Human Resource Management of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A : Wells Fargo & Company is a diversified financial services company with operations around the world. Wells Fargo is the fourth largest bank in the US by assets and the largest bank by market capitalization.[2] Wells Fargo is the second largest bank in deposits, home mortgage servicing, and debit card. In 2007 it was the only bank in the United States to be rated AAA by S&P,[3] though its rating has since been lowered to AA-[4] in light of the financial crisis of 2007–2010.

The firm's primary U.S. operating subsidiary is national bank Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., which designates its main office as Sioux Falls, South Dakota for legal purposes.

Wells Fargo in its present form is a result of an acquisition of California-based Wells Fargo & Company by Minneapolis-based Norwest Corporation in 1998. Although Norwest was technically the surviving entity, the new company renamed itself Wells Fargo, capitalizing on the 150-year history of the nationally-recognized name and its trademark stagecoach. Following the acquisition, the company transferred its headquarters to Wells Fargo's headquarters in San Francisco and merged its operating subsidiary with Wells Fargo's operating subsidiary in Sioux Falls.

In 2010 Wells Fargo had 6,335 retail branches (called stores by Wells Fargo), 12,094 automated teller machines, 281,000 employees and over 70 million customers. Wells Fargo operates stores and ATMs under Wells Fargo's and Wachovia's names.

Wells Fargo is one of the Big Four banks of the United States with Bank of America, Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase.

International Staffing Policy

The staffing challenges for international assignments are broader in scope than those for domestic staffing. There are different approaches to the management of International human resources. These are as follows:

* Ethnocentric – the home country attitudes, management style, knowledge, evaluation criteria, and managers are superior to anything the host country might have to offer.
* Polycentric – there is a conscious belief that only host country managers can ever really understand the culture and behavior of the host country market; therefore, foreign subsidiary should be managed by local people.
* Geocentric – based on the assumption that the best manager or other employee for any specific position anywhere on the globe may be found in any of the countries in which the organization operates.

These three sets of multinational values translate into three broad international staffing policies or sources for staffing international operations. First, the company can send people from its home country. These employees are often referred as expatriates. Second, it can hire host-country nationals, natives of the host country, to do the managing. Third, it can hire third-country nationals, natives of a country other than the home country or the host country. These sources of overseas workers have different advantages ( 2002).

* Host country nationals – less cost, preferred by host-country governments, intimate knowledge of environment and culture, and language facility
* Home country nationals – talent available within company, greater control, company experience, mobility, experience provided to corporate executives
* Third country nationals – broad experience, international outlook, and multilingualism



Opening a Subsidiary in Portugal

Culture

Portugal possesses a rich, unique culture, lively cities and beautiful countryside. Portugal was once among the poorest countries in Western Europe. The end of dictatorship and introduction of democracy in 1974, and Portugal’s incorporation in the European Union in 1986 has caused a significant increase in economy. Major industries in Portugal include oil refineries, automotive, cement production, paper, textile, footwear, furniture, tourism and cork. Agriculture and Fishing no longer represents the bilk of the economy, but Portuguese wine, including Port Wine is globally exported


Organizations rely on available labor skills so that the role of national educational systems in providing this is viral. It has been argued that, as educational systems shape the skills and knowledge of individuals, they in turn shape organizational training systems as a result of their requirements for training and career aspirations ( and 1992).

There is a growing recognition that a better-educated population may be generally more innovative and better able to adapt to technological change, an important factor that can help Portugal to remain competitive and to catch-up to higher productivity levels. In the 1990s, the shortage of human capital in Portugal was unable to stop the growth of the economy die to the large infrastructure investment, often co-financed by European Union funds and large private investment. However, the present economy requires better-educated workforce to accelerate technological change and stimulate innovation in Portugal ( and 2006).

Portugal has a low training culture. Less than 10 percent of Portuguese employees are involved in adult training. Employees participating in adult training are among the younger, more qualified workers and employees of larger firms. Typically, training has been mostly remedial in Portugal, rather than preventive. Policies that widen access to training are needed to raise Portugal’s growth potential at the same time as addressing equity concerns ( and ).



Approaches to Training and Development

Employees in the host country require special training to achieve desired level of performance. One of the major problems associated with hiring in less developed countries such as Portugal, is that the skill level of individuals may be less than desired. In such circumstances, it is important to invest considerable time and effort in the selection process and to provide increased training to local employees when they arrive on the job. Training programs designed in the home country to teach employees the skills needed to perform their jobs may be inappropriate for use in other cultures. In addition, how people learn and the methods of training with which they are comfortable vary across cultures ( 2002). Portuguese employees display high power distance (acceptance of status differences between students and instructors) and strong uncertainty avoidance (unwillingness to take risks and to try new things are likely to desire and perform better in training programs that rely more heavily on structured and passive learning techniques, such as reading assignments and lectures ( and 2004). In Portugal, where the culture is hierarchical respect and deference for instructors and teachers are observed. Portuguese take a passive role in learning, and the very active, high-participation methods often used in the United States or the United Kingdom may be inappropriate.
 
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