Introduction
This task was set to explore the importance of cultural differences and how they influence how people are valued within organisations operating on a global scale. While there is sufficient text on International Human Resources Management (IHRM), the matter of how organisations and HR are influenced by these cultural differences has not yet been sufficiently discussed. Therefore, the aim of this essay is to discuss how cultural differences have an impact on HRM on a global scale and how the processes of recruitment and selection and employee reward affect employees.
Through this discussion the following elements will be discussed: International Human Resource Management, how cultural differences influence organisations, how
Ideally, organisations will look for the ‘domestic internationalist.’ This is where a person displays qualities that converge from two or more cultures. For example the potential employee could have skills from their home country and also a host country. This would mean that certain aspects like language, and cultural differences would not matter as much when placed in a country of organisational operation.
Cultural values and beliefs will influence the methods that organisations use to recruit and select their employees. Getting these processes right when recruiting is paramount to the success of the employee as errors in the selection process can have a major negative effect on the success of the overseas operation (Briscoe and Schuler 2004).
HR must also consider which approach to adopt when resourcing globally. Perlmutter (1969) developed 4 different approaches to consider: * Ethnocentric – key roles are held by parent country employees * Polycentric – key roles are held by the host country employees * Geocentric – key roles are held by the best people sourced globally * Regiocentric – key roles are held by employees that are moved from one global position to another
According to Li et al. (2008) it is vital that international firms provide clear and detailed job descriptions as the better the job descriptions