ISSUES IN INTERNATIONAL (HRM)

Bartlett and Goshal (1991) argue that the main issue for multinational companies is the need to manage the challenges of global efficiency and multinational flexibility – ‘the ability of an organization to manage the risks and exploit the opportunities that arise from the diversity and volatility of the global environment’. The dilemma facing all multinational corporations is that of achieving a balance between international consistency and local autonomy. Laurent (1986) commented that:

In order to build, maintain and develop the corporate identity, multinational organizations need to strive for consistency in their ways of managing people on a worldwide basis. Yet, and in order to be effective locally, they also need to adapt those ways to the specific cultural requirements of different societies. While the global nature of business may call for increased consistency, the variety of cultural environments may be calling for differentiation.

International HRM involves a number of issues not present when the activities of the firm are confined to one country. These issues comprise the variety of international organizational models that exist, the extent to which HRM policy and practice should vary in different countries (convergence or divergence), the problems of managing in different cultures and environments, and the approaches used to select, deploy, develop and reward expatriates who could be nationals of the parent company or ‘third-country nationals’ (TCNs) – nationals of countries other than the parent company who work abroad in subsidiaries of that company.