HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT.

Running head: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Human Resource Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................2
Alternative forms of International Working:.............................................................................3
Attraction to the national labour market:...............................................................................3
Utilization of the Employees on extended trips:....................................................................5
Permanent International Transferees:....................................................................................6
Inpatriates:..............................................................................................................................7
Self-initiated expatriation:......................................................................................................8
Broader considerations from a HR professional’s development perspective:...........................9
Key skills for the HR Professionals:....................................................................................10
Key Knowledge for the HR Professionals:..........................................................................11
Additional and supplementary resources:................................................................................12
Harvard Business Review:...................................................................................................12
Society for Human Resources Management:.......................................................................12
Freakonomics:......................................................................................................................12
HR.com:...............................................................................................................................13
HR Happy Hour:..................................................................................................................13
References:...............................................................................................................................14

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Introduction:
The International Assignments is the process which occurs when the companies and
the organization dispatch the employees from the origin country to another foreign country
for the purpose of business and work at the overseas companies or offices (Schütter and
Boerner 2013). This type of employees who are transferred from the home country to another
county is defined as the expatriates. This type of roles are generally temporary for the
employees in the overseas country and tends to a time period of 1 to 5 years. For the
employees, this international assignments can be a lifetime opportunity for expanding their
horizon and experience new places and cultures. Though it sounds very good for the
employees in often cases this type of international assignments can be very much challenging
for the employees and can be a stressful experience. This movement of the employees
includes various complex steps and require a vast amount of time which can be problematic
for the organizations or the companies (Cole and Nesbeth 2014). Also, the employees need to
take various decisions regarding the movement to the other country. This type of movement
processes is very much complex for the organizations thus the organizations explore different
types of forms of international working and resourcing.
Most of the organizations perform four types of international assignments which are
Long-term assignment, Short-term assignment, International commuter assignment, and the
frequent flyer assignment. This all international assignments have some type of problems. For
the long-term assignments, the main problems are the mobility barriers, carrier issues,
assignments costs, and the compensation package. In the short-term assignments, the main
issues are the difficulty in establishment of consistent practice and policy, tax management
issues and work-life balance. For the international commuter assignment, the main problems
are the high costs, tax management, different policies, and terms and cultural differences. The

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organizations and the employees also face problems due to the frequent flyer assignments
which include burnout, cost management, and no policy. Due to these challenges,
organizations seek for the alternative approach of the international working and resourcing.
According to the research of the Meyskens et al., the alternative approach of the
international working and resourcing is very much important for the global talent
management trends. This research implies that the solution for the international talent needs
cannot be a uniform one because of the intra-firm and the inter-firm variations. This is one of
the main reason behind the variety of alternative forms (Reiche, Harzing and Tenzer 2018).
Mainly the varied approaches are seen in the short type of assignments. Also, from the
research, it has been assessed that these alternative approaches are needed to fulfil the needs
of the employees of the organization. In the research of the alternative assignments, the
authors have argued for a strategic approach which is congruent with both of the lifestyle
needs of the assignees and with the objective of the firms. The authors also stated that the
traditional solutions of the international assignments face various situational complexities,
limited researches and the trade-offs for which alternative approaches to international
assignments are required.
Alternative forms of International Working:
The traditional forms of international working are unable to address different types of
organizational problems which arise due to international working. Thus to address different
types of problems from the organizational and individual perspective alternative forms of
international working will be described. These alternative forms are described below.

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Attraction to the national labour market:
This is one of the best alternatives forms of international resourcing strategies. This
strategy of the international working has been increased due to the recent developments of
two things which are the:
 a) Certain of the labour markets have become globalised.
 b) The increment in the migration and in the international mobility which has
impacted the strategies of the HR and offering various new opportunities to the
international firms.
Though this is a very good alternative strategy as it has various advantages, it has several
disadvantages also from both of the individual and organizational perspective.
Strengths:
From the individual perspective, the main strength which is gained by the national
labour market is the job opportunity (Docquier, Ozden and Peri 2013). Though this job is the
short type of job, it still can help various peoples who are looking for a job in the overseas
country.
From the organizational perspective, the main benefits of this alternative approach are that it
can help to find the talents from a wider pool.
Weaknesses:
The main weaknesses of the national labour market from the individual perspective is
the language barrier (Boella et al. 2015).
Considering the weaknesses from the organizational perspective is the legal issues as
various countries hold various types of legal terms.

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Case Example: To give an example, the case of the UK and Ireland can be provided which
provided the open labour market which caused significant recruitment effect in these
countries. Also, another example is Ireland’s open economic model in which the
multinationals organizations are encouraged to locate the production and invest according to
the demand (Ellis, Durand and Christofides 2014) of Europe's market.
Utilization of the Employees on extended trips:
This is a widespread alternative form of international working. This type of
assignments includes a particular workplace in the abroad in which the employees often visit
for working purpose (Zhang and Wang 2015). In such type of activities, the employees spend
most of the time in the abroad but do not shift there permanently because they need to be also
at the headquarters and need to give an updated report about the progress in the abroad.
Strengths:
From the individual perspective, the main strengths provided by the extended trip is
that the employee doesn't need to completely shift in the other country so that the employee
will be connected with his own culture and will feel comfortable.
In the aspect of the organization, the main strength is that it provides great flexibility
to the business of the organization as the arrangement duration, the content of the work and
geographical scope can be changed easily in a short period of time.
Weaknesses:
In the individual perspective, the weakness is that employee needs to travel frequently
which can affect the health (Angelin, Evengård and Palmgren 2014) of the employee.
From the organizational perspective, the main weakness is the cost. Frequent travel of
the employees can cost a huge amount of money for the air tickets and the visa approval.

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Example: To demonstrate this case one example can be given which is the OMV oil
company of Australia. In 2004 they bought national Romanian Oil Company, and at that time
Romanian Oil Company had about 50,000 employees. After the acquisition to manage that
company some of the key position was filled with the general commuting.
Permanent International Transferees:
In this type of assignments, the employee needs to move from one international
assignment to another international assignment (Sykes 2013). This is driven by the
accelerating speed of the internationalization. This is different from the traditional
expatriation system as it moves from the country to county without having any type of
intermission in the home country or having just only one intermission in the home country.
Strengths:
From the individual perspective, the main strength provided by the permanent
international transferees is that the travel frequency of the employees are less so that the
employees can easily mix-up with the society of the abroad, and they will also gather
experience from these travels that will help them in their career growth.
As per the concern of the organizations this permanent international transferee will
help the organization by providing staffing whenever the organization needed it anywhere in
the world.
Weaknesses:
From the individual perspective, the weakness of the permanent international
transferees is that the employees remain detached from his or her origin for a long period of
time which can down the morale of the employees.

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In such decisions, the main problem faced by the organisation is finding a suitable
employee for this task as most of the employees do not want to leave their home country.
Another problem is that in many cases employees fails to give his or her full potential in the
overseas country due to various external reasons. For that reason companies faces losses in
the overseas operation.
Example: To demonstrate it practically example of the Fluor Corporation can be given. Fluor
Corporation is one of the biggest publicity owned construction, procurement, engineering,
and maintenance Service Company. This organization has implemented a permanent
international transferee concept by reorganising its staffs and developed mobile global
managers who are working in different offices and locations worldwide. This mobile
managers successfully connected the dispersed operations and formed a matrix team.
Inpatriates:
This is another alternative form of international working where the managers are
familiar with more than one type of culture due to their job experiences of past (Harzing,
Pudelko and Sebastian Reiche 2016). In this case, the employees are from other than the
home country of the organization, and they are assigned to the home country of the
organization on a contract basis on a permanent or a semi-permanent job. The main role of
this type of employees is helping the organization to mitigate the problems that are arising
due to their international activities.
Strengths:
The main strength of the inpatriates from the individual perspective is that the
employees can easily absorb the corporate culture of the organization’s headquarters and can
learn the management practice of headquarter.

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The main strength of this process for the organization is that this process is very much
cheap compared to the traditional process where organizations need to relocate employees of
the parent country to some other countries for some business perspective.
Weaknesses:
The weakness of the inpatriates from the individual perspective is the problem in
communication. Though this type of managers is having vast experience in their field, still
they face communication issue with the team regarding the local language.
The weakness of the inpatriates in the organizational perspective is that the employees
fail to transfer the information and the experience perfectly due to the communication issue
and for that productivity of the organization lowers.
Example: One example of this inpatriates process can be seen in the organization Lufthansa.
When Lufthansa decided to cargo business of it’s from Europe to Taiwan and China, it
inpatriated a Hong Kong Chinese employee instead of sending a German employee who
belongs to the traditional way. The Hong Kong Chinese employee was inpatriated because
that employee knew the local market very well and can push the business in that particular
direction.
Self-initiated expatriation:
This is the alternative form of the international working which places the individuals
on the market of external labour according to their respective destination country (Al Ariss
and Crowley-Henry 2013). This type of peoples is the carrier activist who behaves highly
proactive by controlling their own carrier. By controlling their own carrier, they operate it

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with a high degree of the personal agency. These personal development goals are the main
reason behind the motivation of the employees to go outside of their own county. These type
of employees are very much common and provide a potential source of the global mobility
for the organization. Thus advantage in the open market economy is gained by the
organizations.
Strengths:
From the individual perspective, the strengths of the self-initiated expatriation are that
it fits the preferences of the individuals for the new experiences openness, individual agency,
independence or applying knowledge in various types of situation.
From the organizational perspective, the main strength for the self-initiated
expatriation is the cost advantage when compared with the traditional expatriation. This cost
advantage is gained due to the reduced cost of the recruitment and selection process of the
employees and their willingness of accepting the local compensation.
Weaknesses:
The main weaknesses of the self-initiated expatriation from the individual perspective
is the ability to transfer skills and knowledge of the experienced employee to an
inexperienced employee and lack of career support from the organizations of the home
country.
From the organizational perspective, the main weakness of the self-initiated
expatriation is the problem of integration. It is very much problematic to integrate the self-
initiated expatriation in the organizational structure.

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Example: Example of this Self-initiated expatriation is the international job advertisement
websites where various organization publicise themselves as the employer of choice. For
these organizations, it is highly beneficial to gain intentional staffs in this type of condition
when the market competition is increasing more and more internationally.
Broader considerations from a HR professional’s development perspective:
For working in the field of the international human resource management, the HR
professionals must have some of the key skills and knowledge which will help them to
manage the human resources from the international market which is very much important for
the organizations which operate in the global market. These key skills and knowledge are
described below.
Key skills for the HR Professionals:
The main skills which are required for the HRs to handle the IHRM perfectly are the:
Communication Skills:
The communication skill is very much essential for the HRs in the aspect of
international human resource management (Arnold and Boggs 2015). This is essential
because for the organizations it is very much important to facilitate discussion between the
employers and employees in the IHRM. In such type of activity, both written skills and the
oral skills are required to communicate effectively. Communication is the most reliable way
to solve any type of organizational conflict. Also, in the international human resource
management one of the main barriers is the communication, and for solving this issue,
effective communication skill is expected from the HR.

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From this communication skills section, one reflexive question can be developed
which will help in further discussion that is “As a HR what is the importance of the
communication to you?”
Skills of Critical Thinking:
While working with the international market, it is normal that the HRs will face
various types of complex situations. So the HRs must be able to balance this type of complex
situation and must be able to find some way so that this type of situations can be avoided in
the future. To deal with this type of complex situations critical thinking is very much
essential (McPeck 2016). In the international market, employees come from a depth and
breadth background of experiences. Thus to handle this type of employees the HRs needs to
think critically so that the environment can be cultivated critically which will help in the
improvement of the business.
Organizational Skills:
Human resource management in the international market can be considered as the
juggling act. The more HRs will be organized in their working field the more they will get
success (Anderson and Bolt 2013). This is one of the key success for the organization
because the entire organization helps the companies to act in the critical situations faster and
in the competition of the international market, this is very much crucial.
From this discussion, one question can be developed which is "As per your opinion
how perfect an organization can provide advantages to the human resource manager.
Key Knowledge for the HR Professionals:
While considering key knowledge for the HR professionals, actually there are no
criteria for some specific knowledge which must be gained by the HR professionals. The HRs

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need to gain a vast amount of knowledge of the industry expertise of the employees to handle
the current international market perfectly (Snell, Morris and Bohlander 2015). In the present
situation, the job seekers of the international market hold a very wide knowledge of their
domains. Thus it is very much important for HR professionals to have some idea of the job
seekers domain otherwise they might recruit some inefficient employees for the organization.
Also, the HR must have the knowledge why each of the applicants needs to move within the
targeted organization.
Additional and supplementary resources:
For the further development of the HR professionals on their knowledge on the
alternative flexible forms of the international working some additional digital sources can be
provided. These digital sources are discussed in the below section.
Harvard Business Review:
Harvard business review is one of the most credible digital resources which provide
the latest vision from the industry experts (Hbr.org 2018). Also, the provided articles in the
Harvard Business Review is very much easy to understand.
This resource is considerable because it helps the HR to keep up with the current
research in the business world from which the HR can gather relative information about the
business processes which will help in the further development.
Society for Human Resources Management:
The Society for Human Resources Management or the SHRM is the digital society for
the HR professionals. This website contains full of technical resources which are beneficial
for the HR professionals.

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This digital resource is important for the further development of the HR professionals
because it provides the technical support to the HR professionals who are extremely
important to gain knowledge on the alternative forms of international working.
Freakonomics:
Freakonomics is the digital resource of the bestselling book and the radio shows. The
resources of the Freakonomics can help the HRs to understand people and the way of how the
peoples think (Freakonomics. 2018). Understanding the thoughts of the people is very much
important for the HR managers, so this digital source is important in the further development
of the HR professionals.
HR.com:
The HR.com is the largest social network of the HR leaders. This is a type of
community, and this community consists of more than 280,000 professionals all over the
world. This HR.com is very much important in the further development of the HR managers
because this large community can provide a solution of almost HR management problems.
The knowledge of the problem solution is important for the new peoples in this profession.
HR Happy Hour:
The HR Happy hour is the most downloaded and longest running HR podcast. In this
digital resources interviews of the HR leaders can be found which are important for the
further development of the HR managers in the sense that it provides examples to the new
HR professionals that how to conduct a perfect interview (H3 HR Advisors Inc. 2018). This
podcast also discusses the topics which include leadership, people management, and
workforce technology. Thus again this becomes important for HR professionals as this
provides useful information on the people management, workforce technology and leadership
which is the basics of any type of HR management.

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Anderson, L.E. and Bolt, S.B., 2013. Professionalism: Skills for workplace success. Prentice
Hall.
Angelin, M., Evengård, B. and Palmgren, H., 2014. Travel health advice: Benefits,
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Arnold, E.C., and Boggs, K.U., 2015. Interpersonal Relationships-E-Book: Professional
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