Unit 3
Global Human Resource Management
Objectives
• Understand the strategic role of human resource management in the
international business
• Be aware of the importance of culture in human resource management
in international firms.
• Analyze few of human resource strategies that include management
development, staffing, evaluation performance, compensation and labor
relations.
• Examine how management development and training programs can
increase the value of human capital in an international firm.
Content
• Human resource management (HRM)
– Strategic role of HRM in international firms
• Staffing policy
– Ethnocentric staffing policy
– Polycentric staffing policy
– Geocentric staffing policy
– Choosing the best staffing policy
• Expatriate failure
– Rate of expatriate failure
– Reason for expatriate managers failure
– Reducing expatriate failure in firms
• Global Mindset
– importance
Content
• Training and management development
– Importance
– What happens when expatriates return home?
– Importance of management development to firm strategy
– Determinants of culture
– Differences between individuals and groups
– Role of language in culture
– Impact of culture in workplace
– Evaluation for expatriates
– Reducing Performance Appraisal Bias
– Key issues in compensating expatriates
– Treatment for National differences in compensation
– Payment for expatriates
• Importance of international labor relations
• Concerns of organized labor
• Response of organized labor to MNC power
• Response of MNCs to organized labor
Human resource management (HRM)
• Human resource management (HRM) refers to the activities an organization carries out to utilize its human resources effectively
• These activities include– determining the firm's human resource strategy
– staffing
– performance evaluation
– management development
– compensation
– labor relations
• Firms need to ensure there is a fit between their human resources practices and strategy
Strategic role of HRM in international firms
The Role of Human Resources in Shaping Organizational Architecture
Staffing policy
Expatriate failure
• Firms using an ethnocentric or geocentric staffing strategy will have
expatriate managers
• Expatriate failure is the premature return of an expatriate manager to
the home country
– each expatriate failure can cost between $250,000 and $1 million
– between 16 and 40% of all American expatriates in developed countries fail and
almost 70% of Americans assigned to developing countries fail
Global mindset
• A global mindset may be the fundamental attribute of a global
manager
– cognitive complexity
– cosmopolitan outlook
• A global mindset is often acquired early in life from
– a family that is bicultural
– living in foreign countries
– learning foreign languages as a regular part of family life
Training and management development
• Training focuses upon preparing the manager for a specific job
• Management development gives the manager a skill and reinforces organizational culture
• Training can reduce expatriate failure
•Cultural training Appreciation for the host country’s culture
•Language training Important to interact with host country national
•Practical training Helps to ease into day-to-day life in the host country
• Expatriates need good programs for re-integrating themselves back into work life within their home country organization and for utilizing the knowledge they acquired while abroad.
International labor relations
• Question: Can organized labor limit the choices available to an
international business?
– Labor unions can limit a firm's ability to pursue a transnational or
global strategy
– HRM needs to foster harmony and minimize conflict between
management and organized labor
Activities
Activities To be evaluated %
Forum: International Firm Manager. Watch the video “Tough Job: A Look at the IMF”. After watching it, write your impressions on the Forum
Interventions: content, consistent with the discussion topic and argument.
10%
Watch video: “J&J: Creating a Global Learning Organization”. Answer the following questions on two pages:oHow do you maintain a decentralized structure but provide development for all employees?oWhat would you do?oWhat are the limitations?
Structure, content, grammar, consistent with the topic of the video and argument
10%
