International Human Resource Management - Coursework Example

International Human Resource Management Introduction Culturally diverse teams have recently become common where most multinational corporations have now adopted these teams in order to access a wide variety of skills and knowledge (Dowling, Festing and Engle 2008, p. 56). The management of multicultural teams has become a very important aspect of international human resource management (IHRM). This paper discusses the validity of the statement “Effective international managers were said to be those who were adaptable, flexible, open-minded, speaking in foreign languages, and making friends with those of many nationalities” (Smith, 1992: 46). Additionally, the paper tries to show how the stated values and attributes of international leaders are relevant and adequate capabilities, conditions and qualities of international managers/leaders in managing culturally diverse project teams. The paper also details critical analysis of how culturally diverse teams operate, the roles of the team members, as well as, the importance of human resource management in these teams. IHRM also covers the management of expatriates and the organizational strategies and interventions put in place to curb the potential challenges posed by culturally diverse teams. Working in Culturally Diverse Teams It is important to understand the nature of culturally diverse teams so as to deduce valid conclusions that Smith’s statement is true. As stated earlier, the number of culturally diverse teams has increased dramatically in the world for last few decades. Companies adopt these teams believing that they can boost performance, but, at the same time, the teams pose potential risks to their operations. Cultural diverse teams can be classified into bicultural and multicultural teams. Bicultural teams consist of two or more members that represent two different cultures while, in multicultural teams, the members come from three or more ethnic/cultural backgrounds (Roberson 2013, p. 45). Usually, diverse teams are prone to disagreements because most people struggle to intermingle, relate and understand their colleagues who come from different backgrounds. Although the multicultural teams may yield good results, the lack of understanding and distrust among the members can lead to poor performance of the teams. However, if the members of diverse teams are managed adequately, the teams can get access to the wide variety of skills and information and solve problems effectively. It, therefore, means that the cultural differences must be reconciled through a deeper and critical analysis of issues undermining diverse teams’ performance. Based on the nature of culturally diverse teams, it, therefore, means that the leaders appointed to manage these teams must possess certain characteristics, qualities and values so as to achieve success. Research shows that team managers who are open-minded, have good communication skills and can build a good relationship with team members eventually lead to achievement of the team goals and objectives. Thus, Smith’s statement is valid because only those leaders with the stated attributes would understand the nature of diverse teams and effectively apply specific strategies required to boost the team performance. International leaders/managers who lack cultural competence and communication skills would not effectively manage culturally diverse teams (Roberson 2013, p. 47). Diverse teams often require leaders who can “think outside the box” and execute the tasks allocated to the team. Flexible and open-minded international leaders, therefore, would effectively manage the teams since they accept ideas from the diverse team members. In addition, leaders with diverse experiences will also yield success in diverse teams, unlike the managers of homogenous teams. Originally, most companies around the world had adopted homogenous teams in accomplishing their goals. However, the teams were found to provide narrow pools of knowledge and often ignored some ideas, which resulted to poor team performance. Consequently, diverse work teams were adopted because the members can bring in a wider variety of information and solve the problems much more effectively that the homogenous teams. Research also shows that international leaders who would manage these teams effectively must possess certain characteristics that are similar to those included in Smith’s statement (Vallaster 2005, p. 144). Additionally, the behaviour of the team members also depends on how the managers treat and direct them. It is important to allow the team members adjust to the new working environment created by a culturally diverse team. Smith’s statement is valid because only flexible and open-minded leaders would understand the situation of the employees in the diverse teams. Leaders used to homogenous teams are likely to assume the needs of team members since they are used to one culture (Dowling, Festing and Engle 2008, p. 59). The flexible and open-minded leaders would, therefore, create sufficient time for the team members to interact and share their views before commencing the work designated to them. Another aspect that requires the qualities of an international leader as indicated by Smith is the monitoring the progress of the diverse teams in their work. Usually, multicultural teams perform poorly in the first stages and improve over time, unlike the homogeneous teams that start performing faster. Thus, the leaders should understand this aspect and manage it appropriately to achieve success. Qualities of Effective International Team Managers The most important aspect in the management of culturally diverse project teams is adaptability. As illustrated in the Smith’s statement, adaptability is a relevant attribute of a leader that is sufficient to achieve the goals set in diverse work team. In global teams, people from different ethnic backgrounds come together to execute tasks so as to achieve a common goal. It, therefore, means that every member of such teams must adapt the environment created by different cultures. This involves an appreciation of individual differences even before building relationships or commencing the tasks allocated to the team. Adaptable global team leaders would initiate a good environment that motivates the followers to interact with the others. Additionally, the leader should learn each member’s demographics and understand their differences in race, sex, religious beliefs, political ideologies, and so on. In this way, the global team manager would set a path through which he/she can build relationships with each team member. Flexible international leaders can effectively manage culturally diverse project teams since they understand cultural diversity much better that rigid managers. Cultural diversity may refer to the differences in behaviours, work ethics, communication styles and others from one country to another. These differences mean that there are certain cultural stereotypes that develop in one culture towards another. As a global team leader dealing with a diverse workforce, you should understand these stereotypes and try to equalize the statuses across all the members. In this way, you will be flexible enough to enquire information from each employee without any personal bias developed from the cultural stereotypes (Vallaster 2005, p. 56). Also, flexible global team leaders are likely to close the cultural gap that exists among the team members. This is done by focusing on the similarities such as technical know-how, instead of emphasizing the cultural and behavioural differences. Open-mindedness is very important when one is dealing with people from different ethnic backgrounds. Being an open-minded leader is just enough for managing a culturally diverse project team. This is because one can welcome the different ideas from the diverse team members and harmonise them with his/her opinions. Otherwise, leaders who believe they have superior ideas over their followers may end up not capturing everything required for the project. Such leaders would also look at the team in bigger perspective and develop a global mindset necessary for mobilisation of the team members. The Toyota Motors Corporation has an external diversity board, which consists of recognized leaders from the US. These leaders who are trained in the fields of public policy, community relations and diversity offers advisory services to the company managers on how to handle diverse workforce and communities across the world. This is a good example that illustrates that appreciation of cultural diversity is being promoted by many multinational corporations. As indicated in Smith’s statement, international team leaders who speak in foreign languages are likely to achieve the goals of a team. This brings the aspect of cross-cultural communication, which requires that leaders should understand how each team member communicates. Leaders who understand many languages would achieve success because they can understand the team members’ opinions and encode them into his/her own language. These leaders can easily negotiate matters arising from the team members and keeps the teamwork progressing. Today, it is important to understand the nonverbal communication methods used by the diverse workforce. For example, Brazilians usually hug and kiss when they are greeting each other; Chinese shake their hands or not their heads while Japanese business would give out a gift as a way of appreciating (Watson, BarNir and Pavur 2005, p. 459). These cultural differences should be maintained in order to keep the employees in good morale throughout the project period. Creation of good relationships with the team members would enable the global team manager sell his/her vision and achieve the set goals for the team. Usually, in most construction projects, many experts in the fields of engineering, architecture, construction managers and others are brought together to construct a building, dam or bridge. Creating good relationships with the consultants would ensure that the project is completed on time, and no cost overruns are incurred. Good relationships would create an avenue to set his/her visions to the team members and achieve recognition. The leaders can as well develop superordinate goals that transcend the individual differences, for example, stopping a construction project for two years because it is raining. These good relationships are relevant in executing a project to its full completion. International Human Resource Management (IHRM) Globalization and increased liberalization of global markets have significantly affected human resources management at an international scale. Certain HR policies and strategies used in order to effectively utilize human resources from across the world. International Human Resource Management (IHRM) may refer to the multifaceted process of procuring, hiring, recruiting and allocating human resources in certain tasks in a multinational organization (Harzing and Pinnington 2011, p. 100). In the context of culturally diverse project teams, IHRM can be interpreted as the process of acquiring human resources to execute a temporary project for a specified duration. Therefore, the role of international human resources manager in culturally diverse teams would involve recruitment/hiring, selection, training and development, evaluation and compensation. Training and development of the diverse team members should include cross-cultural training and cultural competence skills development. It is important to note that IHRM policies and strategies in the context of multicultural teams are different from that of multinational corporations. This is because the diverse teams are only active for a specified duration, unlike in an organization engaging in manufacturing that is likely to operate forever. It, therefore, means that IHRM teams should be hired in order to manage the diverse workforce involved in executing a project (Stahl and Bjorkman 2012, p. 89). For example, in a construction project taking five years, there should be a temporary IHRM that will manage the workers throughout the period. The IHRM team members can be hired from the companies that employ the members included in the project team. It is preferable to have a human resources advisor and a leader who is experienced in handling culturally diverse project teams. Expatriates in IHRM An expatriate is an international firm’s employee who works in a foreign country for a specified duration. In order to understand the concept of ‘expatriate’, it is important to differentiate between domestic and international HRM. Domestic HRM involves the monitoring of employees within a country borders while international HRM involves managing employees across national boundaries. IHRM can be interpreted in three distinct dimensions. The first category includes the HR activities that are involved in IHRM. There are six activities in IHRM, which include, planning, hiring employees, training and development, remuneration of employees, performance management and creation of industrial relations. The second dimension of interpreting IHRM is the three country categories, which include the host, home and other countries. The subsidiaries of the multinational corporations are in the host country; the headquarters are in the home countries (Rees and Edwards 2011, p. 78). The third dimension of IHRM is the three categories of employees, which include the Parent Country Nationals (PCNs), Third Country Nationals (TCNs) and Host Country Nationals (HCNs). A good example that illustrates how IHRM operates is the case of IBM. IBM has its headquarters in the US and subsidiaries in Australian, Asia Pacific, Japan and Singapore. IBM employs the Australian citizens in its Australian subsidiary. Then, it can send its employees from the US to go and work in Asia Pacific as expatriates. IBM can as well send some of its Japanese employees to Singaporean operations (Rees and Edwards 2011, p. 80). IHRM becomes more complex than domestic HRM due to various reasons. In IHRM, the international leaders manage people from different backgrounds and have diverse cultures. When a company sends an expatriate on assignment in a foreign country, it is charged with the responsibility for maintaining the expatriate’s personal life. In addition, the IHRM team should adequately respond to the changes in staffing requirements when the international strategy changes (IRMA 2014, p. 91). IHRM teams are more involved in number of functions including the selection, training and management of the expatriates in foreign countries. Unlike the domestic HRM, the international HRM invests much in cross-cultural training and post-departure briefings when expatriates are sent on assignment. Failure to establish organizational strategies to manage the expatriates in IHRM would lead to the so-called ‘expatriate strain.’ Expatriates workplace strain is caused by inadequate preparations before moving to a foreign country, difficulties in adapting to the new environment and inability to work with a diverse workforce. When expatriates find it difficult to work in the new environment, they may leave early even before completing the assignments. Recently, it has been revealed that expatriates who don’t go with their families also suffer from the workplace strain because they can’t manage to live without their loved ones. As a result, they perform poorly, be it in culturally diverse teams or multinational organization’s subsidiaries. This problem can be remedied through pre-departure briefings, cross-cultural training and cultural competence skills development (IRMA 2014, p. 93). IHRM Organizational Strategies and Policies In the context of management of culturally diverse project teams, the IHRM team should develop certain strategies meant to boost the qualities of the manager and members of these teams. Additionally, the IHRM team should select the most qualified global team leader able to lead the team effectively towards the goal. The selected global team leader should have the essential skills needed to manage a culturally diverse workforce. The leader should have been trained in international human resource management, have enough experience and knowledge about diverse teams and possesses the necessary cultural competence skills required in leading international teams. The leader should be selected from the internal environment of the multinational organization dealing executing the project in a foreign country (Thomas and Lazarova 2014, p. 34). When sending the team leaders and members, the companies involved should offer cross-cultural training to the expatriates before they leave and immediately they arrive in the host country. Pre-departure training and briefing are essential because it enables psychological preparations among the employees going on assignments in foreign countries (Mannix and Neale 2005, p. 33). They also develop good communication skills and cultural competence skills necessary for interacting with other employees in the foreign country. The cultural training programs in the host countries enlighten expatriates on the laws governing the new workplace environments, as well as, creation of cultural awareness. Note that these skills are important for both the team members and their leader. Cultural competence skills development involves training employee on how to handle cultural diversity and initiate the development of favourable relationships in diverse teams. This may involve language training and brief coaching of the expatriates before they move to the foreign countries (Thomas and Lazarova 2014, p. 39). Conclusion and Recommendations Based on the discussion, it is evident that flexible, adaptable, open-minded international leaders can effectively manage culturally diverse project teams. Smith’s statement is valid because diverse work teams require leaders with certain capabilities and qualities. Diverse teams often need an instructor who can help the team members in managing the pressure from the culturally diverse workforce. Open-minded and flexible international leaders are competent in managing a diverse workforce because they recognize the individual differences. They also build favourable relationships necessary for achieving project team goals and objectives. As discussed in the essay, international human resource management (IHRM) involves recruitment, selection, training, management and compensation of human resources coming from different countries and ethnic backgrounds. There are various problems associated with culturally diverse teams and IHRM, which should be solved in order to achieve the set goals and objectives. Multicultural teams usually suffer from misunderstandings and distrust among the members due to the individual problems. This problem can be solved through selection of an effective international team leader who will aid the members in harmonising the cultural differences. In situations where expatriates sent on assignments return before time, the IHRM team should offer cross-cultural training programmes and competency skills development. In this way, the IHRM team would reduce the workplace strain experienced by employees in foreign countries. References List Dowling P, Festing M & Engle A D 2008, International human resource management: managing people in a multinational context, London, Thomson Learning. Harzing A W & Pinnington A 2011, International human resource management, London, SAGE. Information Resources Management Association 2014, Cross-cultural interaction: concepts, methodologies, tools, and applications, New York, Cengage Learning. Mannix E and Neale M A 2005, What differences make a difference? The promise and reality of diverse teams in organizations, Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 6 (2), 31-55. Rees C and Edwards T 2011, International human resource management: globalization, national systems and multinational companies, Harlow, England, FT Prentice Hall. Roberson Q M 2013, The Oxford handbook of diversity and work, Oxford, Oxford University Press. Stahl G K, Bjorkman I & Morris S 2012, Handbook of research in international human resource management, Cheltenham, UK, Edward Elgar Pub. Thomas D C & Lazarova M B 2014, Essentials of International Human Resource Management: managing people globally, London, Sage Publications. Vallaster C 2005, Cultural diversity and its impact on social interactive processes: Implications from an empirical study, International Journal of Cross-Cultural Management, 5(2), 139-163. Watson W, BarNir A & Pavur 2005, Cultural diversity and learning in teams: The impact on desired academic team processes, International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 29 (4), 449-467. Read More