CHAPTER- 11

INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Definition of IHRM
International human resource management is managing and developing human resources of multinational enterprises to make the organisation compatible and sustaining in the global market. Types of International Employees Expatriate employees come from other than host country. - Expatriates coming from parent firms home country is Home country nationals.

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- Expatriates coming from neither the home country, nor from the host country but from any third country is called Third country nationals. Host country employees . Inpatriate employees coming from other countries and working in the parent company at the home country. Flexpatriate employees who are sent on frequent short-term international assignment. International or Global Cadre/employees who are experts in international assignments.

Multinational Managers Expatriates vs Host Country

The decision is taken on the basis of companys multinational strategy. Transnational strategy suggests for employing mangers anywhere of the world. Multidomestic strategy suggests for either local or expatriate managers. Management team generally is formed with both local nationals and expatriates.

Success of Expatriate Managers

Researches show that the failure rate of US expatriates is ranging from 10-40 percent (Ashamalla, 1998) and other study shows 83 percent of companies surveyed experienced expatriate failure ( McFarland, 2006). A recent study reveals that 21 percent of companies surveyed had expatriates leave in the middle of their international assignments (Business Wire,2006).

Reasons for Expatriate Failure

Individual Reasons - Personality of the manager. - Lack of technical proficiency. -No motivation for international assignment. Family Reasons -Spouse or family members fail to adapt to local culture or environment. Family members or spouses do not want to be there.

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Cultural Reasons - Manager fails to adapt to local culture or environment. - Mangers fail to develop relationship with key people in the new country. Organisational Reasons -Excess of difficult responsibilities of international assignment. - Failure to provide cultural training and other important pre-assignment training.

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- Failure of company to pick the right people for the job. - Companys failure to provide the technical support domestic managers are used to. - Failure of company to consider gender equity when consider candidates.

Expatriate Manager Selection-Key Success Factors

Technical and managerial skills. Personality traits. Relational ability. Family situation. Stress tolerance Language ability. Emotional intelligence.