International Human Resource Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

International Human Resource Management - Essay Example In order to delve further, it is important to establish IHRM and its functions in today’s multi-national companies (MNCs). â€Å"...the International Organisation will be called on to operate across a wide variety of competitive environments and yet somehow balance these diverse social, political and economic contexts with the requirements of the original home context.† (Dowling et al, 2008, pg25) IHRM is a relatively recent addition to the field of human resources, developed mainly because of the rapid pace at which businesses are getting internationalized as a result of globalization (Scullion, 2001). Even though IHRM’s operations are based on the same four parameters of domestic HRM mentioned above, it is much more complex as it deals with sensitive cross-cultural issues and calls for proper education of the local behaviour in terms of culture, values, business practices, and employment laws of the host country of a subsidiary of an MNC (Torbiorn, 1997). Hence IHRM can be defined as, â€Å"the HRM issues and problems arising from the internationalization of business, and the HRM strategies, policies and practices which firms pursue in response to the internationalization of business† (Scullion, 1995 cited in Scullion and Linehan, 2005, pg4). The four parameters of HRM are then extended into three main issues for IHRM, namely, the management and development of expatriates; the internationalisation of management throughout the organisation; and, creating a new corporate culture that would reflect on internationalising the whole organisation, by focusing on increasing the international experience of staff, to be able to effectively counter the frequency of cross-cultural interactions as a result of investing abroad (Hendry, 1994). As a result, IHRM covers a much wider spectrum of worldwide management of people (Dowling et al, 1999, 2008), and is concerned with how MNC’s manage their ‘geographically dispersed’ workforce by being able to dispose their resources to obtain and maintain ‘local’ and ‘global’ competitive advantage (Schuler et al, 2002, single quotes mine).