Managing Global Human Resources

A global organization is an organization that produces or sells goods or services in more than one country. Many U.S organizations have long been global organizations. Companies like Heinz, Ford, General Motors, Proctor and Gamble, Capital One, UPS, are selling products and services all over the world. Today, so common is the presence of U.S organizations in the rest of the world that people in other countries often consider the foreign division of U.S companies like Ford and Proctor and Gamble to be domestic or home companies. When an organization expands globally and begins to buy its inputs abroad, sell its products abroad, or set up operations in foreign countries, it faces the task of managing human resources on a global scale. Human resource management is not an easy task, especially if it’s done on a global level.

Every country has a unique culture, and the people who have different sets of attitudes and beliefs. Most of the multinational companies have global human resource departments. The people who manage global organizations face the same set of challenges as the people who manage domestic operations. The global challenges however, are more often difficult to meet because of differences in national culture.

Corporate management can adopt one of several world views concerning global markets. Some firms adopt an ethnocentric orientation where the management is centered on the home market. Ideas that originate from the headquarters are considered superior to those that arise from the foreign subsidiaries. Top management in the foreign subsidiaries is most often managers sent from headquarters. Some of the corporations take a polycentric approach, where each market is considered unique. Management positions in local subsidiaries are usually filled by local nationals.

The third approach is geocentric is somewhat like the ethnocentric approach as it shift the power back to the headquarters for hiring managers; however, the managers are hired from different parts of the world. Basically the geocentric approach looks for the most suitable candidates from a pool of talented individuals and they are hired on their merit not nationality. In order to understand the value, attitudes, and beliefs, managers need to understand other cultures.

Most of the multinational companies have a very diversified workforce. There are many advantages of having a diversified workforce. When people from different cultures interact and share ideas, then they can look at the opportunities and threats of the business with different angles. As we all know that when there are advantages, there are disadvantages as well. Our job as managers is to maximize the advantages, and minimize the disadvantages. The managers need to understand that every employee has a unique way of working, which is shaped by their value, attitudes, and beliefs.

In many companies problems arises when people from different culture interact. Because of differences in linguistics styles communication difficulties arise, and can lead to misunderstandings between the employees and the manager. Managers need to exert extra effort to solve these problems, and the only way to do it is through learning more about other cultures.

Resource Management requires that we understand our employees’ personality and his abilities. We need to understand the nature of the employees and work towards nurturing. It’s our job as managers to focus on the abilities of employees. We need to focus on the special abilities of the workers and design the work process around the special abilities to achieve effectiveness and efficiency. We need to understand that due to the diversity in the organization there are lot of cultures and we need to respect other cultures. Culture is deep in the roots and it cannot be changed overnight. We need to develop geocentric culture mentality and leave behind the ethnocentric views. In order to be successful we need to study the culture of the organization, and then make it compatible with the culture of the employees. In order to promote corporate culture within the organization we need to create a positive social environment in the work place.

Managers need to encourage positive behavior through corporate learning. Individuals differ in their basic motivational drive, and have different needs. As managers if we want to understand employee behavior we need to understand his values, attitude, beliefs, and personality. Some workers are more positive and enthusiastic because of their personalities. Managers need to use their interpersonal and communication skills to understand what’s important to the employee, and what motivates him. The level of job satisfaction needs to be measured constantly in order to provide good working conditions. If the employee is not so enthusiastic about the job, than there are different ways to motivate him. Pay based on performance and performance appraisals are some of the techniques which managers can use to motivate employees.

Relationships are an important part of our lives. We need to develop good relationship with our employees. Key to a good and successful relationship is good communication skills. The biggest problem in a relationship is lack of good communication. We get into arguments with others because our message is interpreted in a wrong way at the receiving end. We need to have an open communication channel in order to promote successful global human resource strategy.