THINK GLOBALLY AND ACT LOCALLY

The cultural differences mentioned above have produced the slogan ‘think globally and act locally’. This means that an international balancing act is required, which leads to the fundamental assumption made by Bartlett and Ghoshal (1991) that: ‘Balancing the needs of co-ordination, control and autonomy and maintaining the appropriate balance are critical to the success of the multinational company.’


Ulrich (1998) suggests that to achieve this balancing act, there are six capabilities that enable firms to integrate and concentrate international activities and also separate and adopt local activities:


1. being able to determine core activities and non-core activities;

2. achieving consistency while allowing flexibility;

3. building global brand equity while honouring local customs;

4. obtaining leverage (bigger is better) while achieving focus (smaller is better);

5. sharing learning and creating new knowledge;

6. engendering a global perspective while ensuring local accountability.


INTERNATIONAL HR POLICIES

International HR policies will deal with the extent to which there should be convergence or divergence in the HR practices adopted in overseas subsidiaries or units. These will have to take account of differences in employment law, the character of the labour market, different employee relations processes and any cultural differences in the ways in which people are treated.