HR4

SOUTH ASIAN JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT

International Human Resource Management: Policies and Practices

for Multinational Enterprises

By Dennis R Briscoe, Randall S Schuler and Lisbeth Claus

Global Human Resource Management Series, Routledge, New York, 2009, Pages: 418, Price: $59

ISBN: 0-203-86696-7

I nternational Human Resource Management refers to managing the human resource in global context. It includes all policies and procedures that aim to manage and coordinate the activities of the work force in multinationals over the globe including

parent and subsidiary companies. It gives insight of expanding scope of globalized policies, shared services and managing employees along the scope of the business over the boundaries.

OVERVIEW OF THE BOOK

O ver the past few years, globally integrated enterprises are emerging due to the integration of the world economies. Globalization is basically the interaction of the countries or the economies building an interrelation. Now a days, the transactions, investments, commerce, trade and even knowledge sharing is exchanged over the countries. This broadens the scope of different global activities and globalization of commerce. As a result, companies are shifting from local to national, international or even multinationals.

According to Briscoe et al. along with the businesses, the functions and the role of HR are also expanding and becoming complex. Here is the need to formulate and implement the strategies for Global human resource management as it is the most crucial resource of organization and most difficult to understand and manage. This book covers all the aspects related to International Human Resource Management (IHRM) and is one of the good sources of knowledge for academicians and practitioners.

This book includes real examples and cases of in tern atio n al businesses and organizations, interviews with global HRM and academic research covering almost

Volume 23 | ^ ̂ No. 2

BOOK REVIEWS

all currently relevant to the field. It addresses the issues related to structures, systems, strategies of the Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) operating in global economy.

This book has two parts: Part 1 throws light upon the changing nature of HR and global context and part 2 includes the policies and practices in that context.

GLOBAL CO NTEXT A N D IHRM

T he pace of globalization is enduring to upsurge, intensifying the pressure on organizations as the competition among the organizations is getting global. History shows that initially people around the world expanded their trade activities, later they started to share knowledge, technology and resources— physical as well as in tellectual. Due to this, the co n stru ctio n of the policies, i.e., com pensation, performance appraisal, talent management take on global face. Moreover, the GNP and GDP of countries are related and even affected by the socio-economic and political up and down of the countries.

Here HR manager’s mind set has to be geocentric. He must be able to formulate both centralized and decentralized strategies. Here IHR’s role is of integral partner in coping with this global competition. HRM functions as recruitment, selection, training, compensation and appraisals. So, when the HR is outsourced many complexities, i.e., cultural and contextual emerge which need to be addressed. This book also discusses those issues of convergence versus divergence in cultural variance around the world.

LABOR RELATIONS A N D INTERNATIONAL LAWS

Employment law and ethics and their contribution to the context, define the role of International Human Resource Management in the multinational enterprises. Global employment law, industrial relations and international ethics give a brief introduction to labor relations. The book describes the institution’s standards, laws and regulations that affect the employment activities of organizations and how they create a consensus on basic employment rights and other values which are being applicable almost all over the globe by the organizations.

The author has mentioned very clearly the gaps and the problems that an enterprise has to face while having an international network. Laws and ethics need to be set so that the international organization can work on them accordingly, fulfilling the human labor rights. It can only be possible if all the multinationals include the same process of in tern atio n al organizations’ creating, establishing and suggesting of rights and regulations.

Volume 23 ^ ̂ N o. 2

SOUTH ASIAN JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT

Basic employment standards as stated by various international organizations are as follows,

• Freedom of association

• Equal employment opportunity and non-discrimination

• Prohibitions against child labor and forced labor

• Basic principles concerning occupational safety and health

• Consultation with workers

• Grievance or dispute resolution procedures

• Use of monitors to audit employment practices.

Source: ADB and ILO (2006), and OECD (2008), as cited in Briscoe, Schuler and Claus (2009).

The author also mentioned the organizations which establish and oversee these laws and ethics. Number of international organizations such as United Nations (UN), the International Labor Organizations (ILO), International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), European Union (EU), Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), etc., have all prom oted labor standards th a t im pact employees and labor relations within multinational enterprises.

While discussing the global, legal and regulatory context of MNE’s and IHR, one of the most important areas of global context for International Human Resource is the area of employment law. All the laws and regulations mostly vary from country to country, region to region as per the country’s law and order, culture, social norms and beliefs. Resultantly, international Human Resource Management environment becomes extremely complex. Here strategic HR manager has to understand international employee relations from all these perspectives.

GLOBAL ISSUES IN MANAGING IHR

Encountering issues are related to recruiting, global work place, planning and selection in multinational enterprises. It primarily focuses on the mobility of employee and pavement from country to country. In today’s economy this is a global issue for MNEs: Expatriate failure and repatriation, spouses, family concerns, female expatriate, difference of values and expectations, etc. Today we live in diverse environment so talking a diverse perspective or diversity of international employees is important in international staffing which mostly comes under Parent Country National (PCNs), Host Country National (HCNs) and Third Country National (TCNs).

Volume 2 3 ] ^ No. 2

BOOK REVIEWS

ROLE OF IHR

The role of IHR is very much important in order to select the most desired people for the job for national and international assignments. Role of IHR manager is crucial in talent management and catering the training and development programs for MNE’s. Another factor is the cross-culture factor affecting the workplace and work of assignees including cognitive competency, behavioral competency and performance competency. Here IHR needs to counsel and design cross-cultural training programs that enable international assignees to successfully complete their task/assignments.

In the global ground, the employee performance management is even more complex. There are multiple reasons behind, e.g., cultural influences, dilemmas faced by the designers of performance management systems and the challenges confronted with respect to performance management of international assignees. Therefore, in this book, Schuler has pointed out this issue of performance management and performance ev alu atio n as well and described many difficulties to im plem ent an effective international performance management system on international grounds. According to him, employee appraisal and efficient performance of employees go hand in hand.

In this book, the author has emphasized on three very critical, hitherto once in a blue moon touched aspects of international human resource management structures; employee well-being, international human resource support services and the new structure of human resource at international level. There are four particular support services that international human resource management provides for the international enterprise; international human resource research, global human resource information systems, relocation services and special administrative services.

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS

Although this book gives the detail foundation of IHRM, global strategies, HR practices and intellectual resource management along with emerging trends of IHRM using practical and theoretical perspectives, yet many of the contextual dimensions are not covered within this book. Moreover institutional pressures are different in different countries which directly or indirectly affect IHRM. Case studies from many regions of developed and undeveloped countries contributing to this international competition are not included or discussed. So it is not right to say that it is generalizable over the globe rather it can be said th a t it represents a good or positive face of IHR in international context. Moreover it is fruitful to add more theoretical perspectives and frameworks and tested approaches for better understanding about the complexities of institutional and global pressures faced by IHRM. The environment or the context in which organizations perform is emergent, so continuous R&D is required to gauge the complexities of IHRM.

Volume 23 ^ y N o. 2

SOUTH ASIAN JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT

O n the whole, this book is a good value addition to the body of knowledge on the subject of IHRM. We would strongly recommend this book to management students, acad em ic read e rs, and re search e rs as th e c o n te n ts a b o u t IHRM are q u ite comprehensively covered.

R E F E R E N C E S

1. Asian Development Bank (ADB) & International Labor Organization (ILO) (2006). Core labor standards handbook. Manila, Philippines: Author. Retrieved from http:// www.adb.org/sites/default/files/ins titutionahdocument/33480/files/cls'handbook.pdf

2. Briscoe, D. R., Schuler, R. S. & Claus, L. (2009). International hum an resource management: Policies and practices for multinational enterprises (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.

3. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (2008). O E C D guidelines for multinational enterprises. Paris, France: Author. Retrieved from http:// www.oecd.org/corporate/mne/1922428.pdf

Fiza Ahmed MS Strategic H R M Scholar

School o f Business Administration and Economics University o f Management and Technology

C-II Johar Town, Lahore, Pakistan E-mail: [email protected]

and

Saba Akram MS Strategic H R M Scholar

School o f Business Administration and Economics University o f Management and Technology

C-II Johar Town, Lahore, Pakistan E-mail: sabakram22 @gmail.com

Volume 23 ^ ̂ g No. 2

Copyright of South Asian Journal of Management is the property of South Asian Journal of Management and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.