Critical evaluation of two international human resource management articles

¶ … International Human Resource management Articles

In this paper, we will critically evaluate two separate journal articles related to international human resource management (IHRM) and draw out their contribution to IHRM in an integrated literature review. The topics of these two articles are Development and Globalization. First, we will overview both of the articles separately in this introductory phase and then in the literature review we will support our outline of concepts and ideas in the two articles. A critical analysis will then be done relevant to the articles which will examine the strengths and weaknesses of the articles. After the critical analysis we will advise how both of the subject matter discussed can be applied to multinational companies either large or small.

Finally, we will give a conclusion and recommendation in which the former will include summary of what we have found looking back at the overall paper and the later will consist of recommendations as to how our selected findings can influence the area of International Human Resource Management.

Article 1

This article is about the development practices and Human Resource Management in indigenous Russian firms and foreign multinational companies. It has uncovered a wide variety of differences in the practices of Human Resource Management that exist between the indigenous Russian firms and the multinational companies that operate in Russia. The article also suggests that the Russian firms tend to focus more on making their workforce to contribute more on strategic decision making, the evaluation of the implemented decisions is followed by this step.

The Multinational firms working in Russia put more preference in the methodologies of personal control as well as direct communication, they also put less emphasis on involving the managers of their respected firms to take participation in the strategic decision-making phase. Here it should be noted that the multinationals put more focus on the training and development of their employees as compared to the local Russian firms, but the local companies put more emphasis on structured approaches as well as technologies for the fulfillment of their objectives which are set by heads of the firms. By closely analyzing both of these strategies, it is seen that they both can be very much effective if applied appropriately.

The article also focuses on the future research directions which mainly fall into three types. The first type suggests that the article is basically focused on only a selected portion of the technology industry namely the I.T and advertising, therefore it is very important that a similar research must be carried out to determine the facts about other parts of Russian economy, examples of these parts include engineering, retail, services and consulting since these sectors involve huge multinational activities.

Secondly, the article is based on a study which uses surveys as its primary and main source for acquiring data. Here the data should include more results which are based on interviews involving a chosen set of respondents. "There are many ways through which the interviews can be conducted such as the manner which is guided by the IiP (investors in people) framework which includes a vast variety of methodologies helpful in the collection of data" (Kamoche, 2001). The third recommendation addresses on the limits of the study conducted by the article. It is very important to know here that any future studies can include more varieties of samplings from the databases of companies which include both the multinationals and the local Russian corporations. "Better consumer response always results from better HRM" (Scott, 1998).

Article 2

This article is about Europe and the management of globalization. It emphasizes on how Europe is trying its best to manage the factor of globalization according to its own terms, it has also listed in detail five ways by which the European Union (EU) tries to manage globalization. Let's have a brief look here on each of these ways. The first method of management involves the expansion of the scope of policies of European Union, this is done by the development of new measures for usage such as the introduction of Euro currency. The creation of European Central Bank also falls in this spectrum as one of its primary objectives is to provide assistance to European nations in fighting inflation.

The second way includes efforts through which the setup of regulatory standards is formed whose influence exists as much outside Europe as it is within it. As an example, it is seen here that the European Union is the biggest regulatory authority in many different sectors which includes industrial chemicals, food and telecommunications. Third way details on the senior European management's effort to make the international organizations more powerful. In this spectrum the European Union has made great efforts in order to strengthen organizations which include International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organization, OECD and others. Here the main aim is to develop an institutional architecture which monitors the rules of globalization and if possible enforce them on the terms of Europe.

Fourth way involves different strategies which aim for the enlargement of territorial sphere which comes under the influence of European Union. The final way involves the management's efforts in redistributing costs of globalization.

The article suggests that every agenda discussed has its side effects as well which can possibly make the European Union weak instead of strong. Here example includes scenarios where European Union loses its trade cases. Its efforts to have more states in the international trade organizations can also weaken its status within the trade organizations as the new members may have their own preferences which might even contradict the official European interests.

A big doubt which is faced by the European efforts in the management of globalization is that the very same institutions which Europe wants to see strong have come under great criticism from the Europeans themselves for not being successful enough in managing globalization, in some cases it is even though that these institutions are responsible for many problem's acceleration. All of these issues aside, Europe is currently going through a massive financial crisis which has posed a great challenge to the entire capitalist world.

The five mechanisms that we have briefly discussed are hardly regarded as exclusive for Europe only. Here many different nations such as the United States and China are trying their best to put globalization according to their terms and best interests. Above this, the 2008 financial crisis showed the limits of European efforts to organize global economy according to their terms since it does not enjoy the backing of the greatest spender as well as borrower nation which is the United States and neither support of the nation which is the greatest exporter and saver in the world, namely China.

The European Union may not be able to rig the system of globalization but it can attempt to improve its predictability along with oversight and regularity through the rules which accommodate European interests.

Literature review

In this section, we will do a review of both of the articles and outline the concepts and ideas presented in the two articles. " In Russian literature on HRM, the term 'HRM system' is defined as a subsystem of the company management system aimed at attraction and effective utilization of the labor force available to the company" (Bizukov, 2005).

The Human Resource Management article gives a view on how the local Russian companies and the foreign multinationals take the approach of their businesses emphasizing on the fact that both of the methodologies can give good results in different functional elements such as labor relations management, operational management, personnel planning, employee training, recruitment, development and assessment, providing legal support, providing appropriate labor conditions as well as work safety, compensation management, employee records management, Human Resource systems information support and the development of management structures.

"It is commonly observed that multinational organizations offer more incentives to employees as compared to other local firms" (Cyr, 1995), this is the main reason why individuals choose to go there instead of the homegrown companies but in the case of Russia it seems that stiff competition exists everywhere even among offering benefits, this is one of the main reason why both of the models adopted by the two types of firms discussed are capable of success.

The development article specifically focused on surveys as a source for data, here some of the important topics which it selected to ask queries from its representatives includes questions regarding organizational goals on how to achieve them, how the management involves employees in the development of organizational plans and about any measurable performance objectives which might be present in plan of the organization. "Effective participation from the employees in the affairs of the organization is the key to success for any firm" (Keeley, 2001).

Employees of both multinational as well as local Russian companies were also asked how they participate in their organization's performance in which majority replied that they prefer direct communication with the manager. " One of the most important things to look after in Human Resource Management is the requirements of the personnel and staff, only then any firm can asses correctly its necessities" (Tayeb, 2005). They were also asked how did the management of the organization where they worked informed them about the assessment of their work, here majority of both the multinational as well as local firm's employees replied with the individual interview reply. "Knowing the employees more is very important in the business of Human Resource Management" (Ewert, 1996).

Overall, it was observed that most of the employees of either the local or multinational firms agreed with each other on many different points regarding the mentioned above topics. "One of the ways by which any firm can attract a more talented workforce is to offer better incentives as compared to its rival firm" (Harris, 2004).

Now let's review the globalization article. Here, globalization is defined as the flow of goods, services, capital, people and information across borders. It has been argued that this factor has been the cause of worry for Europe over the past decade. One of the reasons for this is the rise of the far Eastern economies such as China which take advantage of their cheap exports and earn foreign capital as well as investment while Europe ends up buying the same goods and services that it manufactured in great numbers just over a decade ago.

This article also focuses on the European tactics for the management of globalization which favors them however every step they take for their progression in an ever increasing competitive environment of today may backfire on them if not applied correctly. "The EU has become the world's largest regulatory power across a range of sectors including food and industrial chemicals" (Drezner 2007).

The European's integration policies seems to be one of their greatest strength at the international stage, here an example of France and Germany is given in which it is shown how many postwar acts of reconciliation has jointly benefitted both of these nations and Europe in general. In order to make the effects of globalization friendlier for Europe, they have developed five main mechanisms which not only assist them in facing internal challenges but also external crisis events. These five mechanisms are namely the expansion of policy scope, exercising regulatory influence, empowering international institutions, enlarging the territorial sphere of the European Union's influence and finally redistributing the costs of globalization.

Here a main obstacle comes from the competitors of European Union, nations like China and United States often use their power to enforce their terms on globalization. While the United States is the biggest economy and the biggest spender in the world the Chinese are more capable of doing a profitable trade which comes in favor of them. All of these points greatly influence Europe's position at a global stage and their chosen methodologies are today applied by the Americans as well as the Chinese in their favor which makes it very difficult for the Europeans to enforce their demands. "There is a growing literature as well on Asian efforts to manage globalization but this tends to take place at the nation-state level" (Alon, 2009).

IHRM Applications

Let's examine how the two articles' areas could be applied to multinational companies of both small and large magnitude. In the case of Russian venture, the multinational companies there can choose to adopt a more flexible way of conducting International Human Resource Management. Here, the firms either large or small can choose to invest more on its personnel in order to get the best results. "The organization's actions should not be limited to its staff and employees only and it should also do investment in the local population by different means which can include investment to bring better living conditions there." (Tyson, 2006) This way the public can have a more favorable view of the multinational firms operating in their territory and the firm will benefit from having their trust which can result in more profit on the business side as well.

In this regard there are many such examples where the firms have made huge investment in reducing poverty levels of the population, reducing illiteracy levels, bring more employment, giving better compensation to those whose land is affected by the firm's operations and so on. "HRM demands knowing the consumer more" (Mayrhofer, 2000).

In the case of globalization article, the International Human Resource Management application can be applied at the level of trade and finance by the European governments in order to make the trade factor more favorable for them. Here, the governments can give many incentives to their firms which operate at a multinational level so that they may find it easy to do business abroad. This includes lowering their tax rate as well as providing them more assistance to shift abroad so that they may take full advantage of their destination nation such as the cheap labor and manufacturing costs there.

Conclusion

In this paper, we have reviewed articles related to HRM development and globalization, in the first section we gave an overview of the articles separately and reviewed what they are about. The first article relates itself to the business practices adopted by multinational as well as local firms in Russia while the second article focuses on the factors of globalization and how the European Union is attempting to control it in its favor. The literature review section then looks further into some of the details of both the articles, it reviews some of the questions mentioned by the HRM article and examines how these and other factors can help bring a positive change in an organization working in Russia.

Some of the details of globalization article include the five methodologies which the European Union uses in order to bring the globalization factor under their influence, it also focuses on how carefully these steps should be implemented and any mistake here can result in severe loss for the Europeans on different fronts such as trade and commerce, finally it mentions of other nations such as China and United States which are also in stiff competition to change the rules of business in their favor.

Recommendations

The field of International Human Resource Management is very vast and it still requires much research to be done in order to know about further benefits related with it. The articles' findings which are due to surveys and selected methodologies may be useful for multinational firms on different occasions but much work is still needed in the process of data collection in order to get informed on more concrete and precise facts. Here, recommendations include more investment in techniques which can assist firms in doing research for advancement of IHRM.