精品essayofinternationalhumanresourcemanagement.docx

精品essayofinternationalhumanresourcemanagement.docx

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精品essayofinternationalhumanresourcemanagement

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InternationalHumanResourceManagement

MBSP0139

TheImportanceofInternationalHRM

Wordcount:

3282

Themoduleleader:

DavidALLSOP

Student:

ID:

02059496

Hand-indate:

13/05/05

Introduction

Moreandmorecompaniesneedtooperateinforeignmarketsandcompeteonaglobalscaletoremainviable.Becausetraditionalsourcesofcompetitiveadvantagearebecominglesseffective,manycompaniesarelookingtonewareasforideasonhowtogaincompetitiveadvantage.Togenerateacompetitiveadvantage,theresourcemustbevaluable,rare,imperfectlymobile,andinimitable（Barney,1991）.Humanresourcemanagement（HRM）isoneoftheseareas（Ngo,etal.,1998）

Tayloretal.（1996:

960）defineinternationalHRM（IHRM）as:

“Thesetofdistinctactivities,functionsandprocessesthataredirectedatattracting,developingandmaintainingasmultinationalcorporates’（MNCs）humanresources.”ItisthustheaggregateofthevariousHRMsystemsusedtomanagepeopleintheMNC,bothathomeandoverseas.IHRMbecomesmoreandmoreimportantasglobalisationforcesdemandorganisationstodesignandimplementaglobalstrategy.Itisthepeoplewithinanorganisationthatunderpinitseffectiveoperation.Therefore,effectiveIHRMisasignificantdeterminantofthefailureorsuccessoftheinternationalcompany（Caliguri&Stroh,1995）.

Toeffectivelyleveragehumanresourcestoimplementtheintendedstrategiesoforganisations,researchershavebeguntoexplorethetheoreticalandempiricallinkagesbetweenHRMandstrategyinthedomesticandinternationalcontexts（Taylor,etal.,1996）.AccordingtoSchuleretal.,（1993）,StrategicHumanResourceManagement（SHRM）canbedefinedas“humanresourcemanagementissuesfunctions,andpoliciesandpracticesthatresultfromthestrategicactivitiesofmultinationalenterprisesandthatimpacttheinternationalconcernsandgoalsofthoseenterprises.”.

AmajortheoreticalconcernunderlyingthefieldofIHRMisthetensionbetweenglobalintegrationandlocaladaptation.Ontheonehand,MNCsdesiresomelevelofconsistencyintheirHRMpracticesacrosscountries（globalintegration）.Ontheotherhand,MNCshavetoadapttheirHRMpracticestonormsandregulationsinthehostcountry（localadaptation）.Well-chosenHRMiscriticalforgainingcompetitiveadvantageinvariousculturalandindustrysettings（Pfeffer,1994）.

ThisessaywillfirstlyreviewthetheoriesaboutIHRMtodemonstratethatbecauseofcultureandinstitutionalfactors,MNCsshouldmakeadaptationindifferenthostcountriesfortheirHRMpractices.ThenhowHRMfunctionsshouldbecarriedoutinternationallywillbediscussed.

ContingencymodelofHRMpolicies

Accordingtothecontingencymodel,multinationalfirmsmustaligntheirmanagerialpracticestoglobalandlocalpolitical,economic,social,culturalandotherdynamicenvironmentalconditions.LawrenceandLorsch（1967）arguedthatMNCswhoseinternalorganisationalfeaturesbestfitthedemandsoftheirexternalenvironmentwillachievethebestadaptation.AccordingtoGalbraith（1973）,therearethreemajorelementsofacontingencyperspective:

“First,thereisnoonebestwaytoorganize.Second,waysoforganizingarenotequallyeffective.Third,thebestwaytoorganizedependsonthenatureoftheenvironmentswithinwhichtheorganisationoperates.”

Whenhost-countrypolitical,economic,demographic,legal,socialandculturalenvironmentsimposesevereconstraintsonMNCs’globalbusinessstrategies,foreigncompaniesmaybeforcedtoconformtomanylocalmanagementpoliciesandpractices（‘pullingeffects’）toimplementglobalobjectives.

Manyexampleshaveshownhowthewholesaleadoptionofparent-firmmanagementpracticesinforeignsubsidiariesmaynotsuitablebecausedifferentsocietalbeliefs,valuesandculturalnormsofthehost-countryenvironmentwhereinthesubsidiaryisembedded（Shenkar&VonGlinow,1994）.Forexample,inGermany,managementbyobjectives（MBO）wasfavourablyreceivedbecauseGermanypreferdecentralization.However,inFrancethistechniquewasnotverywellreceivedbecausethereisambivalentviewtowardsauthority（Trompenaars,1993）.

Whentheparentandsubsidiarydonothavesimilarformsofeconomic,political,socialandothercontingencies,conflictsmayhappenbetweenthetwoinoptimalconfigurationsformanagementpractices.TheMNCparentcompanymaypushforadoptionofHRMpolicieswhichreflecthome-countryandcorporateculture,strategicimperatives,CEOphilosophiesandsocialvaluesinthehostcountry（‘pushingeffects’）.

Forexample,USfirmsIBMandMotorolasuccessfullyformedasetofglobalhumanresourcepoliciesregardstocorporateculture,trainingandworkdesignforChineseoperations.Furthermore,duringthe1980smanyJapanesefacilitiesintheUStriedandsucceededintransfercertainaspectsofJapanese-styleHRMpoliciestoAmericanfirms（Yang,1998）.

CulturalValuesTheory

Cultureis“thecollectiveprogrammingofthemindthatdistinguishesthemembersofonegroupofpeoplefromanother”（Hofstede,2001:

9）.Therefore,eachculturehasasetoffundamentalvalueswhichwillactasstrongdeterminingfactorsfortheideologiesthatpeoplehaveanditwillaffecthumanresourcepractices,strategyandperformance（McGuire,etal.,2002）.

Hofstede（1980）uncovereddifferencesinwork-relatedvaluesacrosscountries.Hefoundfourdimensionsofculture:

individualism,powerdistance,uncertaintyavoidanceandmasculinity.

Individualismdescribestherelationshipbetweenanindividualandhisorherfellowindividualsinsociety.Theoppositeiscollectivismwhichhasatightsocialframeworkandinwhichpeopleexpecttohaveawidersocialresponsibilitytodischargebecauseothersinthegroupwillsupportthem.HighlyindividualisticcountriesaretheUSA,GreatBritainandNetherlands.LowindividualismcountriesarePakistanandTaiwan.

Powerdistanceinvolvesthewaysocietiesdealwithhumaninequality.Inorganizationsthisisthedegreeofcentralizationofauthorityandtheexerciseofautocraticleadership（Torrington,etal.,.2005）

Uncertaintyavoidancereflectshowasocietydealswithuncertaintyaboutthefuture,afundamentalfactofhumanexistence.Japan,BelgiumandFrancerankedrelativelyhighinuncertaintyavoidancewhiletheUSArankedsomewhatbelowmidpoint.

Masculinitydealswiththedegreetowhichsocietiessubscribetothetypicalstereotypesassociatedwithmalesandfemales.InHofstede’ssample,JapanandItalyrankedhighestinmasculinity.TheUSArankedfairlyhighonthemasculinitydimension,placingitnearthetopone-third.

Neo,etal.（1998）arguedthatculturaldifferenceshaveamajorinfluenceonHRMpracticesusedinMNCs.Inaddition,NewmanandNollen（1996）foundthatpracticesthatarecongruentwithnationalculturewouldleadtobetterorganisationalperformance.

Theculturalvaluesmodelpredictsthatglobalisationstrategiesaremorelikelytoexistincompaniesoperatinginculturessimilaronpowerdistance,uncertaintyavoidance,individualism-collectivismandmasculinity-femininitywhilelocalizationstrategiesaremorelikelyforcompaniesoperatinginculturesdissimilaronthesedimensions.

InstitutionalPerspective

InstitutionaltheoryrecognizesthatwhileMNC’sarefacedwithpressurestoadapttotheinstitutionaldemandsofthehostcountries,thereisalsopressureforinternalconsistencywithintheorganisation.

Isomorphismisakeyconceptofinstutionalism.Itistheextenttowhichorganisationsadoptthesamestructuresandprocessesofotherorganisationswithintheirenvironment（Davis,etal.,2000）.Externalisomorphicpullsrefertopressurefromthesubsidiary’soperatingenvironmenttoapplypracticesmorecloselytolocalrulesInternalisomorphicpullsprovidepressureforsubsidiarytohavestructureandpracticessimilartothatofcompanyheadquarters（Davis,etal.,2000）.

Thereareoppositeviewsofwhetherexternalorinternalisomorphicpullsarestronger.Oneviewarguesthatexternalisomorphicpullshavemoreinfluenceinshapingtheinternalstructureofsubsidiariesthaninternalisomorphicpulls（Rosenzweig&Nohria,1994）.Thehostcountry’seconomicsystem,governmentpolicies,regulatoryconstraintscanshapeexternalisomorphicpulls.Theotherviewofinstitutionaltheorysuggeststhatinternalisomorphicpullsarestrongerthanexternalisomorphicpulls.Stronginternalisomorphicpullsleadtoparentisomorphismbecausethedesireforinternalequityresultsinconvergenceoftheinternalstructureofthesubsidiarywiththeinternalstructureoftheparentcompany.Thereasonsforparentisomorphismarethedegreeofinterdependencyofresourcesharingandthedegreeofcollectivecognitiveandsocialbeliefswithintheorganisation（Rosenzweig&Nohria,1994）.

Therefore,institutionaltheoryleadsustopredictthat,whenthereisahighdegreeofdifferencebetweenmandatedregulationsandlawsbetweenthehomeandhostcountriesandahighamountofdependencyandinteractionwiththehostmarket,anorganisationwillpursuealocalizedapproach.Conversely,aglobalizeapproachispredictedwhenthereisahighdegreeofresourcesharingandalowdegreeofautonomy（Lloyd&Hartel,2004）.

SIHRMOrientations

TheMNC’sSIHRMorientationdeterminesitsoverallapproachtomanagingthetensionbetweenintegrationandtheresultantpressureforinternalconsistencyanddifferentiationandthepressureforexternalconsistency（Taylor,etal.,1996）.

ExogenousandendogenousfactorsinfluencethedesignoftheSIHRMsystemofthefirm.Theexogenousfactorsincludecountrycharacteristics,industrycharacteristics.Theendogenousfactorsincludethestructureofinternati