International Human Resource Management Challenges
International organizations are complex structurally and in management as far as Human resource management is concerned. They tend to be globalized, and to some extent, the different regional staffing varies depending on the culture of each region and even Human resource policies from the umbrella bodies such as the UN. On rare occasions, the quality of outcome is the same because of the environmental and cultural predispositions that instigate disparities in results. International organizations face a challenge that arises from a human resource due to cultural and other environmental factors such as economic, legal, and political.
Human resource plays a very crucial role in the development and success of any mission-driven organizations. For instance, in the case of an international organization where they bid there staff from a diverse perspective, the entry behavior and working environment, as well as culture, completely differs. As a result, a standard medium of mitigating the disparities should include a standardization program that surpasses culture and environment. On a global scale, the business starts to encounter challenges in human resource managers due to the changed environment posted by the economy, culture, and political factors (Brewster & Lee 2006).
The Independent International Arbitration Board for chocolate, in this case, has different staffing depending on the region in terms of professionals and general employees. The teams perform differently due to the differences in staffing or staffing structure across these representations of the board in various countries. The team that performs well has fewer staff compared to the other teams, but their performance is outstanding. Management of human resources, specially positioned in different cultural, socio-economic, and legal systems, presents the whole system with various challenges.
International organizations and their system of human resource management are adversely affected by the default and resultant factors that are inevitable for any organization that intends to or has already instituted globalization. The varied environment dispositions have different cultural, legal and technological, workforce systems and values as well as organizational culture. Human resource management receives a significant challenge in terms of performance outcomes, results, profitability, among others. Each team performs according to the specific environment that is situated in; nevertheless, the UN regulations and provisions on HRM play another role in shaping the course of action of the organization on human resources, thus affecting performance directly or indirectly.
Possible Causes of Differences in the Performance of HR Teams
Differences in culture
Cultural forces are very critical as they significantly affect human resources from an international perspective. To be precise, culture represents the societal forces that present themselves in religion, customs and beliefs, and actions that are distinct and unique to a particular group. Different continents and societies have unique cultures that do not correlate with other cultures. The presence of varied cultures translates into a conflicting realm in human resource management (Reiche Lee & Quintanilla, no date). Managing individuals who belong to different cultural backgrounds and groups may be difficult.
Aspects like power distance, individualism, femininity and masculinity, and long term orientation can fully be integrated to tell much about the culture. According to Reiche, Lee & Quintanilla (no date), all cultural backgrounds offer different subscriptions to its people and in turn, change the way human resource approaches various tasks. Resultantly, everyone might not perceive an ethical perspective due to cultural disposition. In the case of IIABC, the Middle East and Asia have more robust indexes in performance. An insight into their human resource management and business strategy reveals a lot about the culture, no wonder they perform better. Their culture lies much on timelines and friendship. They also believe in quick actions to deals and business opportunities. The Middle East commits to trust and honesty, compassion is not left out.
Political and legal systems
Different countries have different legal systems that have direct implications for the economy and laws that govern the entire country. Most countries have stable government systems except for a few, which have inadequate policies (Mayrhofer et al., 2019). Additionally, there are countries in which stability is rare, and constant wars and revolts encounter them. Other countries that are ruled by despots and dictators have limited access to economic. Some international companies find it challenging to cope with despotic regimes because they are compelled to relate with firms or transact with firms that are associated with the rulers. To counter this, the firms before globalizing need to conduct a comprehensive study to identify areas they will ignore and those to maximize and accolade.
Economic factors
Economic factors have greater influences on the current external business environment. International companies are affected by the economies in the particular countries they operate in. Different countries have their own economic strength and weaknesses whatsoever. The issue of economic uncertainty is a topic to ponder on in IHRM. The economy in a certain period in a given region may allow one to hire or not.
Similarly, it will affect the lives of the staff. As a result, there will be more differences in performance due to the economy. Some countries in Asia tend to incline communism with their economy. On the other hand, countries in Europe and America embrace capitalism, which renders a considerable chunk of devastation to international human resource management. In areas where there is a hostile economic environment, there must be an assessment and prompt resolutions and steps to be taken by a firm to cope with the current business environment (Farndale et al., 2017).
In a nutshell, international human resource management is affected by the environment and factors in it that globalization creates. Right from culture, political, and legal aspects, economy and staffing are some of the reasons why there are varied results in performance as well as profitability.
References
Brewster, C., & Lee, S. (2006). HRM in nonprofit international organizations: different, but also
alike. European human resource management, London, Routledge (131-148).
Farndale, E., Brewster, C., Ligthart, P., & Poutsma E. (2017). The effects of market economy
type and foreign MNE subsidiaries on the convergence and divergence of HRM. Journal of international business studies. (1), pp. 1065-1086
Mayrhofer, W., Gooderham. P. N., Brewster, C. (2019). Context and HRM: Theory evidence and
proposals. International studies of management & organization, 49:4, 355-371.
Reiche, S., Lee, Y., & Quintanilla, J. (no date). Cultural perspectives on comparative HRM.