International HR Management

1. International HR Management Dr Joan Harvey Dr George Erdos

4. Three IHRM examples • Expatriation • Japanese management and Theory Z • Recruitment and selection

5. IHRM Example area1 : Expatriate workers • Qualities for success hard to define, e.g. Brislin [1981] • Cognitive ability • Task orientation • Tolerant personality • Strength of personality, include self esteem • Relations with others, include empathy • Potential to benefit from cross-cultural experience, including openness to change

6. Expatriate worker qualities • Mendenhall and Oddou [1985] • Self-orientatedness • Self esteem, Self confidence, Mental adjustment • Other orientatedness • Ability to interact and develop relationships • Perceptual factors • Empathy, being non-judgemental • Cultural toughness • Ability to adjust to very different culture

7. Expatriate training • Hofstede suggests: • Awareness • Additional knowledge • skills • Training methods • Cultural assimilators • Cultural analysis systems • Contrast [American] method train in opposites

8. Expatriation success or failure measures • Expatriation satisfaction and rate of early returns • Expatriate adaptation and adjustment • Expatriate job performance • Determinants of above include • Adjustment of spouse and family • Developing specific coping strategies • Accurate understanding of rules, customs, behaviours and attributions • Being able to tolerate cultural differences with which Expatriate may totally disagree

9. And after expatriation…? • Many expats do not have a job to return to • Need for outplacement and possible retraining as a result • Some expats simply remain as expats, moving from one country to another; this may may be valuable if they are: technical staff trouble-shooters if part of development experience for grooming to very senior management Or this may be problematic if they become too isolated

10. IHRM Example 2 : Theory Z • Application of Japanese management principles to American & British businesses • Long term focus • Zero tolerance • Personal responsibility for self-development • Positive attitudes to seniority • Teamwork rather than individual achievement • Commitment and trust • Quality and pride • Multi-skilling

11. IHRM Example 3: R & S • Issues include: • Increasingly R&S procedures conducted across cultures for global organizations • Gender inequalities, especially in ‘masculine’ societies [e.g. poorer promotion prospects for women in Japan, France, etc] • Specific types of favouritism, but not considered nepotism in some cultures, e.g. • China • India • Sub-Saharan Africa

12. Example 3 cont: R & S • Differences in emphasis on methods, e.g. • Assessment Centres and Biodata • Graphology • References • And in selection criteria • Team member opinions • Same tribal group • Word of mouth

13. Reminder of the Robertson and Smith (2001) validities of methods, covered earlier

14. Key text Hofstede G and Hofstede G (2005) Culture and Organizations: Software of the mind. 2nd edn London: McGraw Hill This book has been published in Czech, translated by Dr Ludek Kolman