Ghrm Notes

GHRM Notes

Strategic HRM: how it is critical for organizational success.

HR Strategy: firm’s pattern of strategic choice in labour management

HR Planning: how organizations assess the future supply and demand for HR

Recruitment: get good quality job candidates, to fill organizational needs for talent

Selection: Hiring qualified candidates for a job, matching organizational and individual needs

Compensation: attract and retain qualified personnel; motivate; reinforce organizational culture and maintain service’s competitiveness

Global HRM: [pic 1]

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Domestic and multinational firms differ in terms of multiculturalism and geographical dispersion. MNC are more complex, have more HR activities and a broader perspective and more involvement in employees’ personal lives

As foreign subsidiaries become more mature and more trained HCNs become more available, local staff selection, training and management development become more important

MNCs are more subject to risk exposure: expatriate failure and underperformance is more costly

Economy (weak economy, crises, exchange rates), and social preferences influence global workforce management

Competition is the primary driver of globalization – increase market share and profitability, by increasing customers and lowering costs

Internal company factors influencing global workforce management:

Company culture; company climate strategy and structure

GLOBAL LEADER characteristics:

Global mind-set: intellectual capital (international business knowledge); psychological capital (openness and adaptability); social capital (connections)

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Global leaders are team players: interpersonal and conceptual skills (knowledge, learning and adapting, managing relationships, managing ambiguity)

Critical Global team process

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Expatriate assignments: early stages of business expansion – “high potentials” or “problem fixers”; contribute to talent pool

Extensive Travel: early stages of business development; may evolve into permanent jobs: issues of work life balance

Virtual expatriate assignments: short travel trips with virtual interaction: adjust to dual careers, less interaction for fast problem solving and for building trust

Importance of understanding of national culture: influence in people’s behaviour in critical ways

Culture: “learned, shared, compelling, interrelated set of symbols whose meaning provides a set of orientations for members of a society. These orientations, taken together, provide solutions to problems that all societies must solve if they are to remain viable” – learned, shared, compelling, interrelated set, provides orientation

Country clusters: share basic cultural values; easy-moving from one country to another in the same cluster; joint ventures may be easier; management practices are more likely to generalize; expanding within a familiar cluster has less unexpected occurrences; basis for deciding on regional groupings of subsidiaries; decisions regarding marketing standardization and adaptation

Management practices have to be adapted to the local environments

Role of HRM in MNC strategy: knowledge transfer (tacit or implicit knowledge – know-how and learning skills); global leadership training and development (managers have to effectively communicate with people who have different cultural values and norms; global mind-set); strategic control needs (formal and non-formal control mechanisms)

HQ control over HQ subsidiaries: Inputs control (selection procedures, approval, training); process control (influence operations, feedback, centralization of decisions); output control (evaluation with result objectives)

Types of MNC competitive strategies: international (first phase – exploitation and transfer of technology, learning and innovation, central competencies to local specificities – not very good at achieving global efficiency); multidomestic (local responsiveness emphasized; global efficiency through differentiating products; local-for-local innovation; regional and country managers with autonomy to adapt strategies; weak interpersonal communication; good at achieving flexibility); global (centralized control; concentration of production and R&D; vulnerable to economy; limited learning; global cultural norms; achieves efficiency but limited flexibility); transnational (worldwide standards; pursue global efficiency, MN flexibility and learning)

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Structuring for global performance:

Strong dependence of subsidiaries on HQ exists when: the internationalization process is starting (HQ takes the controlling role); they are greenfields in opposition to acquisitions; there is a high degree of similarity between HQ and subsidiaries’ environment; there is a large number of expatriates; the subsidiary is a source of critical resource within the company.

Strong independence exists when: large gap between parent and host country; subsidiaries are bigger and older; they are dependent on local resources.

Global HRM strategy: Interdependence or integrative or geocentric strategy: interdependent HQ and subsidiaries work together to develop an integrated HRM strategy across the organization; use of best practices from parent company or subsidiaries.

Methods of practice design: proactive (IHRM practices and policies start with corporate HR deciding what policies are needed and formally disseminating to the organization); iterative (focuses on learning. Incremental, process-driven approach to improving IHRM practices and policies on an ongoing basis); reactive (corporate HR addresses issues only as they arise, no deliberate overall global IHRM policy); value-driven (less production of written IHRM policies, more development of strong organizational culture and related HRM principles, to encourage appropriate behaviour in employees)

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