Explain how culture influences human resource practices and employee management.

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Riot Games Talent Management Strategy Case Study

Overview

The global organization is a complicated and powerful platform of productive capability, built on the power of differences. Cultural diversity offers a broad perspective of competitive settings and responds to and from many views while leveraging the strengths that come from different nations and regions of the world. A strong global human resources strategy can support the organization’s goals to attract and retain the most talented professionals in fields aligned with the organization’s competitive posture and marketing space.

This assignment is based on the following case study:

Riot Games, Inc., is a global American gaming company based in West Los Angeles, California. The company was started in 2006 by Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill, as they worked to build a gaming company that would be quality-focused and continuously improved. As of May 2018, Riot Games employs 2,500 staff members and operates 24 offices around the world, including locations in Barcelona, Spain – Berlin, Germany – Dubai, UAE – Dublin, Ireland – Hong Kong, China – Istanbul, Turkey – London, England, Los Angeles, CA – New Deli, India – Paris, France – San Francisco, US – St. Louis, MO – Santiago, Chili – San Palo, Brazil – Seoul, Korea – Shanghai, China – Singapore, Sydney, Australia and Tokyo, Japan. Talent is not a function of place but of people, and the hundreds of skills and dozens of occupations that are required to create a highly exciting and engaging family of computer games enjoyed in virtually every nation in the world requires a broadly diverse staff.

Riot Games is working very hard on diversity and inclusion with respect to both national culture and diversity, as we recognize it in the United States. The company has hired experts engaged in programs and is honestly working to address a culture that could be much improved with respect to inclusion. However, there is a key point that needs to be considered as you review and respond to this assessment. The proportion of women working for the organization in the creative area is less than 10%. (Please note that this percentage may change over the life of this course). Riot Games is a highly successful organization full of very capable and creative people. The majority of people work in the areas of art and technology. Another portion of its employees work in supporting roles that are common to companies. A challenge that this great company has is how to attract women to both its technology roles and other supporting functions of the organization. With such low numbers of women, the company will be challenged to attract others, often out of concern for the presence of peers. The high male population is the same across all offices listed above. While there is diversity of culture and ethnicity, and the LGBT community is being welcomed, the absence of women is an issue the organization’s leadership has made a major goal to resolve.

Riot Games is ultimately a talent driven organization that is successful, based on its uniquely qualified employees. These are not always the kinds of employees who can be sourced in traditional ways. They are talented and driven, work all hours, dream in code, and are intolerant of traditional bureaucratic settings. Interestingly, Riot Games is anything but bureaucratic. However, no matter the organizational structure and behavior of an organization, all will have human resources challenges that cannot be easily resolved. In fact this will be an issue that will require both resources and creativity to fix, which is exactly what you are challenged to do in this assignment.

By successfully completing this assignment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:

  • Competency 1: Explain how culture influences human resource practices and employee management. 
    • Explain how culture influences HR practices and employee management in this case study.