Critical Evaluation Of The Three Approaches To IHR - Essay Example

Critical evaluation of the three approaches to IHR With globalization working as a ‘catalyst’ for the opening up the various countries’ markets all over the world, organizations in all sectors have optimal opportunities to tap in those markets. When Globalisation is viewed from business organizations perspective, it means the broadening of world business market, with the countries opening up their local markets and allowing the foreign firms to enter and participate along with the indigenous firms. Thus, “globalization is a process of interaction and integration among the companies as well as the people of different nations, a process which is mainly process driven by international trade and investment for the benefit of the investor as well as the host country” (Herbig 2008, p.6). Thus, in a way the globalisation from the last decade of the 20th century has optimized the opportunities for the companies, particularly the Multinational Companies (MNCs) to enter foreign countries, give employment to the local population as well as sell their products or services at competitive prices. In addition, firms cannot keep on operating in a saturated home market to achieve success. They have to break geographical boundaries as well as their economical limits to tap those opportunities in the foreign markets or countries, by following the process of internationalisation. Thus, internationalisation is a happening concept which is being used by many firms to expand their reach globally. “As the global economy expands, as more products and services compete on a global basis and as more and more firms operate outside their countries of origin, the impact on various business functions becomes more pronounced” (Briscoe and Schuler 2004, p. 20). After the organizations enter a new global market, they will send their own employees from their home operations as well as recruit the local qualified employees. In some cases, they will also bring in third type employees from other countries. Thus, as various types employees will have to congregate and coordinate to accomplish the organization tasks, the role of International Human Resources Management (IHRM) comes into the picture for the management of these employees. “IHRM is about understanding, researching, applying and revising all human resource activities in their internal and external contexts as they impact the process of managing human resources in enterprises throughout the global environment” (Briscoe and Schuler 2004, p. 20). When this management of human resources or employees in the international context is focused, it can be categorized into three approaches: cross-cultural management; comparative human resource management; and multinational perspective in human resource management. The first approach of cross-cultural management focuses on understanding the cultural differences and similarities that may exist between the entering firm or the home country and the local employees or the host country. Each country will have distinct and unique cultural traditions, and so the employees will also imbue it in them and exhibit during the organizational processes. Thus, these cross-cultures of the firms as well as employees have to be managed under the auspices of IHRM approach of cross-cultural management. As Cieri, Fenwick and Hutchings (2005, p.588) states, cross-cultural management focuses on “identifying the likely impact of cross-culturally similar and different human behaviour on the functional elements of HRM, including recruitment and selection, training and development, performance management and reward management.” Even before the foreign firms enter new countries, the employees in those firms will not be all similar, as they could come from different background. Those employees could have been made into a unit through the formation of common organizational culture and other strategies. When these firms with their employees enter new countries, it will be more challenging for them. Most of the countries around the world will have different cultures within them, with one part of the country following different cultural traditions from other. (Robertson and Smith 2001). However, the fact is, employees from all over the country, irrespective of their location could approach the entering foreign firms for recruitment. Thus, the entering firms will not only face the challenge of managing an alien culture in a foreign country, but also has to face further challenge of managing the subsections of those cultures or subcultures. (Schmidt, Ones and Hunter 1992). Thus, manager in line with cross-cultural management have to optimally manage these differences. “A key factor in the increasing internationalisation of employment is that there are cultural differences between nations – differences in national values and attitudes. An awareness of cultural differences is therefore an essential part of an international HR manager’s brief.” (Brewster et al. 2011). Due to these differences, organizations, its Human Resources Department (HRD) has to view the traditional HRM functions in an entirely new perspective or international perspective. This point was validated by Brewster et al. (2011), who stated that the normal HRM functions including recruitment and selection, training, performance appraisal, rewarding, etc. may all be affected “by cultural values and practices in the respective host countries, and as a result, great care must be taken when deciding whether to adopt standardised HRM practices throughout the world” or customized practices on the lines of cross-cultural management. The second approach of comparative human resource management is based on the premise that the entering firms can compare the existing HRM systems in various countries particularly the country, they are entering, with their own HRM process, and thereby come up with a customized HRM system. “The second approach is argued to have developed from the comparative industrial relations and HRM literature and sought to describe, compare and analyse HRM systems across various countries” (Bowen et al., 2002). That is, organizations entering new territories will already have set in-house HRM system, however those systems could have been evolved based on the employees in its home operations. When these systems are implemented in their foreign operations, without taking into account the local factors and mindset of local employees, it has high chances of failing. In that scenario, it would be feasible for the entering firms to study the HRM systems prevalent in those countries. That is, instead of studying the whole cultural traditions, customs, etc of the entering countries, it would be feasible for the firms to study just the HRM systems in relation to the local factors. When they do that, they will get newer perspectives about the local employees, and how those employees are effectively managed by the local firms. After identifying certain patterns, the firms in line with the comparative approach of IHRM can compare those HRM systems with their own HRM systems. (Robertson and Smith 2001). During those comparisons, the similarities as well as differences between both the HRM systems can be gleaned. Keeping the similarities as it is, the firms can focus on the differences and try to reach common ground on those differences, so the local employees can be managed in an optimal way. This point was pointed out by Cieri et al. (2005, p.595) who stated, “although there are obvious differences in perspective between the groups, there is some common ground: responses from both groups indicate that they recognize the need to develop the strategically advanced practice of steering via IHRM”. The other viewpoint regarding this comparative HRM is that, firms instead of bridging the differences between the HRM systems can take the stance of ‘duality’ and give importance to the different local HRM processes, along with the common practices. “We are all aware of the need for more dialogue and knowledge exchange, perhaps, instead of considering a pedagogy–practice ‘gap’, we need to see this as a duality, comprising opposing forces that must be balanced because they are complementary” (Cieri et al, 2005, p. 596). A third approach of the IHRM focuses on the multinational nature of the firms who are entering foreign territories. That is, multinational firms are ones, who operate in number of foreign countries or territories, without focusing on just one territory. As they operate in various territories, they will face different cultures and importantly different set of employees, with more differences than similarities. (Selmer 2001). In each of their operations, the employees will exhibit particular cultural leanings and the related work behaviour, and those specific aspects have to be taken into account, while setting up the IHRM system there. This is applicable to all firms irrespective of their size. Relevance of IHRM is same for the small internationalizing firms, as they also face significant international management issues (Harzing 2002). Considering these aspects, this multinational approach of IHRM focuses on giving more autonomy to the local HR managers, who can be from the home operations or from the local population. They can come up with a customized HRM system, based on the local factors, even while bringing in optimum HRM features from the home operations. This point was validated by Cieri et al. (2005, p. 587), who states that the third approach incorporates the increasingly strategic focus of organizations and includes ‘outsourcing’ many of the functional HRM functions to free IHRM managers so they can come with an optimal HR system based on “diversity management, creation of global teams and development of global consciousness”. (Brewster et al. 2011). Thus, it is clear that this approach of IHRM provides more focus to the local factors, and more autonomy to the local managers to come up with an optimal HR system. References Bowen, DE., Galang, C. and Pillai, R., 2002. The Role of Human Resource Management: An Exploratory Study of Cross-Country Variance, Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, vol. 40, no. 1, pp. 123–45. Brewster, C., Sparrow, P., Vernon, G and Houldsworth, E., 2011. International Human Resource Management, CIPD, London. Briscoe, D. R. and Schuler, R. S., 2004. International human resource management, Routledge, London. Cieri, HD., Fenwick, M and Hutchings, K., 2005. The Challenge of International Human Resource Management: Balancing the Duality of Strategy and Practice, International Journal of Human Resource Management, vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 584-598 Harzing, AW., 2002. Are Our Referencing Errors Undermining Our Scholarship and Credibility? The Case of Expatriate Failure Rates, Journal of Organizational Behavior, vol. 23, no. 1, pp.127–48. Herbig, KL., 2008. Allegiance in a Time of Globalization, Defense Personnel Security Research Center. Technical Report, vol. 8, no.10, pp. 1-51 Robertson, IT and Smith, M., 2001. Personnel Selection, Journal of Occupational and Organisational Psychology, vol. 74, no. 4, pp. 441-72 Selmer, J., 2001. The Preference for Predeparture or Postarrival Cross-Cultural Training: An Exploratory Approach, Journal of Managerial Psychology, vol. 16, no. 1, pp.50-5 Schmidt, FL., Ones, DS and Hunter, JE., 1992. Personnel Selection, Annual Review of Psychology, vol. 43, pp. 627-670 Tung, R. and Worm, V., 2001. Network Capitalism: The Role of Human Resources in Penetrating the China Market, International Journal of Human Resource Management, vol. 12, no. 4, pp. 517–34 2. Understanding Culture in International HR Culture is a term used to refer to the common behaviours exhibited by a group of people. Thus, when group of people or a people residing in a particular geographical territory exhibit certain common behaviours, due to certain historical, social and other personal reasons, as part of their daily lifestyle, then it constitutes culture. With group of people exhibiting different behaviours, each culture will be distinct and different from one and another, although there may be some common trends. These cultural differences can make impacts on the working as well as the management styles of individuals as well as the organizations entering new territories or cultures. That is, when firms enter new territories they have to focus on the cultures of the local population, not only to aptly sell their products or services, but also to manage its workforce, which is recruited from the local population. People from particular cultural backgrounds normally share “methods of coding, storing and retrieving information,” besides sharing information. (Nikolova-Houston 2004). Recruiting and managing the employees according to local cultural traditions forms a key necessity for organizations entering newer territories. Because of such a crucial role for the cultures, organizations including its HRD have to come up with an optimized IHRM. The other key aspect of these cultures is that they are evolving thing for every country. For example, certain cultural elements like music, fashion, etc, which are visible today could be a thing of past in the very near future. At the same time, there are some cultural elements religions, ancient customs, etc., which will continue to be prevalent for more years to come, and so relevant to those people. (Bain 1997). Thus, organizations with its HRD have to incorporate this necessity to study the various cultures, as part of their IHRM, and that includes all the HR practices. That is, all the HRM based practices like recruitment, training, appraisal, reward system, etc., has to be carried out by the organizations basing on the local culture. During the recruitment and training process only, the local factors have to be given more emphasis because that will be the entering firms first contact with the local population. That is, after the organization enters the market, they have recruit apt number of qualified and equipped employees from the local population and also train them to staff them for their operations there. Schein (2004, p.261) said, “... best way to build an organization was to hire very smart, articulate, tough, independent people and then give them lots of responsibility and autonomy”. Although, the firms may ‘carry’ with them employees from its home operations, it cannot staff its entire workforce with its home or foreign employees, and only has to depend on local employees for various factors including logistical and cost factors. This is where the HRD comes into the picture, and they have to recruit employees taking into consideration the local culture, and in line with optimal IHRM practices. Normally, firms for their home operations, will maximally recruit their country’s ‘sons’ and the ‘daughters’, that is, their citizens, while MNCs on the other hand have to recruit a mix of employees from many countries noting the local considerations. (Townley 1993). That is, in a normal MNC, the workforce will consist of employees from three country categories. The employees from the parent country where the firm is usually headquartered or based (or came from) are called Parent Country nationals (PCNs). (Scullion & Collings 2006). The employees from the host country where a subsidiary or MNC may be located are called host country nationals (HCNs). (Scullion & Collings 2006). Finally, there will be third or other countries which may be the source of labor, finance, research and development, and the employees from these countries are called third country nationals (TCNs) (Scullion & Collings 2006). The MNCs will normally recruit all these three types of employees for logical and management reasons, and also as part of compulsion. That is, as mentioned above, they will bring PCN employees as a natural process, but have to recruit HCNs due to logical reasons and compulsions. Compulsion in the sense, the employees will be recruited not only because they can give low cost labour, but also has a way of paying back to the local population. “As they will ‘earn’ productivity and benefits for a relatively lower cost, it is normal or necessary for the MNC to give back a share of the benefits to these local people.” (Edwards et al. 2004). For the organizations recruiting the local employees forms the first step of ‘establishing’ their operations in the foreign territory. That is, only when the organizations recruits local employees, its potential customers in that territory will have a favourable opinion about it, and will go for its products or services. Recruiting employees based on local culture, apart from fulfilling the unwritten rule of giving maximum employment to the local population, could also provide more benefits to the MNCs. They can provide the firms skilled at the same time low cost labour, which can aid the firms’ financial management in the short as well as long run. The other key advantage in recruiting local employees taking into consideration the local culture, is because “ host country nationals often know the culture, politics, laws, and business customs better than an outsider would” (Pandey 2008, p.198). Using this knowledge about local culture, these employees can provide optimum inputs for the organization’s functioning including inputs about the prospective customers’ behaviour, the marketing strategies that can entice them, distribution network, etc, etc. This was validated by Pandey (2008), who stated that there is a belief that only host country employees/managers would understand the values, culture, and behaviour of the host-country market as well would economize the cost. Due to these advantages, entering firms will go for local employees, but care should be taken during the recruitment process that apt HCNs, without any cultural discrimination are recruited. That is, prospective employees should be recruited without any discrimination on the basis of cultural aspects like religion, race, ethnicity, etc. In host countries, as mentioned above, one part of the country and its people will be different from another. The entering firms and its managers, particularly HR managers should have fully studied the cultures and the related behaviours, so they can ask questions to the prospective employees accordingly and test them during the recruitment process. “Common values and standards allow people at the front lines to make consistent decisions, even under pressure.” (Rosabeth 2008, p.44). So, the IHRM policies of MNCs should be optimized, so the HCNs are recruited and trained aptly after studying the local cultural and giving importance to them, so that all discrimination charges are nullified and importantly qualified and apt employees are recruited. After recruiting and training is done, and the organization starts its function, the key HR processes which also need to be carried out taking into consideration the local culture is appraisal and rewarding. “An increase in international assignments has become an important way to develop future global leaders who can navigate their firms effectively through the complex waters of international competition.” (Gregersen, Hite and Black 1996). Due to such importance, performance appraisal and thereby assessment of employees in local operations have to be carried with perfection by following local centric IHRM practices. This can keep in an optimal state, making them contribute maximally to the organization, and in the process growing personally as well. The forms or other tools used to appraise the employees has to be formulated taking into consideration the local culture, and how the employees’ attitude and expectations are in relation to that culture, their view of the organization, their future targets, etc. (Morgan 2007). This way, the employees working in the local operations will be able to give an accurate picture about their work experiences and future expectations from local perspective. Apart from the local employees, the incoming foreign employees or PCNs as well as TCNs also have to be appraised based on IHRM principles. As the PCNs and TCNs will face new culture and new set of employees, their appraisal forms should also include details in line with the local culture, particularly how the local culture is impacting their physical as well as the mental body. “The employer has a duty to maintain a healthy and safe workplace. The health and safety function is directly related to the elements of the HRM cycle- selection, appraisal, rewards and training” (Bratton, and Gold 2007). After all these details are collected, the rewarding also has to be carried out without any cultural discrimination. The rewards will be in the form of financial incentives, promotions, non-financial praises and various other perks. All these rewards has to be formulated taking into consideration local factors. For example, the financial rewards have to be in line with the value of the local currency, and how those rewards could impact the employees’ lifestyle. Thus, it is clear that organizations, has to incorporate cultural elements while entering new territories and managing the local employees through IHRM. References Bain, P., 1997. Human Resource Malpractice: the deregulation of health and safety at work in the USA & Britain, Industrial Relations Journal, vol. 28, no. 3, pp.171-196. Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2007. Human Resource Management: Theory and Practice, 2nd ed., Macmillan press, London. Edwards, T., Almond, P., Clark, I., Colling, T. and Ferner, A., 2005. Reverse diffusion in US multinationals: barriers from the American business system, Journal of Management Studies, vol. 42, no. 6, pp. 1261-86 Gregersen, HB, Hite, JM and Black, JS., 1996. Expatriate Performance Appraisal in U.S. Multinational Firms, Journal of International Business Studies, Vol. 27 Morgan, G., 2007. National business systems research: Progress and prospects, Scandinavian Journal of Management, 23, pp. 127-145. Nikolova-Houston, T., 2004. Honoring Cultural Differences: Change Management in Bulgarian Special Collections, Global Media Journal, vol. 3, no. 4. Pandey, K., 2008. IHRM: A Gateway for Nepalese Human Resource for Global Competitive Market, Bodhi: An Interdisciplinary Journal, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 196-204. Rosabeth, KM., 2008. Transforming Giants, Harvard Business Review, vol. 86, no. 44. Schein, EH., 2004. Organizational Culture and Leadership, 3rd Ed., Jossey-Bass, San Francisco. Townley, B., 1993. Foucault, power/knowledge, and its relevance for human resource management, Academy of Management Review, vol. 18 no. 3, 518- 45. 3. International HR and Emerging Countries Internationalization of operations has become an important aspect in today’s competitive business environment. FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) has become more important than international trade for the expansion of world economy. Most of the developed countries have reached stagnation in terms of GDP growth and have high labor costs. Organizations are now looking for expanding into unexplored locations where there are cost advantages and bigger demand. Setting up production bases or on site offices in such locations rather than just trading there helps organizations achieve competitive advantages in terms of sales and costs. Emerging countries are important destinations for these organizations as they demonstrate rapid economic growth. These countries, as per World Bank definition, have high growth expectations for the next 5-10 years horizon (Nahar, Kakola and Huda 2002). These countries have implemented privatization and direct foreign investment policies and have a competitive and skilled work force. All these factors, besides ever increasing purchasing power of its population, prompt the MNCs to globalize their operations. This globalization implies amalgamation of the regional cultural differences within the organization’s culture. International human resource management plays an important role in “providing an organized framework for developing and managing people” (Kim 1999). Cultural differences can lead to breakup of cross border negotiations as well as operations. An organization’s culture, its leadership style, and motivational patterns are linked to HR function and in an international environment it becomes mandatory for the HR managers to ensure that new culture of subsidiary location is embedded within the organization through proper training. Geert Hofstede has identified 4 dimensions of national culture which can have a making or breaking effect on internationalization of operations of companies (Kim 1999). As per him, cultural characteristics can be reflected in four dimensions of work – power distance, collectivism vs. individualism, feminism vs. masculinity and uncertainty avoidance. All these factors affect the success or failure of a foreign enterprise in a country. For example, if we look at one of the most promising emerging economies, China, we can see that their work culture is very characteristic of eastern management style. Extrapolating on Hofstede’s dimensions, the Chinese society is characteristic of large power distance. For them, subordinates are expected to follow orders and boss is the final authority on all aspects. Their society further falls under the weak uncertainty avoidance dimension. They do not like to commit in writing and believe in verbal commitments. They do not easily trust people and believe in getting work done through personal contact rather than through written communication like e-mail. Thus, if a European organization, say French, wishes to setup base in China, its HR would need to understand this cultural difference. French society is very individualistic as opposed to the Chinese who are collectivist. Thus, French are not very good team players and hence there might be problems in working with Chinese team members. The role of International Human Resources (IHR) is to train its employees to overcome this gap. The parent company employees need to be trained about what the Chinese expect from them and vice versa. Another important aspect of IHR is the building up of negotiation function within the organizational leadership. Gestures and other unspoken cues hold the key to negotiations. Certain gestures which are considered normal in one culture may be considered as offensive in other. It is important for the IHR to incorporate such cultural nuances in their trainings. Adler and Ghadar have suggested a model for IHR based on Vernon’s life cycle theory (Harzing and Ruysseveldt 2004). As per them, IHR does not have much role during the first phase of the product life cycle as during this phase, the focus is on domestic growth through R&D and local market capture. When this phase has been satiated, the organization looks for external markets. Here the aim is to capture these markets and hence, need to adapt to local circumstances. They need to hire local talent to for understanding local requirements. This is followed by localization of production for cost advantage. This requires complete integration of two cultures and hence a high IHR role. Career counseling and job and location rotation are important functions of the IHR. Many emerging countries have been influenced by countries which had colonized them. These cultures have had a great impact on them (Harzing and Ruysseveldt 2004). Many MNCs tend to impose western HRM practices on companies here. They fail to understand the hybridized culture of these countries. For example in India there has been a tendency of crossvergence because of the cultural interactions the country had with the colonial powers (Harzing and Ruysseveldt 2004). This results in creation of hybrid cultures which is adaptive of both western as well as local cultures. If parent organizations tend to force western HR practices on the local organizations of these emerging countries, it could lead to disastrous consequences for the parent organization. Western HR systems are driven by immense competition and are looking for leaner organizations. On the other hand organizations in emerging economies are coming out of a protectionist regime and are considered as sources of growth for the society as a whole. Western HR concepts of downsizing and competition would hence result in contradictions within the organizations which would lead to its downfall. Thus, IHR should come up with hybrid organizations which encourage both the human values and competitive spirit in it. Training is not the only solution to come up with such HR practices. A participative human resource policy would go a long way in adapting a hybrid path. This participation can be achieved by empowering the local managers. International HR also involves managing the various power relations. For example in South Africa, which is an emerging economy, there is a huge difference in the power relations of the various cultural groups because of the influence of apartheid. (Arocas and Camps 2008). It is important to understand these cultural power equations and to neutralize the impact by designing various policies around creating a work level equality. IHR can play a crucial role in breaking these stereotypes and formulating strategies with employee participation. Emerging countries have their own set of cultural beliefs and stereotypes and Western style management strategies cannot be used as it is there. Expatriates play an important role in internationalization of operations. MNCs have been found to use expatriate route for three reasons – creating international managers, decentralization of operations and for dispersal of knowledge within the subsidiary (Collings, Scullion and Morley 2007). Helping expatriates in adjusting to the new environment is an important function of the IHR. The HR department needs to understand the local housing, health, safety and other issues and smooth out any problems that the expat would have in settling down in the new country. They also need to design performance appraisal systems keeping in view their location of assignment (Collings, Scullion and Morley 2007). For example, working style in China or India would be entirely different from that in US. These considerations need to be incorporated in their performance appraisal systems. Selection criteria for these international assignments should also take into account the soft skills of the assignee. A technical expert may not be successful in the emerging countries if he/she does not possess the required skills to understand the cultural differences and adapt to them. (Hambrick 2007). IHR should design selection process which gives adequate weight to such skills. MNCs moving to emerging markets face many issues. Some of them are shortage of skilled manpower in the host country, increasing global terrorism, changing nature of careers which influences their willingness to take up international assignments and shortage of employees in the parent company who have the requisite skills to take up expat assignments (Scullion, Collings and Gunnigle 2007). These are some of the issues that international HR needs to circumvent. On the whole the IHR issues can be subdivided into two broad categories – inter-unit linkages and internal operations (Schuler, Budhwar and Florkowski 2002). IHR has to ensure that the linkage with the parent company, in terms of knowledge and policy transfer, is kept intact while the local operations are not hampered by excessive interference from the head quarters. Studies have shown that MNCs use various IHR models to strike a balance between the two entities. A good model would be to let the local office deal with regional compensation and benefits, local talent retention and training, labor relations and legal issues. The parent organization should have broad policies around which to work, but working within these policies and dealing with local cultural dimensions should be left to the local authorities. At the same time the local units should also keep assessing their environment and help incorporate learning into the global policies (Schuler 2001and Bartlett and Ghoshal 2000). Thus, IHR has a very dynamic role to play in achieving successful multinational operations. References Arocas, R and Camps, J., 2008. A model of high performance work practices and turnover intentions, Personnel Review, vol. 37, no.1, pp.26-46. Bartlett, CA and Ghoshal, S., 2000. Going global: lessons for late movers, Harvard Business Review, pp 132-142 Collings, DG., Scullion, H and Morley, MJ., 2007. Changing patterns of Global staffing in Multinational Enterprise: Challenges to the conventional expatriate assignment and emerging alternatives, Journal of World Business vol. 42, pp 198-213 Hambrick, D., 2007. Upper echelons theory: An update. Academy of Management Review, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 334-343. Harzing, A and Ruysseveldt, JV., 2004. International Human Resource Management, SAGE Publications Kim, PS., 1999. Globalization of Human Resource Management: A cross-cultural perspective for Public Sector, Public Personnel Management, vol. 28, no.2, pp 227-243. Nahar, N, Kakola, T and Huda, N., 2002. Software production in developing and emerging countries through international outsourcing, 7th International Working Conference of IFIP, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, India, pp 292-310 Schuler, RS., 2001. Human Resource issues and activities in international joint ventures, International Journal of Human Resource Management, vol.12, no.1, pp 1-52. Schuler, RS., Budhwar, PS and Florkowski, GW., 2002. International human resource management: review and critique, International Journal of Management Reviews, vol.4, no.1, pp 41-70 Scullion, H., Collings, DG and Gunnigle, P., 2007. International human resource management in the 21st century: emerging themes and contemporary debates, Human Resource Management Journal, vol. 17, no.4, pp.309-319 4. Personal reflection on your learning from undertaking the module In this globalized world, all the geographical boundaries and other boundaries relating to economic, social, cultural aspects are blurring. This blurring has facilitated and is facilitating organizations in all sectors to expand their reach to every nook and corner of the world. Due to these developments, the role of human resource management in international context has assumed a lot more importance. This being the case, from personal perspective, this module has been a good learning experience, along with being an interesting and enriching experience for me. With globalization pushing countries all over the world to open up their markets, many companies are crossing their home country’s boundaries, and entering these countries in hordes. Although, certain countries are still restricting the entry of foreign firms in certain market segments, to safeguard the indigenous firms, many countries are opening up to the foreign firms in all or many market segments. Because of these developments, many foreign firms are entering newer countries, which have not been explored previously. When they do that, they have to study the country’s market in-depth from various perspectives including political, social, economic, etc, etc. Also, importantly they have to study about the market segment, the existing players or competitors, opportunities, threats, etc. Along with this study, they have to focus on the recruitment of employees. As discussed earlier in the above topics, an entering foreign firm could recruit three types of employees, PCN, HCN and TCN. These employees have to be recruited, trained and managed only using the HRM in international context in the form of IHRM. As these types of employees could come from different backgrounds and could exhibit different cultures, customs, etc., they have to be managed using IHRM concepts. This being the case, as I could also be recruited as one of these types of employees, or could be in a managerial position to recruit one of these types of employees, this discussion and thereby the whole module has been very helpful. In addition, as this module focused on different approaches to IHRM, it gave me the chance to read and understand about each approach, and how each approach will be relevant and applicable in different scenarios. That is, having understood the various approaches and its applications, I have good idea regarding when to apply what. The topics about culture and IHRM were also a good learning experience because with multiculturalism becoming a common trend, this module was very helpful. In addition, with employees in all markets exhibiting culture specific work behaviours, it has become quite crucial for the companies and its managers to orient their organizational processes accordingly. With common organizational culture acting as a binding agent, all the employees can be made to focus on the organizational targets, without losing their cultural identity. So, these understanding of the concepts through the module could benefit me in various ways. This module allowed me to research and analyse the concepts of IHRM from various perspectives, and that helped me and even equipped me to manage those concepts in real work environments. Read More