 X309 and X111


Meeting Purpose Discussion about WBS, dividing our work into tasks and figure out other

tools



Frederike Eder

Jennifer Heinrich

Anna Hoffmann x

Julia Kuhnigk

Ramona Mozler

Nha To

Yara Yehia

Agenda Item

Who‘s

Responsible

Time Allotted

1. Consultation with Mr. Taylor Everyone

Figure out the necessary questions to ask Mr. Taylor

2. Discussion about written part of the paper Everyone

Everyone should read through the combined draft paper and has her opinion commented on it.

3. Discussion about the results of the meeting with Mr. Taylor Everyone

Define the next step of conducting the strategy

4. Risk Log Nha

Risk log will be filled in by Nha whenever a new risk comes up

5. Project Definition Julia

6. Task Assignment Everyone, Jennifer

7. Gantt Chart Nha

8. Team organigram Julia

57


Meeting Agenda 8


22.05.2012 A510


Meeting Purpose Paper discussion, impediments and changes in the paper, do the other tools



Frederike Eder

Jennifer Heinrich

Anna Hoffmann

Julia Kuhnigk

Ramona Mozler

Nha To

Yara Yehia

Agenda Item

Who‘s

Responsible

Time Allotted

1. Paper discussion Everyone

Figure out all the changes in the draft paper, discuss about the impediments part of Anna

2. Tools Everyone

Start doing the other tools that we haven‘t talked about before

3. Presentation discussion Everyone

Collect the ideas of how we want to present the strategy. Dress code, logo

4. Risk Log Nha

Risk log will be filled in by Nha whenever a new risk comes up

5. Gantt Chart Nha

Fill in the important tasks

6. Discuss about the missing parts of the paper Everyone

What we will write in the missing parts, e. g. conclusion, proposal, executive summary

58


Meeting Agenda 9


05.06.2012 A510


Meeting

Purpose

Discussion of the paper



Frederike Eder

Jennifer Heinrich

Anna Hoffmann

Julia Kuhnigk

Ramona Mozler

Nha To

Yara Yehia x

Agenda Item

Who‘s

Responsible

Time Allotted

1. Paper discussion Everyone

We will discuss about the last steps of finishing our paper

2. Logo Nha

Nha will complete the logo

3. Put paper into formal form Nha

Nha will put the paper into the paper form that was uploaded by Julia before

4. Connecting parts Jennifer

Jennifer will write connecting parts and also the sentence for concept of actions after the

introduction

5. Conclusion, executive summary Frederike,

Julia

Frederike and Julia will complete the conclusion and the executive summary

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6. References Everyone

Everyone should include the references of his/her parts in brackets right after their part. Nha

will put it into an formal form at the end of the page

7. Action plan Yara

Yara will finish the action plan and upload it to the tool folder in our dropbox folder

8. Closure report Ramona

9. Definition sheet Jennifer

Impat, assignment policy, short-term, long-term and also other terms

10. SWOT Analysis Anna

Anna will look over the SWOT Analysis and will adapt the format

11. Discussion of appendix Everyone

Think about whether we should add a country profile of Spain to the appendix, might be a good

idea

12. Presentation Everyone

Everyone should think of an idea (a unique one) for our presentation

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6.14 Closure Report


Closure Report Project Manager: Nha To

Sponsor: Mr. Taylor

Project Goal

The goal of the project is to define a sustainable strategy, in order to attract young Spanish

specialists for the Shebabco Company for long term employment.

Project Objectives

Major Objectives from Project Proposal

1. Research 3. Project Report

2. Tool Preparation 4. Presentation

Project Results

All objectives of the project were achieved and accomplished in the prescribed space of

time.

Major Obstacles Encountered

1. Not everybody was participating in the group work

2. Some group members were ill

3. Some group members didn‘t finish their work in time and with the required quality

Lessons Learned that are Relevant to Other Projects

1. Tools are of high importance (Agenda, Minutes, Responsibility Matrix…)

2. All group members should actively participate in the group

3. A schedule with deadlines is really important

4. You should adapt to the group members

5. Conflicts should be solved immediately

6. Mutual Respect

7. A high work input is important

8. A project should not be taken easily. You have to concentrate on your work

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6.15 Team Rules


Team Rules Project Manager: Nha To


1. Arrive on time.

2. If you cannot come, notify in advance.

3. Avoid sharing project information with other teams.

4. Information within our team should be clearly communicated.

5. All conflicts should be solved. It is okay to ask questions and to ask for help if feeling ―stuck‖ or falling behind the schedule instead of

waiting for miracle.

6. In case discussion goes on for a long time, the decision of project manager should be accepted.

7. No cell phones during our meetings and no side conversations.

8. Project team members have the responsibility to notify any potential difficulties in meeting the schedule for any assigned tasks as soon

as it is known by the team member.

9. Participate in the meeting. Don't be a lurker - Even if you're not a talker, other team members may need reassurance that you are

following the discussion.

10. Be prepared to drop a topic - If a team gets stuck on a topic, it may be wise to delay discussion of it for another time.

11. Support the team concept and process.

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6.16 Team Progress Report


Team Progress Report



Stages of Team Development

1 Forming

2 Storming

3 Norming

4 Performing

5 Adjourning

1st phase: Forming

Our team first came together after having drawed the lots. These drawing lots ensured to build

diverse teams and to simulate a realistic challenge of forming a project team.

Against this background, most of us have not known each other before. We first sat together

and had a little introduction round. Each team member presented itself in some sentences, so

that we had the chance to learn all names and get a first impression of our new built team.

We then all decided to do the team role test at home, in order to identify individual working

styles. We discussed our personal results from these tests in our first kick-off meeting. It

helped us to agree on a project manager, as there have not been any trust relationships and

experiences so far.

In our kick-off meeting we tried to provide our team some ground structure by giving

background information, trying to reduce uncertainty. For example we have established team

expectations by setting up team rules, talking about meeting behaviors and we distributed

general tasks that will come up regularly. Amongst these taking the minutes on every meeting,

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taking care of our dropbox folder (which we defined as our formal communication channel),

and a summary of last times issues at each beginning of a meeting etc.

In order to feel closer to the project, we started thinking about naming our team/project.

2nd phase: Storming

After having established the ground rules for our team and project work, we have had a coffee

together to get to know each other a bit more.

Our team started working, doing research on the topic and thinking about a structure.

There has been some confusion and uncertainties, but finally we engaged to build some trust

and reliability.

We could notice that we have had our first team decisions. For example to decide about the

question ―What problems we are really supposed to solve?‖

3rd phase: Norming

Following this and other concrete identified questions we agreed in the group how to operate to

go on and to reach our goal of the project. Ground rules have been accepted by everyone and

the working phase has started. The attitude to avoid conflicts in order not to harm the group

work‘s effectiveness has finally contributed to worthless results and dissatisfaction.

2nd phase: Storming

These reasons have unfortunately been conducive to repel the group to the storming phase.

As our project team is not homogeneous and there are a lot of different expectations, we

modified our ground rules again to reach identification and coherence within the group. One

big problem is that not everybody participates in the meeting, so that the team work takes

place between only some - remaining - team members.

This is a really tough phase of the project process as it is hard to overcome and might lead to a

failure of the project if we become stuck in this phase!

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4th phase: Norming and Performing

Finally, our group formed - justified by the motivation of submitting a successful and good

graded project report in the end. Furthermore we have named our project. This led to more

identification with the project and to more effective and a bit more engaged team work and

team behavior within the group.

Rules are clearly distributed, team processes are improved and those team members

engaging a lot of time and enthusiasm in the project will lead the group to success in the

project – which is our main objective and on which we focus.

5th phase: Adjourning

As we approach our final closing dates – both for the report and the presentation – one can

perceive that the team members are preparing inner to let go the group and to close the

project. We will think about having some kind of common close ritual to mark the end of our 2-

month project work. Every person acting as a resource in the project is released and will then

move on and go his or her own ways again.

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6.17 Team Building Report – Personal Diaries

6.17.1 Frederike Eder

At the beginning of the course IHRM projects/case studies, I was not quite sure what to

expect from it. After only a few lectures I got the idea and was already very excited

about my future team and of course about the task assignment. On the other hand, I

was not only skeptical as I have not had any experience in project work yet, but also as

I imagined group work with partially strangers as pretty hard and challenging. Due to

personal experiences with former group work, I know that it is not always easy to work

in big groups and that it can be very time-consuming and exhausting. So all in all, in the

beginning I saw the whole project as an interesting but also challenging task for me.

As I first got to know my other team members, I did not have a single clue about the

majority of the people I was supposed to be working with for the next few months. They

all seemed to be very friendly and I was sure we would get along with each other just

perfectly fine. After we have got to know each other a little better, we started our project

work with the kick-off meeting. We were all very excited and full of beans. However,

after only a few meetings it was absolutely obvious who was fully engaged to the

project, who really showed effort and who did not. Unfortunately, there were only about

60% of the team members who really showed dedication to the project. Other team

members did not even make the effort to participate actively just in one single meeting.

This was very frustrating and annoying but first and foremost a burden to the rest of the

team. Work that has been distributed to seven team members was actually done by

four. This hindered the whole project process as well as decelerated the progress of our

work, which was very frustrating to those team members who were fully engaged and

spent a lot of time and effort on the project. Moreover, only after a few meetings I got

the feeling that we have not chosen the right person as project manager. The person

seemed to lack of organizational skills, the communication was not as effective and

clear as I expected it to be and on top was the project manager not able to make

decisions for the whole team when we struggled with our work, deadlines etc. Certainly,

his attitude improved during the process of our teamwork a lot and in the end I was

quite content with his work and effort. However, I think it has cost us a lot of precious

66

time at the starting phase of our project, as we would have needed a person that take

the reins and drives and leads the team, especially through the first meetings.

I immediately had to think of the phrase: ―Some teams get stuck and never leave the

storming stage!‖. I think in comparison to some other teams, we had quite a hard way

through our project work, however, some of the motivated team members in our team

made a huge effort in order to reach our goal and not to fail. It was not always easy to

motivate some of the other team members and we rather pulled them through the

project.

However, not to sound too negative about the team work, it has to be said that we got

along fine with each other and we always behaved in a friendly manner towards other

group members. We never got to a point where we could not agree on one decision or

had a huge argument.

My personal lesson from the project work is that people have different goals. Some are

more ambitious than others. Some just want to pass the course and do not care about

the grade, others do. Some are ready to take on responsibility and work really hard,

others do not. Some people do not care about whether they are a burden to the team as

well as do not change anything about it. Certainly, I also experienced really good work

with other motivated team members. We worked close together and the communication

between us was great. The tie between us got stronger during the process of our project

and we could really rely on each other, which gave us the feeling of security and trust.

In conclusion, I believe that this whole course very much showed the reality of project

groups. They often consist of people who do not know each other and have not worked

together before, who also have a lot of other work to do besides the project itself but still

want to put the best they can into the project in order to make the possibly best out of it

–at least some of them. Overall, I enjoyed the task as well as the project work with all its

perils a lot. Personally, I learned a lot from it which might be useful for further project

and group work.

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6.17.2 Jennifer Heinrich

I was really interested in the course ―IHRM project‖ because it is my aim for the future to

work in an HR department of a company. I thought that this course is a good possibility

to get to know how to work in such a project and what might be helpful when working in

such a big team. Therefore, I was looking forward to get to know what our project

assignment will be.

When we first met our new group mates all of us were a little shy because almost

nobody did know the other persons. Therefore, we made an introduction round that we

get to know the others better. Our group is a mixture of different cultures and we do

have two members that are in Germany for their semester abroad. All of the members

were very pleasant and I thought that the group work will make fun and will be

interesting but also challenging.

As we met the second time we discussed how we want to start our project and which

steps we will follow. We were informed by one of the students from abroad that she has

no HR-experiences but at that point all of us thought that this will not be a problem. We

also chose our project manager who was really enthusiastic at the beginning but in the

end I think he sometimes was not consequent enough. After the introduction round we

divided the research parts and opened a Dropbox folder so that all of us can see what

our group mates write and out of this have the possibility to discuss it in the next

meeting.

Very fast it was visible that the meetings were held by only a few people because the

other ones did not say anything or were not interested in participating. In my opinion

sometimes it was very hard because if you are a group of seven persons and only four

of them show their will that restrains the whole group. This had the effect that a lot of

our meetings were very exhausting. Out of this me and two other group members did

realize that we do not get forward. Therefore, we decided to meet after the regular

group meeting to recover the parts we did not finish in our meetings. A lot of times we

were sitting there for three more hours but we were successful.

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One of the biggest problems was that we got the feeling that one group member was

not willing to help the group because the tasks have been delivered incomplete or not at

all. For me it was hard to understand why the person wants to participate in such an

HR- project of the highest semester but did not show any effort. In my opinion it would

not have been a problem if we, as the rest of the group, would have seen that the

person is motivated in learning something new and really wants to help us in reaching a

great strategy for our project. But unfortunately, this was not the case. The rest of the

group had to do the tasks of the person as well which took time and nerves.

The project showed that working in a group with people who have a different working

attitude and a totally different aim in fulfilling the project can be really hard and time

intensive. This was the first time that I worked with that many persons and with people I

never talked before. But I think in reality, project work sometimes might be like this and

therefore, I am thankful for this experience because right know I have a clue what I can

expect from future project work. All in all we have reached a great result and most of us

did a good job in fulfilling our project aim. Furthermore the communication between us

was very good and thinking about a good strategy really made fun.

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6.17.3 Anna Hoffmann

At the beginning of our lecture ‗IHRM Project Management‘ in the summer term 2012 I

didn‘t know what to expect and was very curious about the content of our task. In the

first lectures Mr. Högel explained different issues of Project management and relevant

tools and documents. Honestly, I felt sometimes overwhelmed by the content and had

problems to understand the usefulness of project management and the procedures in it,

as I haven‘t had to handle with project work before. Therefore I read the script at home

once again and did some further research on the internet to get an overview of the topic

and the numerous tools. Some of the students hold presentations about psychological

tests and some tools in project management to give a better understanding. The

outcoming of the psychological test was that my personality type is the ‗cooperator‘,

which I found quite suitable. In the lectures, my first task was to prepare a presentation

about the tool ‗Task Assignment‘.

In the third lesson Mr. Högel announced that we will work on the project like in a real life

scenario. When I heard that the teams will be build up by drawing lots and that we will

be mixed up with the international students, I was concerned to get in a group with

people I might not get along with.

As I expected I had to join a team whose team members I didn‘t knew before. Our team

was composed of two international students, Nha and Yara, three IBIS students,

Frederike, Jennifer and Julia and two IBO students, who was Ramona and me. After the

lectures were finished we introduced ourselves and talked about meeting times. The

meeting calmed me as I realized that the team members seemed to be friendly, reliable

and motivated. Moreover, I was glad to have one male in our group, as in my study time

I experienced that working with girls might be difficult and stressful. Due to experience

in former group work, I know that it is sometimes problematic to work in big groups and

that it can be very time-consuming. So all in all, in the beginning I saw the whole project

as an interesting but also challenging task for me.

70

In our first session we clarified mainly organizational things. First of all, we decided that

we would meet every Tuesday morning and established our team rules.

We thought about the role and tasks of the project manager and agreed to share all

information, tools and documents via Dropbox. Then we made some brainstorming

about ideas and possibilities of our working procedures and distributed some general

tasks. Julia and Nha were responsible for the preparation of the tools and paperwork

each meeting, Yara‘s task was to summarize what we had discussed last meeting and

Frederike and me agreed to take the minutes by turns. We agreed that Nha should be

our Project manager.

Having discussed the procedures, we talked about the goal of our project and our

understanding of the task. Then, we split up the research in several parts and

distributed it equally among the team members.

In the second meeting we discussed the outcomings of our research. We developed the

idea that Shebabco could introduce a policy for international assignments to make our

German subsidiary more attractive for Spanish specialists. In the policy should be

included special programs, measures for assistance and incentives for the foreign

employees.

Further, we discussed which communication and recruiting channels should be included

in our concept of action. But we couldn‘t proceed as the question came up how the

concept for action should look like.

We hold our third meeting at the Mitterer Coffee Shop, which was a good opportunity to

get to know each other more closely, and discussed general ideas regarding our paper

contents. We agreed that our next step is to create the Work Breakdown Structure and

divided the main tasks amongst the team members.

In the following meetings we discussed and filled in the most important tools for our

project like the GANTT-chart, the Network-Chart and the Stakeholder-Matrix. We

decided to start writing our paper and divided it into several parts.

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My part was to think about some impediments the impats and their families might face

when immigrating to Germany and to find solutions which could be offered by

Shebabco‘s personnel. Although I did much research on regulatory for immigration, I

had problems to define only the relevant impediments. In fact, I got stuck with the legal

impediments. From the lectures, I knew that there aren‘t any legal impediments for EU

citizens who come to Germany for work purposes, but in the internet I found so much

information about immigration restrictions in Germany, that I became quite confused

what information to include in our paper. At this point, I was really glad that I could rely

on my team. They suggested that I should only mention the principle ‗Free movement of

workers‘ as EU citizens aren‘t restricted by any laws when working in the EU. Besides,

they proposed to include further impediments like working conditions. I found the critics

quite helpful and was finally able to finish my part.

Conclusion:

Looking back I have learned much about project work, time management and

organization of tasks for my further study as well as for my professional life.

It took me getting used to work with people I haven‘t known before, but in the end it was

a valuable experience. However it was not easy to build up trust relationships, as

sometimes a few team members seemed to be demotivated or indifferent to the project.

It was really helpful to establish team expectations by setting up team rules and talking

about meeting behaviors. Finally we managed to build up trust and reliability and were

able to work more smoothly on our project. The discussions proceeded in a polite way,

while the team exchanged different point of views and tried to reach a common solution.

At the beginning of our project we were uncertain how to start, but in the end I was

surprised that we managed to succeed in such an extensive assignment by regularly

meetings and the distribution of tasks.

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6.17.4 Julia Kuhnigk

When Mr. Högel announced that he will draw the lots to decide about group formation in

the IHRM Project, I have - at first - been really skeptical. It is obvious that it is easier to

do group work with people you already know – not only by character, but also by

working style, free time hours etc.

Our team primary came together and most of us have seen each other for the first time.

After the first few sentences and exchange of information, I have been tranquilized and

relieved and have looked forward to this promising, international group work.

Our first communication has not been that productive as there have not been any team

rules yet or any other standards to look about. We have managed that issue very fast

and I have been enthusiastic about our chosen project manager, as he seemed to be

the right person for the position and has taken up employment dedicated. Unfortunately

at each meeting I could feel that our group as a whole has not been homogeneous and

attitudes are a long way away from each other.

What affected and annoyed me the most has been the fact that some team members

did not do a good job. The work has finally been caught on the remaining persons. This

has been the reason for me to write an e-mail to all team members appealing to

everyone‘s commitment and attitude for the project. As we are seven persons in the

team, it is even more difficult to be flexible and so I asked them to set priorities for

themselves and for the importance of our project. I clearly told my team that I will do my

best to succeed in the project and that I expect everyone else to do the same.

Regrettably we have never really talked about that e-mail but as no one has

contradicted, I hoped to see their ―answers‖ in productive and dedicated performance.

However, it did not work out. During this time we have not been able to leave the

―storming‖-phase and go further to ―norming‖. At that time I was afraid that our project

might fail as our project team might break apart. Another possibility might have been to

leave the group and to set up an own group with those team members having the same

goals as me, being ambitious and working hard for a good grade in the end. As this

would have been the worst opportunity we made our decision against it.

73

Finally – to tell the truth – I decided not to spend my energy in worrying about the team

all the time, but I invested my vigor and willingness in the project work itself to bring it

further and to make it successful.

Even if the group work has not been the best this time, I learned a lot from it and in the

end I see it from that point of view that it simulated a more or less realistic work life

situation and challenge that might occur in my business life some day. So the

experience might help me to get along better in the future. If I could turn back time, I

would have been more consequent from the beginning, telling team members what my

expectations are and also telling the project manager what to do better in his function as

head of the team. I think this might have influenced the group in the right direction and

would have enabled effective and enjoying performance, at least in a less time-

consuming way.

Summing up, I can say that the project has been a really interesting but challenging

experience for me. The topic has been very attractive and sustainable. As it has been

my first project work I am looking forward to doing another one to profit from my learning

effects and to adopt my appropriate knowledge.

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6.17.5 Ramona Mozler

At the beginning of the course IHRM-Projects I didn‘t know what to expect from it.

Before this course I had never done any things respective to management projects. So

all the things Mr. Högel presented to us during the lecture were new for me. I had never

heard anything about such tools like ―Responsibility Matrix‖ or ―Risk Log‖ and to be

honest I wasn‘t really interested in it, which changes during the project work.

When it comes to the point where the groups where draw by lots I wasn‘t very happy

about it. I only knew one girl from the course but for me it had been good to work at

least in a group with her. The lot ―decided‖ for me to be in a group with people I didn‘t

know and never worked before with. This was a strange feeling, because in the past I

had never worked with people I didn‘t know, so it was a challenge for me.

The first meeting of our group took place on the 4th April and I couldn‘t attend, because

of a really important appointment on this day. I think that wasn‘t really good for me,

because in the second meeting I had to get to know to everybody while there have

known each other from the last meeting. Thenceforth our meetings took place on

Tuesdays during the normal course time. To be honest I never felt as a real part of the

group and perhaps that‘s the reason why I never really intensively participated in our

meetings and when I sometimes said something my proposals where often not

accepted and I felt like the group was not taken me and my suggestions really seriously.

It was also a little bit difficult to get some ―work‖, because when a new task comes up

always the same people said ―I will do it…I will do it‖ but I tried to do as much as

possible and I liked to do it by myself. I worked with tools such as ―Responsibility Matrix‖

or ―Communication Plan‖ and I think that this ―tool work‖ helped me also in other project

works during my seventh semester.

I think that we never were a real team and that some members think that they are better

than other ones. Before this project work I was never in a situation like this. I always

participated in groups where all support each other and not blame each other. I think

that it is normal that somebody is talking more and somebody less. I also didn‘t like that

75

they not once talk plain text. They were always talking about some group members that

didn‘t participated well but they not once said about whom they talking.

To sum it up I think that we all did our best and that our project has a good result and

we will get a good grade. Some team members have done more work for it and some

less. But in the end we‘re all ONE team.

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6.17.6 Nha To

Before taking the IHRM course, I had several small projects related to HR issues. Yet

they were mainly individual or small group work. I felt that I was inexperienced in terms

of working experience since I hadn‘t had any job before. Thus, I believed that from this

course I could really learn something through team work and through experience of

other HR students.

When it came to drawing lots to decide group members, I wasn‘t sure if it was a good

choice to do it that way. Yet, it was okay because when we work in real projects in our

future companies, chances are that we have to work with people we haven‘t known

before and they might be way different from us. However, I felt that a group with 7

members is a bit too much because it would be hard to find a suitable meeting time and

have a close-knit relationship between every group member.

At the very beginning of our project work, in order to avoid potential conflicts and to

work smoothly throughout the whole project, we decided to define the team rules which

every team member should follow. Basic rules were established and the rules can be

modified in the future when new issues come up. Moreover, I was appointed as the

temporary Project Manager. Actually this was the first time I was a Project Manager. I

didn‘t know if it was good for me and the team since I seemed to be one of the least

experienced people among the group. However, I perceived that I would gain more if I

took more challenges.

The several first meetings weren‘t productive as expected. I think because there were

different goals between team members because of the lack of communication since we

didn‘t know each other well beforehand. Before talking about the strategy we would

have to develop, we spent a lot of time discussing about the project tools because we

thought that Mr. Högel wanted us to focus on project tools rather than the strategy itself.

I was a bit confused at the beginning and wondered why we had to do a lot of tools but

not the strategy.

At some points of time, I felt that we were getting stuck in the storming phase and it

wasn‘t that easy to get over. A problem came up as we were doing our first research.

There was a risk that one member could leave the group since this was the first time

77

she participated in an HR project; she felt lost sometimes and she really needed the

help from all the team members. We tried to sit back together and assist her with her

work.

To be honest, I didn‘t put 100% effort to this project and there were a lot of mistake I

made during this project. We did have a conflict between team members in finding an

appropriate time for meeting and setting priorities for our project. A warning from one

team member made me realize that this was group work. And group work needed effort

from every team member. Although the warning wasn‘t discussed afterwards but I do

believe that it positively affected my effort and there were a positive change among the

team.

As the project rolled on, I felt that the time we defined the structure and everyone had to

write his or her own part was the time we got out of our storming phase. It was later

than expected but at the end, we could clearly see that we were progressing on the right

track. At the later stage of the project, I did enjoy our team work and I really felt that we

were doing what we needed to do to make every group meeting better than the previous

one.

To make the long story shorts, it is obvious that there are challenges at the beginning of

every work. We all need to be patient, devote effort and find a way to overcome.

Regarding my expectation at the beginning of the project, I have learnt something out of

this project. Regarding the project, project was challenging yet the interesting topic did

stimulate us to work hard on it.

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6.17.7 Yara Yehia

As a finance student who has no knowledge in Human Resources and very few

knowledge in Management, I was really confused whether to take this course or not, but

luckily I chose to take the risk and involve in this amazing experience. In the first class

when my colleagues were introducing their selves, it was obvious that me and my

Egyptian friends are the only Finance students in the class and all other students are

having a lot of experience so I decided to learn a new thing which is totally unrelated to

my studies but defiantly it will help in my future and career. In the first lessons, when Mr.

Hoegel was explaining what International Human Resources Management is, it was

really hard for me to understand everything because there were lots of terminologies

that I‘ve never heard of, but I tried to search and understand whatever I found hard. But

the fear of the project was following me every lesson because I don‘t know anybody in

the class except the Egyptian students who are just like me in the HR and Management.

And when I knew that the group will be chosen randomly, I felt somehow safe but again

I was afraid to fail in working in a group, as I‘ve never worked in such a group before.

Surprisingly, I had a wonderful group, we are 2 international students; me and Nha and

5 Germans; Julia, Anna, Ramona, Jennifer and Frederike. All of them are really friendly,

helpful and supportive. Although we had some conflicts and some members were

dominating the project but still I learned a lot. To be honest, I‘m not one of those who

added something to the project but I was working very hard on the project but I really

tried to do my best in my parts but because I lack experience so I was consuming too

much time to get a small task done. I probably did a lot of effort in this project but it

unfortunately wasn‘t obvious in my work.

The first task I was assigned to make was to find the best practices and unfortunately I

couldn‘t, so I was really disappointed and I clearly emailed them that it‘s my first time to

work in a group and in such topic and I‘m not sure if I can do it or not but I want to learn,

and they were really nice to me and welcomed to help me if I faced any problem and

that what happened through our project. I learnt something new from every meeting and

every point I was assigned to make. But after that things were going smoothly and when

I face any problem I just ask someone to help me and they welcome and help, I‘m really

79

thankful for everyone who tried to help and for Mr. Hoegel because he gave me the

chance to involve in such an experience.

To sum it up, the project was really hard and challenging for me and I exerted a great

effort in it, learned a lot, had a really good experience and had a wonderful team

members. I hope the presentation won‘t be affected by the conflicts we had in the

group. And I‘m really thankful for all team members for giving me such experience and

helped me in this project.

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6.18 Supplementary Material

6.18.1 Article „Spanische Fachkräfte gesucht”

Job-Migration Spanische Fachkräfte gesucht

Die Bremer abat AG leidet unter Personalmangel. Monatelang suchte sie vergeblich nach guten Bewerbern. Dann führte sie Vorstellungsgespräche in Madrid – und hatte Erfolg.

Von: Kristin Oeing

19.07.2011 – 16:04 Uhr

An der Puerta del Sol, im Herzen Madrids, packten die Demonstranten Mitte Juni ihre Zelte zusammen. Wochenlang hatten sie hier protestiert, für politische Reformen und gegen die Massenarbeitslosigkeit. Nur ein paar Hartgesottene blieben. Zur gleichen Zeit fanden einige Straßen weiter Vorstellungsgespräche statt. Eine deutsche Firma hatte acht spanische Bewerber eingeladen. Sie bot den Interessenten feste Verträge, soziale Sicherheiten, einen Lohn weit über dem derzeitigen spanischen Einstiegsgehalt – und einen Arbeitsplatz weit weg von der Heimat, im norddeutschen Bremen.

Für junge Spanier kann das ein attraktives Angebot sein. Die Arbeitslosigkeit der unter 25-Jährigen liegt in Spanien bei 44,4 Prozent, weit höher als in Deutschland. Bleiben sie zu Hause, werden sich ihre Aussichten in der Krise kurzfristig kaum verbessern. So hoffen nicht wenige Spanier auf einen gut bezahlten Job im europäischen Ausland. Deutschland hingegen will offene Arbeitsstellen in den nächsten Jahren vermehrt mit Fachkräften aus anderen europäischen Ländern besetzen. Bis zum Jahr 2025 könnten, laut Bundesagentur für Arbeit, durch eine gesteuerte Zuwanderung bis zu 800.000 Fachkräfte nach Deutschland kommen.

"Die berufliche Mobilität der Spanier wird zweifellos zunehmen", sagt Walther von Plettenberg, Geschäftsführer der Deutschen Handelskammer für Spanien (AHK) in Madrid. Bislang leben rund 80.000 Spanier in Deutschland. Darauf, dass noch mehr kommen mögen, hofft die Bremer abat AG, ein mittelständisches SAP-Beratungsunternehmen, spezialisiert auf die Branchen Automotive und Logistik.

Die Idee, spanische Bewerber zu rekrutieren, wurde aus der Not heraus geboren: Seit Monaten sucht das Unternehmen Fachkräfte. Weil diese so schwer zu finden sind, mussten schon Aufträge abgelehnt werden. Deshalb schlug abat-Berater Gonzalo Sierra Rodriguez seinem Arbeitgeber vor, sich doch einmal in Spanien umzuschauen. "Der Einfall kam mir spontan, kurz vor dem Beginn der Proteste", sagt er. "Ich kannte die Lage in meinem Heimatland und die meines Unternehmens. Die Lösung lag auf der Hand."

Hinrich Meisterknecht

© abat

Er ist Vorstand und Mitgründer der abat AG.

http://www.zeit.de/2011/22/Spanien-Aufruhr

http://www.zeit.de/politik/deutschland/2011-06/fachkraeftemangel-zuwanderung-kabinett

http://www.zeit.de/wirtschaft/2011-06/fachkraeftemangel-migration-interview

http://www.zeit.de/

81

Der diplomierte Physiker und seine deutsche Freundin sahen schon vor fünf Jahren beruflich keine Chancen mehr im Norden Spaniens. Sie gingen nach Deutschland. Nach einem halbjährigen Sprachkurs und einem viermonatigen Praktikum stieg Sierra Rodriguez dann als Junior-Berater in dem Unternehmen ein. "Heute ist der Arbeitsmarkt in Spanien noch angespannter als damals", sagt der 32-Jährige. "Viele Hochschulabsolventen finden keinen Job oder erhalten nur schlecht bezahlte Jahresverträge. Aber wer will für weniger als 1.000 Euro im Monat arbeiten?"

Die abat AG, die derzeit rund 200 Mitarbeiter beschäftigt, will expandieren. "Wir suchen derzeit etwa zwanzig neue Mitarbeiter", sagt Hinrich Meisterknecht, Vorstand und Mitgründer des Unternehmens, "doch wir konkurrieren mit den großen Unternehmen in unserer Branche, und denen geben die Bewerber oft den Vorzug." So stieß die Idee des spanischen Kollegen im Vorstand auf offene Ohren. Die Verantwortlichen von abat inserierten im Internet, und sie kontaktierten die Universidad de Cantabria, im Norden Spaniens, die ehemalige Lernstätte von Sierra Rodriguez.

In den 25 Tagen darauf gingen knapp vierzig Bewerbungen bei dem Unternehmen ein. "Die Bereitschaft, ins Ausland zu gehen, scheint in Spanien durchaus hoch zu sein", sagt Meisterknecht. Margareta Hauschild, Direktorin des Goethe-Instituts in Madrid, kann das bestätigen. Die Zahl spanischer Schüler in den Sprachkursen ihres Instituts ist deutlich gestiegen. "Im Vergleich zum Kursbeginn im Februar 2010, konnten wir in diesem Jahr einen Anstieg von knapp 20 Prozent bei den Teilnehmerzahlen verbuchen", sagt sie. "85 Prozent unserer Kunden sind Studenten und junge Arbeitnehmer."

Gute Sprachkenntnisse waren auch für die Bewerbung bei der abat AG Grundvorausetzung. "Kenntnisse im Umgang mit unseren SAP-Programmen erwarten wir von den neuen Mitarbeitern aber nicht. Dafür müssen die Soft Skills stimmen", sagt Meisterknecht. Er rechnet damit, dass die Ausbildung der jungen Angestellten etwa sechs Monate dauern wird – Monate, in denen das Unternehmen von den neuen Arbeitskräften zunächst nicht profitiert. Meisterknecht sieht das pragmatisch. "Wenn du als Unternehmen nichts investierst, bekommst du auch nichts zurück", sagt er.

So flog er Mitte Juni nach Madrid, um zusammen mit dem Kollegen Sierra Rodriguez die aussichtsreichsten Bewerber kennenzulernen. Acht junge Akademiker wurden eingeladen, sechs erschienen. Drei von ihnen, zwei Entwickler und ein Berater, werden nun als Junior-Angestellte ins Unternehmen einsteigen.

Gonzalo Sierra Rodriguez ahnt, was auf seine neuen Kollegen zukommt. "Der Start in einem neuen Land ist nie leicht", sagt er. Er selbst brauchte ein knappes Jahr, um nach seiner Ankunft in Deutschland die feste Anstellung bei der abat AG zu ergattern. Seine neuen Kollegen hätten da einen klaren Vorteil, sagt er. "Sie haben eine feste Jobzusage und damit eine sichere Perspektive für ihre Zukunft." Um den neuen Kollegen den Einstieg zu erleichtern, werden ihnen Senior-Berater als Mentoren zur Seite stehen. Zudem gibt es eine Firmenwohnung, in der sie für eine Übergangszeit wohnen können.

Abat-Chef Meisterknecht will in Spanien nach weiteren Bewerbern suchen, diesmal aber nach Leuten mit Berufserfahrung. Die gleiche Idee haben derweil auch andere deutsche Unternehmen. Erst im Juni organisierte die AHK zusammen mit der Robert Bosch GmbH in Barcelona und Madrid Seminare zum Thema Berufsmobilität. Über 250 Ingenieure nahmen daran teil. Im Anschluss gab es Auswahlgespräche zwischen deutschen Unternehmen und den spanischen Ingenieuren.

Quelle: ZEIT ONLINE

Adresse: http://www.zeit.de/wirtschaft/unternehmen/2011-07/abat-spanien-fachkraefte/komplettansicht

http://www.zeit.de/wirtschaft/unternehmen/2011-07/abat-spanien-fachkraefte/komplettansicht

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6.18.2 Article „German fever in southern Europe?”

German fever in southern Europe?

Author: Helen Whittle

Editor: Kristin Zeier

Statistics show an increase in the number of German language learners in European states hit hardest by the economic crisis. The situation could prove beneficial to Germany suffering from a shortage of skilled labor.

New figures released by the Goethe Institute show a significant increase in the number of young people attending German language classes in southern Europe. In Spain, the number of students increased by 35 percent in the period 2010-2011, compared to 20 percent in Portugal and 14 percent in Italy.

Media outlets in Germany have reported what they describe as a wave of "German fever" spreading in those states hardest hit by the economic crisis.

"There is a real Germany fever in Spain right now," Zoraida Guijarro Cayuela, a Spanish journalist living in Germany, told Berlin's Tagesspiegel newspaper in an article published under the headline: "Welcome to Germany, welcome to unemployment benefits".

Guijarro Cayuela predicted that Germany was likely to be hit by a huge wave of immigration from Spain, where youth unemployment is up to almost 50 percent. Germany, on the other hand, is suffering from a skills shortage in the labor market. In December 2011 the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce estimated that a total of 1.3 million jobs remained unable to be filled in Germany due to a lack of skilled workers. It is a situation which could prove to be mutually beneficial for both countries.

Spain's former Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero with Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2011

Skills shortage

When she visited the then Spanish Premier José Luis Zapatero in Madrid in May last year, German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke of 100,000 jobs for qualified engineers and talked of the shortage of skilled workers in Germany. While the figures she quoted were later retracted, the message was clear: "Germany needs you!"

Pablo Cavero Laman is one example of a skilled Spaniard finding work in Germany. The 26-year-old studied engineering in Berlin and after failing to find work in his native Spain, he managed to find a permanent job in Germany - something he described as akin to winning the lottery.

"In Spain, Germany is sold as some kind of paradise. People believe that the dream jobs fall from the sky. Some believe it is possible to apply for a job just like they do in Spain. But the work culture is totally different," he told the "Süddeutsche Zeitung".

Data released by the Federal Statistical Office late last year showed immigration from Spain had risen by 49 percent between 2010 and the first half of 2011. The number of Greek immigrants had risen by 84 percent.

83

Some 17,000 Spanish job seekers, a large number of whom are engineers, registered at the International Placement Services of the Federal Employment Agency in early 2011 with the hope of finding work in Germany.

Benefits withdrawn

As some newspaper headlines suggest, Germans are worried about a possible influx of immigrants into the unemployment benefit system. The number of Spanish jobless in Berlin rose by 60 percent between 2010 and 2011.

In concrete terms, the numbers remain relatively small. 567 Spanish citizens are registered as seeking work in Berlin, although those enrolled in German language courses or other training schemes are not included in the statistics.

In a move interpreted by critics as a pre-emptive measure to curb immigration from southern European countries, Germany last month stopped unemployment benefits for all non-German citizens unless they meet a specific set of requirements. These include having been resident in Germany for over five years, earning more than a marginal income or facing persecution or threat in their country of origin.

The German economy is suffering from a shortage of skilled workers, particularly in the field of engineering

Rejection of solidarity?

The decision to prevent foreigners from EU states from getting unemployment benefits was meant to prevent preferential treatment for those from the early wave of EU integration, including member states such as France, Great Britain, Greece and Spain.

But critics have condemned the move as a one-sided rejection of European solidarity on the part of the German government. There is also concern that the new regulations could discourage skilled workers from coming to Germany.

Christina Wendt, a spokesperson for the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, told DW that the controversy surrounding the changes was without foundation. She explained that EU citizens were never entitled to unemployment benefits in Germany until a legal case launched by a French citizen in 2009 determined it possible.

"That ruling was in effect for less than one year from 2010 to December 2011, during which time the number of foreigners applying for unemployment benefits actually sank. The new amendments affect a tiny percentage of people applying for unemployment benefits," said Wendt.

For now, fears of a wave of immigration placing a strain on the German welfare system remain unfounded. Berlin's mayor and Social Democrat Party member Klaus Wowereit has also dismissed the concerns.

"The majority of young people who want to come to Germany in light of the current situation, do not intend to live on the level of unemployment benefits," he told the Rheinische Post newspaper.

Source: DW.de

Adress: http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,15826966_page_0,00.html

http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,15826966_page_0,00.html

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6.18.3 Article „Eurokrise und die Folgen“

Eurokrise und die Folgen Junge Spanier fliehen vor der Arbeitslosigkeit

Autor: Carola Brand

Stand: 23.01.2012

Deutschland hat Konjunktur. Die Wirtschaft brummt und das macht unser Land zum Sehnsuchtsort für Zuwanderer aus dem krisengeschüttelten Südeuropa. Allein aus Spanien kamen im vergangenen Jahr über 20.000 Menschen in die Bundesrepublik. Sie fliehen vor der Arbeitslosigkeit, die in Spanien zuletzt auf knapp 25 Prozent gestiegen ist. Das ist der höchste Wert in der Europäischen Union. Noch düsterer ist die Situation der Jugendlichen. Jeder zweite Spanier unter 25 hat keinen Job.

Sehnsuchtsort Deutschland:: Junge Spanier fliehen vor der

Arbeitslosigkeit

Die Neu-Kollegen aus Südeuropa kommen hoch motiviert und oft bestens vorbereitet. Schon vor ihrer Ausreise schreiben sich Spanier zu tausenden beim Goethe-Institut ein, um Deutsch zu lernen. Das Kulturinstitut der Bundesrepublik verzeichnet an seinen fünf Standorten auf der iberischen Halbinsel die höchsten Zuwachsraten weltweit.

"Es sind vor allem junge Leute, die sich für unsere Kurse interessieren. Nicht, weil sie Goethe und Schiller im Original lesen möchten, sondern weil sie im Beruf weiterkommen wollen." Klaus-Dieter Lehmann, Präsident des Goethe-Instituts

Schuldenkrise Spanien herabgestuft

Und weil sie auf der Suche nach einer Zukunft sind, die ihnen in ihrem eigenen Land verbaut scheint. Wie schon im Mai 2011 gehen auch in diesen Wochen wieder Spanier auf die Straße, um gegen die Arbeitslosigkeit, die Politik der

etablierten Parteien und gegen die Macht der Banken zu demonstrieren. Den Protesten der empörten Jugend schließen sich mittlerweile auch Rentner an. Iaioflautas nennt sich eine Gruppe von Senioren, die um die Zukunft ihrer Enkel fürchtet. Mit gewaltlosen Aktionen in Ministerien oder in Bussen erobern die spanischen Omas und Opas die Sympathien der Öffentlichkeit.

Tapas gegen Heimweh

Doch während die einen noch protestieren, sind die anderen im deutschen Alltag angekommen. Sie finden Arbeit als Ingenieure oder in der Altenpflege, wundern sich über die vielen Regeln in Deutschland und freuen sich über den regelmäßigen Lohn, der oft doppelt so hoch ist wie im Heimatland. „Hier ist mein Studium mehr wert―, sagt Miguel, der seit fast einem Jahr als Ingenieur in Deutschland arbeitet. Der 26-jährige mag das Leben hier. Er kann sich vorstellen für immer zu bleiben. Und wenn ihn doch mal das Heimweh plagt, dann findet er in den Tapas Bars von München genügend Landsleute, die wie er sein Glück in der Fremde gesucht haben.

Quelle: Radio Bayern 2

Adresse: http://www.br.de/radio/bayern2/sendungen/notizbuch/eurokrise-spanier-deutschland100.html

85

6.19 Visualized Strategy of Shebabco

86

87

6.20 SWOT Analysis


SWOT - Project Analysis Project Manager: Nha To

Strengths

Weaknesses

Shebabco is already present at the

Spanish market Recruitment of skilled and motivated

employees Spain is an EU country – Spanish

impats are not restricted by impediments

We can offer them better working conditions than in Spain and a safe working place

We can offer them incentives Look and see trips can help us to find

out, if the applicants fit to our company

Spanish impats will suffer from

culture shocks and integration problems

Language problems They may lack needed qualifications Maybe we cannot fulfill all the

expectations – maybe they cannot fulfill all of our expectations

Opportunities

Threats

Bad condition of the Spanish labour

market High unemployment rate in Spain –

most of the under 25-year-olds are unemployed

New reform on the Spanish labour market causes strikes – people are frustrated and more willing to move to Germany

Spanish people are attracted to work in Germany

Group Nr. 4 - our competitor Local companies, which want to

recruit the same target groups as Shebabco

88

6.21 European Union membership

European Union Membership1:

"Being a part of the European Union makes you a part of the single market, which is a

common market and customs union between the member countries. The single market

involves the free movement of the following 3 important aspects:

1. Free movement of goods: goods can be moved freely throughout member countries.

The only restriction that may be placed on a good is when there is a risk, such a public

health risk, environment, or consumer protection.

2. Free movement of capital: allows investments to move between countries without any

additional cost. These investments include things such as property purchases and

buying shares between countries. In 2005 the Commission of the EU completed the

legislative phase of an action plan aimed at developing a true European-wide market in

financial services and is now trying to put a new strategy in place to deepen financial

integration and deliver further benefits to industry and consumers alike among England

and the other countries.

3. Free movement of services: allows citizens to move, to work, to live, and to

retire in any member country that they wish. This was introduced in 1993 with the

concept of Community Citizenship amongst the countries of the EU.

Along with the free movement of these things, the countries of the EU all instill the same

external tariff on all the goods entering their market. Once the goods are in the target

market, they cannot be taxed any further than they already have."

1 http://internationalbusiness.wikia.com/wiki/England_Trade_barriers_strengths/weaknesses

http://internationalbusiness.wikia.com/wiki/England_Trade_barriers_strengths/weaknesses

89

6.22 Spain – Country Analysis

Country analysis: Spain

Focus: Economical facts

1. General facts:

Full name: Kingdom of Spain

Population: 46.4 million (UN 2011)

Capital: Madrid

Area: 505,988 sq km (195,363 sq

miles)

Major languages: Spanish (Castilian),

Catalan and its variant Valencian,

Gallego (Galician), Euskera (Basque)

Major religion: Christianity

Life expectancy: 79 years (men), 85 years (women) (UN)

Monetary unit: 1 euro = 100 cents

Main exports: Transport equipment, agricultural products

GNI per capita: US $31,750 (World Bank, 2010)

Internet domain: .es

International dialling code: +34

90

2. Economy:2

Basic economic facts (all figures 2009 unless stated):

GDP: €268.850 millions (Q4 2011)

GDP per head: €20,106 (2010)

Sectors contribution to GDP (2010):

2.42% Agriculture

2.98% Energy

11.79% Industry

10.92% Construction

41.34% Services

Annual growth: 0.7% (2011)

Inflation: 2.0% (January 2012)

Unemployment: Unemployment in Spain rose to 22.8 % in Q4 2011

Major industries: agriculture, fishing, construction, wine, cement, chemicals,

engineering, petroleum refining, forestry and timber, iron and steel automobiles, textiles,

telecommunications

Major trading partners: EU, Latin America

Total Exports: +16.3% (2011)

Total Imports: +10.4% (2011)

3. Employment crisis: 3

As for employment, a longtime weakness of the Spanish economy, after having

completed large improvements over the second half of the 1990s and during the 2000s

(decade), which put a few regions on the brink of full employment, Spain suffered a

severe setback from October 2008, when it saw its unemployment rate surging to 1996

levels. During the period October 2007-October 2008 Spain had its unemployment rate

2 http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-living-abroad/travel-advice-by-country/country-

profile/europe/spain/?profile=all (Foreign and commonwealth office – country profile spain)

3 http://www.wikiwealth.com/swot-weakness:unemployment-surge

http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-living-abroad/travel-advice-by-country/country-profile/europe/spain/?profile=all

http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-living-abroad/travel-advice-by-country/country-profile/europe/spain/?profile=all

http://www.wikiwealth.com/swot-weakness:unemployment-surge

91

climbing 37%, exceeding by far the unemployment surge of past economic crises like

1993. In particular, during the month of October 2008, Spain feared its worst

unemployment rise ever recorded and, so far, the country is suffering Europe's biggest

unemployment crisis.

By July 2009, it had shed 1.2 million jobs in one year and was to have the same number

of jobless as France and Italy combined. Spain's unemployment rate hit 17.4% at the

end of March, with the jobless total having doubled over the previous 12 months, when

two million people lost their jobs; with the oversized building and housing related

industries contributing greatly to the rising unemployment numbers. In this same month,

Spain for the first time in its history had over 4,000,000 people unemployed, an

especially shocking figure even for a country which had become used to grim

unemployment data. Although rapidly slowing, immigration continued throughout 2008

despite the escalating unemployment crisis, worsening the situation. In 2009 some

established immigrants began to leave, although many that did continued to maintain

homes in Spain due to poor conditions in their country of origin.

Some critics say the Spanish labor market is too rigid, preventing employers from

removing unproductive employees and putting upward pressure on unemployment as

employers are wary of taking risks on new hires. Others, however, note the lack of

protection afforded workers attached to temporary contracts, which facilitate lay-offs and

mass unemployment, especially among young workers.

92

3. The Spanish labor market:4

The unemployment rate has reached 23%

Most of the unemployed are between 25 and 44 years old, every second one of

them has no job

51% of the unemployed are

female

Spain's unemployment rate is

the highest in the EU, hitting

young job-seekers especially

hard

Mass protests have been held

across Spain against the

conservative government's labour market reforms

There was anger at a labour reform law that cuts severance pay and gives

employers more flexibility over jobs

On 10 February the government of Mariano Rajoy approved a law reducing

maximum severance pay to 33 days' salary for each year worked, compared with

the current 45 days

The government insists the reforms will create a more flexible system for

businesses and workers, in a country with a stagnant economy that needs to

start creating jobs

4http://ec.europa.eu/eures/main.jsp?catId=2627&countryId=ES&acro=lmi&lang=de&regionId=ES0&nuts2

Code= &nuts3Code=&regionName=Nationale Ebene

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17090994

93

6.23 Spain – PESTEL Analysis

PESTEL-Analysis Spain: Extracts regarding the Economy5

Key findings

The current economic downslide began in 2007 following a housing market crash, and has worsened in 2009 ―The country's economic growth lost its momentum and began to decline in the second half of 2007. The Spanish economy‘s excessive dependence on real estate was exacerbated by the impact of global financial turbulence and the US sub-prime crisis, as the speculative price rises in the real estate market and the property boom came to an end. The economic crisis deepened following weak domestic demand and rising inflation. Spain‘s economic growth came down to reach 1.1% in 2008 and it contracted by 3.7% in 2009. Although the government recorded a budget surplus in 2007, the economic downturn has pushed it into a deficit during 2008 and 2009. The government has announced numerous packages with the intention of increasing liquidity in the system. In addition, the global financial crisis has made access to credit tighter, which is expected to slow down the process of economic recovery. However, unless these packages are implemented well it is feared that the recessionary affect will continue in 2010 (…).‖ ―The economy, after continuing to grow for 13 years at an average rate of around 4%, began to decline in 2007. The economy‘s weak foundation of growth was revealed when the real estate market, which was the major driver of the economy, crashed in 2007. It is feared that the recessionary conditions may continue in 2010, despite a number of government measures to stimulate it. Although the government undertook measures to revamp the regulatory system in order to further industrial activities and increase competition, it has failed to achieve the desired results and the state continues to intervene in economic matters. The deceleration will continue due to weak domestic demand. The Spanish economy may be even more damaged going forward as its social sector is dominated by the issue of an aging population and a shrinking labor force. The high levels of unemployment also continue to worry the government (…).‖ Economic analysis Overview The Spanish economy has been on a downturn since the later part of 2007, which follows a period of continued growth lasting 13 years. The economy, which was underdeveloped until the 1980s, was liberalized after Spain became a member of the EU in 1986. Subsequently, the government undertook a number of economic reform programs and initiated measures to improve fiscal discipline in order to meet the objectives set under the Maastricht Treaty. Spain‘s economy showed steady progress

5 http://prendasinteligentes.wikispaces.com/file/view/spain+environment.pdf

http://prendasinteligentes.wikispaces.com/file/view/spain+environment.pdf

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during the 1990s, driven primarily by mass tourism and European subsidies. In fact, since the mid- 1990s, Spain outperformed the rest of the Eurozone, particularly the larger countries. The average economic growth between 1997 and 2000 was above 4%, but declined to 2.7%–3% during 2002–03. Although, the average economic growth increased to 3.54% during 2004–06, it came down to 0.4% during 2007–09. The economic growth lost its momentum and a decline began in the second half of 2007. In 2008, the country's economic growth declined to 1.1%. The speculative price rise in the real estate market and the property boom came to an end. The Spanish economy‘s excessive dependence on the real estate sector has been exacerbated by the impact of global financial turbulence and the US sub-prime crisis. The economic crisis deepened following weak domestic demand and rising inflation. However, since the second half of 2008 with declining prices, the country went into deflation (-3% in 2009). The government‘s budget also ran into a deficit in 2008 and 2009. Exports have also come under pressure because of deteriorating economic conditions in major markets. Analysis of Spain’s economy Current strengths EU membership The economy of Spain has become closely integrated with the EU. As a result, the government is committed to maintain fiscal and monetary stability, as required by the Maastricht Treaty. The government is on track with respect to product market liberalization. A limited degree of competition has been introduced with respect to energy, electricity, and telecommunications markets. The country also enjoys geographic advantages as it provides an easy gateway to both European and Latin American markets. These factors work in favor of improving the trade and investment climate in Spain. Furthermore, with Spain taking over the EU presidency has much higher influence over the economic prospects of the region. Strong FDI flows Despite the economic slowdown in the EU region, Spain continued to absorb foreign direct inflows into the country. The country‘s FDI increased from a level of $28 billion in 2001 to more than $65 billion in 2008. The Netherlands was responsible for 20% of FDI inflow into Spain in 2007–08. The UK and the US were responsible for 6.65% and 4.95% of investment, respectively, during the same year. Telecoms, real estate, hotels, manufacturing, and the agro-foods industry witnessed a large amount of FDI inflow. According to UNCTAD, Spain is the 7th most attractive country in the world for investment. Despite current recession in the country, it is expected that the country would still get considerable amount of FDIs.

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Current challenges Economic recession The Spanish economy recorded steady growth for 13 years until 2006, but the rate of growth has declined since the second half of 2007. The decline started with the bursting of the housing bubble and the conditions worsened with the deteriorating US sub-prime crisis. The housing sector was one of the significant drivers of the Spanish economy, accounting for more than 9% of the country‘s GDP in 2007. During 2001–06 property prices doubled, with 60% of the increase coming during 2005–06 alone. However, since 2007 property prices have fallen and it is estimated that prices declined by a further 8% during 2008–09. The slump in the housing sector has spread to both manufacturing and services sectors, with business confidence survey results indicating a negative trend. Spain suffered the greatest drop in annual economic growth of all developed nations, with growth falling to 1.1% in 2008 and -3.7% in 2009. Furthermore, the GDP is expected to shrink by 0.8% in 2010. There are little chances of an early revival, as consumption and investment expenditure will remain poor and exports will also be undermined by the slump in international markets. High unemployment The Spanish government faces the major economic challenges of high unemployment and falling inflation since the end of 2008. An economic slowdown has led to a downturn in industrial activities and the level of unemployment has continued to rise. From a high of 20% in 1990, the unemployment level had fallen to 9% in 2006, but increased again to 18% in 2009– 10. By the end of 2009, nearly 4 million people were unemployed, resulting in a year-on-year increase in unemployment reaching 66.4%. The employment situation may further deteriorate, as estimates suggest that unemployment is expected to reach 19.3% by the end of 2010. Unless structural measures are undertaken to improve the labor market, there is a possibility of an increase in unemployment. Decrease in spending Due to economic recession and loss of jobs, the consumer spending has come down in the country. Furthermore, consumers are unable to maintain previous levels of spending, given that they can no longer finance as many purchases through loans. Lending to households fell by 0.7% year on year in the final quarter of 2009, the third consecutive quarter of decline, which was much lower than 3.8% growth seen in 2008. There has also been an increase in instances of domestic indebtedness and reduced spending, further aggravating the economic slump. Future prospects Austerity plan The Spanish government announced an austerity plan for 2011–13 and a revised Stability Programme to the European Commission for 2009–13, which projects a significant decline in the general government budget deficit and includes a "sustainable economy" program—first announced in November 2009—that aims to improve Spain's competitiveness over the next ten years. The stability plan acknowledges the rapid and

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unsustainable deterioration in the government‘s fiscal position over the past two years, and sets out details of an exit strategy, beginning this year. The plan lays outs a framework to reduce the deficit by an average of 2.1 percentage points of GDP per year between 2010 and 2013—an effort that will be particularly challenging this year, when the risk of undermining a tentative and fragile economic recovery will be substantial. Moreover, the government's GDP forecasts look plainly optimistic given existing economic imbalances and the anticipated hit to domestic demand from higher taxes and lower spending. Liberalization of government dominated service sectors In line with the EU directives, sectors which have been government dominated are now being opened for private investment. The government has introduced measures to liberalize services sectors such as energy, telecommunications and transport. Despite privatization, private entities are finding it tough to compete with publicly owned organizations because of government policies. It is expected that with the introduction of competition policies, the services sectors will throw up more opportunities for investors. Future risks Labor market rigidities and unrealistic wage hikes The government‘s regulations have led to much rigidity in the labor market. Inflexible employment regulations have hindered overall productivity growth and employment opportunities. Moreover, the existing rigidities in hiring and firing a worker have made employers cautious in providing employment. According to Doing Business 2010 indicators of the World Bank, the country is ranked 157th out of 183 countries under the Employing Workers criteria, signifying a very strict labor regime. There have also been unrealistic wage hikes, which are unmatched by labor productivity. The decision to link wages to price index has imparted inflexibility to the labor market, as it is not related to improvements in productivity. It is likely to further deteriorate in the absence of significant measures to revamp the labor market. Prolonged recovery period following global financial crisis The Spanish economy has become closely integrated with the global economy. As a result, the turbulence in the global financial market has adversely affected the Spanish economy. The crisis has made access to credit tighter, which is a serious concern for an economy with excessive dependence on loans. Like many other European banks, large Spanish banks have found themselves embroiled in a crisis, which necessitated the central bank‘s intervention. In March 2009, the Bank of Spain took control of regional savings bank Caja Castilla La Mancha (CCM), replacing its directors with its own nominees and providing up to E9.0 billion in liquidity. Spanish banks have not been nationalized like banks in other European countries as strict regulations protected them from US high risk or "sub-prime" assets. Nevertheless, the number of non-performing loans has been increasing in Spain following a rapid rise in unemployment and the collapse of the property boom. In such a scenario, there will be a slowdown in lending, which will prolong the recovery process.

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