The International Assignments is the process which occurs when the companies and the organization dispatch the employees from the origin country to another foreign country for the purpose of business and work at the overseas companies or offices (Schütter and Boerner 2013). This type of employees who are transferred from the home country to another county is defined as the expatriates. This type of roles are generally temporary for the employees in the overseas country and tends to a time period of 1 to 5 years. For the employees, this international assignments can be a lifetime opportunity for expanding their horizon and experience new places and cultures. Though it sounds very good for the employees in often cases this type of international assignments can be very much challenging for the employees and can be a stressful experience. This movement of the employees includes various complex steps and require a vast amount of time which can be problematic for the organizations or the companies (Cole and Nesbeth 2014). Also, the employees need to take various decisions regarding the movement to the other country. This type of movement processes is very much complex for the organizations thus the organizations explore different types of forms of international working and resourcing.
Most of the organizations perform four types of international assignments which are Long-term assignment, Short-term assignment, International commuter assignment, and the frequent flyer assignment. This all international assignments have some type of problems. For the long-term assignments, the main problems are the mobility barriers, carrier issues, assignments costs, and the compensation package. In the short-term assignments, the main issues are the difficulty in establishment of consistent practice and policy, tax management issues and work-life balance. For the international commuter assignment, the main problems are the high costs, tax management, different policies, and terms and cultural differences. The organizations and the employees also face problems due to the frequent flyer assignments which include burnout, cost management, and no policy. Due to these challenges, organizations seek for the alternative approach of the international working and resourcing.
According to the research of the Meyskens et al., the alternative approach of the international working and resourcing is very much important for the global talent management trends. This research implies that the solution for the international talent needs cannot be a uniform one because of the intra-firm and the inter-firm variations. This is one of the main reason behind the variety of alternative forms (Reiche, Harzing and Tenzer 2018). Mainly the varied approaches are seen in the short type of assignments. Also, from the research, it has been assessed that these alternative approaches are needed to fulfil the needs of the employees of the organization. In the research of the alternative assignments, the authors have argued for a strategic approach which is congruent with both of the lifestyle needs of the assignees and with the objective of the firms. The authors also stated that the traditional solutions of the international assignments face various situational complexities, limited researches and the trade-offs for which alternative approaches to international assignments are required.
The traditional forms of international working are unable to address different types of organizational problems which arise due to international working. Thus to address different types of problems from the organizational and individual perspective alternative forms of international working will be described. These alternative forms are described below.
This is one of the best alternatives forms of international resourcing strategies. This strategy of the international working has been increased due to the recent developments of two things which are the:
Though this is a very good alternative strategy as it has various advantages, it has several disadvantages also from both of the individual and organizational perspective.
Strengths:
From the individual perspective, the main strength which is gained by the national labour market is the job opportunity (Docquier, Ozden and Peri 2013). Though this job is the short type of job, it still can help various peoples who are looking for a job in the overseas country.
From the organizational perspective, the main benefits of this alternative approach are that it can help to find the talents from a wider pool.
Weaknesses:
The main weaknesses of the national labour market from the individual perspective is the language barrier (Boella et al. 2015).
Considering the weaknesses from the organizational perspective is the legal issues as various countries hold various types of legal terms.
Case Example: To give an example, the case of the UK and Ireland can be provided which provided the open labour market which caused significant recruitment effect in these countries. Also, another example is Ireland’s open economic model in which the multinationals organizations are encouraged to locate the production and invest according to the demand (Ellis, Durand and Christofides 2014) of Europe’s market.
This is a widespread alternative form of international working. This type of assignments includes a particular workplace in the abroad in which the employees often visit for working purpose (Zhang and Wang 2015). In such type of activities, the employees spend most of the time in the abroad but do not shift there permanently because they need to be also at the headquarters and need to give an updated report about the progress in the abroad.
Strengths:
From the individual perspective, the main strengths provided by the extended trip is that the employee doesn’t need to completely shift in the other country so that the employee will be connected with his own culture and will feel comfortable.
In the aspect of the organization, the main strength is that it provides great flexibility to the business of the organization as the arrangement duration, the content of the work and geographical scope can be changed easily in a short period of time.
Weaknesses:
In the individual perspective, the weakness is that employee needs to travel frequently which can affect the health (Angelin, Evengård and Palmgren 2014) of the employee.
From the organizational perspective, the main weakness is the cost. Frequent travel of the employees can cost a huge amount of money for the air tickets and the visa approval.
Example: To demonstrate this case one example can be given which is the OMV oil company of Australia. In 2004 they bought national Romanian Oil Company, and at that time Romanian Oil Company had about 50,000 employees. After the acquisition to manage that company some of the key position was filled with the general commuting.
In this type of assignments, the employee needs to move from one international assignment to another international assignment (Sykes 2013). This is driven by the accelerating speed of the internationalization. This is different from the traditional expatriation system as it moves from the country to county without having any type of intermission in the home country or having just only one intermission in the home country.
Strengths:
From the individual perspective, the main strength provided by the permanent international transferees is that the travel frequency of the employees are less so that the employees can easily mix-up with the society of the abroad, and they will also gather experience from these travels that will help them in their career growth.
As per the concern of the organizations this permanent international transferee will help the organization by providing staffing whenever the organization needed it anywhere in the world.
Weaknesses:
From the individual perspective, the weakness of the permanent international transferees is that the employees remain detached from his or her origin for a long period of time which can down the morale of the employees.
In such decisions, the main problem faced by the organisation is finding a suitable employee for this task as most of the employees do not want to leave their home country. Another problem is that in many cases employees fails to give his or her full potential in the overseas country due to various external reasons. For that reason companies faces losses in the overseas operation.
Example: To demonstrate it practically example of the Fluor Corporation can be given. Fluor Corporation is one of the biggest publicity owned construction, procurement, engineering, and maintenance Service Company. This organization has implemented a permanent international transferee concept by reorganising its staffs and developed mobile global managers who are working in different offices and locations worldwide. This mobile managers successfully connected the dispersed operations and formed a matrix team.
This is another alternative form of international working where the managers are familiar with more than one type of culture due to their job experiences of past (Harzing, Pudelko and Sebastian Reiche 2016). In this case, the employees are from other than the home country of the organization, and they are assigned to the home country of the organization on a contract basis on a permanent or a semi-permanent job. The main role of this type of employees is helping the organization to mitigate the problems that are arising due to their international activities.
Strengths:
The main strength of the inpatriates from the individual perspective is that the employees can easily absorb the corporate culture of the organization’s headquarters and can learn the management practice of headquarter.
The main strength of this process for the organization is that this process is very much cheap compared to the traditional process where organizations need to relocate employees of the parent country to some other countries for some business perspective.
Weaknesses:
The weakness of the inpatriates from the individual perspective is the problem in communication. Though this type of managers is having vast experience in their field, still they face communication issue with the team regarding the local language.
The weakness of the inpatriates in the organizational perspective is that the employees fail to transfer the information and the experience perfectly due to the communication issue and for that productivity of the organization lowers.
Example: One example of this inpatriates process can be seen in the organization Lufthansa. When Lufthansa decided to cargo business of it’s from Europe to Taiwan and China, it inpatriated a Hong Kong Chinese employee instead of sending a German employee who belongs to the traditional way. The Hong Kong Chinese employee was inpatriated because that employee knew the local market very well and can push the business in that particular direction.
This is the alternative form of the international working which places the individuals on the market of external labour according to their respective destination country (Al Ariss and Crowley-Henry 2013). This type of peoples is the carrier activist who behaves highly proactive by controlling their own carrier. By controlling their own carrier, they operate it with a high degree of the personal agency. These personal development goals are the main reason behind the motivation of the employees to go outside of their own county. These type of employees are very much common and provide a potential source of the global mobility for the organization. Thus advantage in the open market economy is gained by the organizations.
Strengths:
From the individual perspective, the strengths of the self-initiated expatriation are that it fits the preferences of the individuals for the new experiences openness, individual agency, independence or applying knowledge in various types of situation.
From the organizational perspective, the main strength for the self-initiated expatriation is the cost advantage when compared with the traditional expatriation. This cost advantage is gained due to the reduced cost of the recruitment and selection process of the employees and their willingness of accepting the local compensation.
Weaknesses:
The main weaknesses of the self-initiated expatriation from the individual perspective is the ability to transfer skills and knowledge of the experienced employee to an inexperienced employee and lack of career support from the organizations of the home country.
From the organizational perspective, the main weakness of the self-initiated expatriation is the problem of integration. It is very much problematic to integrate the self-initiated expatriation in the organizational structure.
Example: Example of this Self-initiated expatriation is the international job advertisement websites where various organization publicise themselves as the employer of choice. For these organizations, it is highly beneficial to gain intentional staffs in this type of condition when the market competition is increasing more and more internationally.
For working in the field of the international human resource management, the HR professionals must have some of the key skills and knowledge which will help them to manage the human resources from the international market which is very much important for the organizations which operate in the global market. These key skills and knowledge are described below.
The main skills which are required for the HRs to handle the IHRM perfectly are the:
Communication Skills:
The communication skill is very much essential for the HRs in the aspect of international human resource management (Arnold and Boggs 2015). This is essential because for the organizations it is very much important to facilitate discussion between the employers and employees in the IHRM. In such type of activity, both written skills and the oral skills are required to communicate effectively. Communication is the most reliable way to solve any type of organizational conflict. Also, in the international human resource management one of the main barriers is the communication, and for solving this issue, effective communication skill is expected from the HR.
From this communication skills section, one reflexive question can be developed which will help in further discussion that is “As a HR what is the importance of the communication to you?”
While working with the international market, it is normal that the HRs will face various types of complex situations. So the HRs must be able to balance this type of complex situation and must be able to find some way so that this type of situations can be avoided in the future. To deal with this type of complex situations critical thinking is very much essential (McPeck 2016). In the international market, employees come from a depth and breadth background of experiences. Thus to handle this type of employees the HRs needs to think critically so that the environment can be cultivated critically which will help in the improvement of the business.
Human resource management in the international market can be considered as the juggling act. The more HRs will be organized in their working field the more they will get success (Anderson and Bolt 2013). This is one of the key success for the organization because the entire organization helps the companies to act in the critical situations faster and in the competition of the international market, this is very much crucial.
From this discussion, one question can be developed which is “As per your opinion how perfect an organization can provide advantages to the human resource manager.
While considering key knowledge for the HR professionals, actually there are no criteria for some specific knowledge which must be gained by the HR professionals. The HRs need to gain a vast amount of knowledge of the industry expertise of the employees to handle the current international market perfectly (Snell, Morris and Bohlander 2015). In the present situation, the job seekers of the international market hold a very wide knowledge of their domains. Thus it is very much important for HR professionals to have some idea of the job seekers domain otherwise they might recruit some inefficient employees for the organization. Also, the HR must have the knowledge why each of the applicants needs to move within the targeted organization.
For the further development of the HR professionals on their knowledge on the alternative flexible forms of the international working some additional digital sources can be provided. These digital sources are discussed in the below section.
Harvard business review is one of the most credible digital resources which provide the latest vision from the industry experts (Hbr.org 2018). Also, the provided articles in the Harvard Business Review is very much easy to understand.
This resource is considerable because it helps the HR to keep up with the current research in the business world from which the HR can gather relative information about the business processes which will help in the further development.
The Society for Human Resources Management or the SHRM is the digital society for the HR professionals. This website contains full of technical resources which are beneficial for the HR professionals.
This digital resource is important for the further development of the HR professionals because it provides the technical support to the HR professionals who are extremely important to gain knowledge on the alternative forms of international working.
Freakonomics is the digital resource of the bestselling book and the radio shows. The resources of the Freakonomics can help the HRs to understand people and the way of how the peoples think (Freakonomics. 2018). Understanding the thoughts of the people is very much important for the HR managers, so this digital source is important in the further development of the HR professionals.
The HR.com is the largest social network of the HR leaders. This is a type of community, and this community consists of more than 280,000 professionals all over the world. This HR.com is very much important in the further development of the HR managers because this large community can provide a solution of almost HR management problems. The knowledge of the problem solution is important for the new peoples in this profession.
The HR Happy hour is the most downloaded and longest running HR podcast. In this digital resources interviews of the HR leaders can be found which are important for the further development of the HR managers in the sense that it provides examples to the new HR professionals that how to conduct a perfect interview (H3 HR Advisors Inc. 2018). This podcast also discusses the topics which include leadership, people management, and workforce technology. Thus again this becomes important for HR professionals as this provides useful information on the people management, workforce technology and leadership which is the basics of any type of HR management.
References:
Al Ariss, A. and Crowley-Henry, M., 2013. Self-initiated expatriation and migration in the management literature: Present theorizations and future research directions. Career Development International, 18(1), pp.78-96.
Anderson, L.E. and Bolt, S.B., 2013. Professionalism: Skills for workplace success. Prentice Hall.
Angelin, M., Evengård, B. and Palmgren, H., 2014. Travel health advice: Benefits, compliance, and outcome. Scandinavian journal of infectious diseases, 46(6), pp.447-453.
Arnold, E.C., and Boggs, K.U., 2015. Interpersonal Relationships-E-Book: Professional Communication Skills for Nurses. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Boella, G., Di Caro, L., Graziadei, M., Cupi, L., Salaroglio, C.E., Humphreys, L., Konstantinov, H., Marko, K., Robaldo, L., Ruffini, C. and Simov, K., 2015, June. Linking legal open data: breaking the accessibility and language barrier in european legislation and case law. In Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Law (pp. 171-175). ACM.
Cole, N. and Nesbeth, K., 2014. Why do international assignments fail? Expatriate families speak — International Studies of Management & Organization, 44(3), pp.66-79.
Docquier, F., Ozden, Ç. and Peri, G., 2013. The labour market effects of immigration and emigration in OECD countries. The Economic Journal, 124(579), pp.1106-1145.
Ellis, M., Durand, H., and Christofides, P.D., 2014. A tutorial review of economic model predictive control methods. Journal of Process Control, 24(8), pp.1156-1178.
Freakonomics. 2018. Freakonomics – The hidden side of everything. [online] Available at: https://freakonomics.com/
H3 HR Advisors, Inc. 2018. H3 HR Advisors, Inc.. [online] Available at: https://hrhappyhour.net/
Harzing, A.W., Pudelko, M. and Sebastian Reiche, B., 2016. The bridging role of expatriates and inpatriates in knowledge transfer in multinational corporations. Human Resource Management, 55(4), pp.679-695.
Hbr.org. 2018. Harvard Business Review – Ideas and Advice for Leaders. [online] Available at: https://hbr.org/
McPeck, J.E., 2016. Critical thinking and education. Routledge.
Reiche, B.S., Harzing, A.W. and Tenzer, H. eds., 2018. International human resource management. SAGE Publications Limited.
Schütter, H. and Boerner, S., 2013. Illuminating the work-family interface on international assignments: An exploratory approach. Journal of Global Mobility: The Home of Expatriate Management Research, 1(1), pp.46-71.
Snell, S., Morris, S. and Bohlander, G.W., 2015. Managing human resources. Nelson Education.
Sykes, A.O., 2013. International cooperation on migration: Theory and practice. U. Chi. L. Rev., 80, p.315.
Zhang, D. and Wang, X., 2015. Effects of jobs–residence balance on commuting patterns: differences in employment sectors and urban forms. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, (2500), pp.80-92.
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