International Human Resources Management

This study explores the dynamics of international resource management and the differences between the United States and Mexico. It discusses the institutional framework, cultural orientation, and the role of expatriates. It also examines the advantages and disadvantages of working in a diverse managerial group. The paper provides insights into the process of working in a multilateral group and cross-cultural adaptation.

International Human Resources Management
Abstract
The dynamics in modern industry requires firms to invest effective management of the human
resources to attain a competitive advantage over it peers. In this study, the term international
resource management has been used to mean all the activities involved in managing the
employees in an organization. It is concerned with human resource problems faced by
multinational organizations in the subsidiary countries. This paper outlines the differences
between the political, economic and cultural set up of the United States of America and the
republic of Mexico. The term subsidiary has been used in this paper to mean the foreign country
where the new plant is to be located. The parent organization has been used to mean the original
firm that intends to expand its scale of operation into the new country.
The first section deals with an overview of the institutional framework, and its differences
between the United States and Mexico. Secondly, the differences between cultural orientation in
the two states is explained in a tabular format. The third section has a brief insight into
Advantages and disadvantages of working in a plural and diverse managerial group from the
United States and Mexico. The fourth section deals with an in-depth explanation of the role of
expatriates with a focus on recruitment, Multicultural communication and International team
working. The paper is wound up with a brief reflection on the process of working in a
multilateral group during a seminar and what I learned about cross-cultural adaptation in the
classroom.

Introduction
Economic growth of a country is affected by, among other factors, institutional framework and
cultural orientation of the nation. Investors are normally concerned by system of governance of a
country and its cultural beliefs whenever they want to pump money into a project. According to
Cramton, Ockenfels, and Stoft (2017), nations with local policies that give leeway for
international investment and foreign trade tend to attract more investors. The same opinion is
held by Friberg (2017) who suggests that a country should develop positive cultural orientation
to encourage foreign direct investment. These forces influence the quality and level of
investment in a country and dictate the method of production to be adopted by the investors. This
paper opens a discussion on some of the institutional differences between:
The United States of America Mexico
1. The United States of America has developed
and maintained one of the most effective free
markets and governance procedures that
make it a conducive market destination for
many investors.
The nation experiences a lot of government
intervention in the market. There is little
freedom for investors to enter the market and
sell commodities in the region. It enacted an
import substation policy, which required that
most of the industrial commodities being
consumed in the region be produced within the
country.
2. The factors of production are sold in a free
market for the production of private
commodities and services.
There is limitation to the sale and purchase of
factors of production in the country. This is
inked to the disconnect between the local
social structure that could assist the residents
to assimilate, positively react and adjust to the
requirements of modern technologies.
3. The government is concerned with creation
of general equity among the citizens.
There is precisely no convergence of national
policies as far as social; welfare is concerned.
There is no connection between the role of
institutions and social development though this
is a clear measure of economic growth
(Kander, 2015, Dutt et al., 2015)
4. There is general protection of the civil rights
by the government especially in
circumstances where the private sectors may
be inefficient.
There is little confidence on the citizens that
the government will guard their rights to
investment. The government is seen as tax
angry and only concerned with the investors
contribution of the taxes.
5. The state provides public goods such as
public roads, protection of public health,
environmental preservation and provision of
recreational facilities to ensure equity
throughout the nation. All residents of the
country have access to these facilities
without discrimination.
The government has no institutional
framework for ensuring equity among the
statesmen.

6. People from all over the world enjoy fair
treatment from the state. The economic
conditions provided by the free market
transcends across all residents of the state.
Residents are served based on origin. Elements
of discrimination are observed in the nation
and non-members of the nation may not have
all the incentives to invest in the country.
7. The nation enjoys well-established economic
institutions that enable investors to choose
the business to invest in on their own.
Investors enjoy the freedom to invest in the
best technologies based on the preferences
and ability.
Economic policies are designed according to
the problem at hand. Policies formulated are
meant to solve current problems such as
inflation and exchange rate instability.
Cultural differences between the United States of America and Mexico:
According to Acemoglu et al. (2016), one would not precisely say that the residents of Nogales,
Arizona, and Nogales, Sonora share a common origin and culture in as much as they enjoy the same
source of entertainment, food and natural environmental factors. The simplest explanation to the
differences may be attributed to the fact that the two are separated by a wall making Nogales Arizona to
be in the United States of America. The following are some of the cultural differences between the two
regions:
United states Mexico
The inhabitants have the freedom to enter in to
occupations of their choice and enroll for
schooling freely to acquire their desired skills
for proper investment.
There is little emphasis on education in the
country. This limit the technical skills needed
for the process of production. According to
Addo (2016), business success is much
dependent on the human effort and capital
assigned in the project.
The residents have the political right to
participate in the democratic process of
assigning duties to political leaders and
retaining the powers to replace
underperforming and misbehaving electorates.
The electoral process is full of malpractices
which makes residents discouraged from
participating in the process. The leaders are
normally found involving in malpractices and
citizens may have little impact in deciding the
fate of immoral officers.
It has an inclusive set of institutions that is
targeted to provide all residents with a virtuous
rhythm of innovation and general welfare of
the citizens.
Institutions in the country have not developed
the culture of innovation and are not driven by
the desire to create new commodities in the
market.
The country enjoys even economic growth
with institutions designed to remove income
disparities in welfare and living standards of
the residents. According to Thussu (2018),
harmonization of rewards for factors of
production such as labour, capital and land is
responsible for the standard living conditions
of the residents.
There is uneven economic growth between
states and individuals in Mexico. Several
models have been used to explain the
disparities in economic growth in this country,
with most indicators linking it to capital,
investment patterns and saving culture.

The region has strong social relationships
created by socially constructed economic
tendencies of the citizens. The extent and level
of public participation is relatively high
resulting into reduction in the cost of
production as well as definition for the
incentives to investment.
Interpersonal relationships are not fully
developed in the country resulting into poor
strings and mobility of factors of production.
According to Zhou, and Guillén (2015), to
achieve maximum social returns; a country
must consider integrating technical growth
with social force s affecting investment
decisions. Markets for goods and services in a
country are formed through social interactions.
Institutional frameworks are shaped by the
cultural affiliation of the stakeholders in an
organization.
Advantages and disadvantages of working in a plural and diverse managerial group from the
United States and Mexico
Routine develops over time because people prefer operating from their comfort zones. When
employees feel the sense of safety and security at their jobs, they become more creative and
rational in their ventures hence registering improved performance. This encompasses both
professional and personal lives of investors and employees.
One can create the desired comfort on their own through several ways, such as redesigning the
office layout or adding more accessories to the workplace. However, each employee in any given
institution must admit that they fancy their jobs due to the presence of a co-worker (Ioannou, and
Serafeim, 2017).This is because it is normally easier to peruse our career and goals that we are
passionate about in the presence of mentors and advisers.
Advantages of diversity
Firstly, working in a plural normally inspires people to try new things. A team that focuses on
uniqueness of its composition is more productive than those groups that are complacent and
antireform. Each team member can have the opportunity to fully exploit his potential by focusing
fully on his or her strength. Employees will handle tasks with greater specificity as the managers
will assign them duties with much accuracy (Williams and Vorley, 2015, Alesina and Giuliano,
2015). Diversity makes a team an ideal self-insurance scheme since the strengths and weaknesses
of the members are spread over a wide base. Any project feature gets at least somebody with the
expertise required for its fulfillment.
Secondly, diversity works as a classroom for training employees. It creates teams where
individuals come with different set of skills. Working in plural also ensures that individuals get
an opportunity to specialize in their career. These skills can be passed from one person to another
in the office. Everybody learns at least some new skills from their colleagues because of the

difference in levels of information and education set-up where each person was raised. This can
enable the employees to develop the skills of cultural tolerance by inculcating a common
understanding of the complexities and perspectives of the workplace environment (André Filip
and Paugam, 2015, Krasniqi and Desai, 2016, Moed, and Halevi, 2015).
Thirdly, diversity is channel for maturing talents. Institutions that eliminate geographic,
educational, cultural and socio-economic barriers during recruitment have access to a huge pool
of talents and skills. Such companies set talent-search as top priority during screening during
hiring and let the new employees find their level within the institution (Yeager, 2018). This is
important to organizations as the managers will not be compelled to get the best candidate from a
set of applicant, but instead, get the right candidate for the job.
Finally, diversity enhances productivity in an organization. The levels of sensitivity in an
organization increase because of existence of people with varying opinion in the workplace.
People start looking for information to remain relevant and in the process; they get access to the
most effective methods of production. According to Li, Cui and Lu (2018), the most effective
way to encourage faster production of quality commodities is to invest on diversity throughout
the organization. An organization that prioritizes diversity normally records benefits even when
the work levels decline.
Disadvantages of diversity
According to Yousafzai, Saeed and Muffatto (2015), an ideal team should be made up of
individuals who hail from the same culture, ethnicity and educational background or social
orientation. Inclusion of an individual with a dissimilar set of life experience in the team may
render him scary or uncomfortable hence lowering his performance since scared people normally
concentrate on survival and not quality service delivery. Such people are not ready to trade off
short-term uncertainties for long-term rewards of institutional restructuring.
The following are some of the disadvantages of diversity:
1. Diversity forces hiring managers to focus on individuals with proven leadership qualities.
Diversity in the work place requires experts who are seen as best performers in the places
of work, career paths, roles and team compositions (El Ghoul, Guedhami and Kim, 2017,
Du and Boateng, 2015). The goal of this level of excellence is to pull out a team that
allows everybody to grow over time. Despite the merits of having such leadership-
oriented people in your team, such people always aspire to be at the helm of everything
resulting into competition. Competition on the other hand is only good to the extent that it
creates improvement in the services being offered by the firm, giving it a competitive
advantage. However, when this competition spirals out of control, it becomes disastrous
to an organization, as everybody wants others to take orders from him or her. It becomes

even more complicated whenever the organization focuses on developing an individual
instead of the entire team (Marano and Kostova, 2016). This is because it is not easy to
appraise the individual being retrained as the result of the organization takes the
contribution of all members of the staff.
2. Diversity in the workplace may hamper decision-making process. During hiring, the
recruiting officers focusing on diversity seek to create a series of varying opinions to
assist in assigning duties to the right persons who will drive the company agenda at the
desired pace. However, there are circumstances where the sheer number of minds in an
organization at a given time may pose serious problems top an organization (Marquis and
Raynard, 2015, Égert, 2016). Giving each member of the team an opportunity to share his
or her opinion may slow down the pace of decision-making in similar magnitude as it
may increase it. This is worsened whenever mangers are not able to reach a consensus
and none of them wants to compromise his or her stand. Everybody sees the other as
“wrong” if they dissent to their opinion. In the future, such people may shy away from
sharing their opinion since they feel belittled, and this reduces the benefits that come to
organization in the first place. Others also feel that those who hold different opinions as
theirs are indeed launching personal attacks on their integrity, profession or character.
3. Diversity may bring about mistrust in an organization. Firms that opt for diversity as a
top management strategy causes reduction in trust within the organization. This is
normally observed in the demographic composition of the organization in terms of
culture, education background and career experience. Collaborations within the firm are
limited by this fact and “we” versus “them” springs up in the institution (Levchenko, and
Zhang, 2016, Mitton, 2016). Unique opinions also give different approaches to life,
resulting into severe divergence in reasoning in an organization. The level of interaction
within the firm decreases, and the atmosphere of fear regenerate in the organization
leading to fall in productivity. Therefore, a focus on establishing a diverse work
environment may breed hostility in an organization to an extent that it jeopardizes
production.
4. Diversity may cause communication breakdown in an organization. Having people from
different cultural, educational and professional backgrounds in an organization may make
passing of information difficult. This normally happens since such people may not have a
common language as a primary option for communication. People normally have their
jargons, official languages and unique meanings that they assign situations and concepts
(Ahern, Daminelli and Fracassi, 2015, Webb and Martin, 2017). Management mix,
pitching people from different countries that have divergent understandings of issues may
make it difficult to coordinate the activities of the firm. Additionally, this can be
expressed with constant complaints from middle-level managers compared to a situation
where managers come from the same cultural background.

Conclusion
The level of competition in the modern industry requires instant results, which diversity
seems to provide. However, the benefits derived by an organization from diversity in
management and workplace necessitate composition collective responsibility from all
stakeholders in an organization. This brings harmony in an organization between the top-
level management and the middle-level management. When done the right way, it can
bring several benefits to the entire organization. Diversity can provide unique
perspectives to the firm, though it requires patience and resilience to be realized.
Therefore, an organization must put in place a robust strategy for analysing the pros and
cons of diversity before wishing it away or implementing it in the firm.
Finally, bringing in different cultures and working styles to an organization can bring
bothersome results. This is exhibited by nomadism of employees who cite being placed in
uncomfortable work environments as the cause of their exit. Firms eventually incur huge
costs of replacing the departing experts, and take many months before recovering the lost
investments. It therefore calls for proactive management strategies to implement cultural
diversity policies in an organization to reaps its benefits.
The role of expatriates
Globalization has given rise to many multinational companies. This has led to assigning
of expatriates to foreign countries to set up the parent organizational philosophy, culture
and strategies in the destination plants. An expatriate, in this context is defined as an
expert, skilled person or an artist temporarily or permanently enjoying residence in a
country where he does not have a citizenship. There has to be a clear strategy put in place
between the home and the host countries. The subsidiary country should be able to obtain
information, support for project implementation while the home country needs to provide
opportunity for employees to enhance their skills for improved organizational
performance (Bertoni and Tykvová, 2015).
Advantages of using expatriates
1. These employees can help the parent organization to fulfill its strategic needs with
minimal deviations since they are normally aware of their culture and goals.
2. Expatriates help parent organizations to implement their organizational management
styles. During the expatriates selection process, organizations put more emphasis on
those individuals with the ability to implement the company’s leadership styles to the
later.
3. Expatriates facilitate control and coordination between the operations in the new plant
and the parent organization. They ensure that the activities of the destination plant are
carried out in conformity with the standards set in the parent organization.
4. Expatriates provide better supervision and monitoring services in the most preferred
manner.

Recruitment
Expatriates scan the foreign country workforce to come up with the most gifted
individuals to add to their teams. They are involved in the proper marketing research to
identify the most appropriate reward strategies for the foreign employees. This involves,
acquisition of the knowledge about international labor laws, environmental conservation
and employment practices of the foreign countries. Another information that expatriates
seek for their success is currency relationships and effect of price instability on the types
of compensation (Branco, 2018, Hussain and Deery, 2018). Finally, they search for a
clearer understanding of the allowances that are ideal for the foreign countries.
International team working
Besides money, the most effective motivator to high performance is management. An
organization succeeds of fails in its new location depending on the type of leadership it
has (Harzing, Pudelko and Sebastian Reiche, 2016). They constantly search for
information relating to the best practices and most effective mechanism for attaining
maximum benefits for their companies. They take a leading role in implementing key
firm strategies and systems in the new plant. In the process, these employees act as
mentors by teaching the local employees how to implement the different processes that
help in the achievement of the parent firm goals.
Multicultural communication
An expatriate is an expert who is gifted with the talent of handling the roles of a leader
and has the ability to fulfill the provisions of multi-cultural assignments (Lorenz, Ramsey
and Richey Jr, 2018). He or she must be culturally sensitive to understand the culture of
different people from the society where they work. To succeed in implementing the
parent country’s philosophy, the expatriate must:
- Have interest in the culture of the foreign country residents
- Have the curiosity and passion to accommodate new ideas brought about bicultural
diversity,
- Have the ability to adapt to new environment and adjust to its cultural orientation
The expatriates act as “networkers” for their companies just like the country ambassadors
do. They are involved in cultivation of relationship and enhancement of contacts between
the company and key clients by constant communication (Vaiman, Haslberger and
Vance, 2015). The professionals endeavour to increase internal and external ties within
and without the country. For instance, where translation and internal negotiations are
needed, the expatriates come in handy.
Conclusion

An expatriate should be selected through an open-minded approach to ensure the most
talented officer is found. The process should involve critical analysis of the trends in the
global arena, identification of the managerial needs, evidence of desire for global
assignments and desire to establish futures global advancement. For effective completion
of duties, expatriates should show technical ability, cross-cultural sustainability, proper
management of family ties and accuracy in language compliance.
Reflection

International human resources management brings about a clear view of the individual
responsibility with more focus on cooperation with others. Multinational organizations’
performance depends on the people in powers’ ability to treat their subordinates with
kindness and empathy as though they were their equals. Moreover, there is need for
constant consultation at all levels of management and involving subordinates in the
decision making process.
Working in a multicultural group has several advantages that if harnessed well can bring
the best out of the employees. The future of multinationals lies on the evolutionary
process brought about by the cultural diversity. Because of cultural diversity, I realized
that the performance of each member of the group that I worked with improved in
accordance with the supervisor’s appraisal report. Cultural diversity can create customer
loyalty. During the seminar, I realized that most clients who were served during the study
period preferred firms that embraced cultural diversity. An institution that invests heavily
on cultural diversity makes clients to view it as their own. Clients also like associating
with them since they rarely discriminate upon others.
Cross-cultural adaptation can assist firms to identify and rectify societal bias. Firms that
set cultural diversity as top-priority can expose the behavior of most managers during
their operations, for instance, picking more men for jobs compared to women even if they
have the same qualifications. It is a departure from the traditional tendency of managers
to focus on the applicants’ leadership qualities as portrayed on the resume. It offers an
opportunity for the managers to bring in people on board who can complement the
managers in their quest to succeed in their roles.
Finally, I feel that cross-cultural adaptation of processes can help an organization to grow
better and bigger within a short period of time. This is because it encourages firms to
create new positions and invent new opportunities for the new and existing team member.
Installation of new applications in the organization necessitates retraining which results
into improved service delivery. In addition, hiring managers are not subjected to specific
niche from where to get the employees hence are able to access the best applicants for the
jobs.
Implementation of multinational project requires a robust search of information about
cross-cultural awareness. For expatriates to function effectively, they require sufficient
information about the new environment. Secondly, a robust cultural orientation is
necessary for proper cultural assimilation by potential employees who are to be assigned
international duties. Another important aspect that makes an individual ideal for
international assignment is language diversity. Such people need to have language
prowess to foster proper interaction between the subsidiary employees and the parent
organizational employers. Finally, on-the-job experience and sensitivity training can also
make one better placed to achieve multinational company goals.
Conclusion

Implementation of multicultural strategies has several pros. However, the financial
constraints that are associated with it call for critical appraisal.
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