The Development of International Managers - Assignment Example

The Development of International  Managers.  1.0 Introduction Human Resource Management (HRM) is of strategic importance to all organisations. HRM do not only create competitive advantage for the organisation but is the force underpinning organisation’s success1. No wonder, the way HRM practices and policies take shape also affects the employee’s experiences of work and the employment relationship2. Within the mainstream HRM literature, there is a long tradition of research arguing that in order to make an optimal contribution to firm performance, HRM policies and practices should be integrated both with firm strategy, so-called vertical strategic integration and with each other, so-called horizontal integration3. Paul Ilsles best fit model attached in the appendix lay emphasis on this. In present day organisation, because any discussion about how an organisation’s succeeds or fails ultimately comes back to the way individuals are managed, Academics and Practitioners agree that as the dynamics of competition accelerates, people are perhaps the only truly source of competitive advantage4. According to, Turner, Keegan & Hueman (2006:317), for an organisation to be effective and successful, the human resource management functions must be integrated into the various organisational strategy. According to this model, the HRM functions its goals and aims, need to be aligned with the strategy of the organization. Here emphasis is both on the on projects and routine products and services and where the job requirements are well defined and stable. This paper has been initiated to support to examine an ideal training package for an international manager. Using the work of prominent researchers in the field issues taken into consideration when developing training packages for an international manager will be presented. 1.1 Issues in International Human Resource Management The field of human resource (HR) management is one of the many interesting area of research that has witnessed a paradigm shift within the last few decades5. Within this area of research, an increasing body of literature contains the argument that, high performance work practices, including comprehensive employee’s recruitment, selection procedures, incentives compensation and performance management systems, and extensive employee’s involvement and training can improve the knowledge, skills and abilities of firms6. Today, with the increasing researchers desires to demonstrate the importance of an effective human resource policy on organisation performance research has shifted from a micro level that previously dominated research interest to a more general, strategic macro level7. The term human resource management is not new. It has been widely used by scholars and managers to refer to the set of policies designed to maximize organizational integration, employee commitment, flexibility and quality of work8. Jackson & Shuler (2002) referred to it as an umbrella term that encompasses (a).specific human resources practices such as recruitment, selection and appraisal and (b). formal human resource policies which directs and partially constrain the development of specific practices and in all, it comprise a system that attracts develops, motivates and retains those employees who ensure the effective functioning and survival of the organisation and its members9. Cobb Gnyawali & Offstein (2006:315) argued that while effective human resource management and policies have, indeed, been linked to strategic outcomes, human resource management theory has yet to link human assets and HR practices directly to the building blocks of strategy and competitive behavior. Accordingly, their model of strategic human resources links both micro and macro literature streams. Training packages for international managers, though not very different from the normal employees training packages takes into consideration certain international and country specific factors. For example, the cultural aspect is quite important, to avoid cultural clash, it is recommended that prior to assignment and individual should pay initial visits to the area and familiarize with the situation. 1.2 Training Packages for International Managers Commitment within a relationship can be interpreted as the desire to continue and maintain a valued relationship. Therefore, the issue of headhunting of key personnel by competitors could be overcome through trust established within the team. Through definition of career track, greater opportunities for higher roles, job satisfaction, trust and commitment will be enhanced. Gilbreath (2008) further recommends that, through career development initiatives (e.g., providing career relevant training, implementing monitoring programs, assisting with succession planning), positive effects could be created on employees. The researcher further cautions that, a supportive work environment is primary for this to take effect. Conducive in this genre means contributive and work settings in which employees and their careers can thrive. Thus, while paying attention to individual specific needs and requirements training packages for international managers are designed into consideration of country’s specific culture, languages and individual requirements. 1.3 Cultural Awareness There are considerable differences in cultures across countries. Culture is defined as “a system of shared assumptions that has developed over time to solve problems of environmental adaptation and internal integration”. (Schneider,, 1998: p. 152) citing Schein (1985); Van Maanen and Barley (1983). Culture is expected to affect the process by which the environment is known and responded to because it is thought to influence the way people perceive, think, feel and evaluate. (Schneider,, 1998). There are two sets of cultural assumptions that are thought to be specifically relevant to the formulation of corporate strategy. These include external adaptation and internal integration. (Schneider, 1998). On the one hand, external adaptation refers to the relationship with the environment while internal integration on the other hand refers to the relationships among people. The forgoing indicates that cultural factors have a significant effect on corporate strategy and thus calls for a critical consideration of cultural differences especially for multinational companies that usually operate in a number of different countries with varying degrees of culture. A company therefore stands to gain a lot from being ethical. Companies that are perceived as being unethical may suffer from declining sales and thus declining profit margins. There are also differences as far as ethical issues are concerned. What may be considered unethical in one country may be considered ethical in another country. For example, Muslim communities do not eat pork meat and thus will consider a company that attempts to market pork related products as contravening their cultural believes. In addition there are considerable differences in relation to organisational hierarchy across countries. In countries where power distance is considered very important, information is likely to flow only from top to bottom and not from bottom to top. In addition, an autocratic form of leadership is likely to prevail in such societies. On the contrary, in a country where power distance is considered less important, there would be a two way flow of information and a democratic leadership style is likely to prevail. For example, Motorola faced a number of problems when it expanded its activities to South Korea. (Siegal et al., 2007). In like manner IKEA, the giant furniture dealer faced difficulties when it expanded its activities into the United States. (Grol et al., 1998). Thus, the training package should take culture into consideration. From initial visit to the country the manager should be made aware of the country’s specific culture. The manager should be make aware of how the corporate culture clashes with the country’s specific culture. 1.4 Preliminary Visit Schneider (1998) citing Schein (1985) notes that National culture could play an important role in strategy formulation as it derives from assumptions regarding relationships with the environment as well as relationships among people. Schneider (1998) argues that these assumptions will influence how information is gathered and how that information is interpreted within the organization. The strategy formulation process can therefore not be considered ‘culture-free’ because information is embedded in social norms and acquires symbolic value as a function of a particular set of beliefs in a particular set of cultures. (Feldman and March, 1981). According to Sveiby (1997) a key to retaining personnel in knowledge based-organisation is ensuring that employees had the opportunities to work on interesting projects with interesting careers challenges clearly defined. Thus, a manager must be trained on how to handle cultural differences, through initial visits to the country, familiarization with the country’s culture, judging for his or herself the people. The managers should be trained to have “Multiple Identity”. Because identities are believed to provide individuals with purpose and behavioral guidance, researchers have argued that self-esteem and other aspects of psychological well-being are enhanced by having more identities (Sieber, 1974; Thoits, 1986) and by being more strongly committed to all of them (Marks, 1977). Thoits (1986), for example, found that multiple role identities reduced anxiety, depression, and distress, thus enhances group behaviour This argument is consistent with the focus of current "expansionist" and "role balance" perspectives (Barnett & Hyde, 2001; Marks, 1977; Marks & MacDermid, 2001), which suggest that energy is abundant and expandable and that having multiple roles is related to higher self esteem and enhanced well being 1.5 Language Skills and Adjustment For intercultural understanding, respecting different viewpoints, ways of living, belief systems and languages. Democratic purposes participating actively and responsibly in society as individual and members of groups. International managers must be trained with respect to country specific languages and culture (Gilbreath, 2008). “The resource base view of the firm infers that firms create competitive advantage by implementing unique combinations of resources and business practices that are difficult (or impossible) for competitors to imitate” from this viewpoint, Human resource practices are key components of overall firm strategy. In fact, the success of some well-known firms has been attributed attributed to their HR practices as a competitive advantage (e.g. Southwest Airlines and SAS)10. When faced with conflicting priorities and guided by the rational behind investment theory effective human resource policies need to be put in place to gain employees commitment, flexibility and for creating a “core resources” and competitive advantage to sustain performance11. To be critically useful to management, Ellis et al(2007) argue that an overall HRM framework should capture and integrate various functions and also clarify how various aspect of HRM add value to an organisation. Gilbreath supported this argument when the researcher calls for organisation facing communication and job satisfaction problems to institutes good fit between employees and their work environment. Under good fit theory, demand ability fit, suppliers value fit, self concept jobs fit and person group fit should be primary for workers integration and commitments. Katz & Kahn (1978) went further to contend and defined role behaviour as the recurring actions of an individual appropriately interrelated with the repetitive activities of others so as to yield a predictable outcome. Thus according to them, HR management is the primary means used by the organisation for sending role information. These systems requirements however, are presumed to depend on contextual factors such as business strategies and the nature of the industry. Marlow (2006:474) in her discussion argued that there seems to be an agreement that HR management has specific characteristics differentiating it from other analyses of the employment relationship with its underlying managerialist ideology articulated as shaping the employment relationship to either engender greater employee commitment, enhance productivity and so strengthen organisational competitiveness, or to treat labour as a resource. Marlow (2006) also referred to the hard side of HR management, which to her utilises coercion and surveillance to motivate commitment to productivity. References Gilbreath, B., (2008). Creating Career-Conducive Organizations. A primary intervention approach. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 2008-10 Kotter, John. P., (1995). ‘Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail’, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 73, Issue 2, p59 Sveiby KE. (1997). The new organizational wealth: managing and measuring knowledge-based assets. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler; 1997. Turner, R. Keegan, A & Hueman, M., (2006). Human Resource Management in a Project-Oriented Company. A Review. International Journal of Project Management 25 (2007) 315-323 Youndnt, A. M., & Snell, A. S., (1995). Human Resource Management and firm performance: Testing a contingency model of Executive controls. Journal of Management. Vol.21, No. 4, 711-737 Schneider S. C. (1989), “Strategy Formulation: The Impact of National Culture”, Organization Studies, vol. 10, pp. 149-168. Siegel, J. I., Licht, A. N., Schwartz S H. (2007). Egalitarianism, Cultural Distance, and FDI: A New Approach available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=957306 Feldman, M. S., and J. G. 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An agency theory perspective on the owner/manager relationship in tourism-based condominiums. Tourism management 26 (2005) 409-420 Huselid, A. M., (1995).The Impact of Human Resource Management Practices on Turnover, Productivity, and corporate Financial Performance. The Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 38, No. 3 pp. 635-672 . Grehart, B. & Becker B., (1996). The Impact of Human Resource Management on organizational performance: Progress and Prospects. The Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 39, No. 4 (Aug., 1996), pp. 779-801 Jackson E.S., & Shuler S. R., (2002). Strategic Human Resource Management. Katz, D. & Kahn, R. (1992) Measuring Innovation in OECD and Non-OECD Countries: Selected Seminar Papers - Page 249 Jackson E. S., Schuler S. R., & Sparrow, P., (1994). Convergence or divergence: human resource practices and policies for competitive advantage worldwide. 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