Global Human Resource Management - Meaning and Objectives
With the advent of globalization, organizations - big or small have ceased to be local, they have become global! This has increased the workforce diversity and cultural sensitivities have emerged like never before. All this led to the development of Global Human Resource Management.
Even those organizations who consider themselves immune to transactions across geographical boundaries are connected to the wider network globally. They are in one way or the other dependent upon organizations that may even not have heard about. There is interdependence between organizations in various areas and functions.
The preliminary function of global Human Resource Management is that the organization carries a local appeal in the host country despite maintaining an international feel. To exemplify, any multinational/international company would not like to be called as local, however the same wants a domestic touch in the host country and there lies the challenge.
We may therefore, enumerate the objectives of global HRM as follows:
The strategic role of Human resources Management in such a scenario is to ensure that HRM policies are in tandem with and in support of the firms strategy, structure and controls. Specifically, when we talk of structures and controls the following become worth mentioning in the context of Global HRM.
Global HRM and the Staffing Policy
Here also the role is no different i.e. hiring individuals with requisite skills to do a particular job. The challenge here is developing tools to promote a corporate culture that is almost the same everywhere except that the local sensitivities are taken care of.
Also, the deciding upon the top management or key positions gets very tricky. Whether to choose a local from the host country for a key position or deploy one from the headquarters assumes importance; and finally whether or not to have a uniform hiring policy globally remains a big challenge.
Nevertheless an organization can choose to hire according to any of the staffing policies mentioned below:
Global HRM therefore is a very challenging front in HRM. If one is able to strike the right chord in designing structures and controls, the job is half done. Subsidiaries are held together by global HRM, different subsidiaries can function operate coherently only when it is enabled by efficient structures and controls.
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