Lecture #15.

Global HRM:
Managing Global Human
Resources

1. HR and internationalization of
business
2. Improving international
assignments through selection
3. Training and maintaining
international employees
4. Strategic HR
 1. HR and internationalization of
business
The HR challenges of international business
- Deployment. Easily getting the right skills to
where we need them, regardless of
geographic location
- Knowledge and innovation dissemination.
Spreading state-of-the-art knowledge and
practices throughout the organization
regardless of where they originate
- Identifying and developing talent on a global
bases. Identifying who can function
effectively in a global organization and
developing his/her abilities
How intercountry
differences affect HRM?
Culture – collective programming of
the mind, basic values citizens
adhere to, and the ways these
values manifest themselves in the
nation’s arts, social programs,
political, and ways of doing things
Economic systems
Legal and industrial relations factors
2. Improving international
assignments through
selection
Why international assignments fail?
International staffing
- locals are citizens of the countries where they
are working
- Expatriates are noncitizens of the countries in
which they are working
- Home-country nationals are citizens of the
country in which the multinational company
has its headquarters
- Third-country nationals are citizens of a country
other than the parent or the host country
 2. Improving international
assignments through
selection
Values and international staffing policy:
- Ethnocentric staffing policy – the firm fills
key management jobs with parent-country
nationals
- Polycentric-oriented firm would staff its
foreign subsidiaries with host-country
nationals, and its home office with parent-
country nationals
- Geocentric staffing policy “seeks the best
people for key jobs throughout the
organization, regardless of nationality”
2. Improving international
assignments through
selection
Selecting international managers.
Following traits are important for
success:
- Job knowledge
- Relational skills
- Flexibility/adaptability
- Extracultural openness
- Family situation
3. Training and maintaining
international employees
Orienting and training employees on international
assignment. Four step approach:
Level 1. Training focuses on the impact of cultural
differences, and on raising trainees’ awareness of
such difference and their impact on business
outcomes
Level 2. Getting participants to understand how
attitudes (both negative and positive) are formed
and how they influence behavior
Level 3. Training provides factual knowledge about
eh target country
Level 4. Skill building in areas like language and
adjustment and adaptation skills
 International compensation
The balance sheet approach
Incentives
Foreign service premiums – financial payments
over and above regular base pay, typically
ranging between 10% and 30% of the base pay
Hardship allowances – compensate expatriates for
exceptionally hard living and working conditions
at certain locations
Mobility premiums – typically, lump-sum payments
to reward employees for moving from one
assignment to another
Performance appraisal of
international employees
Stipulate the assignment’s difficulty level
Weigh the evaluation more toward the on-
site manager’s appraisal than toward the
home-site manager’s distant perceptions of
the employee’s performance
If the home-office manager does the actual
written appraisal, have him/her use a
former expatriate from the same overseas
location for advice
Modify the normal performance criteria
used for that particular position to fit the
overseas position
4. Strategic HR
Strategic HRM is the linking of HRM
with strategic goals and objectives in
order to improve business performance
and develop organizational culture that
foster innovation and flexibility
HR strategies are the HR courses of
action the company uses to achieve its
strategic aims
 Management values and
philosophy
Employee commitment – an employee’s
identification with and agreement to pursue
the company’s or the unit’s mission – to act
like an owner rather than as an employee
Commitment-building HR practices:
- Establish people-first values
- Guarantee fair treatment
- Use value-based hiring
- Encourage employees to actualize
 Auditing the HR Function
1. HR and line managers answer the question
“What should HR’s functions be?”
2. Participants then rate each of these
functions on a 10-point scale to answer the
question “How important are each of these
functions?”
3. How well are each of the functions
performed?
4. Discussion: what needs improvement?
5. How effectively does the HR function use its
resources?