International and Comparative HRM in Asia - Essay Example

International and Comparative HRM Introduction The following research paper is related to evaluate the Human Resource Management practices in the region of Asia. It would help in understanding the concepts of domestic and international Human Resource Management, the difference between both kinds of human resource management, and would also describe the importance of a parent company Human Resource Manager, who completely understands the cultural and political landscape of a host country. Understanding Human Resource Management (Hall, Goodale; 1986, p8) Human resource management is the set of procedures that is being used in the company by the upper management for the better performance, evaluation and future growth of the organization. Human resource management is basically the set of strategic and consistent processes and procedures through which the assets of the company and people who work as a team to bring up the targeted goals by the company; are managed. (Rowley and Warner; 2007) In short, human resource management is the source through which an organization makes sure that its capital and the power of human talent (whether individual or in terms of teamwork) is being utilized with maximum exposure and capabilities to achieve the future set targeted goals of the company. Difference between Domestic and International Human Resource Management (Sims, 2006, p79) There are mainly two types of human resource management that are totally different from one another. These are domestic human resource management and international human resource management. This type of human resource management is only applicable to multinational companies that have their branches in more than one countries and have to look after the human resource management activities of their local as well as internationally hired employees. (Dowling et al, 2008, p5) If broadly discussed, international human resource management is more advanced, broad, and wide as compared to the domestic human resource management since it looks after the activities of not only the locally hired employees, but also takes care of its internationally hired employees in several countries. The human resource management department of the company is required to set processes and procedures across several subsidiaries so that all the employees could be treated on the same level and follow the same standards as others do. International human resource management has more concerns and activities as compared to the domestic human resource management, and they need a much wider prospective as compared to the domestic human resource management. The international human resource management department personnel are more involve in managing the employees' personal lifestyles and lives as there is more risk exposure, and external influences due to the changes in emphasis as the workforce mix of expatriates and locals varies. According to Pattanayak (2005, p412); on the other hand, domestic human resource management does carry almost the same human resource management activities and resources, but with a different approach and synchronization. Domestic human resource management is involved with employees and their benefits with only the limited boundary of local territories. It looks after the affairs, interests, fringe benefits, and other issues related to those employees who reside in the local territories. Hence, it does work for the betterment of the employees', but with limited bounded areas of nationally resided employees. Changing Trends of Human Resource Management in Asia (Tayeb, 2005, p185) With the passage of time, the human resource management practices have changed drastically, especially in the region of Asia because of the fact that the trade and business sector along with the economy has developed in this region. Not to mention the regions of Japan, Taiwan and South Korea where human resource management practices have developed to high extents because their labor forces have been educated highly according to the increasing demand of professionals, and the fact of increasing number of multinational companies within their areas. Other than that, regions of Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia can be regarded among the developing economies where a lot of companies are paying attention to develop their multinational platforms and they are expanding their operations in these regions by investing more on the human resource management practices. However, transitional countries, such as Vietnam and China are developing nascent labor force and HRM practices appropriate to them. All these countries have different cultural and social values, but they are striving hard in order to develop their labor force and become international known through well-trained and qualified human resource management practices. As an average, it has been found that all these areas share some common values and practices; according to which, "power-distance" is high, "collectivism" is widespread, "masculinity" exists, and "uncertainty" is found common. China, on the contrary faced some mismanagement previously due to some political reforms and labor reforms, but has established its market throughout the global market very rapidly. In short, the human resource management in the entire Asian region has developed and is continuing to develop with widespread arms and has attracted many foreign gigantic sized multinational companies by developing its human resource management practices locally and internationally (Rowley and Warner; 2007). Understanding the Importance of Cultural and Political Landscape by the HR Manager of a Parent Company Whenever a parent company makes a decision to expand its operation in other countries or through other branches, it becomes a very challenging job for the human resource department and its personnel to understanding fully what are the basis through which they could succeed in that other country and could win the trust of their customers or customer companies. For this purpose, the human resource manager is required to understand the cultural values and political position of that host country so that the company could not face any kind of difficulties or troubles while expanding their operation in that particular country, and in case, if they do then they could troubleshoot it easily without any difficulty. This task is very crucial for the success of the business because there is a chance that the company might send the wrong person (HR manager) to the host country who is not fully aware of the cultural values, social environment and political situation of the host country. In such cases, chances and probability of failure is very highly. It is very important for the HR manager to know each and every single detail regarding the host country's environment so that he could find the right expatriate for overseas assignments. Usually, the problems face by the new HR manager in the host country are of language barriers, unawareness of political situation, unawareness of social environment and cultural norms. The HR manager must know what are the circumstances going around and how they can be solved for a successful business. Apart from that, HR manager must be aware of the legal formalities, public holidays, employee benefits, trade policies and business attitude of people in the host country in order to avoid and minimize the failure ratio (Rowley and Warner; 2007). The key to success for a new business in the particular host country is to understand the organizational behavior, organizational structure, nature of the people, their religion, their beliefs, their cultural values, the social environment, and the political views or environment of that country. By doing so, they could operate successfully in the market, win their customers' trust level, meet customer satisfaction level and set perfect human resource management practices for their talented professional working staff. The human resource manager could face difficulties in the beginning while implementing the human resource management practices in that particular company for their employees, but these problems are only for short-term periods, and later on, the company and its employees would enjoy long term benefits by doing so, because they strived and understood what was needed to know before entering the national competitive marketplace. References Chris Rowley, Malcolm Warner; 2007, The Management of Human Resources in the Asia Pacific: Into the 21st Century, Rainer Hampp Verlag, Article received on: 5th November 2007, Available online at: http://www.Hampp-Verlag.de Hall,Douglas T., Goodale,James G.; 1986, Human Resource Management: Strategy, Design, and Implementation, Scott, Foresman, p8. Ronald R. Sims, 2006, Human Resource Management: Contemporary Issues, Challenges, and Opportunities; Published by IAP, p79. Peter J. Dowling, Denice E Welch, Marion Festing, Allen D. Engle; 2008, International Human Resource Management: managing people in a multinational context, Published by Cengage Learning EMEA, p5. Biswajeet Pattanayak, 2005, Human Resource Management, Published by PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd., p412. Monir H. Tayeb, 2005, International Human Resource Management: A Multinational Company Perspective; Published by Oxford University Press, p185. Read More