INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT

    In the present era of globalisation , series of mergers and acquisitions and other forms of business alliances are shaping interactions among nations. It won't be an exaggeration to say , that if any nation in the world sneezes , some other nations may catch cold. In this form of global  business , international human resource management is emerging as a crucial factor because organisations are run by people. But the problem begins due to differences in people , their cultural values , norms , different laws and regulations , etc. The socio- cultural and psychological problems make IHRM a complete process.

      Different people have diverse needs based on their culture , upbringing , language , adaptability and also diverse work environment . How can all these people perform and build up as human resource , if they are put together ? How can we achieve individual goals , as well as organisational goal and get optimum result from people , who are indeed so different and work through not only culture and language barrier , but also helping them adapt to change with respect to their surroundings. 

     So , IHRM includes everything that HRM involves but at a higher and more complex level because it relates and deals with a large workforce or human resource , who are not just diverse , but also a building block on a global platform.

FACTORS AFFECTING INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT :

1. Differences in labour market characteristics : The skill levels , the demand and supply and behaviour characteristics vary widely between countries. Some countries experience human resource shortages in some sectors while some countries experience it in abundance. FOR EXAMPLE ; Earlier developing countries were considered as pool of unskilled labour but today many developing countries have abundance of skilled and scientific manpower. This trend is causing significant shift of location of business activities and so in the wages and quality attribute of human resource . Hence , changing labour market characteristics have been causing global restructuring of business processes and industries.

2. Cultural Differences : Cultural differences cause great challenge to HRM.  The behavioural attitude of workers , the environment , outlook, values , belief etc . have great impact on productivity , absenteeism , turnover and job satisfaction . Cultural factors are relevant in inter - personal behaviour also . FOR EXAMPLE ; In many countries, it is common to address boss by their names but in countries like India people have great value for designation and hierarchical levels so addressing boss by name is not appreciated.

3. Difference in regulatory environment :  A firm operating in different countries has to be confronted with different environment with respect to government policies , regulations regarding labour , trade and union association . 

4. Attitude towards employment :  The attitude of employers and employees towards jobs show great shift among nations . In many countries , hire and fire are very common whereas in number of countries the ideal norm has been life time employment .

5. Difference in condition of employment : Besides hiring there are several other work conditions which causes challenge to INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT . The system of rewards , incentives , promotions , motivation , security varies significantly between countries.

FUNCTIONS OF INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (IHRM) : 

1. Global Recruitment : Recruitment is the process of finding and attracting capable applicants for employment . The process begunah where new recruits are sought and frnds when their applications are submitted . The result is a pool of applicants from which new employees are selected. The companies should provide accurate information of global recruitment so as to attract and create desire to work among the qualified candidates. Thus , recruitment helps global companies in funding out the potential candidates for organisation. 

          Source of recruitment are ; parent country nationals , host country nationals and third country nationals . 

2. Selection process : Selection is the process of differentiating between the applicants in order to identify those with a greater likelihood of success in a job. It is a negative process because chances of rejection are more. It is important as whatever decision are made regarding the selection of personnel  , it must be within the framework of selection policies of the company. There are three types of approaches followed in selection in global business. 

       a) Ethnocentric approach 

       b) Polycentric approach 

       c) Geocentric approach .

3. Expatriates :  The foreign country nationals working in foreign subsidiary and third country  nationals are called expatriates. Global companies after hiring candidates place them on certain jobs in home country as well as in other countries , so people living and working in other than their home country are called expatriates . Thus , the employees and their family members working and living in foreign countries are called expatriates in the foreign country.

       INTERNATIONAL ADJUSTMENT - The expatriates are now completely new to the host country environment , social rule norms etc . and face many problems in adjustment . The international adjustment is the degree to which the expatriates feel comfortable living and working in the host culture. These cultural differences cause cultural shocks .

4. Performance appraisal : Performance appraisal is a method of evaluating the behaviour of employees at the work spot normally including both quantitative band qualitative aspects of job performance. It is a systematic and objective way of evaluating both work related behaviour and potential of employees. The objectives focus on finding individual and organisation strength and weakness , developing healthy superior subordinate relations and offering appropriate counseling to the employees with a view to develop his potential in future.

CHALLENGES IN IHRM (INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT) :

 1. High failure rate of expatriation and repatriation : Many a times , it happens that expatriates are not able to adjust themselves with the culture , environment and working conditions of the foreign country , they are not able to accept the norms and rules prevailing in that country and as a result it becomes difficult for them to survive there and hence they leave the job and return back to their country.

2. Deployment : The level of skills varies from region to region. It is very difficult to get the right mix of skills required to perform a job in the organisation regardless of geographical location. The organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has just produced new research on adult literacy , numeracy and problem - solving skills in 22  countries. 

3. Knowledge and innovation dissemination :  In the organisations operating internationally the crucial factors having impact on transferring of knowledge are location , the disease between the involved units , political issues ,  the organisational culture of the company , characteristics of the strategy , structure and communication processes , language skills or inter cultural skills of the leaders. 

4. Talent identification and development : It need much efforts and huge cost to identity capable people who are flexible and can adopt the culture of that country and then to provide them and infrastructure to work effectively.

5. Barriers to women in IHRM : In international human resource management , it is evident that women are not progressing to senior international management positions at comparable rates to their male counterparts. Marriage , family , sexual discrimination are the factors which limit the women's international career.

Thanking you..