Forelæsning 11

Question 1

3 Studies for IHRM

Answer 1

• Cross-cultural management studies
• Comparative HRM studies
• International HRM (and SIHRM) studies

Question 2

Cross-cultural management studies

Answer 2

• Argues that nations have different underlying cultural values, attitudes and beliefs reflected in how organizations and societies operate.
• How management is accomplished across such cultures in organizations.
• HR activities are affected by such values (e.g. based on Hofstede)

Question 3

Comparative HRM studies

Answer 3

• Concentrates attention on the way people work and examines the differences between nations and how HRM is structured within countries
• Tend to compare differences between different work/HRM traditions within different countries (e.g. relating to macro/institutional differences)

Question 4

International HRM (and SIHRM) studies

Answer 4

• Examines how organizations manage their international human resources (e.g. expatriate management), not restricted to culture merely.
• Organizational focus (e.g., MNCs)
• Often focuses on MNCs or changes in HRM as firms internationalize (challenges of standardization vs local adaption)

Question 5

What is IHRM?

Answer 5

IHRM is concerned with the relationships between the HRM activities of organizations and the foreign environments in which the organizations operate.

Question 6

Realizing IHRM strategy through;

Answer 6

• Organizational culture formation: Ethnocentric, transnational, polycentric approach
• Staffing: Ethnocentric, transnational, polycentric approach
• HRM practices: Ethnocentric, transnational/geocentric, polycentric.

Question 7

Ethnocentric Culture Orientation

Answer 7

HR managers export corporate values from HQ to SDs.
EX: When Toyota was expanding internationally, they tried not only to transfer their manufacturing systems, but also their ‘cultural DNA’, ‘The Toyota Way’, transferred overseas by expatriates acting as ‘teachers’ and coaches

Question 8

Transnational Culture Orientation

Answer 8

HR managers diffuse corporate values that are not particularly rooted in the parent country’s culture.
EX: When transforming itself from an IT manufacturer to business service firm, IBM in 2003 developed new set of values using a web-based brainstorming session, ‘value jam’, in which employees were involved worldwide

Question 9

Polycentric Cultural Orientation

Answer 9

Maintaining subsidiary-level culture – under multi-domestic strategies (or e.g. having acquired a foreign company with excellent brand values etc.). Every country is unique and needs a different approach to match cultural and societal norms

Question 10

Ethnocentric Staffing Policy

Answer 10

Staffing the most important positions in SDs with PCNs (Parent Country Nationals) e.g. in companies with international/global strategic

Question 11

Polycentric Staffing Policy

Answer 11

Hands-off approach to employment practice from HQ management. Hiring is based on local contexts (HCN: Host Country Nationals) e.g. In multidomestic companies.

Question 12

Regiocentric Staffing Policy

Answer 12

Hiring based on regional context (may involve HCNs and TCNs: Third Country Nationals), each region develops its own HR policies and procedures.

Question 13

iv. Geocentric Staffing Policy

Answer 13

Recruit from worldwide networks in companies with transnational strategic orientation. Staffing is undertaken at a global level – best person for the job is hired, regardless of country of origin.

Question 14

SIHRM model

Answer 14

Y: Integration
X: Local responsiveness
High-low-low-high.

3 quadrants:
Active IHRM strategy:
- Actively balances global integration and local responsiveness.

Receptive IHRM strategy:
- SD’s are closely connected to HQs with little freedom to design own HR policies.

Autonomous IHRM strategy:
- SDs have freedom to develop their own IHRM policies calibrated to local conditions.