History
Motorola was originally established as Galvin Manufacturing Corporation in 1928. The name Motorola is adopted in 1947, but the word trademark was used in 1930.The founders of Motorola are Paul Galvin and Joseph Galvin, who initially were manufactures of car radios. The product was named as Motorola; a combination of the word “motor” and “Victrola.” Galvin had launched its first major advertising campaign; that included print ads, billboards and road signsin1938.
After two years they created a handie talkie. In 1941, the company established Motorola Communication and Electronics, Inc as its sales subsidiary. The first two ways FM radio communication products offered an increased range and quieter operation were introduced. Galvin completed its initial public offer in 1943, at the same year Researcher Dan Noble developed the first portable two way FM radio known as “walkie-talkie.”
The firm had by them purchased Detrola and started supplying car radios to Ford Motor company. Their other radio clients include Chrysler and General Motors. Motorola diversified its activities into television during 1948 with the launch of the Golden View vt71. Soon, it became the fourth largest television manufacture in the nation. The company remained a strong leader in semiconductor technology, including integrated circuits used in computer. Motorola also began manufacturing mobile phones. Motorola is the main supplier for the microprocessor used in Commodore Amiga, Apple Macintosh and Power Macintosh personal computers.
Human resources department of Motorola
Human resources department of Motorola shares responsibility with Toulouse Unit and Motorola University. HRD acts as a lead unit by defining training plans in line with the corporate strategy and monitoring implementation. The representative from Motorola University provides training as per the requirement of HR department. The role of HR function is to prioritize training program according to the needs of the company’s strategy and fulfill pedagogical role towards line manager who is responsible for employee development.
Objectives
The main objective of the HRD is to contribute effectively to the corporate strategy. A major HR policy is to centralize all training effort in order to get an overall and clear view as well as to exercise better strategic control of training investment. The HR department also contributes to employee development through learning, such as team work to improve procedure and work process as well as by reward system.
The human Resources department of Motorola is implementing evaluation strategy on the basis of individual evaluation of training by employees and quarterly exchanges between individual employees and their managers. The joint evaluation is an important tool for evaluating HRD activities. “HRD serves a strategic role by assuring the competence of employees to meet the organization’s present performance demands. Along with meeting present organizational needs, HRD also serves a vital role in shaping strategy and enabling organizations to take full advantage of emergent business strategies.” (Swanson, 1995).
Orientation
Orientation program is designed to help the new employees to know about the organizational culture, and to strengthen their team spirit and mutual understanding. At the same time the organizer can also collect the information about the new employees’ characteristics and traits. Orientation is needed in every organization so that the new entrants can know about the organization, its objective and all other things that are needed for achieving the organization’s objectives. By giving orientation the new employees gain stronger adaptability and stability in their performance. The orientation will further help them to understand the rules and regulation of the organization, their co -workers, they value of the organization, the facilities available in the organization. This will also encourage a better team spirit among the employees.
Motorola provides a three week orientation program to know about the culture, value, goals and initiatives of the organization. Within three week the new employees will know about the culture of the company. By knowing the goals and value of the organization, employees can work efficiently to achieve the corporate goal.
Compensation
Compensation planning is a very complex and expensive process for the enterprise. It touches everyone in the organization and has enormous impact on the company’s financial health and employee morale. One important area to consider when determining the compensation package is to base it on the performance, salary of the employees which will meet the cost of living..
Components of Motorola’s compensation program
Motorola’s compensation program include
- basic salary.
- short term incentive is based on annul Motorola Incentive plan.
- long term incentives consists of mid range and long range incentive plan and equity.
- benefits and perquisites.
General Compensation Philosophy
“Motorola’s general compensation philosophy is to provide world-class reward strategies and programs that attract retain and motivate the best people, producing outstanding business performance and shareholder value.” (REPORT OF COMPENSATION AND LEADERSHIP COMMITTEE ON EXECUTIVE, 2006). The company provides total compensation which is competitive with existing practice for the industry in which it operates and gives above average total compensation according to the individual performance and business results.
Executive Compensation Guiding Principles
- There should be a link between pay and performance at both levels i.e. company and individual.
- When Motorola is performing better, the overall target compensation will be above the existing market median.
- High performers are paid at a higher rate, proportionate to their contribution to Motorola’s success.
Regulation
Regulations are required for every organization to operate in an effective manner, so it should strictly follow these rules and regulation. The company feels that Indian beer market is growing as a result of change in the government regulations on foreign investment and Indian beer industry. Motorola does not violate the law due to perceived pressure from the supervisor or demand in the business condition and if there is any question about the legality they will check with the management, department law or ethics line. Motorola also complies with anti corruption treaties and law of the countries in which it operates its business. Moreover, Motorola is seeking to provide more value to the customer with minimum impact on the environment. While exporting or importing products or services, Motorola follows all the rules and regulation of the nation from. Motorola takes responsibility to know the laws that pertain to them and are also checking with import/export compliance manager if needed.
Training
Motorola gives considerable more importance to its training activities. The company spends a huge amount of money and devotes a lot of time for training of both the executives and the employees. In Motorola, the training is conducted by both the initiation and support of the top management. All the members in the organization are actively participating in the training programs.
They are conducting management training programs to improve the interdepartmental communication. Motorola developed one of the best and largest corporate training programs in US. The program improved the commitment and self worth of employees in Motorola and helped in enhancing the overall improvement in Motorola. The company improves the performance of its employees by the following training methods as under:
Tailored executive development
This program is aimed at giving training to executives of the organization to provide them idea and knowledge about the corporate strategy and the ways to achieve them. This program also helps to improve both the performance of the executives and the company itself.
Customer service program
This is aimed at identifying customer needs and wants. For satisfying the customer requirements Motorola is adopting the strategies like customer visits, quality audit, and next operation as customer etc. Through the customer visit program the company is able to identify the complaints of the customers and take necessary steps to solve them.
The quality audit
This program is aimed at improving the quality of the product. Here the manager is put in the customer’s seat to understand how the customer is treated from customer’s point of view. The next operation as customer program is aimed at improving the product and service quality through the effective participation of all the members and departments in the organization. This technique helps to improve the communication and coordination among all the departments and better understandings of customer needs.
Screening programs in Motorola
“Screening is a public health service in which members of a defined population, who do not necessarily perceive they are at risk of, or are already affected by a disease or its complications, are asked a question or offered a test, to identify those individuals who are more likely to be helped than harmed by further tests or treatment to reduce the risk of a disease or its complications.” (What is screening?).
Motorola conducts a number of wellness programs for the health, well being, and personal growth of the employees and their families and the community where they live and work. A wellness shared service team is working as a part of Motorola’s human resource department. A very important effort of Motorola in the wellness activities is the starting of Health Advantage Plan (HAP).This program was designed to improve the health and wellness of employees.
The employees who are participating in the program are encouraged to get medical attention without any cost. They also started an on-site wellness team to implement preventive care programs and educate the employees about their health.. “To remain eligible for HAP, employees must complete a health screening once every two years, which measures height, weight, body composition, blood pressure and blood composition (triglyceride, total cholesterol, HDL, LDL and ratio).” (Motorola- Global Wellness Initiatives (2002)).
Motorola also conducts various other wellness programs such as disease management, flue immunizations cancer screening, 24 hours nursing online service, back care, stress management, children’s aerobics and nutrition etc. Most of the employees are satisfied with the screening activities provided by the company and all of them are actively participating in these programs.
Labor issues
Labor issues are a serious problem faced by many organizations. Labor issues occur due to many reasons such as poor incentives system, inequality in payment, tight job schedule, over exploitation of employees uncomfortable working conditions etc. Labor issues occurring in an organization, affects the overall functioning and efficiency of the organization. An important issue occurred in Motorola Korea is an instance where the employees started struggling to organize a trade union including a demand for a longer holiday and for better benefits. But the company was not ready to accept the demands of the employees.
The management of Motorola argued that they are the first company who provide free bus service, free meal, and medical service with full time medical service. The union members charged that the violence started because of the company threatened them to drop their decision to start a trade union. In 1987, Motorola employees gave petition to government to form a union. This resulted in emotional clashes in company between pro-union workers and the company. This led too much violence in the company.
References
Swanson, Richard A. (1995). The strategic roles of human resource development. Human Resource Planning. All Business. Web.
REPORT OF COMPENSATION AND LEADERSHIP COMMITTEE ON EXECUTIVE. (2006). EDGAR online. Web.
What is screening? UK National screening committee. Department of Health. Web.
Motorola- global wellness initiatives (2002): Health Advantage Plan (HAP) program. C. Everet Koop National Health Awards. Web.