The only constant in organizational life in the past 10 years has been change (Pope, 1992: v). Factors such as the impact of technology, global competition, shifting economic cycles and business climates, and the makeup of the workforce have kept multinational corporations in constant change. Consequently, organizations must be able to understand change implications that affect their business and workforce and adapt in ways that meet both organizational and employee needs (Pope, 1992: vi). To do so, companies must employ integrated human resource policies that can adapt themselves to changing environments.
Dr. Alex Krauer, the former chairman of Novartis, addressed these specific issues in his speech to the shareholders at the company's 1999 Annual General Meeting. Krauer noted that the changes in the global environment are not confined to the world outside of Novartis. Rather, all of the company's employees are also affected by such changes (M2 Presswire, 1999). Krauer's statements, as well as other statements publicized by Novartis and an examination of its personnel practices in China, demonstrate Novartis' commitment to establishing a workforce suited to the volatility and technical specialties of its markets as well as the flexibility and diversity of its multinational status through highly-integrated human resource management policies and practices.
Novartis is a world leader in life sciences with core businesses in Healthcare, Agribusiness and Consumer Health (PR Newswire, 1999). Novartis was created from the merger of two Swiss companies, Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz, in 1996. In 1998, Novartis Groups sales were CHF (Swiss France) 31.7(USD 21.8) billion, of which CHF 17.5 (USD 12.0) billion were in Healthcare, CHF 8.4 (USD 5.8) billion in Agribusiness and CHF 5.8 (USD 4.0) billion in Consumer Health (PR Newswire, 1999). The Healthcare division includes pharmaceuticals, generics, and CIBA vision. Agribusiness includes crop protec...