11-The Global Context of HRM.ppt................

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1. HRM for MBA and Business Masters
Students
Lecture 11
The Global Context of HRM

2. Learning Outcomes
•Be able to appreciate the different approaches to HRM
possible in multinational companies (MNCS).
•Know about Hofstede’s concept of dimensions of culture
and some of the grounds for criticism of Hofstede’s work.
•Understand the complexity of selecting, preparing and
supporting personnel for expatriate assignments.
•Have some appreciation of the idea of comparative
HRM.
•Have some understanding of the convergence –
divergence debate in comparative HRM.

3. International Human Resource Management
(IHRM)
•‘The process of employing and developing people in
international organisations which operate … globally’
(Armstrong 2015)

4. Comparative HRM (CHRM)
•CHRM is concerned with the degree to which HRM as
practised in different countries shows similarities or
differences.

5. Approaches to IHRM
•Ethnocentric
•Polycentric
•Regiocentric
•Geocentric

6. Approaches to IHRM
•Ethnocentric:
–HR practices and policies used in the home country
transferred to foreign subsidiaries. Expatriates from
the home country manage the foreign subsidiaries.
–It involves placing expatriates from the home country
in key positions at the foreign subsidiary.
–Centralized decision-making, standardization of HR
practices, and a belief in the superiority of the home
country's practices.

7. Approaches to IHRM
•Polycentric:
–Subsidiaries develop own HR policies. Local
managers manage HRM activities.
–This approach uses host-country nationals to manage
subsidiaries in their respective countries.
–Decentralized decision-making, adaptation of HR
practices to local cultures, and a recognition of local
expertise.

8. Approaches to IHRM
•Regiocentric:
–HR policies are coordinated within the region.
Subsidiaries may be staffed by managers from any of
the countries within in the region.
–It involves grouping countries based on regional
similarities and adopting HR practices tailored to each
region.
–Regional coordination, acknowledging similarities
within regions, and customization of HR policies
within regional boundaries.

9. Approaches to IHRM
•Geocentric:
–the firm views itself as a single international business
rather than one with a home base and a number of
foreign subsidiaries. HR policies are developed to
meet the global goals of the enterprise.
–It seeks to integrate the best practices from around
the globe, regardless of the employee's or
subsidiary's origin.
–Focus on merit and competence, a global
perspective, and an emphasis on a cohesive
corporate culture.

10. National Cultures (Hofstede)
•Basic dimensions of the differences between national
cultures:
–Power -distance
–Uncertainty avoidance
–Individualism -collectivism
–Masculinity -femininity (or Quantity of Life vs Quality
of Life)
–Long-term versus short-term orientation

11. Criticisms of Hofstede
•Methodology
•Data Collection
•Generalisability
•Unrealistic to think of uniform national cultures

12. The GLOBE Project
•Global Leadership and Organizational Behaviour
Effectiveness project.
•Collected data over 7 years from 18,000 managers in 62
countries.

13. GLOBE
Managers were compared on nine cultural
dimensions:
•performance orientation
•future orientation
•assertiveness
•uncertainty avoidance
•power-distance
•institutional collectivism
•family collectivism
•gender egalitarianism
•human orientation

14. Trust and Leadership (Tayeb)
•The level of trust in other people’s good intentions varies
widely between cultures.
Managers will only delegate power to subordinates
whom they trust:
•Do they have the required knowledge and
competence to do the task?
•Will they put the company's interests first?

15. •Leadership
–Preference for leadership styles varies across
cultures
•People in cultures which have low tolerance for
ambiguity and risk taking, prefer major decisions to
be taken by their leaders
•Those in cultures with a higher tolerance for
ambiguity prefer to participate in decisions

16. Selecting Expatriates
Expatriates are individuals who went overseas for work,
business, education, job, or on a travel visa.
•Personality Traits
•Interpersonal skills
•Motivational State
•Family/Personal Situation
•Language Skills

17. Expatriate Re-entry
The term 'repatriation' refers tothe re-entry of expatriates
into their home country.
•Cultural readjustment
•Job Readjustment

18. Criteria for successful expat. reintegration
•The returning expatriates should:
1. Perform at a level and quality expected by their managers.
2. Exhibit a reasonable level of job satisfaction with the new
position.
3. Be able to use the skills developed during the foreign
assignment.
4. Be able to maintain a career progression comparable to
cohorts who did not go abroad.
5. Remain with the employer for a reasonable period of time
after returning.
6. Avoid dysfunctional levels of stress during re-entry.

19. Factors for successful expat. reintegration
•The similarity of the international and domestic
assignments.
•The amount of change in the home organisation.
•The nature and personality of the expatriate.
•Support available to returning expatriate.
•The career planning system of the organisation.