Question Microsoft’s Ambition Global Sales Training Program

Microsoft’s advertising division recently pursued an ambitious training program across 22 nationalities in their numerous divisions around the world. The purpose of their program was to create a “coaching culture” among their sales managers. An article published in Strategic HR in reports that this program was highly successful. The reference for the report (available in Proquest) is:

Phillips, T. (2011) Creating a coaching culture across a global sales force. Strategic HR Review: 5-10.

Of coure keep in mind as you read this article that companies are more likely to share positive news with reporters than there are negative news, and of course all companies try to use public relations to present the most image possible to the public and to the business community.

Case Assignment

After reading the Phillips article and revewing the background materials concerning common challenges of international human resource management, write a four to five page paper answering the following questions:

1. In general, how difficult do you think it is to change managerial behavior around the world for a multinational corporation such as Microsoft? Do you think it is as easy as the article makes it out to be, or do you think it is more challenging? Explain your reasoning.

2. What do you think the biggest single obstacle or roadblock was to Microsoft’s implementation of their coaching training program? For example, do you think they might have faced a lot of resistance from managers in their overseas divisions?

3. Do you think this program should be implemented worldwide for other types of managers besides just sales managers at Microsoft? If so, explain what types of managers might benefit the most and why. If not, explain your reasoning.

Case 3 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 general background materials
• List supporting references and cite sources in proper format