International Human Resource Management and Culture

INTERNATIONAL HRM
BUSN3050: International Human Resource Management
Assessment 3: Individual Essay
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INTERNATIONAL HRM
Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Body.................................................................................................................................................4
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................12
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INTERNATIONAL HRM
Introduction
The HRM domain has been set apart into three wider approaches. The key emphasis of the first
approach revolves around cross-cultural management--- looking into the behaviour of people
within an organization from an international point of view. Evolved from the relative industrial
relations and HRM literature, the second approach seeks describing, comparing and analysing
the systems of HRM across different nations. Meanwhile, the aspects of HRM in multinational
firms are the main focus of the third approach. The corporate world in today’s business
environment that is hugely globalised and competing is rapidly getting smaller into a single
exhaustive platform. According to Welch & Björkman 2015, organizations having their
operations spread all over the world routinely engages with people across borders. Hence,
collaboration with colleagues and customers from differing cultural backgrounds has further
become an intrinsic part of their operations. With firms struggling hard for providing high levels
of user experience, a mere consolidation of technical and soft skills is not enough. Addressing
the cross cultural aspect is equally crucial. For effectively dealing with differences and bridging
cultural gaps developing intercultural competence is very important for multinational companies.
According to Vaiman, V., Scullion, H & Collings, D 2012 they can manifest this through a
number of ways such as in individuals or a group’s style of communication, work approach, way
of thinking and the value system. While doing business globally many challenges are faced by
organizations revolving round the assessment of environment, social responsibility and ethics
management, communication and negotiation across cultures, etc.
The role and significance of culture in IHRM has been investigated by a number of researchers.
According to Saengchot, et al., 2017, culture has been widely perceived as the crucial challenge
which HRM should remain aware of while making global expansions for the attainment of the
goals of organizations. It might be difficult in bringing together people belonging to different
ethnic backgrounds at work in some parts of the world. Hence, it is important that the
professionals of international human resource management are well acquainted with this cultural
complication. The key purpose of this study revolves around comprehending the influence of
culture on IHRM. For beginning with the study the country that has been chosen is US. The
investigation will be done using the Hofstede’s model of culture.
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INTERNATIONAL HRM
Body
According to Belizón, Morley & Gunnigle, 2016, a dramatic increase in international business
activities over the past decade has eventually resulted into the continuous growing awareness on
effective human resources management, particularly across multinational companies thus,
leaving a positive effect on their performances. IHRM is widely different from domestic HRM. It
is also comparatively more demanding owing to the factors of macro environment e.g. cultural,
socioeconomic and political. It is further emphasized from this eventuality outlook of the
practice culture fit model that a significant role is played by culture in explaining the human
resources management consequences. According to Intindola, et al., 2017, it has been observed
that some challenges come across multinational companies while they manage human resources
within different cultures. It is found that the nationality, training and experiences of the HR
professionals driving them in making cultural based assumptions. Take for example, with intent
of preserving group harmony employees in Asia and the Middle East inequitable treatment is
usually willingly accepted. Researchers have found that greater cultural differences lead towards
a more decentralized approach for prompt and personalized response. According to Mustafa,
Lundmark & Ramos, 2016, rapid increase of internationalization and globalization has made it
even more pressing for businesses to better comprehend that establishment of HRM procedures
for effectively dealing with considerable cultural differences. The term ‘culture’ can be defined
in many ways. Most commonly it is described as peoples experience as a society, and the
influence it leaves on how one reacts and makes decisions in relation with every-day facts and
situations. For organizations viability having cross-cultural competence is critical because of its
omnipresence across all business interactions and strategic decisions. Multinational companies
can increase their productivity by 30 percent by optimizing their cross-cultural competence
through training. According to Chenijani & Nour, 2013, to acheive sustainable competitive
advantage in the global business environment, the central point revolves around cross-cultural
competence.
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