International and Comparative Human Resource Management - Essay Example

Title: International and Comparative Human Resource Management Student’s Name: Institutional Affiliation: Date of Submission: International and Comparative Human Resource Management Introduction Human resource management (HRM) has evolved over the years to the professional levels that it has attained. Although human resource management has various constraints appertaining to geographical and cultural differences, it is clear nowadays that no organization can turn professional without committing a department dealing with employee issue that touch on personnel recruitment to the manner in which they carry themselves around the work place. The success of a company greatly depends on the effectiveness of the HRM department which is mandated with the fulfilment of objectives the organization. In this regard, dealing with people requires that the head of the human resource department to understand employee capabilities, maintain them through remuneration, utilize them in various departments of the organization and ensure their job satisfaction is attained in tandem with the sacrifices they make for the organization (Scholte 2005, p.398). Therefore, such endeavours as is the case in HRM require that the organization get a panel with higher skills to make an effective analysis of the required employees. However, for the purpose of this paper, we shall make an insight into comparative and international HRM whereby differences between the two will be inferred to understand their application in various places across the world. Definitive Outlook on International and Comparative Human Resource International Human resource management has grown rapidly over the years due to the effects of globalization that dictate free movement of labour. This deals with the management of a human resource department that has adopted a global outlook and aspires to manage an internationally sourced human resource department that surely provides a wide range of issues. Thus for an international organization with employees drawn from all over, it is prudent to have a department empowered enough to deal with issues of training, knowledge management, employee migration and provision of equal opportunities. On the other hand, comparative human resource management makes an insight into the changing face of international HRM. This aspect requires that the key players in the HRM department inject lessons learnt from other international organizations and try to adopt some policies for ease of work. The universality of HRM dictates that the organizations should try and adopt what is regarded as general hence the comparative outlook to HR. Differences between Comparative and International HRM Comparative HRM In the past years, business has taken a global face forcing many companies to adopt an international outlook. This means that businesses have to be done across borders as more organizations get the effects of globalization. Therefore, as the business transactions get the pinch from globalization so is the need for comparative HRM growing to capture the entire world’s business organization setup (Quintanilla & Ferner 2003, p. 365). The trend follows that comparative HRM explains the historical perspective, captures the scene in different national cultures and social setups. When these factors are looked into, them one should be able to influence certain organizational behaviour in HRM and other psychosocial issues appertaining to the work place. When this is taken into consideration, a firm can be able to adopt certain structures in HRM and make them work as basic policies of management. Moreover, the comparative aspect should make an examination of particular institutions in order to come up with sociological and institutional variables that act as overtones in making the human resource department work effectively. By taking a comparative stance, the world is getting prepared to have variations between country in terms of HR to be compared and contrasted with a bid to bring augment between nations in the business environment. This sets the platform for international HRM that seeks to take the advantage of the labour diversity and finance presented through globalization. Over the years, the cultural variable on human resource management has taken centre stage. The effect of culture on policy formulation in human resource is profound to the extent that both the national and individual understanding of culture has to be encompassed in the study. Since the world has adopted the effects of globalization, it is imperative that an understanding of various cultures be done. However, the concept of culture presents four areas that need to be addressed so that all the countries are accounted for in the formulation of policies. These areas are; individualism verses collectivism, masculinity verses femininity, power distance and uncertainty avoidance. When these notions are adopted for policy formulation, a proper understanding of managerial reactions and behaviour are easily sorted out. The study of culture as a factor of comparative HRM allows that an organization feels the cultural influence from within rather than outside. If the influence is felt within, then it is possible to have inclusive policies depending on the cultural reactions from individual parties. For instance, if a manager wants to make an impact in managing his or her employees, an integrated framework should be assumed considering social relations’ patterns and values that touch on norms, rules and beliefs. People who will take managerial positions in multifaceted organizations are mandated with the chance to understand the cultural diversity as presented in comparative HRM in order to bring up the organizational best practices. In a inclusive definition, comparative HRM brings into focus the convergent areas that can make the business world work seamlessly. International HRM IHRM is concerned with the management of employees with an international outlook in mind. The field seeks to find the best ways that a multinational organization can be managed keeping in mind that some organizations do bring employees from outside in order to make an impression locally (Wolf 2004, p. 290). However, the essence is in the adaptability that the expatriates will while working in a totally different cultural setup. Therefore, international HRM brings into focus the need to penetrate other market places for commodities by adopting an international outlook in the constitution of employees. Managers in HR have the chance to present to the main organizational structure the resourcefulness that is offered by having expatriates in the local organization as part of the strategies for expansion. This is to say that, IHRM tries to enhance the work place appearance in the international scene of business transactions with an eye on permeating the international arena. When human resource goes international there are a number of activities that should be taken into consideration. These require that the organization be well set to receive and accommodate various cultures from across the world and incorporate certain behavioural differences into the local policies in HRM (Bartlett & Ghoshal, p. 87). Therefore, activities that should be considered include; staffing, human resource planning, labour relations, training and development, compensation and benefits and performance management. However, when HRM goes international, these activities have to change slightly in order to accommodate cultural differences that are encountered globally. In an international setup, the firm can seek to expand its offices to other countries or recruit expatriates into the local business environment. Whatever the case, an international outlook is adopted hence the need to have international HRM expertise. At the national or country level, international HRM is pictured in the sense that a subsidiary firm has to be located in the host country and a collection of other countries that may be required to contribute labour and the financial muscle for business continuation (Sklair 2002, p.157). On the other hand, the employee segment does contribute to international HRM through the interaction presented between countries through movement of hosting country nationals, hosting nationals having a chance to interact with expatriates and the contribution make by other nationals without any business affiliation. These modes of interactions present the HRM department with a challenge to adopt an international outlook in order to accommodate the cultural differences into an international policy formulation in HRM. Thus international HRM presents managers with a chance to understand the cultural dimension that is presented whenever countries make cross-border labour transfers. Policy areas for international HR managers in Asia Pacific International Human Resource Management deals with the global leadership of people, thus there are areas in which managers must focus on in order to excel. All the regions west of the Pacific Ocean like Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Mongolia, and Australia among others make up the Asia pacific which is the focus of this paper. The managers in this region have to take keen interest on expatriate management, work diversity, job-restructuring, labour laws and outsourcing. Workplace diversity is a challenge area for managers in the Asia Pacific because of many cultural variations between the people. Diversity has become a vital element in the international arena because many companies have delved into multiculturalism. However, culture differences may brew a lot of trouble for the employees in a company. It is important therefore for managers to create a synchrony for their workers in order to prevent problems related to diversity. If this is ignored, chances are that production synergies may fail as the right pool of talent may not be found. This is because employees may fail to interact and work as a team due to language or cultural limitations (Wolf 2004, p. 198). For example, Singaporeans are stereotyped as always wanting to win in any kind of situation which does not auger well with other employees from other countries. Such variations in beliefs or attitudes may cause a drift between employees. Moreover, the Asian Pacific region is dominated by countries with different dialects or communication styles that pose a threat to unity. This is because the workers develop communication difficulties that arise from linguistic misinterpretations or cross-cultural misunderstandings. In lieu of this, the Human resource managers should find feasible strategies that will ease and totally embrace multiculturalism. Again, managers have the duty of striking balance between the local and international workers in terms of labour turnover. Due to globalization, there has emerged a need to solicit for talents on an international level (Dicken 2007, p.90). Expatriates help in the transfer of global expertise in a country there by providing a unique competitive advantage for the company. However, the cost of maintaining expatriates in a company is very high and may pose financial difficulty. In lieu of this, managers should find ways of balancing the need for expatriates with local talent. For example, most companies in the Asia pacific are phasing out American expatriates and replacing them with workers in the region. The major problem in the region is that there is shortage of skilled labour so expatriates take advantage of this desperation. The human resource managers must be innovative in staffing strategies and training to attract local expatriates maybe from Singapore, China or any other country in the region. To add to that, the managers are faced with a problem in the area of job-restructuring that is seriously flawed. In the region, there has been a problem in recruitment and job retention by workers. Managers have often complained of high labour turnover where employees seek international assignments rather than focus on local jobs (Hirst et al. 2009, p.128). Therefore, managers should come up with staffing strategies that have realistic yet alluring perquisites. These may vary from performance based rewards, achievement awards or profit sharing in order to retain their employees. This may also entail the need to adhere to labour laws that positively benefit the workers. For example, in China workers lack awareness on occupational safety thus the managers may use this as a staffing strategy to show how they care for the workers’ social well being. Again, the region faces a lot of brain drain in that those workers who are highly skilled and trained locally are lured out of the area. For instance, Malaysian managers have always complained of the highly skilled Malaysian youth seeking jobs in U.S.A thus causing a decline in the national income. This means that human resource managers should modify their motivation packages that will influence the trapping of local talent. It is important for them to realize that local talent is always cheaper no matter how skilled they are. Lastly, the human resource managers in Asia Pacific should consider delving into outsourcing. Outsourcing refers to the act of employing another company to carry out a specific task on their behalf. The area also has a problem in soliciting and retention of managers in addition to the aforementioned shortage of ordinary workers. It seems there is lack of strategic management and hurdles in identifying or sourcing for global leaders. The region should consider outsourcing their weak areas like human resource where there are flaws. Outsourcing is important because of its cost effectiveness rather than employing individuals (Reese & Edwards 2011, p. 70). The outsourced companies are specialists who can advice the local companies on compensation and performance management in addition to developing a team with cross-cultural capabilities. It also helps to improve the quality of work in the company due to their expertise and enhance innovation. For example, since many of the local workers in the region seek employment in the U.S.A, the companies in the Asia pacific region may outsource from U.S.A. This will help them gain the know-how of retaining and recruiting the highly skilled workers and increase their overall managerial capacity. Conclusion The emergence of globalization has led to many opportunities in the business sector as individuals and firms expand towards international assignments. This has led to the growing need of International Human Resource Management to facilitate the organizational and personnel administration. This department is very important in any company as it seeks the right pool of talent for the overall efficiency needed. It is also vital that the IHRM strategies should have a developmental link between the employment sector and educational institutions. Such strategic alliances will help local companies to tap their domestic talent before being poached by other multinationals. Therefore, the future role of human resource managers is to become strategic partners in the company where innovation is the epitome of their success. References Bartlett, C & Ghoshal, S 2002, Managing Across Borders: The Transnational Solution, (3rd ed), Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA. Child, J 2002. ‘Theorizing About Organization Cross-nationally’, in Warner, M. and Joynt, P. (eds), Managing Across Cultures: Issues and Perspectives, Thompson, London. 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