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5OS04 People Management in an International Context

Table of Contents

1 Understand people practice from an international perspective. 3

1.1 Examine the contextual factors of an international organization. 3

1.2 Assess the drivers and benefits of employment in an international context 4

1.3 Explain convergent or divergent approaches to inform people management policy and practice choices. 6

2 Understand the challenges of people practice in an international context 7

2.1 Evaluate the factors to be considered when selecting and resourcing for international assignments. 7

References. 8

1 Understand people practice from an international perspective

1.1 Examine the contextual factors of an international organization

An international organization is the one which has operations in more than one country, specifically because they are operating or carrying out business activity in other countries besides their home country or the one in which are carrying out productions (Fulmer, Lee and Tan, 2015). These type of organizations have different contextual factors from the one who run internationally in their home country because they have to look after factors and challenges from every state or place there operating in. the organizational structure of an international organization is often split up according to the divisions other countries it operates in unlike a national business which only has its operations in one country (Wang, Dou and Jia, 2016).

The organizational structure of an international business varies such that it may have one division in one country and a different division in other another country (Wang, Dou and Jia, 2016). or if not it’s a pond divisions often the organizational structure of international organizations are very vast and extensive due to the hiring of large number of employees who operate in all its outlets or countries (Adedokun, Uthman, Adekanmbi and Wiysonge, 2017). International organizations are often large in size because they are multinational companies operating in more than one country therefore they have to arrange resources to carry out business activity in different countries which mixture size bigger as compared to a national company (Adedokun, Uthman, Adekanmbi and Wiysonge, 2017).

However it’s upon the interest of the owner whether they want to make the international organization a centralized or decentralized one (Adedokun, Uthman, Adekanmbi and Wiysonge, 2017). Such that a centralized organization has its operation or business activity in one country that is its home country and the products are delivered or exported to other countries it wishes to operate in, whereas a decentralized organization is their business activity is carried out separately in every country depending on the level of demand and differences in the market (Fulmer, Lee and Tan, 2015). Furthermore an international organization has different factors to take into consideration as it runs in more than one country such as the international laws of respective countries; it has to make sure that it abides by all the laws and labor law requirements of the particular country, the owner also have to look in international differences, the technical ability that the business will be able to find in other countries, the political economic and social conditions of different countries (Muchiri and McMurray, 2015).

The language barriers and infrastructure facilities in other countries differ. All these factors how to be taken into consideration before setting up internationally because the owner might have an idea about the national conditions and availability but he should be able to identify the differences in other markets to ensure smooth operations and business activity internationally (Muchiri and McMurray, 2015).

1.2 Assess the drivers and benefits of employment in an international context

This part emphasizes on the drivers and benefits of employment in turn international context such that, some owners find it feasible and comfortable to hire employees abroad and train them according to the requirements of the business activity (Muchiri and McMurray, 2015). While some prefer national employees even in international divisions and outlets because they have a mindset that national employees will be able to understand the business in a better way. However this is a never ending debate because international employees can benefit to an organization in numerous ways along with having its own costs. Firstly we should look into the drivers which cause an employer to hire employee in an international context (Adedokun, Uthman, Adekanmbi and Wiysonge, 2017).

 Similarly it’s off much important to the employees as well who are working in an international form such that they experience a different process of learning to working in an international organization (Fulmer, Lee and Tan, 2015). When they interact with employees from different areas and different practices adopted by the firm which not only includes national considerations but international as well they get to have more exposure towards learning and knowledge in extensive areas which eventually increases step learning and knowledge gaining (Fulmer, Lee and Tan, 2015). Secondly it creates a sense of global awareness among the employees biggest they get to have an interaction with the social cultural political show graphical and economic factors of different countries which can help them identify more opportunities and awareness of different areas where the firm operates in (Adedokun, Uthman, Adekanmbi and Wiysonge, 2017). 

It will further help the firm to unleash ideas of betterment and improvements because of the global awareness employees are attaining (Ardern, 2015).  Working in an international firm helps the employees to develop reflective practice learning from other employees in the firm which will eventually help them in improving their services to the business, here’s one through increasing their knowledge and expertise in different areas which serves internationally (Ardern, 2015).  Every employee in an international firm is practicing reflection of their experience and past knowledge which can help the coworkers to increase their knowledge through observing and seeing them to a different extent (Fairhurst et al., 2016). 

It also helps the employees to have an improved communication within the organization within and organization helps them in gaining competitive advantage as they are have you exposure to different levels of knowledge and expertise, it also motivates the employees to value their culture and create cultural awareness within the firm (Vera, Nemanich, Vélez-Castrillón and Werner, 2016). All these factors eventually result in organizational growth and success in an international dimension where the firm can have multitasking employees who have exposure to global awareness and who can work in different environment (Villacreses, Gaona, Martínez-Gómez and Jijón, 2017).

1.3 Explain convergent or divergent approaches to inform people management policy and practice choices

This part emphasize is on delivering off knowledge to employees in different ways where the employees of an organization are told about the management policy or practice choices which are to be carried out within the operations to ensure a smooth adoption of culture, laws and employee uniformity (Fairhurst et al., 2016).  Two types of approaches are often considered by employers or senior managers to inform employees about the policies of the business; these are convergent and divergent approaches and they have different type of adoptions and specifications for delivering knowledge to employees (Ardern, 2015).

The convergence approach which is also regarded as the universalist theory is based on the belief that a firm may have certain best practices which can help it in yielding fruitful results, those prospectuses should be applied to the organization whether it’s an international organization in different aspects and operations in other countries as well (Fairhurst et al., 2016). This account for a uniform policy to be adopted by every country outlet after business and it can decrease the burden of senior managers of people management as they don’t have to constitute different policies for every division or international outlet of the firm (Vera, Nemanich, Vélez-Castrillón and Werner, 2016). However this theory lacks the fact that every outlet or country in which the firm is operating has different laws labor conditions culture and environment and therefore it needs specialized policy which differentiates and fits according to the requirements of that particular state or country (Fairhurst et al., 2016).

The divergent approach is completely different from the conversions approach where it requires the senior managers of people management to constitute different policies according to different countries (Villacreses, Gaona, Martínez-Gómez and Jijón, 2017). The firm is operating to fulfill the specialized requirement according to the culture economic and political conditions and labor law requirements after particular state (Pande and Bharathi, 2020). This will help the managers in avoiding problems in the future because they know they have adopted the right policy for the right place rather than implementing a single policy to every state in the form of rates in which can cause problems in operation that can be faced by the employees and the firm as well (Pande and Bharathi, 2020).

A simple example can be taken to understand this clearly, if a firm is based in the UK where the employees are more enthusiastic about their jobs. They’re willing to take fewer breaks throughout their work time end managers feel that it increases the employee engagement and faster result achieving of the firm (Pande and Bharathi, 2020). This should be noted that the employees of the UK are different from the employees of the US and therefore same strategy or policy cannot be adopted towards the US division because it can demotivate employees for working long hours with very short breaks and it can affect their productivity to a level that they won’t be able to yield the results they were expected to (Vera, Nemanich, Vélez-Castrillón and Werner, 2016).

5OS04 People Management in an International Context

2 Understand the challenges of people practice in an international context

2.1 Evaluate the factors to be considered when selecting and resourcing for international assignments

Setting business activity internationally is no easy task because the senior managers and owner has to take in to account every factor that can affect the activity in coming years or can result in major problems for the firm (Villacreses, Gaona, Martínez-Gómez and Jijón, 2017). Therefore, a number of factors need to be considered before setting operations internally; when it comes to selecting resources there are multiple resources required to carry out proper business activity and other sources such as the cost, the availability, the current supplier relations, the exchange rates of home and international country, the grants and subsidies available by the international government, the ease of the labor market and the rate at which labor are hired (Villacreses, Gaona, Martínez-Gómez and Jijón, 2017).

2.2 Explain why people practices can vary across international boundaries

This part emphasize is on the fact that people practices differ invent a form operates nationally and rent a form operates internationally (Carlson, 2015). Well, that’s quite understandable when a firm is operating within its home boundaries it’s pretty much aware of the rules and regulations, employment legislations of the particular country, the type of employee nature that they are interacting with and hiring and the education expertise they have available in their country and according to which they make workforce planning and hire employees (Carlson, 2015). Furthermore, managing employee resources in terms of employee relations the diversity carried out in the farm and how to manage them with respect to training employees and hiring the right expertise and the ethical practices adopted in the firm are quite clear throughout the divisions within country boundaries (Carlson, 2015).

But when it comes to managing employee and people practices in an international firm which also operates in different countries the rule is pretty much different. It can be better understood with the help of an example, imagine you are working in a firm which is a multinational but based in your country (Greenhow and Lewin, 2015). Then you joined the firm they ask you to abide by all the rules and regulations employ legislations and requirements of the job according to their own specific country so start if it’s a Chinese based firm they ask you to speak Chinese with the current employees, adopt Chinese culture within the firm, eat the way they do, adopt there type of employee preferences and the pay is also according to China’s employee legislation (Cousins and Robey, 2015).

Some people will argue that a proportion of employees may agree to abide by the relevant culture and employee legislations because they’re willing to work at the farm but is not drawing every person’s case. Because an employee will not spend a year almost to learn Chinese and then work at a Chinese firm he would rather I work at a firm which does not require him to speak Chinese or abide by Chinese culture? (Cousins and Robey, 2015) Therefore international firms should make sure that they are adopting the relevant culture, employee legislations and rules, any organization environment according to the particular state they are operating in as this will help in boosting employee morale and confidence towards their job and they will be able to understand work in a better way (Greenhow and Lewin, 2015).

2.3 Evaluate the cultural and institutional differences to be considered when managing international people practice.

This part emphasize is on the cultural and institutional differences that a firm should consider when it’s managing international people practices.  It’s linked with the previous word but more focused on the cultural and institutional difference across boundaries which are also very important to be considered by the firms (Tatoglu, Glaister and Demirbag, 2016).  Cultural differences can be accounted as the differences and environment, language, upbringing, preferences, likes and dislikes, believes national values and behavior patterns, and concepts of people living in a particular country (Bortolotti, Boscari and Danese, 2015).  And we can consider two states the UK and the US to understand the differences in culture of the people working in the UK and the US.  The UK employees have a pretty professional work culture clear they are more motivated and engaged towards their jobs such that they don’t require long breaks one more time off the work and they are considered to be more aligned with the goals and objectives of an organization (George et al., 2016).

As for the language they have a different accent of English language as compared to the US population (Mair and Reischauer, 2017). The national values and culture differ in the UK such that the employees create their colleagues and already empowering and motivating way when they enter for work in the morning (Mair and Reischauer, 2017). Things are quite different in the US if we talk about upper mentioned factors, also the laws after state matters such that if a worker is fired unfairly the legislations and implications are different on the employer in the UK and the US, the employers of the UK considered different rewarding systems for their employees so start they believe in rewarding employees weekly or monthly whereas in the US the employees are rewarded on the yearly basis (George et al., 2016).

The institutional differences refer to the educational qualifications and knowledge of employees working in a particular state which also differs from country to country depending on their academic requirements and development of the state (Bortolotti, Boscari and Danese, 2015). Further the institutional differences regard to the role of a state and providing educational expertise which fit the requirements of the firms, how the financial sectors of the country operates, How the law of the country works and therefore it differs the skills time frame of a person in gaining a particular qualification and the cultural requirements of the state (Tatoglu, Glaister and Demirbag, 2016).

3 Understand the importance of people practice in an international context

3.1 Evaluate the function of people practice in an international organizational context

The above sections we have discussed how people practices and cultural differences differ in different countries and the reason is behind them but this section will emphasize on how people practices and its functions are implemented in an international organization considering all the differentiating factors and the requirements of different states (Albrecht et al., 2015). In general the function of people practices are human resource management involves formulating strategies according to the differences in different countries, designing roll expectations off employer an employee based on the differentiating factors such that the administration, supportive factors, guiding and training of employees, the leadership practices adopted in different states according to their legislations and requirements, developing policies of employees working at the firm in different states and how the firm decides to support international working practices I still responsibility of catering to being an international organization (Bakker and Albrecht, 2018).

When the firm operates internationally it set its agenda on an international level where the goals and strategies are divided in a way that they require a particular job to be done by every outlet in every country (Guerci, Longoni and Luzzini, 2015). Therefore, they need to carry out people management in different countries in a way that they are able to extract enough outcomes which supports the goal achieving of the firm at the end. Keeping this in mind human resource managers constitute policies regarding a particular state which can result in maximum potential and outcome from the employees of that state. International organizations therefore higher member states from every country they are operating in may be in the form of senior managers of the HR as they know more about a particular state and helps them in constituting strategies accordingly (Guerci, Longoni and Luzzini, 2015).

The senior managers align with the existing HR senior managers of the head branch to make sure their strategies and policies are in line with the objectives of the business (Bakker and Albrecht, 2018). Furthermore the HR managers take some particular decisions according to the differences in states such that, the norms creation, the recruitment process, socialization of employees, rule-making of that sector how the rules are implemented, rule adjudication, how information is carried out and delivered and the operations decision (Albrecht et al., 2015).

5OS04 People Management in an International Context

3.2 Consider the practices and policies that are shaped by the international context

This part discuss the practices and policies that are shaped by the international context keeping in mind the differences in culture, expertise, and contemporary educational qualification of the employees along with the rules and regulations and laws and implications of the particular state (Madge, Raghuram and Noxolo, 2014).  Since an international organization has to cater to different requirements of policies in the state they have to drop the requirements and role expectations of the employees according to the current policy of particular state (Bauder, 2016).  If the firm is only operating in the home country it would apply a particular set of policies an organizational culture to it but since international forms have to take into consideration the differences of different states they are mostly divergent towards the differences and design their policies accordingly (Bauder, 2016).

The international firms affect not the economy of their own state but of the states they are operating in as well therefore they need to make sure that the policies design add in a way that they benefit both the form and the state otherwise it will get very hard for them to carry out smooth operations (Cugurullo, 2015).  They design their policies taking into consideration the culture.  For example if the employees office state how to quiet weekly pay the firm should design their policies in a way to provide them the rewards or salaries on a weekly basis because if they choose to follow their former policies here it can demotivate the level of employee outcome (Takayama, Sriprakash and Connell, 2017).

 The organization is also trying to manage its international relationship with employees. Therefore this is also valid reason to alter their policies according to international requirements (Cugurullo, 2015).  They are doctor foreign policy and design major of their policies according to those regulations to make sure they don’t attract any negative attention, to look into the political military and economic tools of the foreign policies and try to adjust them in their strategies (Bauder, 2016).

4 Understand the process and benefits of managing expatriates

4.1 Evaluate the reasons that companies use expatriates for international working.

International firms that operate in different countries sometimes opt for hiring expatriate. Expatriate are people who are living in a country but they do not belong to a country. Well in the international firm case they may hire an expatriate employee in a case where they are operating in a different country and they hire employee who belongs from the home country of the firm (Selmer and Lauring, 2012). This is of numerous benefits to the firm and operations for hiring an expatriate because an employee who is aware of the firm’s home country operations and how business activity is carried out will be pretty much aware of his job and responsibilities towards the operation.

This can lessen the workload or responsibility of the manager who is responsible for managing employees in an international outlet or business. Furthermore an expatriate employee can also improve working conditions and help his colleagues in carrying out their jobs because he knows what is exactly expected of them (Selmer and Lauring, 2012). Forms also find special skills and expatriates because they have usually worked in their home country and now working in another country therefore their level of knowledge and expertise is higher than a native worker. An international firm is also going through the same situation where it’s trying to fit into the new regulations and environment an expatriate employee can help a great deal in managing the operations (Selmer and Lauring, 2012).

Furthermore the managers can also hire expatriates for short term projects where they can get high skilled workers to carry out a particular project which they feel is not going to be answered correctly by the current workforce (Punnett, 1997).  It also helps the firm to improve its return on investment by using expatriates because they are more likely to earn a good sum for the firm then a local employee.

On the other hand if you compare the hiring of local employees as compared to expect create the firm might have to go through several what is once abilities and implications to make them reach the level of expect rates or the outcomes the firm expects (Punnett, 1997). Because the firm can face kill differences in employees because of the change in environment and business activity processes.

4.2 Explain the process for selecting, preparing and managing expatriates for overseas relocation for work.

The firm chooses some of its employees do we send do another country for a particular assignment or whether they are carrying out job posting (Kang, Shen and Benson, 2016). They hire employees and the process of hiring expatriates is the same as hiring a normal employee but to assess their reliability and performance in a way to make sure that they are capable off expectation the managers might go through different assessment criteria is to see whether they are taking the right decision.

They can assist the performance and skills of an employee and make a suitable decision on whether to carry out expatriation for that particular employee to certain measures such as carrying out performance management and appraisal to see if the employee is performing his job up to the requirements (Bednarova, Chovancová, Pacana and Ulewicz, 2021).  Assessing the job skills of the employee, seeing whether the employee has a sense of cultural suitability and adjust ability, the person knowledge and skills of the employee and whether he will be able to implement them in a difficult situation, if the employee himself is willing to do that and if it’s in the best interest of the career planning of employee.  The firm prepares stuff for sending them overseas to carrying out a particular training process which ensures they are up to the required level to carry out their job (Bednarova, Chovancová, Pacana and Ulewicz, 2021).

4.2 Explain how people practice can support re-entry and resettlement of overseas workers

The people manager can make sure to know the requirements of the business only then it can facilitate the re-entry and resettlement of overseas workers. This can be done through drafting the policies and regulations within the firm which allows them to hire or re-enter overseas workers to carry out jobs but it should be made sure that the higher employees of required skills and performs sufficiently (Kang, Shen and Benson, 2016).  Furthermore the past record of the employer should also be assessed that whether the expatriation was successful and there wasn’t any complaints regarding the performance and responsibilities of the employee which can encourage the managers to re-enter resettle that employee (Punnett, 1997).

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5OS04 People Management in an International Context