7HR024: Leadership and Human Resource Practice in Organizations Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices within multinational corporations (MNCs). It begins with an introduction to HRM practices and explores the evolution of HRM models, including personal management, hard and soft HRM, the best fit model, best practices model, and the resource-based view (RBV) model. The report then emphasizes the significance of recruitment and selection best practices in MNCs, detailing the processes involved and the importance of finding the right candidates. It further addresses the cross-cultural challenges that MNCs face in applying recruitment and selection practices, considering issues such as candidate-related problems, nepotism, and the impact of cultural differences on HRM implementation. The report also examines Hofstede's cultural dimensions and their influence on HRM practices. Overall, the report provides valuable insights into the complexities of HRM in a globalized business environment, offering a critical evaluation of key concepts and challenges.

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Module name Leadership and
Human
Resource
Practice in
Organisation
Module Code 7HR024
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Due date 6 May 2021
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction of HRM Practices...............................................................................3
2. The theoretical and evolution of HRM models......................................................3
2.1 Personal management of HRM and SHRM........................................................3
2.2 Hard HRM and soft HRM models......................................................................4
2.3 Best Fit Model.....................................................................................................5
2.4 Best practices Model...........................................................................................5
2.5 RBV Model.........................................................................................................5
3. The Importance of Recruitment and Selection HRM Best Practices of
Multinational Corporations............................................................................................6
4. Cross-Cultural Challenges Faced by MNCs Applying Recruitment & Selection
Practice...........................................................................................................................8
5. The impact of cultural differences on HRM best practices implementation..........9
6. Conclusion............................................................................................................11
7. References.............................................................................................................12

1. Introduction of HRM Practices
Globalization and the emergence of multinational corporations (MNCs) have
had a significant impact on business activities and the essence of operations
in each market in today's competitive world (Menatallah et al., 2010). MNCs'
success is dependent on their human resource capabilities, as employees'
skills and experience are a source of competitive advantage.
This report examines evolution of HRM models including personal
management, hard and soft HRM, best fit model, best practices, RBV model.
Further this document critically evaluates the importance of HRM best
practices in MNCs specially concentrated on recruitment and selection
process. Later the report describes cross cultural challenges of recruitment
and selection process in MNCs and assess the influence of cultural difference
in implementing HRM best practices.
2. The theoretical and evolution of HRM models
2.1 Personal management of HRM and SHRM
Since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, ‘People Management' has been a
important element of an organization's long-term sustainability and
performance. People management strategies grew with the
greater participation of researchers and scholars as well as business
managers over time, mostly due to demands and expectations from
employees.
According to Legge (2005), In a competitive business setting, personal
management is a monitoring and administrative mechanism that can lead to
integrated HRM in combination with strategic management.
According to Aikaterini (2014), personal management dates back to the
Industrial Revolution in the United Kingdom in the nineteenth century. The

Personal Management Concept was based on the idea that "the employee
must do as he or she is told".
However according to Ahammad (2017), personnel management
encompassed functions such as recruiting, benefits and compensation,
training, and so on, some aspects, such as performance management and
strategic elements, needed to be strengthened. It evolved its performance
management framework, implemented strategic roles, and concentrated
more on human values and individual needs with the evolution of personnel
management to HR management, while recognizing people as a strategic and
important asset for the business.
2.2 Hard HRM and soft HRM models
HRM is often represented as a term with two different forms namely, soft
and hard. Soft and hard HRM are completely different on a variety of levels,
and many critics have used them to categorize management practices based
on developmental humanist or utilitarian instrumentalist concepts. (Legge,
1995)
Truss et al. (1997) pointed out, The human relations approach, the use of
personal skills, and McGregor's Theory Y perspective on persons'
developmental and humanism dimensions are all related to soft HRM.
However, Hard HRM stresses the "quantitative, calculative, and business-
strategic aspects of managing the "headcount resource" in the same way as it
does all of the organization's other tools. (Truss et al, 1997)

2.3 Best Fit Model
According to Armstrong (2006), Best Fit Model reveals the requirement of
aligning the organizational strategies with the Human Resource strategies in
order to achieve better horizontal integration. In other words, Best-Fit Model
seeks to ensure that the internal climate of the company is best suited to the
external environment by mitigating the impact of external factors. (Paauwe
and Boselie, 2005).
2.4 Best practices Model
According to Redman and Wilkinson (2009), the best practice strategy
suggests that several HR activities which provide the support for
organizations to gain the competitive advantage regardless of the corporate
environment or market.
Pfeffer (1998) identified a number of HRM best practices, including selective
recruitment, job security, higher salary based on organizational success,
teams working, training to have professional and empowered
employees, intelligence sharing, and reduction of the status differential. The
organizational strategy is given less prominent In the Best practice model
than in Best Fit Model. (Mathur at el, 2014).
2.5 RBV Model
The resource-based model offers a framework for efficiently and effectively
using corporate resources while also maximizing social welfare (Barney,
1991).
The RBV model focuses on human assets, or human capital, which the
company spends in the hopes of achieving superior results. As a result, the
organization's RBV contributes to the conversation around human resource
management and organizational effectiveness. (Wright et al., 1994,)

3. The Importance of Recruitment and Selection HRM Best
Practices of Multinational Corporations
The aim of recruitment and selection is to find the best people for the right
positions in a company. Following the completion of the recruiting process,
the selection process begins. Recruitment can be described as a collection of
practices and procedures used to recruit job applicants with the skills and
attitudes required to help the company achieve its objectives (Sangeetha,
2010). Recruitment process has several activities such as employee
requirement planning, job analysis and preparation of job description and job
specification (Hsu and Leat, 2000).
According to Burack (1985), organizational activities such as
employee performance, employee turnover, employee
satisfaction, employee desires, and organizational
engagement are all directly related to recruiting sources.
Organizations tends to plan their recruiting budget at the
beginning of the year to fulfil their organizational goals
(Nartey, 2012).
Many aspects influence the recruiting process, including
company culture, working hours, services, pay, benefits,
brand name, goodwill, and position. The second phase in the
method of manpower preparation is selection. Selection is the
method of selecting the best applicant for the position based
on their qualifications and the job criteria. (2010,
Bhattacharyya)
There are essentially two sources of recruiting in any company
from which candidates may be selected. The sources are
divided into two categories: internal and external. The usage
of these resources is determined by the organization's unique

environment as well as its operational philosophy Briggs
(2007).
According to Dudovskiy (n.d.) employee recruitment for
MNC assignments needs a different strategy and
understanding than typical hiring efforts in the home country.
Cultural variations, laws, and language considerations must all
be taken into account when implementing a recruitment plan
for MNC.
The below recruitment and selection criteria for multinational
workers were defined by Mathis & Jackson (2005).
 Individual characteristics
 Communication Skill
 Organizational necessities
 Cultural Adaptations
 Personal and family concerns
Flexibility and risk-taking capacity, social maturity, the ability
to tolerate uncertain circumstances, and the ability to deal
with stress are all individual characteristics. It is best to
delegate candidate selection (both locally and internationally)
to local HR management.
Language abilities, nonverbal knowledge, coaching and
listening skills, and the ability to overcome disputes are all
examples of communication skills. The local HR department
is in the strongest place to make a fair evaluation of the
possible applicants in this case as well.
Knowledge of the organization, technical abilities, and job-
related skills are all included as organizational necessities.
This could be done by the local HR department, but only with

the full support and involvement of the parent company's HR
department.
Cultural sensitivity, cultural adaptability, ability to embrace
diversity, and multinational experience are all examples of
cultural adaptations.
Personal and family concerns include responsibilities in
one's personal life, financial and economic issues, and career
advancement.
4. Cross-Cultural Challenges Faced by MNCs Applying
Recruitment & Selection Practice
Recruitment was ranked among the top problems in Africa in the global HR
challenge survey in 2005, according to the World Federation of Personnel
Management Associations, (2005), and more projective views excluded
recruitment from consideration.
One challenge of recruitment of MNCs is candidate and
organizational-related problems, which organizations and the
government should help with. Organizations may set up low-
cost specialized firms with specialized experience and
qualifications to conduct recruiting programs for them, as well
as make changes to the research instructional program to
improve candidates' soft skills (Lawrence et al., 2007).
According to Namazie and Frame (2007), nepotism is
considered to be another challenge faced by MNCs in the
recruitment function. In Iran, the findings revealed that
nepotism and connections had often hampered recruiting,
leading to the introduction of stringent recruitment policies by
multinational corporations.

MNCs should integrate appropriate HRM templates and best
practices with a clear knowledge of cross-cultural differences
in terms of vocabulary, behavior, food, clothes, behaviors,
beliefs, and perspective to overcome cross-cultural challenges
(Pfeffer 1998).
Another challenge of recruiting and interviewing with a cross-
cultural group is that employees cannot take new jobs due to
family commitments. Most companies encourage workers to
bring their spouses and children with them to the foreign
country. Employee cultural adaptation as well as the
employee's own cultural adaptation are also important. (Thoo
and Kaliannan, 2013).
According to Laroche and Rutherford (2007), “Iceberg
Analogy” of cultural visibility of a person is lesser, similar to
iceberg only top portion is visible whereas the portion under
water is invisible. This is a practical challenge faced by MNCs
in employee recruitment process as the tangible parts of the
culture such as resume content and style, accent and English
language, dress and appearance, documentations, greetings,
organizational structure, and body language, can be visible
during an interview. But values and thought patterns of a
person is hard to capture in an interview. Further due to travel
restriction and higher travel cost lead to conduct online
interviews for requirement and selection process of MNCs
which makes it even difficult to identify the cultural values of
a person.
5. The impact of cultural differences on HRM best practices
implementation
National cultural disparities are just one aspect of the globalizing world's
major confrontation. The mismatch of corporate or organizational Cultures is

a challenge that emerges from several internationalization techniques such
as acquisitions or joint ventures. Organization culture is divided into two
categories: the organization's values and its habits and behaviors (Kotter,
1992).
According to Hofstede (1980), national culture has 6 dimensions namely,
Individualism vs. Collectivism, Masculinity vs. Femininity, Power Distance,
Long Term Orientation vs. Short Term Orientation, Uncertainty Avoidance,
and Indulgence vs. Restraint.
Below table describes the each of the cultural dimension as per Hofstede (1980).
Cultural Dimension Description of the cultural dimension
Individualism vs. Collectivism Individualism means where societies have a
preference on themselves and their family and
friends. On the opposite side, collectivism
represents a preference towards other
employees of the organization.
Masculinity vs. Femininity Masculinity is associated with assertiveness,
accomplishment, and success, while femininity
is associated with friendship, caring, and
modesty.
Power Distance The degree to which society's less dominant
members recognize and anticipate unequal
power distribution
Long Term Orientation vs.
Short Term Orientation
The tendency of a culture toward virtue-
seeking is defined by long-term orientation.

The short-term emphasis is on certain cultures
that are prone to creating total truth.
Uncertainty Avoidance expresses the extent to which members of a
group are concerned with doubt and
uncertainty.
Indulgence vs. Restraint This dimension describes how open people are
about their time and how often they are
governed by social standards.
MNCs should conduct a proposer research on above mentioned cultural dimension
before sending an expatriate for a foreign assignment. A proper training should be
given to the employee regarding the cultural dimension of the foreign culture
which enables the employee to adopt to the alien culture. This will prevent the
expatriate to leave the country before achieving the target, eventually avoiding
financial loss for the organization.
6. Conclusion
Organizations need to carefully handle the recruitment and
selection of employee to ensure the correct person gets the
correct job. Otherwise with the existing labor lows, it is costly
and difficult process to remove employee from permanent
carder.
Moreover, when recruiting employee in MNCs for foreign
assignments, special focus should be given to adaptability and
culture awareness of employee to keep the employee for that
assignment required period. In case the selected employee
leaves the assignment and returns to their home country,
organization will not be able to achieve their intended goal.
Hence it is important for organization to follow best HRM
practices to achieve their organizational goals.

7. References
Abroad?”, Organizational
Dynamics, Summer, pp. 42-46
Aikaterini, G., 2014. Personnel Management vs. Human Resource Management:
Evidence from Hellas. [Online] Available at:
https://repository.ihu.edu.gr/xmlui/bitstream/handle/11544/588/Aikaterini
%20Georgiou.pdf [Accessed 30 Apr 2021].
Armstrong, M., (2006). A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. 10th
Edition, Kogan Page Publishing, London. p.138.
Barney, J., 1991. Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage. Journal of
Management”, no. 17.
Briggs, B.R. (2007) Problems of Recruitment in Civil Service: Case of the Nigerian Civil
Service. African Journal of Business Management, 1, 142-153