The Human Resource department Free Essay Example

It is a widely observed phenomenon that, most of the MNCs in Bangladesh conduct their local operations with expatriates especially in operations and key decision-making areas. This trend has been ongoing for quite a while, and is actually on the increase. They have more visible success than the local mangers. On the other hand, Human Resource Management (HRM) is also just a growing career and HR practice is still a budding discipline in Bangladesh. Thus, there is a lack of proper local HR persons in Multi-national organisations of Bangladesh.

Most of the Human Resource department of Bangladeshi Multi-national companies are filled by Expatriate managers and the local managers are forced to emulate practices from the regional Head quarters. Therefore lack of initiative and pro-action is observed from these executives in any decision making. My project is going to look at this trend and analyse if this practice is actually good, if there is room for improvement and more importantly, if there is way to groom up local mangers to take over the roles of the expatriates.

Aims & Objective:

The aim of this research is examine the effect of expatriation in reality. I also want to see if the local managers of Bangladesh are actually gaining benefit from the process. Expatriation continues to be a key issue for multinational companies. Historically, expatriation has long been viewed as the “process of moving from the parent company or headquarters to foreign subsidiaries or overseas operations”; however, Briscoe and Schuler (2004) view expatriation as the “process of moving from another country while staying in the employment of the same firm”.

Expatriation can take in many forms.

At one specific location in an international firm, an individual manager may be a third country national and at the same time an expatriate from another country employed by and represents the parent company or he/she may be a transferee from one subsidiary to another (Briscoe and Schuler 2004). Expatriates: Expatriates are people who have left their home country(s) to live or work abroad on a temporary or permanent basis. This could include people retiring in other countries, and in terms of this report, people who work in other countries after being instructed to do so by the head office.

Knowledge transfer: Knowledge transfer is the process of learning from a group of experienced employee in the business or in the department. It is, in essence, a training programme, but might be carried out easily; such as when the experienced and the inexperienced both work together and the latter learns just by observing and assimilating. This simple process also has ethical considerations where there is an imbalance of power or economic state. The transfer within organisations or from one nation to another is therefore to be seriously looked at.

A developed country might have difficulty, or might be reluctant altogether, in transferring knowledge to a developing country and her citizens. Employee development: This is the act of motivating and encouraging employees to obtain and acquire new and advanced skill sets, new viewpoints and perspectives through learning and training facilities; and enabling them to apply their learning in various avenues. Literature Review: The diverse roles of expatriates and its link towards the development of local employees have been addressed from varied perspectives.

A review of relevant literature will help me to carry out my research effectively. According to CIPD, the acceptable reasons for using an expatriate may include :filling a position where there are no local alternatives or suitable candidates, filling a position where no local stuff are qualified enough, training local people and potential, and grooming them to gradually take over the roles from the expatriates, gaining technical expertise, giving employees more experience in the international market as a preparation for more responsible roles, providing opportunities of development and prospect for employees, etc.

According to Sparrow, Brewster and Harris (2004), there are five main strategic reasons for sending employees on International assignment: professional development, Knowledge transfer, transfer of scarce skills, control and co-ordination. The very important role of expatriates has been variously termed “developer” and “transferor”. Bennet et al. (2000) used the term “developer” because, according to them, the main purpose is to develop the skills of local employees to international standards.

Kimmo and Vesa (2004) and Torbiorn (1994) labelled this role “transferor”, because the expatriate’s role is to transfer knowledge and skills to local employees. Harzing (1999) and Selmer and de Leon (2002) stated that expatriates playing this role take responsibility not only for transferring technical knowledge and skills, but also for cultivating corporate culture in the subsidiary. Leach (1994) emphasized that for expatriates to function effectively as transferor, they must transfer appropriate up-to-date knowledge and skills in their current posts and prepare local employees to take over their duties when they leave.

The latter requires making certain that local managers can consistently and effectively apply existing practical knowledge and skills to improving planning and organization within the institution, which means that local employees must have some managerial knowledge and skills to begin with. She found that when local employees had poor organizational and managerial skills, expatriates spent most of their time on administrative duties and directing the work of local managers, rather than transferring knowledge and skills to them.

Kimmo and Vesa (2004) suggested that complete knowledge transfer requires expatriates acting as transferor not only to transfer knowledge from headquarters to the subsidiary, but also to transfer knowledge gained from the subsidiary back to headquarters. Barlett and Ghoshal (1995) noted that expatriates are an important vehicle for knowledge transfer in transnational organizations. Gomez-Mejia, Balkin, Cardy, (1995) has noted some disadvantages of using expatriate employees – it Increases the foreign-ness in the branch or subsidiary.

It could also lead to a high failure rate, low morale and motivation on local management, and also higher transfer costs and salary costs. Finally, local employees’ management development skills are very important in today’s global context. However, different people have different views and concept about management development. Usually, management development has seen as a planned, formal, and deliberate process. According to Training Service Agency (197)7, it is a deliberate effort that aims at improving managerial effectiveness through a planed learning process.

According to CIPD, it is a structured process through which managers can learn and consequently improve on their existing set of skills for the company as well as for their own development within the company. The emphasis is given on the word structured because of the fact that mangers can learn (and actually do) everyday in their world from their bosses as well as form their colleagues and subordinates. This learning is not counted as management training.

Management development can only be termed as such when it is executed formally. On the other hand, some see management development as mean of achieving organization performance and competitive advantage in the context of changing environment, such as- Globalization. Accordingly to Lees (1992) the entire system of corporate activities with the espouse goal of improving the performance of the managerial stock in the Context of organizational and environmental change.

While Buckley and Kemp (1989) said that management development “ensures the right mix of management competencies to secure competitive positioning . . . it is a means to develop management competencies to enable the organization to maintain or shift its competitive position in the future” According to the above views, we can understand that the importance of the development of the local managers and also that, it is one of the very significant roles of expatriates managers to transfer their skill and knowledge to the local subsidiaries for their performance enhancement.