Critical Evaluation of Cultural and People Management Issues in International HRM

International HRM

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
A. Critical Evaluation of Cultural Issues......................................................................................3
A.1 Major Cultural Issues Faced by Business in their International HRM operations...............3
A.2 Theories and Models About Culture.....................................................................................4
A.3 Linking Theory.....................................................................................................................5
A.4 Critically Evaluating Used Models and Theories.................................................................6
B. Critical Evaluation of People Management Issues...................................................................6
B.1 Major Issues Relating to International HRM practise..........................................................6
B.2 Models and Theories about International Management People Management......................7
B.3 Linking Used Models............................................................................................................8
B.4 Critically Evaluating Used Models and Theories.................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management is a strategic business operation through which a business
organisation makes use of formal systems in order to effectively manage the all the people that
are involved in the various operations of the business organisation. International HRM relates to
human resource management operations conducted at an international level. Globalisation is the
process through global business organisations, governments and individuals interact and
integrate with one another (Farndale and et.al., 2017). Internationalisation of business
organisation refers to the business organisation expanding its overall operations to global
markets in an effort to diversify their operations and grow their customer base, market share,
operational and financial performance. This report analyses the cultural and HRM issues faced
by UK business organisations when locating a call centre operation in Japan.
MAIN BODY
A. Critical Evaluation of Cultural Issues
A.1 Major Cultural Issues Faced by Business in their International HRM operations
Whenever a business organisation conducts operations internationally across different
countries such as when a UK business organisation locates a call centre in Japan, it faces
numerous issues and challenges in relation to its international HRM operations. One major issue
or challenge that a business organisation faces towards effective human resource management
functions of its international operations relates to the cultural issues which stem from the
differences in cultures of the various individuals (Cooke and et.al., 2019). Such cultural issues
are not only limited to the cultural diversity, background and upbringing of the distinct
individuals operating within a business organisation, but also are related to the different
organisational cultures that different international business organisations possess, which poses
several major issues and challenges to international HRM operations. The major cultural issues
pertaining to international HRM are as follows:

Communication: Communication between individuals and business organisations belonging to
different cultural backgrounds is a major problem (Horwitz, 2017). As businesses nowadays
contain a diverse employees who belong to various different cultural backgrounds and
upbringings, it is a major challenge for the communication operations between them to be
conducted in an effective manner, while taking into account not to hurt the cultural customs and
mannerisms of individuals belonging to diverse cultures.
Optimum Performance: Culture also has a direct impact on the business and individual’s
operational performance and efficiency (Bader and Reade, 2018). It is a major challenge to
achieve optimum levels of operational performance and efficiency by the business when its
employees belong to diverse cultures and are accustomed to operating with respect to those
cultures.
Conflict Resolution: Another major issue towards international HRM operations of a business
organisation relates to resolving the conflicts that occur between individuals belonging to diverse
cultural backgrounds, as it is not uncommon for an individual in a business organisation to
accidentally offend or abuse unknowingly the cultural customs and prejudices of and individual
that belongs to a totally different cultural background.
A.2 Theories and Models About Culture
In order to better understand the impact of culture in international HRM, we can make
use of the strategic model of Charles Handy relating to organisational cultures. Handy’s model of
organisational cultures details the different organisational cultures that different business
organisations may possess and how these impact upon the motivation, job satisfaction,
operational performance and efficiency metrics of its employees. Based on Handy’s model, there
exist four main types of organisational cultures:
Power Culture: In this type of culture, the power within a business organisation is held by a
select or group of few individuals, whose influence spreads throughout the business organisation.
These select few individuals are responsible for creating and implementing all the organisational
policies of the business, without consulting any other employees for their inputs (Caligiuri and
et.al., 2020). These select few individuals also undertake all the decision making operations of
the business organisation by themselves, making the workforce of the business organisation feel