International Human

Resource
Management
Iqra Izhar, Ayesha Mohammed, Ayesha Pervin & Ameer Nader
 IHRM is concerned about managing human resources
at Multinational Companies (MNC) and it involves
managing 03 types of employees namely,

Home country employees.

What is IHRM
Host country employees

Third country employees

What is culture

 Expressed most simply , culture

means “ the way we see and do
things “. Culture is the set of shared
meanings or the way people agree to
be respond to situations in their day
to day lives.
 It includes of different factors ,
namely customs, beliefs , traditions
and values
Transnational & Multinational Companies
Multi national Transnational

A multinational corporation is an TNC is a commercial enterprise that

organization that owns or controls operates substantial facilities, does
production of goods or services in one business in more than one country and
or more countries other than their does not consider any particular
home country. country its national home.

MNC has an international identity as A transnational company is borderless,

belonging to a particular home as it does not consider any particular
country where they are country as its base, home or
headquartered. headquarters.
Geert Hofstede
- Values Across
Cultures
Hofstede’s 5 culture dimensions

Geert Hofstede is a Dutch social psychologist

who focuses his work on the study of cultures
across nations. Hofstede developed the concepts
related to culture differences as below :
1. Power distance
2. Uncertainty avoidance
3. Femininity vs. masculinity
4. Individualism vs. collectivism
5. Short term or long-term orientation
Hofstede
study: Power
distance &
individualism
vs.
collectivism
 Conclusion

Factors USA Indonesia

Power Distance Low High
Uncertainty Low Low
avoidance
Femininity vs. Mix Masculinity
masculinity
Individualism vs. Individualism Collectivism
collectivism
Issues

 Environmental
 Political
 Religious
 Cultural shock
 Stress
HIGH CONTEXT AND LOW CONTEXT
CULTURE
HIGH CONTEXT CULTURE

High-content communication is complete,

straightforward, and direct. The entire
message is contained in the words, in the
content of the communication. A good,
high-content communicator is precise and
accurate in their use of language and
takes pride in saying exactly what is
meant. Asian, African, Arab, central
European and Latin American cultures are
generally considered to be high-context
cultures.
 Primarily use non-verbal methods to
relay meaningful information in
conversations, such as facial expressions,
eye movement, and tone of voice.

High use of non verbal

CHARACTERISTICS communication

OF HIGH CONTEXT
CULTURE Low dependence on written
communication

Long term relationships

LOW CONTEXT CULTURE

A low-context culture relies on explicit

communication. In low-context
communication, more of the
information in a message is spelled out
and defined. Cultures with western
European roots, such as the United
States and Australia, are generally
considered to be low-context cultures.
 It relays on direct, simple and specific
information

Low use of non verbal communication

CHARACTERISTICS
OF LOW CONTEXT
CULTURE High dependence on written
communication

Short term relationships

KNOWING FONS TROMPENAARS
 One of the best known Dutch authors and consultant
in the field of cross cultural communication.
 Ranked in the ‘THINKERS 50’ of the influential
management thinkers .
 Along with his co-founder Charles Hampden-Turner,
Fons directs a consultancy. (Center, 2012)

(Jla.co.uk, 2019)
FONS TROMPENAARS
SEVEN DIMENSIONS
 (Europpconsulting.blogspot.com,
2018)
UNIVERSALISM VS. PARTICULARISM

(Slideshare.net, 2014)

(Evacomics.blogspot.com, 2014)
INDIVIDUALISM VS.
COMMUNITARIANISM

(An American Expat's Guide to Hong Kong, 2016)

INDIVIDUALISM COMMUNITARIANISM
1. Believes in personal freedom and 1. These kind of groups believes that group is
achievements. more important that individuals and provides
more safety.

2. Freedom in making own decisions. 2. All decisions are made based on the
opinions of all group members.
3. Praises and rewards individual 3. Never prefers to praise individually in
performance public.

(mittali1503, 2016)
AFFECTIVE VS. NEUTRAL

(En.ppt-online.org, n.d.)
SPECIFIC VS. DIFFUSE

(Slideshare.net, 2014)

(SCULL, 2017)
ACHIEVEMENT VS. ASCRIPTION

(Slideshare.net, 2013)

(Evacomics.blogspot.com, 2014)
 SEQUENTIAL VS. SYNCHRONIC
SEQUENTIAL SYNCHRONIC
1. Individuals with a successive perspective on time 1. A synchronic perspective on time, then again, is
consider it to be a course of events, a chain of seen progressively like a circle where occasions
happenings. happen once more
2. For them, time is cash and thusly, it is extremely 2. In this perspective individuals can arrive behind
organized with motivation and timetables. schedule and pass up on something as the open door
(Europpconsulting.blogspot.com, 2018) will come back once more.

(Bluesky20156209.blogspot.com, 2015)
 INNER VS. OUTER DIRECTED
An inward coordinated
culture puts stock in
controlling nature however
complex it might be.
External coordinated
societies depends and
accepts whatever
happens to them as fate
due to the nature .
 IHRM can be a channel for formal and informal
human resource-related approaches (Ferris, Rosen,
Barnum, 1995) that can help an organization
improve their manager’s ability to push towards
global competitiveness by designing activities of
finding the right employees, career planning,
Importance of position alignment for employment, encouraging
development of working skills and rewarding
IHRM employees for their contribution to the company. It
cannot be more than overemphasize the valuable
role of human resource in any organization being a
valuable asset that undertakes complex and
challenging tasks that may extend beyond the usual
personnel management to people management
(Monye, 1997).
 Recommendation
With the increasing of globalization, international human resource management (IHRM) plays an important
role in achieving the organization's goals. Organizations which recognize the importance of IHRM will
definitely benefit than those who do not. They will be more ready to move their operations into another
country and effectively manage their employees to achieve smooth operations of the organizations. As a HR
manager, one has to be very sensitive and flexible to the cultural aspects. Besides that, having a good
knowledge and positive attitude towards the host country will make the HR manager’s job less tedious.

Organizations which rely heavily on expatriate must know the expatriate selection criteria well so as to send
the best candidate out and reduce the chances of an expatriate failure. Comprehensive expatriate program
must also be implemented in order to assist and prepare the expatriates for their long and scabrous journey.
By preparing the expatriates adequately in terms of both physically and mentally will ensure that a pleasant
job experience for the expatriate while maximizing the expatriate capability and contributions to the
organization.

In the scenario given the employee should definitely read or adapt with the high context culture to adapt with
the other culture he should read about it or go to a seminar which explain the Indonesian culture to be able
to adapt to the HRM department in the office.
 Convergent and
Divergent
 Convergent thinking is the type of thinking we do
when solving a well-defined, straightforward, correct
answer to a problem. Convergent thinking is used
when there is a simple, correct answer to a question.
For example, what's the capital of England? The
answer is London. If you knew the answer, you used
convergent thinking. Creativity is not relevant to
convergent thinking because you don't have to be
creative to know the answer to this problem
 The term “divergent thinking” refers to that strategy
of solving problems characterized by the proposal of a
multiplicity of possible solutions in an attempt to
determine the one that works. It usually happens in a
free-flowing, spontaneous manner, where multiple
creative ideas are engendered and evaluated. A
manifold number of potential solutions are studied in
a brief span of time, and unconventional connections
may be drawn.
 The role of IHRM is quite broader, more complex, and challenging than
domestic human resource management. They involve the process of going
beyond the usual personnel management system employed in local
corporation units. The role of IHRM is vital among multi-national companies
where the management are required to address variable considerations as to
the existing institutional and cultural differences of employing expatriates in
the company. IHRM involves internationalizing the standards of recruitment,
Conclusion of selection, training, compensation or pay and reward scheme, legality of
employment system according to the national laws of foreign employees,

IHRM
the establishment of uniform standards and ethics, as well as the social
responsibility of the company conforming to globalization standards. There
is an extra effort in the human resource management of a corporation to
extend their internal policies in conformity to the international standards
and laws of the countries where their subsidiary companies may be located.
Although the institutional and cultural differences are the common issues
confronting the IHRM system of a company, it is a challenge that most multi-
national companies take in order to improve their competence in training
their managers and executives in dealing this broader concept of
management in the human resource aspect of globalization of business.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
 Jla.co.uk. (2019). Book Dr Fons Trompenaars - Conference Speaker - JLA. [online] Available at:
https://www.jla.co.uk/conference-speakers/fons-trompenaars#.XI_zdCgzbIU [Accessed 19 Mar. 2019].
 Europpconsulting.blogspot.com. (2018). Trompenaars. [online] Available at:
http://europpconsulting.blogspot.com/p/trompenaars.html [Accessed 19 Mar. 2019].
 Slideshare.net. (2014). Chapter 2 cross cultural management. [online] Available at:
https://www.slideshare.net/preeti52/chapter-2-cross-cultural-management [Accessed 19 Mar. 2019].
 Evacomics.blogspot.com. (2014). Universalist and Particularist. [online] Available at:
http://evacomics.blogspot.com/2014/07/universalist-and-particularist.html [Accessed 19 Mar. 2019].
 An American Expat's Guide to Hong Kong. (2016). Trompenaars. [online] Available at:
https://guide2hk.wordpress.com/trompenaars/ [Accessed 19 Mar. 2019].
 En.ppt-online.org. (n.d.). Categorizing cultures - online presentation. [online] Available at: https://en.ppt-
online.org/249127 [Accessed 19 Mar. 2019].
 SCULL, J. (2017). HOW DO CHINESE AND AMERICAN CULTURES COMPARE. [online] Medium. Available at:
https://medium.com/@jules000120/how-do-chinese-and-american-cultures-compare-4c523b41ba59
[Accessed 19 Mar. 2019].
 Slideshare.net. (2013). Cross cultural business communication uwsb. [online] Available at:
https://www.slideshare.net/Arnab_Roy_Chowdhury/cross-cultural-business-communication-uwsb [Accessed
19 Mar. 2019].
Bibliography
 Bluesky20156209.blogspot.com. (2015). Bule Sky. [online] Available at:
http://bluesky20156209.blogspot.com/ [Accessed 19 Mar. 2019].
 Anon, (2015). [online] Available at: http://scotdir.com/other/are-you-inner-or-outer-directed
[Accessed 19 Mar. 2019].
 Center (2012). Organizational culture comm kc. [online] Slideshare.net. Available at:
https://www.slideshare.net/CommunicationKC/organizational-culture-comm-kc [Accessed 19 Mar.
2019].
 mittali1503 (2016). communitarian society. [online] Slideshare.net. Available at:
https://www.slideshare.net/mittali1503/communitarian-society [Accessed 19 Mar. 2019].
 UKEssays. November 2018. Evaluating the Importance of International Human Resource
Management. [online]. Available from: https://www.ukessays.com/essays/business/importance-of-
international-human-resource-management-business-essay.php?vref=1 [Accessed 19 March 2019].
 UKEssays. November 2018. Evaluating the Importance of International Human Resource
Management. [online]. Available from: https://www.ukessays.com/essays/business/importance-of-
international-human-resource-management-business-essay.php?vref=1 [Accessed 19 March 2019].
 Smallbusinesschron. March 2019 human resource management
https://smallbusiness.chron.com/role-human-resource-management-organizations-21077.html
 Cleverism. Divergent and convergent https://www.cleverism.com/idea-generation-divergent-vs-
convergent-thinking/