International HRM: International Electronics - Book Report/Review Example

International HRM: Case Study of International Electronics . Introduction Human resource management is the process of managing and controlling the workforce within an organization and international human resource management indicates the system of managing the human resource in global framework. International HRM deals with issues related to human resource of the multinational companies and their foreign subsidiaries. The process includes but not limited to sourcing of candidates with relevant skills and knowledge base, recruitment and selection of those candidates, imparting necessary training for their further development and rewarding their performance after standard evaluation, for motivating the employees to achieve strategic objectives of the organization (Armstrong, 2014). In this era of liberalization of economies, globalization and advancement of information technologies, more and more firms are engaging into international trade in order to establish their global presence and to ensure sustainability of their business activities in this competitive business environment. The process of internationalization of these organizations would never become successful if the human resource of those companies was not deployed in an appropriate manner and their overseas operations would never become sustainable if the dynamics in international and cross-cultural business process was not communicated to the employees and managed properly. This reflects the importance of the functionalities of the international human resource management (Carbery and Cross, 2013). According to the case study, International Electronics is an UK based company producing electronics for mobile phone industry. The company is planning to establish a manufacturing plant in Sweden which is closer to their most valuable market. For such business expansion, the company is required to recruit and select five international managers who will be based on Sweden and will be responsible for generating new business for the organization. In this paper, a report will be drawn on the functioning of international HRM showing how the team can recruit and select the best managers with abilities of coordinating and executing this international assignment successfully. The report will also illustrate the most appropriate ways of imparting training and development programs to those manager so that they can undertake any challenges arising out of such international program and implement techniques for mitigating them. The most effective ways to recognize and reward their performances will also be discussed so that the motivational level remains constant among the international managers. 2. Discussion In the next segment, recruitment and selection, training and development as well as reward management procedure under international HRM will be analysed in the light of the requirements of International Electronics. 2.1. Recruitment and Selection The process of recruitment tends to create a pool of candidates with skills, knowledge and experiences required for employing in a particular position in an organization. Recruitment facilitates the human resource team of the organization to invite applications from all the candidates suitable for the designation. The selection process tends to choose the most appropriate candidate for the position in terms of knowledge and skills possession, among all other alternatives available to the human resource department of the organization. Considering the case of International Electronics, the organization is required to employ five international managers who will be responsible for 360 degree business development for the planned manufacturing unit of the company in Sweden. 2.1.1. Requirements and Criteria As the managers will be located in Sweden, it is better for the company to hire local candidate with sound knowledge on local electronics and mobile manufacturing market. However, as this manufacturing unit will be an integral part of the UK based parent company, businesses from the Sweden unit will largely influence the aggregate business of International Electronics; thus the managers must contain experience of international business and must be able to understand and comply with the legislations and regulations that a multinational company has to follow in international context. For the purpose of analysis, it is assumed that apart from sourcing business, the five managers will be held responsible for smooth running of five districts business segments such as operations, finance, marketing, systems and technologies as well as supply chain management of the manufacturing unit. 2.1.2. The Process of Recruitment and Selection The process of recruitment and selection under international human resource management involves the following activities. Job Analysis Job analysis will allow the human resource management department of International Electronics to develop a detailed understanding of the duties and responsibilities associated with each jobs and evaluate the knowledge, skills and experience required to perform such duties efficiently. On the basis of such analysis, the HRM tends to set the criteria for candidates to be qualified for recruitment process. Employer Branding Employer branding is the process of utilising positive reputation of the organization as the image of the employer in order to attract the most talented and skill-enriched workforce available in the labour market to become a part of the organization. Employer branding is mostly practiced by the companies operating in global circumference (Truss, Mankin and Kelliher, 2012). The human resource department of International Electronics also exercises the process for inviting applications from suitable candidates. Once the criteria are determined, the HRM department puts advertisements on newspaper and company website, clearly specifying the different academic qualifications, technical knowledge and work experience required for five international managers. Advertisements regarding the vacancies are also uploaded on professional social networks such as LinkedIn and other job portals. As the organization tends to portray International Electronics as the employer of choice, many talented people show their interest and submit application with a hope of getting selected and becoming a part of the reputed organization. Screening Process and Interview Once the applications are accumulated from different sources within the stipulated time frame, specified by the organization, the talent acquisition department of human resource management concentrates on screening of all the applications. The team rejects those applications that do not hold any relevant skills and invites all other candidates for interview process. Interview comes under selection procedure. Though there are no regulations on the number of interviewers called for interview, it has been noticed that in general, the number of interviewers tends to be one third of the application received by the organization. All the candidates selected for the interview process are informed regarding the designation for which they have been selected for interview, the venue, time and date well in advance. At first, psychometric and aptitude test are conducted for understanding the knowledge, skills and abilities of the candidates. The candidates are filtered on the basis of the test results and rest of the applicants are called for personal interview for assessing their technical knowledge and the level of proficiency in the concerned field. As the recruitment is conducted for the role of international managers, key personnel of International Electronics should be present in the interview panel to evaluate the true knowledge base and pertinent experience of the candidates as well as their ability to handle real business scenarios. As five international managers will be designated in five different departments within the Sweden manufacturing unit, the departmental heads should also examine well the practical knowledge of the candidates as well as their knowledge and awareness about international business of mobile technologies and manufacturing. Salaries of the respective managers should also be negotiated with the individual candidates. After the interviews of all employees have been taken, the interview board of International Electronics should review the candidature of all the interviewers for the purpose of decision making. Through this process, the International Electronics will be able to find out five deserving candidates, depending on the talent and capabilities of whom the organization can take forward their plan for international expansion. Reference Checking After deciding upon which five candidates will be hired for the positions of international managers, the human resource team of International Electronics must verify the originality of the academic records shown by the candidates in the application form or curriculum vitae. Professional experience should also be cross-checked in order to confirm the validation of the experience shown by the managers. Once, all the references are verified, the candidates will be facilitated with the appointment letters, specifying the terms of services and gross remuneration paid to them over a period of one year. 2.2. Training and Development Training and development is inevitable for an organization to ensure its long term sustainability in the complex, dynamic and ever-changing business world. Imparting relevant training programs help the organization to keep the knowledge and skills of the employees upgraded, aligning with the technological progression and reconstruction of business operations. Providing necessary training and development programs to the new appointed international managers is of utmost importance for International Electronics for aligning the functioning of the managers according to the culture of the organization. Moreover, as the organization believes in establishing best practices rather than best fit and accordingly planning to standardise the manufacturing process of their parent company in Sweden manufacturing unit, training should be provided to the managers so that they can adapt the manufacturing process quickly and incorporate the procedure and management style efficiently (Grohmann and Kauffeld, 2013). 2.2.1. Induction Program Considering the training requirements of the newly appointed managers of International Electronics, though it is true that the managers are expected to possess considerable amount of knowledge regarding mobile manufacturing technologies and Sweden mobile phone industry, they are not accustomed to the organizational culture prevailing in International Electronics and the strategic goals of the company. Mission, vision and short-term as well as long term business objectives of the organization is also communicated to the employees during the induction program. Therefore, initially induction program must be conducted to make the newly hired employees of the organization familiar to its management style, organizational structure and pattern of business operations. Such induction programs must be conducted in an interactive manner so that the newly joined international managers can put forward their queries and clarify all the doubts regarding the internal or external business practices and techniques adopted by International Electronics. The induction program will also help the managers to consider themselves as an integral part of the organization (Ford, 2014). Induction program bridges the gap between the organizational culture and the individual traits possessed by an employee who has recently joined the organization. However, actual need for training and development arises as the managers start working in the organization and progress towards achieving organizational objectives. During their course of action, it is also expected that the international managers of International Electronics to experience difficulties in various fields of work (Lee-Kelley and Blackman, 2012). Therefore, in order to address all such difficulties and create an environment of organizational learning and development, systematic approach must be followed which involves the following steps. 2.2.2. Systematic Approach of Training and Development Identification of Training Needs Rather than scheduling training programs abruptly and haphazardly, the training and development department of International Electronics must identify the areas in which the training should be provided to the international managers. Analysing such training need and designing programs accordingly, makes the training schedule much more interesting and interactive to the employees. Implementation of Training Programs Depending on the requirements, training can be imparted in various ways. If it is noticed that all the five managers are experiencing same level of difficulties then workshops can be arranged to clarify the difficulties of all the managers at a time. Relevant training materials should also be provided by the organization so that the managers can refer to those materials if they experience similar problems in future as well. In order to facilitate the managers to understand how they should acquire business from the global market, role plays can be conducted. Such role play sessions will expose the managers to various realistic business scenarios to evaluate and capture the managers’ reaction to those situations and their approach of solving the complexities of the situation. In this type of training methods, the managers will also be told what their ideal response should be in those situations which will help them to manage the situation most effectively. For implementing technical and technological expertise, on job trainings should also be provided. In fact, International Electronics should arrange for the five newly joined managers a visit to its UK manufacturing units so that they can observe the pattern of working and the best practices exercised by the managers in these factories and implement similar working pattern in the newly established manufacturing unit in Sweden. As the manufacturing unit starts working, the managers are bound to encounter different problems and difficulties in running the operations. Hence, training needs of the managers should be analysed and identified over a period of time and imparted by using all the training methods discussed above. Training needs will also arise when the existing technologies become obsolete and new technology is instituted, replacing the old one. However, whenever training is imparted, a detailed record of the training program consisting of number of participants, duration of the programs, topics covered etc should be documented for future reference of evaluating the effectiveness of the training program (Gomes, 2012). Assessing the Effectiveness of Training Program Figure 1: Training and Development under International HRM (Gomes, 2012) Providing training and development programs includes significant investment i.e. cost considerations for the organization. Therefore, return on investment is evaluated through measuring the degree of enhancement in productivity of the managers and employees. Such expansion in production or manufacturing indirectly reflects the effectiveness of training programs. Evaluation of training procedure is a five dimensional approach that leads to calculate the gap between the results expected from providing training and the actual outcome. Apart from directly measuring the change in performance level, various methods are used for assessing the efficiency of the training imparted. Often feedbacks are taken from the trainees and trainers immediate after imparting the training programs. This helps the management to understand the perspective of both the parties regarding the training program. For the managers operating in international context, such as the newly hired managers of International Electronics, international assignments will be provided once they successfully complete their initial training requirements. Figure 2: Planning and Development Cycle (Grohmann and Kauffeld, 2013) Assessing the training efficiency also expresses the areas for further training and development requirements of the managers. In fact, once the requirement for further training is identified, planning for the training schedule is initiated once again. Moreover, ever changing and innovative business environment makes the process of identification of training need, incorporating training and gap analysis a cyclical and never ending procedure for all international managers across the globe (Grohmann and Kauffeld, 2013). 2.3. Performance Management and Reward Procedure 2.3.1. Performance Management Performance management indicates a continuous communication process between the employees and supervisors that assists the employees to achieve strategic objectives pre-determined by the organization. Performance management and evaluation can be seen as an outcome of the cyclical process of assessing training and development. Positive assessment of training program is achieved only when the productivity of the employee is enhanced and improvement in productivity automatically reflects a better performance of the employees. In other words, managers of multinational companies working in the international context tend to communicate the strategic objectives of the organization and accordingly provide relevant trainings to their employees so that they can achieve the objectives within a stipulated time period. In fact the managers are subject to review the performance of the employees in order to check whether their performances are aligned to the organizational objectives. The international managers for International Electronics are also required to understand that the manufacturing unit in Sweden is established to capture the pool of potential clients in the mobile technologies industry segment within and outside the province. For acquiring new clients and making their manufacturing process of international standard, they should evaluate the performance of the employees from time to time and schedule relevant training sessions for them so that they can achieve the organizational objectives very smoothly (Bernardin and Wiatrowski, 2013). 2.3.2. Reward Procedure Managing performance is associated with another important consideration i.e. reward procedure. In order to motivate the employees for working hard towards organizational effectiveness is to relate the performance of the employees with various tangible and non-tangible rewards. In fact, procedure of employee recognition should also be established so that commendable performances of the employees should be recognised by the management. If the manager can introduce such reward and recognition system within the manufacturing units of Sweden, their employees will always be motivated towards achieving the strategic objectives of the organization. Their productivity also increases to a great extent with an expectation of maximizing their wage payment as more productivity is directly linked with monetary and non- monetary incentives. In fact, the performance of the managers should also be rewarded with handsome incentives so that they always stay motivated and influence the employees as well for providing their best effort. Performance of the international manager can be appraised by adopting the following standard and internationally recognised method and they should also be facilitated with applicable rewards to keep their motivation level constant (Truss, Mankin and Kelliher, 2012). 2.3.3. Balance Score Card Method for Performance Appraisal of Managers Balance Scorecard is a strategic technique used for appraising the performance of managers on the basis of their performances within a specific time period and overall development of the individual managers in the organizational context. Moreover, the scorecard also reveals the inclination of the employees towards achieving organizational effectiveness (Balance Scorecard Institute, 2014). Figure 3: Balance Scorecard (Balance Scorecard Institute, 2014) Balance scorecard method takes into consideration four major organizational perspectives such as the financial perspective, stakeholders’ perspective, internal business operations perspective as well as propensity of incorporating innovative ideas into business. Figure 4: Strategic Map and Balanced Scorecard (Balance Scorecard Institute, 2014) High inclination of managers towards driving business operations keeping into mind the financial consideration of the organization and their propensity to incorporate latest technologies in manufacturing process as well as infusing innovative ideas into business represent superior performances of the employees. If innovation is integrated to the business process and financial objectives is also established, International Electronics will be able to manufacture and distribute their products in international market at an optimum cost. Such endeavour of the managers will definitely be able to establish customer as well as stakeholders’ satisfaction and the organizational objective is accomplished. Therefore, such excellent performance of the international managers should definitely be rewarded sufficiently so that they can continue to perform in this manner in future as well. On the other hand, if the scorecard shows low concentration towards financial orientation, lack of innovation and customer dissatisfactions, the manager are required to impart motivational training so that they can shift their concentration towards the organizational consideration and strive for improving their performances (Rao, 2014). 3. Recommendations and Conclusion According to the case study, the consideration of international expansion taken by International Electronics is a critical one. It is impossible for the company to accomplish such strategic objective without involvement of managers with excellent knowledge, skills and abilities in this regard. Therefore, the organization must modify their recruitment and selection process in such a way, that they can find and hire the most competent candidates available in that particular province. Proper training and development programs should also be implemented to the newly appointed managers so that they can understand the functionalities and expertise of the company and incorporate the same to the new manufacturing unit established in Sweden. Moreover, their performance should be appraised through applying strategic management technique, balance scorecard method and such performances should be aligned with attactive monetary and non-monetary rewards. If International Electronics can incorporate such best practices in their newly established manufacturing unit in Sweden, it will definitely evolve as an international player in the near future. Reference List Armstrong, M., 2014. Armstrong's Handbook of Reward Management Practice: Improving Performance Through Reward. London: Kogan Page Publishers. Balance Scorecard Institute, 2014. Balanced Scorecard Basics. [Online] Available at: < http://balancedscorecard.org/Resources/About-the-Balanced-Scorecard> [Accessed 31 March 2015]. Bernardin, W. and Wiatrowski, A., 2013. Performance appraisal. New York: Psychology Press. Carbery, R. and Cross, C., 2013. Human Resource Management: a Concise Introduction, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Ford, J. K., 2014. Improving training effectiveness in work organizations. New York: Psychology Press. Gomes, S., 2012. International Human Resource Management. [PDf] Available at: [Accessed 31 March 2015]. Grohmann, A. and Kauffeld, S., 2013. 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