1

Managing Human Resources

Globally
After reading this chapter, you should be able to:
Identify the recent changes that have caused companies
to expand into international markets.
Discuss the four factors that most strongly influence
HRM in international markets.
Chapter
15
Managing Human Resources
Globally
List the different categories of international employees.
Identify the four levels of global participation and the
HRM issues faced within each level.
Discuss the ways companies attempt to select, train,
compensate, and reintegrate expatriate managers.
15
Chapter
Introduction
Organizations now function in a global economy.
International expansion can provide a competitive
advantage:
Entering different countries may provide large numbers of
potential customers.
Building production facilities in countries with low-cost labor
may prove cost-efficient.
Maquiladora plants
The rapid increase in telecommunications and information
technology enables work to be done more rapidly, efficiently,
and effectively around the globe.
Current Global Changes
European Economic Community
North American Free Trade
Agreement
The Growth of Asia
Japan, China, Singapore, Hong Kong,
and Malaysia are significant economic
forces.
General Agreement on Tariffs and
Trade (GATT)
Factors Affecting HRM in
International Markets
Human Resource
Management
Culture
Political-Legal
System
Education -
Human Capital
Economic
System
Hofstedes Cultural Dimensions
Individualism/collectivism - the degree to which people
act as individuals rather than as members of a group.
Power distance - how a culture deals with hierarchical
power relationships.
Uncertainty avoidance - how cultures deal with the fact
that the future is not perfectly predictable.
Masculinity-femininity describes the division of roles
between the sexes within a society.
Long-term/short-term orientation - the tendency of a
culture to focus on long-term benefit or short-term
outcomes.
Implications of Culture for HRM
Cultures differ on such things as
leadership, decision-making, and
motivation.
Cultures influence the appropriateness of
HRM practices.
Cultures may influence compensation
systems.
Cultural differences can affect the
communication and coordination
processes in organizations.
Education/Human Capital
Countries differ in their levels of human capital.
A country's human capital is determined by a
number of variables, primarily, educational
opportunity.
Countries with low human capital attract facilities
that require low skills and low-wage levels.
Countries with high human capital are attractive
sites for direct foreign investment that creates high-
skill jobs.
Political/Legal System
Dictates the requirements of certain HRM practices, such as
training, compensation, hiring, firing, and layoffs.
The legal system is an outgrowth of the culture, reflecting
societal norms.
United States has led the world in eliminating discrimination
in the workplace and controlling the process of labor
management negotiations.
Germany has provided employees with a legal right to
"codetermination" in the workplace.
The EEC provides for the fundamental social rights of
workers: freedom of movement and freedom to choose one's
occupation and be fairly compensated.
Economic System
Under socialist economies, there is
little economic incentive to develop
human capital, but ample opportunity
exists because education is free.
In capitalist systems, the opposite
situation exists, with higher tuition at
state universities but economic
incentives exist through individual
salaries
Types of International Employees
A parent country is the country in which the
company's corporate headquarters is located.
A host country is the country in which the parent
country organization seeks to locate (or has already
located) a facility.
A third country is a country other than the host
country or parent country.
An expatriate is an employee sent by a company in
one country to manage operations in a different
country.
Types of International Employees
Parent-country nationals (PCNs) are employees who
were born and live in a parent country.
Host-country nationals (HCNs) are those employees
who were born and raised in the host country, as
opposed to the parent country.
Third-country nationals (TCNs) are employees born
in a country other than the parent country or host
country but who work in the host country.
Levels of Global Participation
Increasing Participation in Global Markets
Parent
Country




Host
Country
Domestic International Multinational Global
Foreign
subsidiary
Corporate
headquarters
Corporate
headquarters
Corporate
headquarters
Corporate
headquarters
Foreign
subsidiary
Foreign
subsidiary
Foreign
subsidiary
Foreign
subsidiary
Global Organizations
Global organizations compete on state-of-the-art, top-
quality products and services with the lowest possible costs.
Transnational scope refers to the fact that HR decisions must
be made from a global rather than a national or regional
perspective.
Transnational representation reflects the multinational
composition of a company's managers.
Transnational process refers to the extent to which the
company's planning and decision-making processes include
representatives and ideas from a variety of cultures.
Selection of Expatriate Managers
Successful expatriates have the following skills or abilities:
Technical competence
Ability to adjust to, and be sensitive to, a new culture. Three
dimensions include:
the self dimension
the relationship dimension
the perception dimension
Use of women in expatriate assignments has proven
beneficial for companies; recent evidence disproves the
notion that women are not successful managers in foreign
countries.
Compensation of Expatriates
Total pay packages have four
components:
Base SalaryAnnual salary, unadjusted.
Tax Equalization allowancesPayments
for higher tax rates of other countries.
BenefitsContinuation of, or substitute
for, home benefits.
AllowancesCost-of-living, housing,
education, and relocation payments.
Reacculturation of Expatriates
Reentry to the home organization may result in culture
shock.
According to some sources, 60 to 70 percent of expatriates do
not know what their position will be upon their return.
Transition process necessitates communication of corporate
changes while the expatriate is overseas and validation of
the importance of the expatriate's international work.