International Human Resource Management: Managing People in a Multinational Context - Essay Example

Human Resource work Assignment Human Resource work Assignment Topic Now that we are in times of globalization and internationalization, international Human Resource (HR) management is turning out to be an impact concept for HR experts to know and practice. This is quite vital for HR managers in international corporations when it comes to developing and creating of the internationally mobile workforce. In order to maintain and keep up with the pace, human resource managers face various problems on how to manage the workforce effectively on an international level. Managing international human resources allows and enables a business to compete more successfully in the world marketplace and in its excellent development tool for its workforce (PRASAD, 2012: 24).The International Human Resource manager is thus supposed to consider a number of aspects when working in multinational aspects, which includes; laws of the country, the culture of people, and work conditions for expatriate as well as the local employees, and pay expectations. Human resource practitioners and managers usually encounter problems, for a number of reasons, when sending employees on international duties and projects sometimes with disastrous results (HALVERSON, & TIRMIZI, 2008: 9). A different major reason could be that HR managers send employees on international duties without offering them the necessary training or allowing a period for the transitional phase (ILES, & ZHANG, 2013: 67). During this period, the human resource managers need to develop the necessary and required leadership skills for their employees, according to the employee’s level of authority in the host country, come up with the structures, and obtain the human resource as well as the international procedures and policies of the organization in place, which is also applicable for HR managers when sent on international duties. Companies are directed by people who have features and basic expertise which allow them to bond with the firms as well as people involved with the business. Human resource managers are thus supposed to be able to meet the numerous difficulties of performing their commitments. Human resource managers thus presume a number of roles which entail being a supervisor, figurehead, representative, and the allocator of assets as well as the resources (WILTON, 2013: 7). They put down and achieve the firm’s objectives by planning, ordering, directing as well as controlling (NOE, 2013: 127). The human resource managers are also concerned with the global alignment and coordination of international HR policies as well as procedures to the business goals, a major challenge in this section is having the required knowledge concerning the limitations and extent to which the procedures and policies of HR can be standardized across the world (LANE, & MAZNEVSKI, 2014: 79). Although there are a number of overarching global procedures and policies that are employed to align the business and HR over the world, the implementation and execution of strategies at the local level are normally different as an outcome of environmental aspects (KUPTSCH, & PANG, 2006: 69). Sometimes the employees are not able to adapt as a result of pressure from the environment and they try to improve their chances of survival. Pressure mimics the best practices, including the expected professional norms. Therefore, effective human resource managers should have the acumen to attain the business goals by teaching the required policies and procedures of HR to the employees, while at the same time respecting the local customs, needs, and traditions. Another major challenge is how one is able to incorporate all the sub-schemes in HR and support them in attaining the ultimate objective, outstanding performance. Individuals have to be prepared to come to be in tune with the enactment culture. Generating an environment that inspires the formation of knowledge and its nourishment throughout the business is a huge challenge. HR department can no longer continue with its old-fashioned functions. However, Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) should be employed, to sustain and shape a performance compelled culture. The role changes to that of an organizer, HR is required to include the complete business in this practice and act as an analyst and expediter which is the most massive challenge the HR of any organization encounters (HARZING, & RUYSSEVELDT, 2004: 76). Most human resource managers are faced with so many difficulties when it comes to people management since they are required to lead, train, motivate, encourage, and inspire all the employees. On the other hand, providers are also responsible for disciplining, hiring, firing, and evaluating the workers (SOLOMON, & SCHELL, 2009: 117). These functions seem to be at odds, but successful managers are able to integrate both positive as well as the negative aspects in the creation of a productive work force and a thriving business. Most organizations require human resource managers who are able to make quick decisions because the hardest function in any organization is the management sector. Employees are the biggest assets in an organization, and their performances as well as attitudes may be the cause of a business downfall if they are not properly managed. In selecting the right applicant, a balance amid internal corporate steadiness and sensitivity to residentwork practices is a goal. Diverse cultures put an emphasis on alteredfeatures in the assortment process depending on whether they employaccomplishment or ascribable criteria. Therefore, whencoming up with the hiring decision, HR manager should consider what the corporation prefers. People in atriumph-oriented nationreflectmore on skills, understanding, and talents (WILTON, 2013: 7). In an ascribable nation, gender, age, as well aspersonal background issignificant. Another challenge is training as well as development, since the main aim of the development function is to offer adequate trained personnel in a company capable to fulfill the goals, and contribute to better performance and growth (DOWLING, FESTING, & ENGLE, 2008, 357). Employee’s development is viewed as a field in human resource management, whereby planning individual learning, career development, and training is included. At the international level, HR managers are responsible for the development of employees in different parts of the world, offer specialized training to prepare expatriates for assignment abroad, and development of a distinct group of globally intent managers (HARZING, & RUYSSEVELDT, 2004: 76). Transfer as well as creation of international HR development is usually carried out either in a centralized or decentralized manner. With a centralized tactic, training initiates at the head offices and corporate instructorsmoving to subsidiaries, frequentlyadjusting to local circumstances.In a decentralized tactic, training is based on a local foundation, whereby thesocial backgrounds of the trainees as well as the trainers are generally similar. Therefore, in order to maximize training effectiveness, the human resource manager should be able to consider the ways and methods which trainees can learn more effectively. Cultural cultures may lead to a major impact during training practices across different parts of the world (HARZING, & RUYSSEVELDT, 2004: 76).As global competition rises, it is highly important for thriving corporations to acquire HR managers who maintain a global perspective and potential by providing training and development opportunities to aspiring managers. International human resource management tends to more complex as they are supposed to cover and be aware of the wider issues as compared to other local HR managers. The International HR manager is supposed to consider a number of aspects when working in multinational aspects, which includes; laws of the country, the culture of people, and work conditions for expatriate as well as the local employees, and pay expectations. It is necessary for HR management to consider all the aspects, and ensure that management can have the best possible relationship with the staff, while getting the best results out of them at the same time. Topic #2 In the organizations that operate in the global environment, various methods of managing employees are used for finding, training, paying, as well as promoting them from different cultures. To start with, HR managers should thus try working with their employees in a culturally appropriate manner as they are from different walks of life (REGIS, 2008: 74). When an organization sends a human resource manager of a different country, for instance, they should assume the responsibilities besides the rudimentary functions of human resource management. Such as, the roles of staffing, development, and training are particularly stressed in these kinds of organizations. They do not simply deal with the assortment of the best workforces for work in overseas countries, but also have to be conscious of the prerequisites of the entire personnel that will go along with the employee to the new national environment. Lots of persons taking on international duties tend to be highly ineffective and unproductive most of the times, since their spouses or relatives cannot modify to the new environments. Therefore, it is essential for HR managers to establish a training of foreign language for the employee and the family a few months prior to departure. Flexibility is affected where the national operations range across different nations. As people work off-site and employees will expect to only participate fewer meeting. At heart, there will be a drive, a drift towards a decentralized model of HR. Human resources managers will be required to accommodate employees in the virtual work locations and come up with a method and ways to manage corporate culture, employee’s orientation, as well as the socialization (STAHL, BJÖRKMAN, & MORRIS, 2012: 87). So as to uphold a competent workforce, HR managers would be required to act as managerial enactment experts and outline as well as shape the employee behavior without face to face encounters. A different operation that would be affected in HR is the global business concept, world trade were aware of a major of growth over the last decades and there is predicted as well as the development and progress of international businesses, particularly among lesser corporations. Corporations rely a lot on human resources specialists as the work facilitators among diverse cultures and across the borders (REGIS, 2008: 57). They are supposed to be knowledgeable of other cultures, business practices, and languages employed across the world. They are also expected to manage and develop international workforce, preserve the written as well as the unwritten policies of the corporation. They are also supposed to maintain transportability to diverse cultures, keep top management in light by informing them about the costs of not paying attention to transnational problems, and offer their services to a variety of places worldwide. Globalization will affect HR managers by needing new abilities such as language skills. For instance, so as to recruit workforce from different cultures, HR managers will in one way or the other need or have to learn different languages otherwise they will surely have to have foreign interpreters on staff. However, so as to enable communication amid people coming from a wide variety of language settings, in most multinationals, it is desired to speak English. Businesses need to take into account cultural variances that shape and make managerial outlooks, when evolving multinational management. For instance, British managers tend to worth personal achievement and autonomy, while French managers prefer competent management, fringe welfares, security, and relaxed conditions, whereas Indian managers’ stretches more significance of their ethos and customs. HR managers should thus be acquainted with and comprehend other cultural customs to promote organization assortment. A corporation that recognizes and supports cultural assortment will have an added advantage as it will be hiring the market that it functions. With growing globalization and competition in the market, assorted workforce is favorable to enticing and retaining a strong consumer base. While contending in an international market, workforces from varied national setting offer language talents and indulgent of other cultures. HR experts will also be accountable for offering cultural sensitivity exercise for the organization’s personnel and for managers in the entire business (REGIS, 2008: 157). The HR manager would need to start right from the phase of defining the corporate strategy to Resourcing, Recruiting, Retraining and Restructuring (REGIS, 2008: 27). HR has turned out to be a dynamic field owing to the constant developments and upgrading in the area of technology as well as altering consumer requirements intentionally. On top of all these explanations, there is also the drift of globalization, which strains the HR trial of endurance. The aptitude and the willingness to adjust job structure, classification and the structural structure as regularly and as swiftly as required are vital rudiments in a positive recruitment and maintenance strategy for the job specialists. This challenge of handling prospects and modification put persistent pressure on the experts. Corporate international human resource faces the problem of selection as well as recruitment when managing the internationally mobile workforce. Selection and recruitment is the process of recruiting new members, which involves attracting a number of qualified candidates for the available positions. Selection thus involves picking the candidates from the pool whose qualifications closely match the required credentials for the job. When companies are functioning globally, different types of employees need to be classified including the nationality (SOLOMON, & SCHELL, 2009: 117). These classifications may thus not cover all employees because staffing as the function of international HR management becomes quite complex. Employee’s classification goes together with remuneration, and the opportunities for promotion as well as the benefits, therefore, it is quite vital. In an international organization, the HR has to make the right classification because the managing as well as the staffing tactic intensely affects the kind of workforce the company desires. In a corporation with an ethnocentric tactic, country citizens generally put staff on significant positions at head offices and holdings. With a polycentric tactic, host country citizens normally work with overseas businesses. However, a business with a geocentric method picks the most appropriate individual for a position, regardless of type, and the HR managers have a tough decision in selecting the best workforce, and should be familiar with the kind of approach the company employs to classify applicants (SOLOMON, & SCHELL, 2009: 117). References DOWLING, P., FESTING, M., & ENGLE, A. D. (2008). International human resource management: managing people in a multinational context. South Melbourne, Vic, Thomson. HALVERSON, C. B., & TIRMIZI, S. A. (2008). Effective multicultural teams: theory and practice. [Dordrecht], Springer. HARZING, A.-W., & RUYSSEVELDT, J. V. (2004).International human resource management. London [u.a.], SAGE Publ. ILES, P., & ZHANG, C. (2013). International human resource management: a cross-cultural and comparative approach. KUPTSCH, C., & PANG, E. F. (2006).Competing for global talent. Geneva [u.a.], Internat.Inst. forLabour Studies [u.a.]. LANE, H. W., & MAZNEVSKI, M. L. (2014). International management behavior: global and sustainable leadership. NOE, R. A. (2013). Fundamentals of human resource management.New York, NY, McGraw- Hill/Irwin. PRASAD, K. (2012). Strategic human resource development: concepts and practices. New Delhi, PHI Learning. REGIS, R. (2008). Strategic human resource management and development.New Delhi, Excel Books. SOLOMON, C. M., & SCHELL, M. S. (2009). Managing across cultures the seven keys to doing business with a global mindset.New York, McGraw-Hill. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&A N=285018. STAHL, G. K., BJÖRKMAN, I., & MORRIS, S. (2012). Handbook of research in international human resource management.Cheltenham, UK, Edward Elgar Pub. WILTON, N. (2013). An introduction to human resource management. London, SAGE. Read More