SHRM and Ford Motor Company
Please have a read through the information provided below and answer the question with relevant references.
Having worked for Ford in a previous role, I have researched their SHRM process and noted that they claim to be aligned to their mission and vision for the
company. Their Sustainability Report states that their ‘mission is to deliver high-impact, innovative workforce solutions and experiences that drive One
Ford, today and tomorrow’ (Ford, 2016), with ‘One Ford, today and tomorrow’ being their mission statement. It can be assumed from this that they use SHRM
across their global corporation in order to attract and manage in-house talent.
My own experience of working for Ford in the UK is that their SHRM process differs across the markets. Their are a very large number of UK contract staff
employed by the company at various levels, all of which are not in receipt of any of the trappings that an official employee is offered. Also, there are
stipulations that only degree educated personnel can be offered a permanent position at the company. As such, many employees in administrative or clerical
positions are also contracted as long-term ‘temps’. Interestingly, these HRM processes are not mirrored in Germany and the US, where the workforce are
mostly employed, full-time staff and a degree is not needed in roles that do not require them.
Do Ford have a contingency perspective on SHRM? Truss et al (89:2012) state that organisations employing a contingency perspective believe that the ‘best
way of managing people is likely to vary according to organizational circumstances’, which seems to be the case in this example. Does a contingency
perspective align with their mission statement ‘One Ford, today and tomorrow’?
