international HRM Flashcards
what is international HRM?
- often understood to refer to HR practices used to manage people in cross-border or trans-national contexts
- also understood to refer to multinational corporations’ (MNCs) strategic HR practices, relations with subsidiaries, and transnational employment and labour practices
- often discussed in terms of globalisation of markets and firms
what are the cross-disciplinary interests in IHRM?
- it connects with disciplinary fields of international business (IB) and international management, and organisation studies.
- these fields study MNCs with different streams of interest and emphasis, including;
the role of international institutions e.g. IMF, WTO, ILO; management practices and strategy; organisational structures, dynamics, behaviour, psychology and micro-politics
what is a definition of IHRM by (Morgan, 1986, from Harding)
“the administration and development of HR policies and practices such as HR planning, staffing, performance evaluation, training & development, compensation & benefits, labour relations in an international context.
what is the definition of IHRM from Harzing?
“explores the added complexity in HRM due to diversity of national contexts of operation (broader external influences, risk exposure) as well as the mix between expatriated and locals”
what are the main perspectives and approaches of IHRM (academic research)?
- psychological approaches
focus on individuals - sociological approaches
focus on companies, organisations, institutions, regulations - political economy approaches
focus on MNCs, strategy, political and economic factors
what are the main perspectives of HR practitioner/manager?
- psychology of employees in cross-cultural contexts
- individuals, groups, teams
- skills, retention, reward
- practicalities of managing individual employees
what is the rise of MNCs since 1970s?
- rise of Multinational corporations (MNCs)
- headquarters predominantly in the UK, Europe, Japan
- “parent country nationals” - “host country nationals” - “third country nationals”
- challenges/opportunities of working across country borders, of ‘expat appointments’
what is involved with MNCs supply chains labour migration
- MNCs engage in supply chain management
- they may also stimulate local - or host country - market
- global digital and intellectual property multinationals with minimal footprint (Google, Amazon, Netflix), franchising models (mcDonalds, Hilton)
- small local firms using e-commerce to promote their products
- large scale international migration of labour
what does IHRM include?
- integration of HR systems across borders
- cultural differences between headquarters and foreign subsidiary
- global labour supply and mobility
- skills development and deployment
- diversity in the local work force
- it addresses political, economic, institutional differences between countries and their effects
what are the key challenges for managing an international workforce?
- inreased international labour mobility
- different labour
- markets
- building and sustaining multinational teams
- resourcing international operations in a competitive market
- developing career patterns and training requirements to ensure development of cadre of international managers; and
- design of pre-departure and repatriation courses
what are the levels of interest?
macro:
- globalisation
- culture
- convergence vs divergence
micro
- managing cross-cultural teams
- diversity
what is the definition of culture?
‘the learned beliefs, values, rules, norms, symbols and traditions that are common to a group of people’ Northouse (2007:302)
what is meant by culture?
- learned beliefs, values, rules, norms, symbols & traditions that are common to a group of people
- shared qualities of a group that make them unique
- is the way of life, customs, & scripts of a group of people
what is meant by multicultural?
approach or system that takes more than one culture into account
what is meant by diversity
existence of different cultures or ethnicities within a group or organisation
what is ethnocentrism?
judging another culture solely by the values and standards of one’s own culture
- perception that one’s own culture is better or more natural than other cultures
- each of us is ethnocentric to some degree - socialisation
why is ethnocentrism a major obstacle?
- prevents people from understanding or respecting other cultures
- can lead to prejudice
what is Hall’s (1976) research on dimensions of culture?
degree of focus on the individual (individualistic) or on the group (collectivistic)
what is Treompenaars (1994) research on dimensions of culture?
classified an organisation’s culture into 2 dimensions:
- egalitarian-hierarchical
- person-task orientation
what is Hofstede (1980, 2001) research on dimensions of culture?
5 major dimensions on which cultures differ
1. power distance index
2. individualism
3. masculinity
4. uncertainty avoidance index
5. long-term orientation
what is House et al.’s (2004) research on the relationship between culture and leadership which resulted from the GLOBE research program
- initiated in 1991 - this program involved more than 160 investigators
- used quantitative methods to study the responses of 17,000 managers in more than 950 organisations, 62 different cultures
- developed a classification of cultural dimensions identified nine cultural dimensions
what were the nine cultural dimensions?
- uncertainty avoidance
- power distance
- institutional collectivism
- in-group collectivism
- gender egalitarianism
- assertiveness
- future orientation
- performance orientation
- humane orientation
what are characteristics of clusters?
anglo - competitive and result-oriented
confucian asia - result-driven, encourage group working together over individual goals
eastern europe - forceful, supportive of co-workers, treat women with equality
germanic europe - value competition & aggressiveness and are more result-oriented
latin america - loyal & devoted to their families and similar groups
latin europe - value individual autonomy
- middle east - devoted & loyal to their own people, women afforded less status
nordic europe - high priority on long-term success, women treated with greater equality
southern asia - strong family & deep concern for their communities
sub-sahara africa - concerned & sensitive to others, demonstrate strong family loyalty
what are the GLOBE insights?
- Gets at cultural differences, and specific data for individual countries are available
- Huge amount of information gathered, so offers the chance to use facts rather than cultural stereotypes
- As far as possible, the methods used were the same in each country
- It links cultural dimensions with leadership perceptions
- Provide useful information about what is universally accepted as good and bad leadership.
- The findings have aided cross-cultural understanding
