The Allure Cruise Lines Company is a well-known company in the world. The policy of the company seeks global expansion and as a result, signs agreements with other companies and recruits people belonging to different nations. It is necessary to coordinate its domestic policy with international operations in order for this multicultural and expanded company to work well. There is the global division into sections with the manager in each country who is responsible for the work of the section. The regional managers of European and North American countries should meet up with the changes in the cruise environment.
The North American and European markets differ from each other and have different approaches. Cultures, business methods, and communication vary in these countries. These differences as well as the similarities should be taken into account by the company. The main expansion method of Allure is a structural choice. “Allure has implemented a differentiation-integration strategy, a method that takes opposing forces and involves them together” (Deresky, 2011).
Such expansion helps Allure to have success in European countries running by the managers who are aware of the business policy of their native country. That is why it is very important for Allure to recruit managers in the host countries. These regional managers are responsible for their headquarters and they may make decisions of small proportion. But when it concerns very important questions they should consult with the board of directors of Allure.
The management staff of the cruise industry is the most challenging compared to any land organization (Wadsworth). There are many branches in this industry. The office of the company may be in one country and operate in other countries hiring workers belonging to different nations. There are a lot of difficulties with visas and security restrictions hiring foreign workers. The recruitment area of the Allure Cruise Company consists of over 40 nations. Recruiting firms help the Allure Company to find an appropriate staff with the necessary skills. Like many other cruise companies, Allure resorts to the services of hiring agents in many countries.
These agents look for the necessary candidates and support the company with a general crew as well as the management staff. The Allure recruiters screen out the people for the management staff very seriously as far as it is very important for the company. It differs from the other cruise lines companies which are dependent on the procurement allies who are responsible for the searching, hiring, and training of the new staff.
There are a lot of difficulties concerning the staff of the Allure Cruise Lines Company. There is a certain gulf between new and old workers as well as between new and old ships. The company should distribute the staff quite thoroughly taking into account the balance between experienced and inexperienced workers. Training is one of the important means to raise the qualification of new workers. Training is combined with working.
The choice of the management staff is very important as far as the leadership style is changed every three months (Wadsworth). The crew is diverse combining workers belonging to different cultures and speaking various languages. But the main requirement for the workers is to speak English. They should pass the English test before the interview with the recruitment officer. The performance of every worker is controlled as well as the performance of the managers is evaluated with business metrics. Business metrics consist of attrition, the crew turnover; the crew re-signs rate, Environment and Safety scores, and USPH (the rate of sanitation) scores (Charles & Hill, 2010).
The selection of the managers to include them on the team to send abroad is very responsible. A lot of factors should be taken into account. It should be noted that the Allure Cruise Lines Company is known to be a multicultural company and over 40 nations work there. The company work orienting on the preventative measures of the possible future problems recruiting managers. Corporate operations will send executive managers from foreign operations to larger ventures to train them extensively. This training continues for a couple of months to develop appropriate management skills and acquire the necessary knowledge for working abroad.
Only after months of training, managers are sent to work abroad. Such methods are known as the direct coordinating mechanism of the company. The indirect cooperating mechanism presupposes the control system in foreign operations. Domestic companies control the work of managers abroad with the system of certain criteria. A direct coordinating mechanism works well with European subsidiaries. This control takes into account the cultural conditions, the time differences, and authoritative expectations (Charles & Hill, 2010).
Sometimes the Allure hires host country nationals to help. Recruiting people from different countries increases the level of the service on the one hand and makes it difficult for the company to work well-organized on the other hand. Nevertheless, Allure copes with these difficulties caused by cultural and economic differences. The Allure Cruise Lines Company’s mechanisms of direct and indirect coordinating help to control the domestic as well as subsidiaries companies which are abroad. This strict control of the quality of the work and the training of the workers ensure the success of the company which is so necessary recently as far as there are many accidents connecting with cruise companies and people are afraid to trust to such companies. Allure does all possible to ensure their clients in the quality of their work.
From the above said we may conclude that the Allure Cruise Lines Company has chosen very effective means to achieve success in the world market. This company has a very strict structure with the domestic company at the top and subsidiaries at the bottom. All important decisions are made by the domestic company including the board of directors and all foreign subsidiaries are controlled by the managers who have been chosen from the host countries. Although it will be easier to recruit only Americans as far as there is not any gulf in culture and communication taking into account the European market Allure has decided to recruit the Europeans.
It is explained by the fact that they are more aware of the business strategy of their countries. More than that, Allure uses different controlling methods to improve the quality of work in many countries. There are direct and indirect coordinating mechanisms that allow the company to have a good reputation providing high qualified services. More than that the managers of Allure are taught and trained to develop their development skills and only with such training they are sent to work abroad. All these methods help the Allure Cruise Lines Company to achieve success in the world market.
References List
Charles W. L & Hill, G. R. (2010). Strategic Managment, an international integrated approach, (Vol.9th edition ). Mason, OHIO, UA: South Western.
Deresky, H. (2011). INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT-Managing Across Borders and Cultures (text and cases). Upper Saddle River: Pearsons.
Wadsworth, S. (n.d). Case 15 Allure Cruise Line – Challenges of Strategic Growth and Organizational Effectiveness. Web.