Assigment Human Resources

“As the 21st century begins to unfold, the focus on Human Resources (HR) within an organisation has never been more critical. HR Management is becoming a critical success factor for organisations’ effectiveness”. Since the early 1990s, "globalization" “suggests to a new period in the global integration of economic, financial, political, ecological and cultural phenomena that “connect individuals, governments and firms across national borders (Dierks, R. G. 2001)”. The phenomenon of globalization is very massive and important for all of the country and firms in the world. A consequence of the globalization is the development and the amplification of the Multinational Companies (MNCs). They are becoming bigger and also more difficult to understand. “Before, the events taking place in the world were not linked together. Since then, they are all dependent on each other” (Brunel, S. 2007).

The international management of the MNCs is something attractive and curious, we have to discuss about how the companies can manage this. In this essay, we will try to understand the details and characteristics of these firms, based on the International human resource management (IHRM).

The word “International Human Resource Management is not being used here to refer to a particular style of approach. The term is being used in the most general senses to refer to the policy, procedures and processes involved in the management of people in work organizations (Sisson, K. 1990)”. We also can say that the “IHRM is a branch of management studies that investigate the design and effects of organizational human resource practices in cross-cultural contexts (De Cieri, H, 2007)”.

The number of firms is important around the world. They have a head quarter and also different subsidiaries in the different part of the world. The firms are confronted to the diversity of the situation and the culture across the world, which are in perpetual evolution, but also of the diversity of the employees, who come from different states. “The major objective for this MNC is to maximise their abilities to respond to the needs of the host countries (local responsiveness), but they also try to keep the control of their subsidiaries (global integration) (Caligiuri, P 1995)”.

In this Essay we will try to have better understanding of the human resource notion of Personnel Selection. “Selecting, recruiting the most qualified persons to fill the job vacancies seems to be a universal goal for both human resource and line managers around the world (Dunnette & Borman, 1979; Florkowski & Schuler, 1994; Mendenhall, 1987)”. We will described selection as the “process of gathering information for the purposes of evaluating and deciding who should be employed in a particular job (Dowling 1994)”. We can say that the methodology of personnel selection has never been uniform around the world. The question for several searchers in HRM is, do we create a universal personnel selection? But this question has never been resolved. For the searchers, the HRM is one the most important fact and in particularly the personal selection. This category of HRM has a crucial role in the firms. The scholars “recognized the importance of Human strategic management in an international context concerning the development of a firm”. (Lengnick-Hall & Lengnick-Hall, 1988)  

 Selection and recruitment are two similar processes. The recruitment is “searching for and obtaining potential work candidates in sufficient number and quality” (Dowling 1994). The company would be able to select the best people to satisfy the work needs.

The Personnel selection is something very important for the firms, in fact they select the futures employees of their company, they need to be very careful and to find the most appropriate person for the job needs. How the IHRM can respond to this challenge? What are the differences in terms of selection between the Western (United-States) and the Eastern (China) IHRM practices?

In a first part, we are going to talk about the different theories about the International Human Resource Management concerning the personnel selection in general. Secondly, we will discuss about the difference of IHRM in terms of personnel selection practices between United States and China.

I – Theories about International Human Resource Management

We will begin by saying that, “Multinational enterprises (MNEs) recognize that human resources play an important role in developing and sustaining a competitive advantage in today's highly competitive global business environment (Briscoe and Schuler. 2004; Taylor et ai. 1996)”. In a first time, we will talk about the different theory concerning the IHRM. We can say that there are different steps, the principal one are “Job analysis, Job description, Personal Specification, Recruitment, selection, appointment and induction (G. Rees & P.E Smith, 2014)”. As we said at the beginning of the assignment, the big firms in the world have a head quarter, which is in the country where the company is come from and they have also several subsidiaries in different places of the world. The communication between the HQ and their subsidiaries can be hard diverse and complicated. We will examine the different theory concerning this relation. (Headquarter / Subsidiaries) which is the “Life Cycle Models”.

In order to select the most appropriate person for a job, it is important to do a job analysis before, this step is very important because it provide the good information in order to select the future worker. Job analysis is “the process of collecting, analysing and setting out information about the contents of jobs in order to provide the basis for job description and data for recruitment, training, job evaluation and performance management (Armstrong, 1989, p.190)”. The practices used to examine the work and functions vary in terms of their sophistication, price, convenience and acceptability. “All these need to be born in mind when choosing a method”(Taylor, 2010). The Job analysis is always something important to do before to beginning of the personnel selection. It will always help the HRM employees to find the most appropriate candidate.

First, we can say that personnel selection is a very important process in a firm. Each firm have a different process of selection, it is depend of where this firm is comes from. As we said the communication among the HQ and their branches can be problematic. We can say that there are four different visions.

“Ethnocentric” view is considered as: “The parent-company practices prevail, and therefore have the control over decisions; expatriates sent by the headquarter hold important work to ensure the implement of parent-company corporate culture, practices and knowledge’s”. (Zbornik, R.2013) As we said, the operations can be extended from country of origin to other countries. Power, research and development remain in home country. Host country labor employed for usual activity, but expatriates from home country responsible for organization, their managers believe that home-country nationals are more intelligent, reliable and trustworthy than foreign nationals. The expatriate can have problems to adapt himself with the local culture.

The second vision is “Polycentric”, described by the fact that “Subsidiaries are run by local managers, happens when managers from the head quarter do not have enough local knowledge, HRM practices are thereby more locals (Zbornik, R 2013)”. “The head quarter does not have full control over decisions made by the subsidiaries (Caligiuri, P 1995)”. There is a preference for the decentralization and the autonomy because the oversea market is too difficult to apprehend. The local’s managers and employees can promote the policy inside the firm.

“Regiocentric” vision is the third view, described as locals and third-national country employees control the subsidiary, at a local measure, “which bring more career development for local employees (Caligiuri, P 1995)”. In this situation, the head quarter give all of the responsibility at the subsidiary. A regiocentric company trusts that only local insiders can successfully coordinate occupations within the region. For example, “staffing and movement of key managerial positions at a regional level (Heenan and Perlmutter,1979)”. For “Mayrhofer and Brewster” which are not very close to the regiocentric vision, “most organizations still organize international HRM along ethnocentric lines and that, for a number of reasons, they are right to do”. (Mayrhofer and Brewster.1996)

The “Geocentric” vision is considered as “best people are recruited, regardless of their nationalities, all the subsidiaries are integrated in a global corporate culture but subsidiaries are free to do local adaptation and adjustments, it wants and requires high level of integration and communication (Zbornik, R .2013)”. The huge goal is to create an integrated system with a worldwide approach. We also can say that subsidiaries are more important and becoming really independent. For several searchers, “geocentric organisations represent the most complex form of organisational structure, thus requiring high levels of communication and integration across borders, the aim of the structure is to de-emphasise national culture and to emphasise an integrating corporate culture (Edström and Galbraith, 1997; Caligiuri and Stroth, 1995)”.

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