Advanced International Business and Management (Dual Award)

Advanced International Business and

Management (Dual Award)

To what extent can a multinational company

standardize its human resource policies across

countries: A case study of a UK ice-cream

manufacturer.

Jessica Farr

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Abstract:

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Index Page:

Chapter 2 - Literature Review: ... 9

Chapter 3 - Methodology: ... 20

Chapter 4 - Results and Discussion: ... 26

Chapter 5 – Conclusion:... 50

References: ... 52

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List of Appendices:

Appendix A: Interview Transcript - R&R Ice-Cream Group HR Director . . . .56

Appendix B - Interview Transcript, HR Manager Roncadin Germany . . . .66

Appendix C - Interview Transcript - HR Manager, Roncadin France . . . .70

Appendix D - Interview Transcript, HR Manager, Rolland, France . . . 75

Appendix E – Interview Transcript - HR Manager Roncadin, Poland . . . 79

Appendix F - Employee Questionnaire Cover Email/Letter . . . 82

Appendix G – Employee Questionnaire . . . .83

Appendix H – Questionnaire Results –Roncadin, France . . . 87

Appendix I – Questionnaire Results –Roncadin, Germany . . . 91

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List of Figures:

Figure 1.1 Evidence of Announced Mergers and Acquisitions Worldwide 1985-2010 . . . 7

Figure 1.2 Evidence of Announced Mergers and Acquisitions in Europe 1995-2010 . . . . 8

Figure 3.1 The formation of R&R Ice-Cream . . . 21

Figure 4.1 Questionnaire Responses . . . 26

Figure 4.2 Percentage level of change for a selection of HR policies in France . . . 31

Figure 4.3 Percentage level of change for a selection of HR policies in Poland . . . 32

Figure 4.4 Percentage level of change for a selection of HR policies in Germany . . . 32

Figure 4.5 Percentage level of change for a selection of HR policies in France . . . 35

Figure 4.6 Percentage level of change in a selection of HR policies in Poland . . . 35

Figure 4.7 Percentage level of change in a selection of HR policies in Germany . . . 36

Figure 4.8 Methods of communication used to inform employees in France . . . 39

Figure 4.9 Methods of communication used to inform employees in Poland . . . 40

Figure 4.10 Methods of communication used to inform employees in Germany . . . 40

Figure 4.11 Percentage levels of satisfaction of employees in France . . . 42

Figure 4.12 Percentage levels of satisfaction of employees in Poland . . . 43

Figure 4.13 Percentage levels of satisfaction of employees in Germany . . . 44

Figure 4.14 Percentage levels of satisfaction across the three countries . . . 45

Figure 4.15 Level of change to working conditions in France . . . 45

Figure 4.16 Level of change to working conditions in Poland . . . 46

Figure 4.17 Level of change to working conditions in Germany . . . 46

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Acknowledgements:

Firstly, a big thank you must go to Professor John Leopold of Newcastle University and Professor Luchien Karsten of Groningen University for their guidance and support throughout the process of conducting this piece of research.

Secondly, I take this opportunity to thank Peter Pickthall of R&R Ice-Cream to whom I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to use R&R Ice-Cream as the case study for my thesis and for allowing me to collect my primary data from the company. My thanks to Siegfried Rodefeld, Nicolas Bosson, Sandrine Le Gall and Janusz Szwaracki for kindly agreeing to participate in interviews and for their invaluable help in distributing the employee

questionnaires. I also appreciate all the R&R employees who took the time to complete the survey.

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Chapter 1 - Introduction:

‘A cursory glance at the EU will at once reveal a multitude of economic, political, social, cultural and institutional differences co-existing against a backdrop of a desire for

harmonization’ (Morley, 2004: 353). This statement reflects one of the key issues challenging multi-national businesses in the increasingly competitive global market place. On the one hand is the convergence view which argues that as a result of globalisation and the increased numbers of multi-national corporations (MNC) that there is a movement towards

‘homogenous organisational configurations in terms of strategy, structure and

management’(Millmore et al, 2007:207). This acknowledges market, managerial and

technological pressures felt by MNCs to adopt common policies and strategies across borders (Quintanilla and Ferner, 2003: 363). The advantage of a movement towards global

standardised human resource policies is ‘consistency, transparency and an alignment of a geographically fragmented workforce’ (Dowling et al, 2008: 217).

In contrast is the divergence view which maintains that religion, laws, language, political systems and education continue to differ between countries and as a consequence cultures will continue to be individual and different. An increasingly diverse workforce within multi-national companies reflects the need to appreciate the implications of multi-national culture within organisational human resource practices (Millmore et al, 2007:207). In order to remain competitive in a truly globalised world MNCs are required to integrate these two opposing forces (Pudelko and Harzing, 2008: 395). Thus the conflicting nature of these two forces provides the backdrop for the subsequent topic of discussion within this thesis which will focus on the human resources aspect in an MNC. Firstly an overview of the issues that arise as a result of the convergence versus divergence debate at a company level will be given followed by a literature review that takes a more in-depth look from the human resource management perspective.

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(1969) describes three types of multinational companies, firstly ethnocentric companies who adhere to the MNC’s home country policies. Secondly polycentric companies who follow local practices and lastly global companies who chose to employ the best people in key positions, irrespective of nationality and therefore take a worldwide approach (Rosenweig and Nohria, 1994: 229). However Perlmutter’s categories could be said to be too simplistic and do not take account of external influences on MNCs that may make their approach not so clear cut. Rosenweig and Nohria (1994) also criticise the categories due to the lack of

‘internal differentiation of management practices’ (p. 229) showing that the decision process of localisation or standardisation is complex and can depend upon the individual policies and practices in question. Pudelko and Harzing (2008) go further to state that ethnocentric

approaches to management are ‘no longer sustainable in today’s globalised environment’ (p. 402). Sisson (2001:5) argues that the divergence – convergence debate should not be about one or the other but the interaction between local, national and international influences (in Quintanilla and Ferner, 2003: 363).

One of the reasons that this issue has become a popular debated topic is due to the fact that many businesses have chosen to compete in the competitive global market place by pursuing a growth strategy of both domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions. Merger mania began in the 1980s and merger and acquisition (M&A) activity has occurred throughout Europe in waves with the most recent wave taking place from 2003-2007 (Kummer and Steger, 2008:45).

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Figure 1.2 Evidence of Announced Mergers and Acquisitions in Europe 1995-2010

Source: http://www.imaa-institute.org/statistics-mergers-acquisitions.html

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not always be possible and therefore the emphasis of this thesis will be to explore further this challenge facing companies.

Chapter 2 - Literature Review:

The subject of this thesis will be focused on the influences that play a role in shaping a firm’s intention to implement standardised human resource policies and the extent to which this can be achieved. Simultaneously considered will be the extent to which firms have to adhere to country restrictions that require a localisation approach in the integration process. Many academics have recognised the significantly more complicated process that human resource departments face when trying to standardise practices across countries (Mayrhofer et al, 2011, Brewster and Tregaski, 2003). This can be attributed to the local environment which will dictate different responses in terms of legal, political, cultural, economic and social issues (Millmore et al, 2007: 90) and therefore impacts upon the ability to implement

standardised human resource policies and practices. This debate has been discussed by many as the ‘country of origin’ versus the ‘host country’ effect. Thus the main question asked is to what extent is a multinational corporation able to implement its own human resource policies into subsidiaries taking into consideration potentially colliding influences from the host country?

Human resources (HR) is an interesting area to consider because on the one hand HR policies and practices have the ability to act as ‘mechanisms for coordination and control of

international operations’ and are able to shape the company’s organisational culture which would suggest a move towards a more standardised approach across a company. However human resource policies also constitute a serious restraint when MNCs try to introduce global strategies due to ‘complexities involved in employing and managing people from disparate national and cultural backgrounds’ (Myloni, Harzing and Mirza, 2004: 3).

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only the implementation of the headquarters’ policies to subsidiaries but also the

internalisation and integration, in simple terms the extent to which the headquarters’ policies have been accepted, adopted and approved of by the employees of the subsidiary. The transferred practice may not always have the desired effect wanted by the headquarters (p. 321).

Reasons for standardizing human resources practices:

Before considering the extent to which MNCs are able to implement headquarters’ practices in subsidiaries it is first necessary to contemplate the reasons for standardisation and the potential benefits that may be attained through the implementation of a standardised human resources company policy. A key reason for imposing headquarters practices into acquired subsidiaries may be due to the success of existing MNC policies. If certain policies and practices have proven to be effective then there may be a desire to replicate these particularly if the existing HR policies and practices are perceived to be weak or inefficient. (Dickmann, 2003: 268). A further motivation to implement headquarters policies is to try to create a common corporate culture throughout the company as a whole.

Linked to this, is the idea that one collective human resource policy will enhance equality and a sense of fairness throughout the company (Bjorkman and Lervick, 2007: 320). Farndale and Paauwe (2007) further state that having a universal approach to human resource practices ‘creates cross-border equity and comparability and alignment of systems internationally’ (p. 336). If employees feel that they are being treated equally this encourages good employee relations and a positive reputation for the company (Dickmann, 2003: 268). Standardisation of human resource policies may be applied when an MNC is following a global business strategy that focuses on integration around a specific set of human resources policies and practices for example a quality centred strategy (Dickmann, 2003: 268). ‘A centralised approach gives pre-eminence to the needs of the corporation as a whole and endeavours to deliver a cost effective, standardised version of human resourcing’ (Walsh and Doughty, 2009: 294).

Reasons for localisation of human resource practices:

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impact upon relations with subsidiary employees (Walsh and Doughty, 2009: 294). In order to avoid this issue MNCs could choose to adjust to local human resource practices to gain legitimacy and acceptance from the host country employees, government and institutions (Myloni, Harzing and Mirza, 2004: 8). As Edwards et al (2006) pointed out complications may arise when changing or replacing pre-existing employment practices with substantially different headquarters practices (p. 70). Rather than standardising policies, MNCs may

benefit from a localised approach to human resource policies as by giving the subsidiary local autonomy over their policies they can ensure a quicker response to specific subsidiary issues that might arise. Furthermore local autonomy means that human resource practices can be designed specifically to meet the needs of the business unit. In addition to this, local decision making can promote a feeling of ownership of tasks which in turn can generate greater staff commitment to the organisation (Walsh and Doughty, 2009: 294).

Factors affecting the implementation of headquarters’ policies:

Previous research has highlighted a number of key influences upon the ability of MNCs to standardise their human resource policies across several countries. One of the influences identified is ‘the host country’s business systems and their institutions which can either facilitate or inhibit the transfer’ (Myloni, Harzing and Mirza, 2004:7). Institutions can be defined as ‘the rules, norms and assumptions that shape economic activity, structure and the choices of organisational actors’ (Edwards, Collings and Ferner, 2007: 203). Dickmann (2003) mentioned four key institutional areas that influence organisational behaviour; the state, the industrial relations system, the financial system and the business environment (p. 266). It can be suggested that countries who have dissimilar institutions will find it

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Further explanation comes from the cultural school of thought who attribute constraints in implementing a standardised human resource policy to differences in values and attitudes between parent and host countries. MNCs’ headquarters will most likely be embedded in the national culture of the home country which will influence their choice of policies and

practices. However, as a result of this, problems may be experienced trying to introduce these human resource policies and practices into a subsidiary in a different country due to contrasts in the culture of the subsidiary country. It should be remembered that the same policies will not necessarily produce the same effects in different cultural contexts (Schneider and

Barsoux, 1997: 128 in Walsh and Doughty, 2009). Researchers such as Hofstede and studies such as the GLOBE project have made profound attempts in distinguishing between national cultures and trying to capture the elements that make them similar or different from each other. The argument made is that ‘the effectiveness of a determined practice is contingent on its coincidence with the national system of values’ (Hofstede, 1980 in Susaeta and Pin, 2008: 7). As Myloni et al (2004) states, ‘the degree of cultural impact on human resource

management (HRM) practices differs according to the specific practice subsequently affecting their level of transfer’ (p. 8). However, too much emphasis may be placed on employees’ national culture at the expense of their subcultures (Walsh and Doughty, 2009: 297). The weakness of this approach is that it rarely provides a conclusive account of the foundations of these national effects and of how they develop (Edwards, Collings and Ferner, 2007: 203).

An additional aspect that has captured academics’ attention is the ‘micro political approach’ which focuses on how employees interact in order to protect or advance their own interests and the resources they use (Edwards, Collings and Ferner, 2007: 203). Ferner et al (2004) find evidence supporting the notion that the degree of centralisation ‘may be seen as a

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In order to fully comprehend the factors that influence whether a firm can standardise its human resource policies across borders or whether it is unable to, it could be argued that all of the above factors should be recognised. It can be said that these three approaches are interdependent as the ability of actors to resist corporate policies is to a certain extent shaped by the institutional context in which they are embedded and the national institutions are shaped by national cultures (Dickmann, 2003: 84). The potentially complicated nature of integrating a subsidiary requires a multi-faced approach to understand the process.

This research will be based upon the case study of a single company with headquarters based in the UK and subsidiaries in Germany, France and Poland. Human resource management in Europe has been seen as an interesting platform for considering the debate between

convergence and divergence. On the one hand it could be argued that the European Union represents a movement towards convergence due to the ‘creation of common institutional structures and regulation through the institutionalisation of supra-national rules governing the social, economic and political life of member states’(Mayrhofer et al, 2011: 51). However evidence also points to the continuing divergence of member states due to ‘the substantial amount of cultural and institutional differences in terms of language, legal regulations and cultural heritage’ (Mayrhofer et al, 2011: 51). Therefore the focus will be upon how the similarities and differences between the countries affect or influence the ability of the British headquarters to form a single corporate human resources policy across borders. This research intends to build upon previous studies done on this topic.

Liberal Market Economies and Co-ordinated Market Economies:

One of the major distinctions between countries can be seen through dividing them based on the institutions characterising their financial and labour market systems: ‘liberal market economies’ (LMEs) and ‘co-ordinated market economies’ (CMEs). These provide a good starting point to begin considering how the differences between countries may affect the balance between localisation and standardisation of MNC’s human resource policies. LMEs can be said to be less constrained by institutions than CMEs as they are based upon

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strong influence of state intervention through employment laws. Examples of countries within the CME category are Germany, Japan, Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries (Aquilera and Dencker, 2004, Fenton-O’Creevy et al, 2008). According to Hall and

Gingerich’s (2004) co-ordination index it can be said that the UK is a pure example of a LME and Germany is a pure example of a CME. France is considered to be more towards the CME end of the spectrum (Fenton-O’Creevy et al, 2008: 153). Poland is not included in the

original study by Hall and Gingerich. Therefore it can be argued that the differences in the focus of the business systems in each country will inevitably affect the attitudes towards approaches to human resource management. This will have the consequential impact of shifting the ability of MNCs to standardise their human resource policies depending upon which countries are required to comply together.

Employee Representative Bodies:

As mentioned above co-ordinated market economies tend to be more constrained by institutions and one of these institutions comes in the form of employee representation and participation. There are distinct differences between EU member states in the extent to which information and consultation practices between firms and their employees are legally

required (Wood and Fenton-O’Creevy, 2005: 32). The two main forms of employee representation are trade unions and works councils in Europe. Although all countries have both these forms, there are dissimilarities in their role and importance. In France works councils are required in all firms employing over fifty people. Despite the fact that they have very little decision making power it is obligatory that they are consulted (Goetschy and Jobert, 2011: 183). Works councils are required to consider changes to issues such as profit-sharing agreements and changes in working hours. Trade unions play a less important role in employment practice negotiations as trade union membership in France was estimated to be less than 8% in 2007 (Goetschy and Jobert, 2011: 169).

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Germany or France. Since the 1980s there has been a widespread decline in trade union membership in the UK and a growth in employers’ use of direct forms of employee involvement (Purcell and Geogiadis, 2007 in Marginson et al, 2009: 5). Alternative arrangements other than trade union representation may be offered in the form of joint

consultative committees, company councils and quality circles (Marginson et al, 2009, Wood and Fenton-O’Creevy, 2005).

In Poland until recently trade unions were the main form of employee representations. However in 2006 as a result of entry into the European Union, legislation was introduced to cement the establishment of domestic works councils in companies with more than 50 employees. This was to keep in line with the EU directive on information and consultation framework. The works councils have limited power and by the end of October 2011, there were 3,112 registered works councils (Fulton, 2011).

Under the European Union legislation one rule all four countries must follow is the European Works Council Directive which as of September 1994 requires all companies with a

minimum of 1,000 employees and at least 150 employees in two countries of the European Economic Area to establish a EWC (Muller-Carmen et al, 2001: 444). Although these works councils play a formal role in negotiations of employee practices the company still has the discretion to continue with its plans even if the works councils object. Therefore it can be seen that in France and Germany domestic works councils have a respected status and may prolong the process of making changes in particular after an acquisition or merger. In comparison in the UK works councils are not given the same elevated status and thus have a less significant impact upon changes to employee practices. With the relatively new position of domestic works councils in Poland it will be interesting to see how important their role is considered by employees.

Rationalisation:

A further issue that is affected by national institutions and can arise after an M&A is

redundancies. The pace of rationalisation varies substantially across countries, for example in the UK the process takes place relatively quickly whereas in Germany there are more

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strengthened the works councils rights on employment termination (Goetschy and Jobert, 2011: 184). The Polish Labour Code provides a standard of employee rights and terms of employment contracts that must be adhered to (Leiber, 2007: 353). This reflects significant differences among the countries which will require adaptation on the part of the MNC if they were to attempt to take a course of action that collides with country norms.

Pay and Performance:

Another important issue in relation to human resource management across borders is pay and performance. It can be said that pay rates are affected by the national employment and industrial relations regulations which differ within EU member states and therefore the determination of pay and rewards to a certain extent has to be done on a country basis

(Pulignano, 2006:507). In France the state influences wage levels through legislated increases and index linked adjustments of the national minimum wage (Goetschy and Jobert, 2011: 181). There is a national minimum wage in place in the UK and Poland however there is no statutory minimum wage in Germany (Keller and Kirsch, 2011: 215). In the UK pay for the majority of non-managerial employees in the private sector is decided solely by management (Geppert el al, 2002: 146). In Germany individually focused forms of pay and appraisal systems have in the past been constrained due to the influence of sectorial pay bargaining and company level employee representation through works councils. However more recently performance related pay has been more utilised typically with works councils’ involvement. Within manufacturing, group based performance related pay schemes tend to be wider spread (Edwards et al, 2007: 38). In contrast countries such as France have had a long tradition of profit related pay (Edwards et al, 2007:47). Therefore it can be suggested that in terms of pay there are a number of significant influences, in particular legal and local cultural expectations in each country which would constrain the ability of headquarters to implement such

standardised policies.

On a more general level some academics have conducted research on which human resource policies are affected by local influences and which policies are able to be standardised across a number of countries. It can be suggested that the reason for the disparities found in the international harmonization of HRM policies and practices is that the scope of

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follow a consistent cross-border approach. In a study looking at UK subsidiaries of US MNCs a common global policy was found to be predominantly evident in performance management, performance related pay, bonuses, target-setting, appraisal and remuneration (Ferner et al, 2004: 372).

Other policies and practices are subjected to a variety of local country regulations and

arrangements which prevent companies from achieving extensive harmonization (Millmore et al, 2007: 99-100). Corteel and Le Blanc (2001) found in case studies of Franco-German mergers that ‘social issues’ (pay, working time, holidays and pensions) are governed by ‘national logic’ (Edwards and Rees, 2006:120). Rosenweig and Nohria (1994) came to conclusions following their research on MNCs with subsidiaries in the United States that HRM practices will tend to conform to local practices in the following order; time off,

benefits, gender composition, training, executive bonus and participation (p. 232). Edwards et al (2007) focused on the policies of pay and performance, learning and development,

employee involvement and employee representation in both UK operations of foreign MNCs and UK MNCs operations abroad and found that national influences continued to play a strong factor in influencing multinationals’ ability to standardise practices. ‘National systems may vary in their ‘resilience’ to external challenges and also in their resistance or

receptiveness to the introduction of novel practices that are not well embedded domestically’ (Edwards et al, 2006: 20-21).

Influence of Local Country Legislation:

An unavoidable issue that can stand between companies introducing a standardised human resources policy in a subsidiary is local legislation that must be adhered to. ‘As laws are a reflection of the culture and the results of the institutionalisation of values, norms and code of conduct, the EU, as a political and economic union has not yet managed to tackle

harmonisation of local labour laws’ (Claus, 2003: 739). However there is evidence to show that in some respects the influence of the EU has encouraged a movement towards a similar standard of human resource policies. It is said that through directives and recommendations the EU is ‘streamlining’ its approach to human resource practices for issues such as employee involvement in works councils, gender equality, parental leave and health and safety (Claus, 2003: 733). In 1997 the UK opted in to the Social Chapter of the Maastricht treaty including regulation of working time, right to urgent family leave, right to parental leave, equal

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2011: 55). In line with this Ferner et al (2004) also found that issues such as working time, parental leave and employee representation were shaped by the EU directives (p. 372-3). When Poland was accepted into the European Union in 2004 the Polish Labour Code was modified to ensure that it was in line with European social legislation. As Leiber (2007) states the misfit between European legislation and the Polish Labour Code before entry was not substantial (p. 358). The differences in culture and local legislation may be within the bounds of feasibility so that companies are able to cope with divergence between countries in the EU because the differences are not so enormous that it results in complete incompatibility. Claus (2003) found that there was a general agreement amongst HR specialists from 12 EU

countries that there is still no ‘European HRM model’ (p. 742). However there was acknowledgement that as a result of increased communication and the integration of information technology in HR services the suggestion is that HR tools will become more similar (Claus, 2003: 742). It would seem that the development of a ‘global company HR model’ as opposed to the Euro-HRM model is more feasible. ‘The global company HR model strives for the standardisation of HR practices within a company across countries adhering to local laws but not really embracing any form of cultural adaption’ (Claus, 2003: 752).

Summary:

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The following issues have been highlighted in previous research on the extent to which human resource policies can be standardised across countries and these will provide the foundation for the key questions that will be answered in this thesis.

1. What approach does the company take towards the human resources function after an acquisition and why?

2. Which human resource policies in the different countries can and cannot be standardised in line with headquarters’ existing policies?

3. Does one country stand out against the others as having the least changes to its human resource policies?

4. To what extent are changes to the human resource policy perceived positively and accepted by employees?

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Chapter 3 - Methodology:

In order to collect the primary data for this piece of research a single case study will be conducted of a British ice cream manufacturer. A case study allows for the examination of ‘phenomena in their contexts rather than independent of context’ (Gibbert, Ruigrok and Wick, 2008: 1466). Knights and McCabe (1997) state that a case study gives the opportunity to use a number of qualitative methods for data collection preventing the need to rely on only one approach (Bell and Bryman, 2011, 60). A single case study allows for the researcher to gain an in-depth insight into the influences that affect the headquarters’ ability to implement standardised policies across countries and how well they are able to achieve standardisation. A further advantage is that human resource policies and practices can be assessed on an individual basis. The major limitation of case studies is the problem of generalizability. Within in this piece of research the case study consists of only one company thus a criticism may be that the findings are not necessarily representative on a general level (Thomas, 2004: 130).

The company to be examined is R&R Ice-Cream whose headquarters are based in the UK. In 2007 a German company, Roncadin and a British Company, Richmond Ice-Cream joined to form R&R Ice-Cream. Richmond Ice-Cream had two plants in the UK and Roncadin had one plant in France, one in Poland and three in Germany. Since then they have pursued an intense growth strategy through horizontal acquisitions and have significantly increased their market share in Europe. In 2008 R&R acquired Kelly’s, a UK company based in Cornwall and then subsequently in 2010 Rolland, a French manufacturer with two plants. As a result they currently have three plants in the United Kingdom, one in Germany, three in France and one in Poland (R&R Ice Cream Company Website, 2011). As such this will provide the

Page 21 of 98 Figure 3.1 The formation of R&R Ice-Cream

Data will be collected firstly through a semi-structured interview with the HR Director of the group and then further interviews with the local HR managers in each country. The

interviews will be conducted in English which for the local HR managers is their second language. It should be acknowledged that interviewing employees answering in their second language may not be conducive to receiving the level of detailed answers that might have been given had they been answering in their native language. Semi-structured interviews allows the interviewer a ‘road-map of questions’ (Adams et al, 2007: 145) which ensures a focused approach but permits the interviewees to freely express their opinions and the interviewer to ask further follow-up questions based on the interviewee’s answers. The

Richmond acquire Roncadin in

2007 and create:

R&R Ice-Cream

(two factories in the UK, one

in France, one in Poland,

original three factories

reduced to one in Germany

Roncadin, Germany

(three factories in

Germany, one in France

and one in Poland)

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interview with the HR director was done face-to-face and with his permission the interview was tape recorded in order to ensure an accurate record of the information gathered.

The interviews with the local HR managers were done over the telephone due to the distance, time and cost restrains that restricted the interviewer from being able to visit each plant and conduct the interviews face-to-face. Telephone interviews were the most feasible option in the situation. Prior to each telephone interview the interviewee was contacted by email to confirm the time and date of the interview and attached to the email was a list of questions for the interview. This was done due to the fact that the interview would be done in English which was not the interviewees’ first language, therefore this would enable the interviewees to prepare some answers. The downside of doing telephone interviews was that they were not able to be recorded and so the interviewer had to write down as much as possible. A total of three interviews were done, one with the German based HR manager and then with each of the French HR managers.

The only except was the interview with the HR manager of the Polish plant which was done by email. There were two reasons for this; firstly the Polish manager was extremely busy and it was difficult to arrange a convenient time to do a telephone interview and secondly her English language level was fairly low compared to the other managers. The questions were translated by a Polish national into Polish and sent via email for her to respond. The

completed interview answers were then translated back into English. It was hoped that the advantage of doing this was to get a better quality of answers. However the disadvantage with this is that it is difficult to ask immediate follow up questions and try to get the interviewee to expand on the level of detail in her answers. As such the result was the interview was not as informative as the telephone interviews with the other managers. Copies of the interview transcripts can be seen in appendices A-E. The interviews were analysed by using a coding system to highlight key similarities between the transcripts. Coding is ‘a mechanism for thinking about the meaning of your data’ (Huberman and Miles, 1994 in Bryman and Bell, 2011: 586). The aim of this was to identify the main themes that appear in all the interviews and use these in the overall analysis.

After conducting these interviews and based on the information gathered, employee

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mechanism (p. 130). All the questions were a closed format with a number of different options for the answers due to the need for them all to be translated. This allows for comparisons to be made across the three countries. Other advantages of a closed question survey are that completion will be easier for the respondent as there is a clear meaning to the questions and a straight forward simplistic answer format. For the researcher, it will be quicker to process the results and closed questions reduce variability in interpretation (Adams et al, 2007: 132). A pilot questionnaire was done to ensure that the wording of the questions was clear and understandable, the sequence and layout of the questionnaire was correct and there were no other unforeseen errors. As mentioned above the questionnaires were translated by native speakers for each country and to ensure that there were no discrepancies they were also back translated. It can be said that ‘if measures beyond direct translation are not taken to ensure validity the translated instrument may not function as intended’ (Price and Oshima, 1998 in Su and Parnham, 2002:582). The standard method of back translation involves two bilingual translators, one of whom makes the initial translation into the target language. The second translator will then translate this material back into the source language having not seen the original material. Then the two versions are compared to see if there are any discrepancies. The process is repeated until there are no differences (Su and Parham, 2002: 582). This process was done for the French, German and Polish versions of the questionnaire to ensure that in the translated versions there were no inconsistencies in the meaning of the questions.

A common problem with the use of questionnaires is low respondent rates; however this problem was alleviated to a certain extent due by targeting the sample to employees within a company. To avoid the possibility of respondent bias, which may result in employees being unwilling to express negative opinions, the questionnaires were anonymous to ensure that the employees felt comfortable giving their true opinion without fear of any repercussions

(Thomas, 2004: 162). As the acquisition of Roncadin by Richmond was in 2007, a methodological drawback may be hindsight bias as ‘employees’ perception of the change process may be biased by memory distortion and history’ (Bartels el at, 2006: 50). The questionnaires were distributed to a sample of 15% of the employees in each of the acquired plants. A 15% sample was felt to be appropriate as this was a reasonable number to distribute and also gave leeway for some non-responses. Initially a stratified random sample (Bryman and Bell, 2011: 181) was planned however this was not feasible due to

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was that the local HR managers who had partaken in the telephone interviews would distribute the questionnaires through online and hard copies to a selection of employees in their plant. The major issue with this is that the researcher does not have control over

distribution and the respondents will not necessarily be randomly selected. A cover letter was written to explain that the questionnaire was part of an independent academic research project and how the results would be used. This was done in order to try and minimise the possibility that employees should think that it was a questionnaire from headquarters which may have influenced their answers. Due to unforeseen circumstances the HR manager at the Rolland plants was unable to distribute the questionnaire. This highlights the weakness of having to rely on others in the distribution process and as such I acknowledge that this may reduce the validity of the results. However due to financial constraints preventing me from visiting the plants in person I had to make the best of the situation and resources available.

Once the questionnaire had been designed and translated it was transferred to a Web Survey using www.surveymonkey.com (2011). The link to the questionnaire was then emailed by the local HR managers to the respondents with a cover letter. A copy of the cover letter and questionnaire can be seen in appendices F and G respectively. The main advantage of using a web survey is the low cost, a faster response rate, clear and attractive formats and fewer unanswered questions as questions can be formatted to require answers before the respondent is able to submit the completed questionnaire (Bryman and Bell, 2011: 668). For this piece of research the faster response was the key reason for choosing a web survey due to the cross-country nature of the study. By sending the link to the questionnaire by email this allowed for targeting the respondents and the results can be seen straight away by the researcher. It is acknowledged that not all of the staff were able to be contacted via email for example the plant workers, therefore the local HR managers also distributed hard copies of the

questionnaires with the covering letter. The researcher cannot be entirely sure that the right people have filled in the questionnaires however in this situation it was the only option available.

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Chapter 4 - Results and Discussion:

Within this section the primary data collected during the interviews and from the

questionnaires will be analysed with the overall aim of answering the key research questions highlighted at the end of the literature review. As this research was based upon a case study the results and discussion sections will be intertwined as this will provide for a

comprehensive analysis. A full copy of the questionnaire results for each country can be found in appendices H-J. As mentioned in the methodology the local HR managers distributed the questionnaire, below in Figure 4.1 it can be seen that there is a fairly well spread balance of respondents in the terms of age, gender and job category.

Figure 4.1 Questionnaire Responses

Plant: No. of staff

in plant No. of questionnaires sent out (15% sample) No. of completed questionnaires received Response Rate % Roncadin Germany 470 70 47 67% Roncadin France 205 30 15 50% Roncadin Poland 440 66 44 67%

Plant: Age: Gender: Job Category:

18-24 25-30 31-40 41-50

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1. What approach does the company take towards the human resources function after an acquisition and why?

When R&R Ice-Cream make the decision to acquire a new company the human resources element does not influence the decision making process and as a consequence whatever the existing human resource policies and practices are in the acquired firm, R&R takes the approach of bringing those into line with the R&R headquarter practices as much as possible. Therefore it can be said that R&R take an ‘assimilation’ approach to acquisitions and there are a number of reasons which the HR Director pinpointed as the motivation behind this tactic. A significant factor is that ‘we want to operate as one company’ and this is further justified through the desire to have equality and fairness across the group by having ‘one set way where possible’. This corroborates with research done by Farndale and Paauwe (2007) and Bjorkman and Lervick (2007) who both discuss within their studies the advantages of having a universal approach which they state enhances a sense of fairness and allows for comparability across countries.

There is no evidence of R&R headquarters adopting any of the existing policies from the acquired companies into the overall group HR policy. As the HR Director put it ‘primarily it has been a one way street’. Both the German and one of the French managers said that they were ‘infrequently’ given the opportunity to contribute to the group HR policy and the other French manager said he ‘sometimes’ had the opportunity. The Polish manager said she ‘frequently’ had the opportunity to contribute to the overall group policy.

R&R Ice-Cream choose to keep the local Human Resource managers after an acquisition and work with them to establish the new policies and practices that they wish to implement. The HR Director identified that the benefit of keeping the native managers is to draw upon their local knowledge and expertise. The local managers play a vital part in linking the

headquarters to the acquisitions and advising on what can and cannot be implemented in terms of policies and practices. When asked whether he had experienced any resistance from the local HR managers, the HR Director said that he experienced ‘none whatsoever’. He further explained that he felt that the reason for this can be attributed to the fact that

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Drawing upon existing native human resource managers’ knowledge shows recognition of the need to accept and adapt to country restrictions and by using the local HR managers as a medium this has helped to alleviate any issues that arose due to conflicts between the headquarters’ wishes and cultural norms.

A fundamental part of the process of implementing changes to the HR policy after an acquisition is first presenting the proposed changes to employee representative bodies.

Previous research in academic literature indicates that in France and Germany works councils have a strong presence and proposed changes are subject to discussion by them. However should the works councils not approve of a proposed change it is at the employers’ discretion whether they still implement the change. As one of the French managers stated when asked about the importance of the role of works councils he considers them to be ‘important but not very important because we have to inform and consult them but we can still do what we want’. The German manager said that works councils were ‘very important’. In Germany there is a tradition of a high level of worker representation reinforced by the Works

Constitution Act and thus works councils are respected as an obligatory part of the process of introducing changes in all areas not just the HR policies. In Poland the local HR manager said that works councils were moderately important. The HR Director commented that the

domestic works councils in Poland have less of a role in terms of consultation and changes in comparison to the works councils in France and Germany. Referring back to the literature review, the introduction of works councils are a relatively new feature within Polish work places and therefore it can be expected that the works councils do not have the same influential position as in France and Germany.

In the UK plants R&R have consultative committees which perform a similar function to the works councils however the HR Director highlighted differences between consultative committees and works councils which are interesting to note. He explained that consultative committees are met on a regular basis but in contrast to the works councils the committees are informed and not included in the decision making process. It can be said that consultative committees have a minimalist role as opposed to the works councils in France and Germany that have a consultative position and actively contribute to the decision making process. This corroborates with evidence in the literature review which pointed towards France and

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consultation process with the domestic works councils can lengthen the process for

implementing changes that would bring the acquired firm into line with the group’s human resource policies and practices.

An additional issue that can feature as a result of an acquisition is changing the name of the acquired company. The issue of the name change provoked different reactions amongst the local HR managers. As the HR Director stated changing the name to R&R signified the creation of a new company and ensured employees felt they belonged to the new company. The French manager for the Roncadin plant did not think that the name change had a

significant impact and was of minor importance in comparison to other factors such as having a good team and understanding targets which he considered to be vital in creating one

company. It is interesting to note that for Kelly’s and Rolland the names were not changed and this can be attributed to the need to keep the brand names. The French HR manager for Rolland also mentioned that keeping the Rolland name was important to indicate to their customers that the products and service would not be affected. It also reassured employees that there would be no big changes.

To summarise, R&R chose to integrate acquisitions through an assimilation approach by bringing existing human resource policies into line with the group policy and where

necessary introducing new policies. Although a standardisation approach is pursued the local HR managers provide an essential link to informing headquarters of local legislation or cultural norms that may prohibit implementing some of headquarters’ policies and practices. The main motivation for this approach is to ensure that the group operates as one company and there is a level of fairness and equality across all the plants.

2. Which human resource policies in the different countries can and cannot be standardised in line with headquarters’ existing policies?

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interview with the group HR Director, he said that R&R was unable to shut down some of the French factories to amalgamate them because of restrictions within French legislation in relation to rationalisation. To draw a comparison, in Germany R&R was able to reduce the three acquired factories through merging them into one factory.

An issue that arose within the literature review was the potential differences between country cultures and the impact cultural conflicts may have upon trying to standardise human

resource policies. A number of cultural conflicts were mentioned during the interviews, for example, a subject highlighted by one of the French managers was the tradition of negotiation in France which is in contrast with the UK where the tradition of negotiation is not thought to have the same importance attached to it. As discussed earlier the consequence is that the process of making changes can be expected to be much longer in France because of the consultation phase. A further cultural issue expressed by the German manager was in relation to payroll. The headquarters wished to implement a weekly payroll for the factory workers and a monthly payroll for the office workers. However this went against the norm in

Germany where everyone gets paid monthly and subsequently the headquarters accepted that this was not able to be changed. It would seem that this was also the case in the Polish plant. In addition a general cultural difference that the HR Director experienced was a contrast in the levels of formality. In the UK there is a more informal approach and this has taken some getting used to by the acquired firms, in particular Germany is mentioned as having a very formal approach.

Evidence in the literature (Pulignano, 2006 Edwards et al, 2007) pointed towards pay being decided on a country basis and therefore would not be subject to standardisation by the headquarters. This was verified by the HR Director who said that ‘pay is always done on a country by country, factory by factory basis’. He stated that they had an ‘overall principle as to how to deal with pay’ but each country has slightly different requirements. Pay is reviewed on an annual basis across the countries and increases are dependent on individuals’ skills development. An additional factor that plays a role in mainland Europe is the works councils as they have the capacity to negotiate pay whereas in the UK consultative committees are not allowed to discuss pay.

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fall in line with group policy. In Poland changes were also made to the appraisals process with a uniform system for the managers being introduced including an annual bonus agreement. Therefore it can be seen that although different country requirements may alter the exact level of pay and bonuses there is a continuity that appears to run through the group when it comes to the approach taken towards pay and performance. This links with Ferner et al (2004) who found evidence in their study that there was a common global policy in relation to performance management, appraisals and remuneration.

Taking the results from the employee questionnaire the column charts below give a visual representation of the spread of results within each of the countries for policies relating to pay and performance.

Figure 4.2 Percentage level of change for a selection of HR policies in France

0.00% 20.00% 40.00% 60.00% 80.00% Performance Related Pay

Bonus System Pay Rates Employee Representation Appraisals Training and Development Performance Management

What level of change have you seen in the

following HR policies and practices (France):

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Figure 4.3 Percentage level of change for a selection of HR policies in Poland

Figure 4.4 Percentage level of change for a selection of HR policies in Germany 0.00% 10.00% 20.00% 30.00% 40.00% 50.00% 60.00%

Performance Related Pay Bonus System

Pay Rates Employee Representation Appraisals Training and Development Performance Management

What level of change have you seen in the

following HR policies and practices (Poland):

High level of change Moderate Level of change Low level of change No Change

0.00% 10.00% 20.00% 30.00% 40.00% 50.00% Performance Related Pay

Bonus System Pay Rates Employee Representation Appraisals Training and Development Performance Management

What level of change have you seen in the

following HR policies and practices (Germany):

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As expected pay rates in Germany and Poland for the majority of employees have had no changes or have had only a low rate of change. In France the employees who answered that they experienced a moderate level of change to their pay rate also all answered that they had a moderate level of change to their hours of work which may then explain the reason for experiencing a change. This substantiates what the HR Director said as well as evidence from academic literature that it is extremely difficult to standardise pay rate across countries and companies may chose not to due to the financial implications that may occur from having to increase wage rates to the same level.

Performance management received a high level of change in the French plant for most employees who completed the questionnaire. 90% of that group of employees also answered that they had experienced a high level in change in appraisals. In comparison with

performance management in Poland only a moderate level of change was experienced by 50% of the employees and 39% had no change. The German employees had a spread of results with 40% experiencing a moderate level of change and 23% experiencing a high level of change. The HR Director stated in the interview that performance management and

appraisals were two of the areas where Richmond inputted their own existing policy which would explain why a majority of employees across the group experienced some level of change to these areas.

Performance related pay had a fairly consistent set of results across Poland and Germany where no or low change was experienced by most of the employees. In France there was a higher level of moderate change experienced by the majority of employees. Training and development received little change in Germany however in France and Poland the majority of employees experienced high or moderate levels of change.

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they were dissatisfied with changes made. It is inevitable that when making changes it can be difficult to please everyone who may be affected and as such these results suggest a small number of employees in the sample were discontented with the changes made.

Looking at the results of the questionnaire in Poland 46% said that there was a low change to their bonus, 32% said there was no change and only 23% said there was moderate change. Within the French plant evidence points to there being a moderate level of change for 60% of the respondents.

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Figure 4.5 Percentage level of change for a selection of HR policies in France

Figure 4.6 Percentage level of change in a selection of HR policies in Poland 0.00% 20.00% 40.00% 60.00% 80.00% Equality and Fairness

Absence Management Anti-corruption and bribery Harassment and Bullying Health and safety Discipline and grievances Maternity/Paternity Leave

Amount of holiday Hours of work

What level of change have you seen in the following HR policies

and practices (France):

High level of change Moderate Level of change Low level of change No Change

0.00% 20.00% 40.00% 60.00% 80.00% Equality and Fairness

Absence Management Anti-corruption and… Harassment and Bullying

Health and safety Discipline and grievances Maternity/Paternity Leave

Amount of holiday Hours of work

What level of change have you seen in the following HR policies

and practices (Poland):

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Figure 4.7 Percentage level of change in a selection of HR policies in Germany

Out of the three countries the responses from the French plant are the most varied and there appears to have been more changes made in comparison to the other two countries. Amount of holidays, maternity/paternity leave, harassment and bullying and anti-corruption and bribery all have a majority of respondents answering no change had been made which is consistent with the answers from the Polish and German employees. A moderate level of change for the French employees can been seen for hours of work, discipline and grievances and absence management and only a high level of change was seen in the health and safety policy.

In Poland out of the nine policies seven of them showed no change as the most selected answer. Anti-corruption and bribery, harassment and bullying, health and safety and equality and fairness show a high level of change in comparison to Germany which shows a very low percentage of high level of change responses for any of the categories. For Germany for every policy except discipline and grievances, no change dominates the answers. For the discipline and grievances policy only slightly more employees answered a low level of change than no change.

0.00% 20.00% 40.00% 60.00% 80.00% Equality and Fairness

Absence Management Anti-corruption and bribery Harassment and Bullying Health and safety Discipline and grievances Maternity/Paternity Leave

Amount of holiday Hours of work

What level of changes have you seen in the following HR

policies and practices (Germany):

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The overall picture that emerges from the results of the employee survey and the interviews in relation to which human resource policies can be standardised across the countries is that overarching policies have been introduced in areas such as performance management and appraisals. Although level of pay may not have changed R&R do have a group policy in relation to approaches to pay and performance. To a certain extent these policies can be standardised in terms of a central direction but the specific details of each policy may vary between the countries. The headquarters treat each country on an individual basis but continue to keep a level of overarching policies across the group where possible.

Although a small number of employees answered that they had seen a high level of change for some HR policies rarely was it the majority or a high percentage. It therefore could be assumed that these employees were affected on an individual basis and as such the analysis should be focused on the general trends that emerge acknowledging that there will be anomalies. Areas where there is no evidence of standardisation includes hours of work, holidays and maternity/paternity leave which are strongly influenced by local norms and expectations. This coincides with existing evidence that localisation still plays an influential role in the balance between standardisation and localisation. A possible explanation for the low or no change responses to the social policies such as equality and fairness in the

questionnaires could be that the existing policies were already acceptable or only required a minimal amount of adapting to be in line with the group policies. The primary data collected does indicate that there is evidence of two levels of human resource policies, one level where general overarching group policies can be implemented and the other level where policies are subject to host country influences.

3. Does one country stand out against the others as having the least changes to its human resource policies?

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countries the headquarters have been able to use the expertise of the local HR managers to assess the feasibility of making changes. It is a generally acknowledged that human resource management is an area in multi-national companies that is most susceptible to host country influences. Thus MNCs in this case R&R expect to come across local differences and have to be more flexible in their approach and adapt to local legislation constraints.

Based upon the data collected through the interviews there does not immediately appear to be one country that received the least changes to its human resource policies and practices compared to the others during the integration process. Through the column charts (Figures 4.2-4.7) in the previous question evidence from the employee questionnaires suggests that the French plant experienced the highest level of change to its HR policies. This is also

confirmed through the answer to ‘what level of change to the HR policies did you see when Roncadin became part of R&R Ice-cream?’ as 73% of the French employees answered high level of change and 27% answered moderate level of change. A possible explanation for the higher level of change in France may come from the fact that each of the three parts of Roncadin situated in three different countries did not have a set of universal human resource policies and practices before it became part of R&R. Therefore the French plant possibly needed more adjustments made to the HR policies to bring them into line with the group policies.

It is difficult to say whether Poland or Germany received least changes to their HR policies. Based on Figures 4.3 and 4.7 it could be said that Germany is the country to experience the least amount of change which would verify what would be expected considering the

differences between liberal and co-ordinated market economies. However it should be remembered this finding is only based upon a selection of policies. In respond to the general question asked about the level of changes to the HR policies after becoming part of R&R, 30% of Polish employees answered they had experienced low or no change and in

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4. To what extent are changes to the human resources policy perceived positively and accepted by employees?

Having explored the approach taken by R&R to integrate acquired companies, which policies they are able to standardise and which remain subject to localisation, it is also important to examine the employees’ reaction and perception of changes that have been made to the human resource policies. As Bjorkman and Lervick (2007) state it is significant to consider the extent to which employees have accepted the changes. The questionnaire targeted two main issues in relation to satisfaction, firstly whether employees felt that they were kept informed of the changes made and secondly how satisfied they were with modifications made to the HR policies that had been changed.

Results from the survey showed that the majority of Polish, French and German employees said that they were ‘informed’ of changes being made as opposed to being consulted or through joint-decision making. This reflects the attitude taken by the headquarters in their assimilation approach to integration. It is interesting to note the differences between the countries in how changes were communicated to the employees. As shown in the column charts beneath there are distinct differences between France, Poland and Germany in methods of communication.

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Figure 4.9 Methods of communication used to inform employees in Poland

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In France the most recognised form of communication was through works councils followed by information posters and in Poland directly from the HR manager and through team briefs. In comparison in Germany information posters and the intranet have the highest

acknowledgement as methods of communication. In order to assess how successful these methods have been respondents were asked how satisfied they were with how well they were kept informed of changes being made. A similar trend emerged across the three countries as in both Poland and France over 50% answered that they were satisfied and around 30% answered they were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied. In Germany only 30% answered that they were satisfied and the majority around 55% answered they were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied. Therefore it can be said that in general the employees felt the level of

communication was adequate.

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The second issue in relation to satisfaction was considering the employees’ reaction to changes that had been made. Across the countries there is a variation of results that appeared from the employee questionnaires.

Figure 4.11 Percentage levels of satisfaction of employees in France

It can be seen that the majority of answers fall into the satisfied or neither satisfied nor dissatisfied categories. It would be fair to comment that the employees from France had experienced a higher level of change to their HR policies in comparison to the other

countries. It is interesting that despite a comparatively higher level of change the employees seem overall content with changes made to the HR policies. Eight out of the twelve

categories also have a percentage of very satisfied employees. There are only three policy areas that have small number of dissatisfied responses which shows that of the changes made in general they appear to have been received well.

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Are you satisfied with the changes made to following HR policies

and practices? (France)

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Figure 4.12 Percentage levels of satisfaction of employees in Poland

The Polish chart shows a fairly similar spread of results to the French respondents but with less very satisfied responses. A higher number of not applicable answers appear in the results which could be related to the fact Poland received a relatively low level of change. It is interesting to see that in the three pay related categories there is a noteworthy level of dissatisfaction and very dissatisfied results.

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Are you satisfied with the changes made to the following HR

policies and practices? (Poland)

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Figure 4.13 Percentage levels of satisfaction of employees in Germany

The answers from the German plant show the lowest quantity of satisfied responses across the range of policies. There are significantly more dissatisfied and very dissatisfied responses compared to the two other countries. It can be seen that the discontented employees are most displeased about the policies surrounding pay and performance which is also the case in Poland. 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Are you satisfied with the changes made to the following HR policies

and practices? (Germany)

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Figure 4.14 Percentage levels of satisfaction across the three countries

Looking at the combined figures of all the questionnaires, as a group the satisfaction levels can be seen to be on average around 30% of the responses. If the category of neither satisfied nor dissatisfied is included the level is above 60%. It is clear that dissatisfaction is prominent in areas related to pay which have received some level of change through introduction of overarching policies. The acquisition of Roncadin took place four years ago in 2007 and therefore the employees have had time to adjust to new policies that have been introduced.

Figure 4.15 Level of change to working conditions in France

20%

47% 33%

0% 0%

To what extent do you think the changes made by R&R to the HR policies have benefitted your working conditions? (France)

A great deal better Somewhat better No change Somewhat worse A lot worse 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Are you satisfied with the changes made to the following HR

policies and practices? (France, Poland and Germany)

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The questionnaire also asked whether employees felt that changes have improved their

working conditions. The responses of the German questionnaire show a spread of results with the majority answering that they experienced no change to their working conditions whilst 30% answered that changes had made their working conditions somewhat worse and a lot worse. Of the dissatisfied employees these do not fall into one job category rather these employees were spread across different departments. These same employees answered that they thought there had been a high level or moderate level of change to the HR policies since the company had been acquired by R&R. This would confirm the findings in Figure 4.13 regarding the level of dissatisfaction felt by German employees. In comparison evidence from the Polish questionnaire indicated a more positive attitude with 59% answering that their working conditions were somewhat better and 41% stated that there was no change. Results from the Polish and French questionnaires revealed that none of the employees felt that their working conditions had been made worse. The results from the French

questionnaire show a spread of positive responses with 47% answering changes had made their working conditions ‘somewhat better’ and 20% answering ‘a great deal better’.

Figure 4.16 Level of change to

working conditions in Poland

Figure 4.17 Level of change to

working conditions in Germany

0%

59% 41%

0% 0%

To what extent do you think the changes made by R&R to the HR policies have benefitted your working conditions? (Poland)

A great deal better Somewhat better No change Somewhat worse A lot worse 6% 23% 41% 26% 4%

To what extent do you think changes made by R&R to the HR policies have benefitted your working conditions?