International and Comparative Human Resource Management - Literature review Example

International and Comparative Human Resource Management College: Name: Students ID: Date: Course Name: Unit Code: Instructor's Name Table of Contents Introduction 2 Literature Review 3 Career Theory 3 Psychological Contract Theory 4 Agency Theory 4 Critical Analysis 7 Summary 7 Evaluation 11 Authority 11 Objectivity and Reliability 12 Conclusion and Recommendations 12 Bibliography 14 Introduction In the past few decades, the world has experienced heightened globalisation. During this period, organisations have prioritised setting up leaders capable of dealing with the ever-increasing involvedness of running their global operations. Overseeing global talent along with career paths is consequently a decisive challenge in lots of multinational organizations. Individuals as well as organisations perceive International assignments as a constructive way of developing global occupational competencies (Brewster & Suutari, 2005). This critical analysis delves into two journal articles that focus on global careers and role of international assignments. Michael Dickmann and Hilary Harris (2005) in their journal article ‘Developing Career Capital for Global Careers: The Role of International Assignments’ state that both the individual and the organisation have a dual dependence on each other in the development of global careers. Their findings revealed unclear gains of international assignments professed by individuals even though the organisation was adamant that international assignments were imperative for global careers. The second article is a working paper ‘International Assignments as a Career Development Tool: Factors Affecting Turnover Intentions among Executive Talent’ by Gunter Stahl, Chei Hwee Chua, Paula Galigiuri, Jean-Luc Cerdin and Mami Taniguchi. Gunter et al (2007) find that there were high international assignees turnover intentions. They too find that developmental assignments offered better career advancement and growth openings than executive and functional assignments. Ahead of critically analysing these two articles, the next section reviews the existing literature regarding career development and the role of international assignments. After the critical analysis, the paper concludes the various thoughts presented in the paper. Literature Review Below, the theories that define career development from the perspective of the organisation and the individual are discussed. The detailed review of literature comes just after the theories. Career Theory A career is defined as a succession of work-related experiences as well as attitudes a person has over the duration of their life. Hall & Mirvis (1996) introduced the concept of "protean career." This kind of career is controlled more by the individual than by the organisation, also it is characterised by further inter-organisational mobility than the usual career. Individuals are driven by their singular values and desires, and the decisive factor of achievement is internal (psychological), not peripheral. Psychological Contract Theory This theory presupposes that an implicit psychological contract influences the association linking the individual and the organisation. This implicit psychological contract stipulates the beliefs with reference to mutual and promised commitments as well as the behavioural and cultural norms regarding whether certain behaviours are up to standard. Even if it is implied, oral, and unofficial, a psychological contract, for the most part embodies significant shared expectations held by the two parties (individual and organisation) (Kohonen 2005). In employment the psychological contract essentially embraces the "exchange of benefits and rewards" involving a person and an organisation. Agency Theory The agency theory arises from the observation that an entity’s directors make use of "other people's money" to pursue their personal welfare. Agency theory points out that an agency affiliation is present once one financially viable body (the principal) sanctions the other (the agent) to do something on their behalf. An agency relationship is faced by a problem of the conflict of self-interest between the parties and stumpy verifiability of the agent's actions by the principal (Stahl & Cerdin, 2004). Seeing as each party aims to maximise their own utility, in this process, agency costs as you might expect come about once the agent fails to chase the paramount interests of the principal. Studies on the topic of international assignments make up a remarkable flow in the field of human resource management. Researchers as well as practitioners equally distinguish the part that international assignments engage for multinational organisations (Thomas et al 2005). Multinational organisations regard international assignments as of essence and as a promising basis of competitive advantage in the international market. International assignments are a lot considered decisive to an organisation’s general strategy, since key corporate stakes may well ride-upon the sense of these assignments. For ambitious executives just beginning their careers, international assignments make up a significant set of work experiences. Without a doubt, international work experience is one of the foremost elements considered in promotions to the top managerial positions. Also Chief Executive officers with stretched international experience are attractive hence very much hunted for than those who are short of far-reaching international experience (Larsen, 2004). On the flip side, international assignments have been found to be easier said than done particularly for individuals as regards their success on the job. As a result, their failure has borne sizeable expenses for the organisations they stand for. While moving individuals to work in a foreign country, multinational organisations wait for them to pull off group objectives, such as opening fresh markets, transferring expertise, as well as assembling international management familiarity, among others (Brewster & Suutari, 2005). International assignments time and again characterize career development prospects; however, career progression of international managers is still a challenging area for a lot of organisations. The critical subject matter is the management of individual expectations in international career progression which is attributed to high expatriate turnover. Harris et al (2003) state that an employee's skewed judgment of organisational traditions and the crack stuck between an expatriate's anticipation and actuality may well considerably impinge on the expatriating progression. The linkage connecting an international assignment and the growth of an individual’s global career capital is not assured. Even though international assignments in general build up the global competencies of a person, whichever global competencies realized possibly will not at all times be of express use to the individual (Harris et al, 2003). International assignments may well improve an employee’s knowing-how, save for it possibly will end in skills that cannot be transmitted to the home circumstance by the individual. This could be due to the applicability deficiency of the skill in the domicile organisation environment, or the individual may lack the ability to convert this knowledge into practice. An international assignment probably will influence an expatriate’s character (Kohonen 2005). It could cause a corroboration of intention and high motivation other than it possibly will push an individual to not as much of think on their function or alien pressure and the probable high stress intensity on an assignment might hurl individual motivations into uncertainty. An international assignment also may well boost the value of an individual’s social network by giving them admittance to advanced hierarchical levels every day and by acquiring new contacts out of the organisation in the new locality. However, it possibly will predispose to the expatriate losing home contacts and the deteriorating social relations. Critical Analysis Summary In this section, a swift review of each journal article is presented. Each journal article used a different method seeing as the topics were somewhat varied but riveted around the development of global careers and role of international assignments. ‘Developing Career Capital for Global Careers: The Role of International Assignments’ looked into what effect international assignments bear on global careers and career capital. The study used in-depth, qualitative interviews to collect data that was analysed by NVivo. In 2003 - 04, Michael Dickmann and Hilary Harris interviewed a total of 14 persons from the Finance, Sales and Marketing departments in the organisation’s headquarters in the United Kingdom, 9 had previously been deployed to various international assignments by the company. An additional 3 in-depth interviews were conducted with higher-ranking Human Resource executives so as to gain a background understanding of the organisational as well as its career strategies, structures and processes. The organisation’s internal career management system (formal or informal) was too analysed, particularly its international assignments practices and policies. The research findings were discussed under 3 key career competency categories; knowing-how, knowing-whom (social networks) and knowing-why (motivation). Each category was discussed from the organisational perspective, individual experiences as well as the role of international assignments for both the organisation and the individual. The results indicate that a formal career management system minimally affected individual career progression. The organisation and the individuals employed differing approaches to build knowing-whom, -why and -how to boost their career capital as both parties brought different patterns to play and had contrasting ambitions. Even though on a meta-level the approaches used by the individual and the organisation to build career capital complemented each other, a close evaluation of detailed career and human resource deeds revealed some divergence. Knowing-whom was the most divergent approach. Regardless of it being the least controlled area by the organization, for the most part, it was the decisive career capital as informally perceived by individuals. The divergence in the career capital building patterns was owing to the organisation’s exclusive concentration on internal networking. The organisation too encouraged people at top hierarchical levels to assist subordinate managers. However, the individuals chose to network upwards or sideways to build their social capital. Individuals also trailed their personal gains for their present occupation or their prospective career. The research also indicated how expatriates endeavoured to build and conserve their social capital plus where they noticed problems. Scores of individuals considered working harder to preserve their social capital. Even with the main efforts exerted by interviewees, a lot of them accepted that international assignments affected their knowing-whom capital. Respondents reported a positive impact of international assignments on their knowing-how capital. The individuals pointed out meta-level competencies that they added from their overseas work. As regards knowing-why, what several interviewees’ experienced pushed them to query their constant motivation to stay with the organisation. On the contrary, the 3 human resource executives interviewed asserted that the wide-ranging management proficiency and the international network of assignees helped their auxiliary career development. More importantly, even as the organisation saw international assignments as healthy for an international career, most individuals were not of the same mind. Individual managers did not perceive international assignments as a crucial aspect for either career development or the acquirement of career capital. ‘International Assignments as a Career Development Tool: Factors Affecting Turnover Intentions among Executive Talent’ examined the nature as well as the coverage of the problem of repatriate retention and the factors that impinge on repatriate turnover intentions. Gunter et al (2007) used standardised questionnaires to survey international assignees of 5 nationalities (German, Singaporean, French, American (US), and Japanese) in 93 countries. They used a sample size of 1,779 expatriates from 141 multinational organisations from various industries. 33 of the multinational organisations were based in Germany, 20 in France, 31 in Singapore, 32 in the United States and 25 in Japan. They further categorised the international assignments into 3; developmental assignments, functional assignments and strategic assignments. The study measured the following elements; Perceived prize of international assignments Perceived negative outcomes Motivation for accepting the international assignment Contentment with organisational support Fears for being sent back home Perceived career openings Turnover intentions They also used moderating and control variables The results indicated that development assignees considered professional growth and career development more than functional assignees and strategic assignees in accepting international assignments. They are followed by functional assignees the strategic assignees respectively. Strategic assignees seem to be motivated by the weight of the job itself. Development assignees and strategic assignees perceive the prize of completing an international assignment to be higher than functional assignees. Development assignees expect various negative effects of refusing an international assignment more than functional assignees and strategic assignees. Strategic assignees were satisfied with organisational support while on an international assignment whereas development assignees and functional assignees showed no difference in their satisfaction. The mean repatriation concerns among the three groups were not significant. Regarding future career outlook, development assignees were the most optimistic followed by strategic assignees then functional assignees respectively. Development assignees were found to be more exposed to turnover intentions than the other two. They were also more prepared to quit the organisation due to higher career prospects outside the organisation. Strategic assignees were more reluctant to leave whereas functional assignees were torn between leaving and not leaving. Gunter et al (2007) found that turnover intentions were influenced by perceived organisational support and the success of the send home process along with the perceived career development openings in the organisation as opposed to those from outside. Even though organisational support showed a negative link, repatriation anxiety along with the gap stuck between career development openings in the organisation and those from outside positively influenced turnover intentions. In addition, functional assignees were less concerned about satisfaction with organisational support and repatriation worries than development assignees and strategic assignees. Evaluation In this section, the quality of each article is evaluated. The evaluation checks into the strengths and weaknesses of each article. Authority The articles analysed are scholarly works. The authors of both articles have the pertinent expertise in the topic under discussion. They too have the relevant credentials. In ‘International Assignments as a Career Development Tool: Factors Affecting Turnover Intentions among Executive Talent’ Gunter Stahl, Chei Hwee Chua, Paula Galigiuri, Jean-Luc Cerdin and Mami Taniguchi have listed their places of work; they are all academic professional in higher institutions of learning. Their work was sponsored by INSEAD Business School. In ‘Developing Career Capital for Global Careers: The Role of International Assignments’, Michael Dickmann and Hilary Harris are academic professionals at the Cranfield School of Management. Hilary Harris and Gunter Stahl have written widely on the topic of international assignments and their work has been cited severally. The sponsoring institutions are credible. Objectivity and Reliability In both articles, the authors present a balanced and objective argument. Their text is based on factual pedestal since they carried out scientific research that led to the results they obtained. Where personal opinion is stated, it is supported with relevant literature from other people’s work. Their argument is presented in a neutral and logical manner. Both works have in-text citations that are supported by a reference list at the bottom of the work. Although a few errors can be spotted, the articles display a picture of high editorial quality. The data and facts used are current. ‘International Assignments as a Career Development Tool: Factors Affecting Turnover Intentions among Executive Talent’ allows for peer-reviewing to correct any errors. The article is also secured. Developing Career Capital for Global Careers: The Role of International Assignments’ is published under the Journal of World Business meaning it is protected under the copyright of the parent journal series. Conclusion and Recommendations International assignments engage a significant part in the development of individual as well as organisational career capital. Individuals gain admirable competencies once they accept to take on international duties. Individuals perceive international assignments as a way of enhancing their social capital, they feel motivated and international assignments add on to the stock of their knowledge. However, the competencies gained vary with the kind of assignment an individual undertakes. Organisations seem to gain more from international assignments, that’s why they prefer to give work to people who have international exposure. They are able to expand their networks and gain a strategic position that enhances their competitive edge. Regardless of the immense benefits international assignments render to both parties, they have been blamed for individuals, hence, organisational failures. Apparently, individuals’ expectations are not fully satisfied mainly because they do not receive the required organisational support. Due to the lacking organisational support, individuals get more concerned as regards returning home and cause high expatriate turnover intentions. Going forward, organisations need to consider various alternatives aimed at meeting up individuals’ expectations. Organisations bear the major blame for the failures in international assignments. Research has to be conducted to help establish ways in which organisations can boost expatriate support. Bibliography Bossard, A.B. and Peterson, R.B. 2005, The repatriate experience as seen by American expatriates, Journal of World Business, 40(1): 9-28. Brewster, C., and Suutari, V. 2005, Global HRM: Aspects of a Research Agenda, Personnel Review, 34(1): 5-21. Dickmann, M. and Harris, H. 2005, Developing Career Capital for Global Careers: The Role of International Assignments, Journal of World Business, 40(4): 399-408. Gunter, S., Chei, H.C., Paula, G., Jean-Luc C. and Mami T. 2007, ‘International Assignments as a Career Development Tool: Factors Affecting Turnover Intentions among Executive Talent’ INSEAD Working Paper Series. Hall, D. and Mirvis, P.H. 1996, The Career is Dead – Long Live the Career: A Relational Approach to Careers. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Kohonen, E. 2005, Developing global leaders through international assignments: an identity construction perspective, Personnel Review 34(1): 22-37. Larsen, H. 2004, Global career as dual dependency between the organization and the individual. The Journal of Management Development, 23(9): 860 – 69. Sparrow, P., Brewster, C. & Harris, H. 2004, Globalizing Human Resource Management, London: Routledge. Stahl, G. and Cerdin, J.-L. 2004, Global careers in French and German multinational corporations, The Journal of Management Development, 23(9): 885 – 902. Suutari, V. & Brewster, C. 2004, Repatriation: empirical evidence from a longitudinal study on careers and expectations among Finnish expatriates, International Journal of Human Resource Management, 14 (7): 1132-1151. Thomas, D.C., Lazarova, M.B. and Inkson, K. 2005, Global Careers: New Phenomenon or New Perspectives? Journal of World Business 40: 340-347. Read More