Bussiness 401 writing paper

Case Assignment Instructions

Arik Air is one Nigeria’s largest airline and one of the largest
airlines in all of Africa. Their employment situation is a bit unique in
that close to 10 percent of their employees are expatriates. Recruiting
and retaining expatriates to work as pilots or other positions in
Nigeria can require higher salaries than are typically paid to local
workers. However, disparities in wages between expatriates and local
employees can lead to resentment. Overall, the human resource situation
for a company that operates globally and hires globally such as Arik Air
can be quite complicated.

Do some research on Arik Air and the human resource situation in Nigeria. Below are a few articles to get you started:

Arik Air customer base soars (Jan. 31, 2014). AllAfrica.com. Washington, DC. [Proquest]

Nigeria loses N500 billion annually to expatriate pilots. (Jan. 24, 2014). AllAfrica.com. Washington, DC. [Proquest]

Fajana, S., Owoyemi, O., Elegbede, T., & Gbajumo-Sheriff, M. (2011). Human resource management practices in Nigeria. Journal of Management and Strategy, 2(2), 57. [Proquest]

Now suppose that Arik Airlines has been purchased by an American
company, which now has to develop a plan to address the issue of hiring
and maintaining a well qualified pilot staff and making all of Arik’s
employees feel welcome under the new American parent company. Also,
suppose that you have been tasked with coming up with a solid human
resource plan for the new American owners of Arik Air.  You need to make
major decisions such as how much to rely on local staff, how much to
rely on employees from the U.S. or other countries, and how to deal with
the sensitive issue of how an American company manages local employees
who may be resentful of their new owner. In order to do this, you will
need to use what you’ve learned in the background materials in this
module as well as what you’ve learned in the previous modules about
assessing the local environment of a country.

In a 4- to 5-page paper, present a strategic human resource plan considering the following issues:

1. Go to Hofstede’s webpage http://geert-hofstede.com/countries.html
   and look up the cultural values for both Nigeria and the U.S. Look up
   the scores of individualism, power distance, and uncertainty avoidance.
   What major differences do you see between the two cultures? What kind of
   implications will this have for how the American airline company
   manages their Nigerian employees?
2. Overall what kind of human resource strategy do you think the
   American company should take to manage Arik Airlines? A geocentric
   approach, polycentric, or ethnocentric approach? Explain your reasoning,
   and cite Steers and Nardon (2005) or Rao (2010) as part of your answer.
3. What kind of mix between Nigerian employees (host-country
   nationals), American employees (home country nationals), or third
   country nationals do you think should be hired? What challenges do you
   see for hiring each type of employee? Explain your reasoning, and cite
   Steers and Nardon (2005) or Rao (2010) as part of your answer.

Remember that your paper should reflect an integration of both what
you learned in the background materials about the key general aspects of
international human resource management, and what you’ve specifically
learned about the unique issues involved in managing human resources in
an airline in Nigeria. Your task it to apply the background materials to the specific issues that would be faced by an American company if they were to purchase Arik Air.

Assignment Expectations

• Answer the assignment questions directly.
• Stay focused on the precise assignment questions; don’t go off on
  tangents or devote a lot of space to summarizing background materials.
• Use reliable and credible sources as your references. Articles
  published in established newspapers or business journals/magazines are
  preferred. If you find articles on the Internet, make sure they are from
  a credible source.
• Reference your sources of information with both a bibliography and in-text citations. See the Student Guide to Writing a High-Quality Academic Paper,
  including pages 13 and 14 on in-text citations. Another resource is the
  “Writing Style Guide,” which is found under “My Resources” in the TLC
  Portal.