Role of HRM in Risk Management Assignment

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ROLE OF HRM IN RISK MANAGEMENT
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Risk management for expatriates working in hostile environment
Introduction
Risk management is one of the critical activities in most organizations and it has become an area
of focus by most managers and researchers today. Possible risks cover wider areas in financial,
operational and tangible risks e.g. organizational and personal risks. Often, organizations focus
on risk management on the work environment at a domestic level. However, multinational
corporations, (MNCs) operate beyond national borders thus bringing the issue of expatriates’
safety. The latter faces risks like diseases, kidnapping, terrorism, home invasion, or street crime.
Therefore, this paper focuses on risk management for expatriates working in the hostile
environment. The focus will be placed on risks they face when in foreign countries, place of
work and where they spend time with their families. It is important to note that the essay will be
based on an article written by Bader, Schuster & Dickmans in 2016 on International Human
Resource s and Risk Management. The study holds that HRM should empower employees
working in a foreign land with skills in communication, leadership, conflict management,
evaluation, motivation, and training to protect them from risks associated with the hostile
working environment.
Risk management for expatriates is important because it ensures the safety of personnel,
especially those working for MNCs. Admittedly, in search for new opportunities; MNCs are
bound to in areas that pose different types of harm to employees. For example, in areas prone to
terrorist attacks, expatriates may be targeted for exploitation. Similarly, their houses may be
invaded and harm is done to their families.
Before, these risks were found in few developing countries like Chile, Brazil, and Indonesia.
However, because of increased use of technology, political instability, and civil unrest, more
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countries have become prone to risks for expatriates. In 2013, Bader and Berg identified
countries like South Africa, Nigeria, and Columbia as having increased number of terrorist
attacks and significant threats to expatriates.
Additionally, recent studies have also shown that there is an increase in the rate of risks for
expatriates in developed countries as well. For example, Germany and France were identified by
Caligiuri and Czinkota in 2010 as having a high number of risks for expatriates. Consequently,
fewer expatriates go with their families to work location. Apart from causing a strain in the
family, this leads to low productivity because of stress.
Risks management by HRM for expatriates working in a hostile environment should be a top
priority for organizations’ management. To get the best out of operating in foreign countries,
there should be effective strategies for managing risks like expatriate risk management (ERM)
guidelines which were proposed by Richard et al, 2017.
Features of hostile environment for expatriates
Management involves an integrated and risk-based strategy to managing security for employees
deployed in dangerous environments. It is the duty of HR to create safety awareness and why
they should respect legal requirements on the safety and healthy working environment for them
to reduce the challenges of staff exposure to unnecessary risks. Loss of life and Injuries are the
major source of security risks of workers. They should be treated as important in order to
improve the status of the organization in terms of performance and motivation in HRM. There is
an increased violence on workers and this has made HR to address issues of organizations’
responsibility and staffs’ security. They have made it a requirement and a policy in order to
ensure successful operation (Bader, et al., 2015, p. 127)
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HR risks for expatriates include diseases, natural calamities, and weather and how to mitigate
these risks. To solve these risks, they need to understand activities of HRM which includes:
recruitment, selection, development, maintenance, motivation, and training. This will help
employees and managers achieve organizational and individual goals. Understanding these
activities will also enable HRM to link the relationship between risk and HR. Failure to observe
these activities increases chances of poor performance and increased risks (Brewster, et al., 2014,
p. 1921).
Apart from areas prone to natural calamities, people working across international borders are
also endangered in areas experiencing conflicts. For example, in Western Sudan, Darfur is one of
the worst places of crises having 4.7% workers affected by frequent conflicts (Malik, et al., 2014,
p. 927). People there depend on international and local aid from the organizations. In the process,
personnel is sometimes considered partisan by conflicting parties hence being targeted. This
makes it difficult to operate within the environment.
A few years ago, violence on aid workers increased among staffs who are the victims of direct
attacks. Car-jacking, robberies and home ground break-ins are common in the workplace and
make employees worried though there are recent risks of abduction and kidnapping (Bader &
Berg, 2014, p. 539). From the statistics of the UN in 2012, 50 UN staff and aid organizations
were abducted or kidnaped from Darfur.
In the recent studies, it was reported that foreigners are at an increased risk. Ever since in 2010,
kidnappers managed to attack six teams of foreigners who work from Darfur, a case that has
never happened before (Collings, 2014, p. 253). Workers fear to operate from the areas and
therefore create a vacuum in the area.
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