International Comparative Human Resourcing Report Essay

International Comparative Human Resourcing Report - Essay Example Although people involved in international businesses activities face many issues in the domestic business but due to different social political economic and legal environment, multinationals will need to develop different practices. One of the challenges is to select expatriates and their ability to manage with integrity. Companies have to monitor the social performance of its expatriate managers to ensure that as managers become familiar with the cultural aspects of the country. Here we will take up an organization which is truly of global nature to discuss various HR issues. Ingvar Kamprad opened his furniture retailer IKEA in 1950; it now employs around 70, no. people, operates in thirty countries and generates a turnover of 11 billion Euros. Since its inception in 1950's IKEA has had to deal with the problem of maintaining its unique 'Swedishness' as a competitive advantage and at the same time having to adopt this to the different national cultures in which it has been working. IKEA has over the last 25 years become a global player this is unusual in furniture industry, which is often remains national in character. It has established itself all over Europe including the south and East and in North America. Its biggest single markets are Germany, Sweden and France. It has recently taken over Habitat, its main rival in UK and France. It has adopted the culture and philosophy of consensus decision making. Human resource management practices have reflected the strong Swedish approach with a belief that people like to participate in decision making, like to be respected and take on responsibility. But the company is working in multinational brand its human resource management policies are bound to face some problems. National culture is one such area. A national culture involves a complete system of customs, habitat rules values and belief shared by an overwhelming majority of the countries in habitants. People from different cultures view aspects of life in co ntrasting ways. Cultures even view time differently; some emphasize punctuality while others reflect little sense of urgency. There is considerable literature in cross cultural management. Hofstede is one of the most known theorists in this field. Hofstede's 1981 study, cultures consequences of culture dimensions constructed cultural dimensions; so that culture could be measured along four scales i.e. power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism/collectivism and masculinity/femininity. Hofstede's after work (2001) includes a fifth dimension, long-term/short-term orientation. Trompenaars and Hampden-turner's (1997) model examine culture with three main domains: relationships and rules, attitudes to time and attitudes to environment. Apart from these theories we have to remember that cultures are not static and change overtime. As countries become more affluent their population becomes more individualistic (Triandis, 2004). International assignees have to learn to work in thre e different cultures- national organizational and professional and these cultures shift in over time. Different cultures hold different conceptions and assumptions about organizations and their management. Hofstede's dimensions of culture can be applied to business practices in different countries to gain some