MGTM15: Week 10

Future themes and challenges

 Issue for consideration….

• What are the challenges for IHRM?

 Objectives

We comment on observed trends

and future directions:
• External factors and the HR fuction
• International business ethics and HRM
• Mode of operation and sustainability
• IHRM requirements of organizations other than
the large multinational, such as non-
government organizations (NGOs)
• Safety, security, and terrorism issues
 These are not emphasized in
the general IHRM literature:
• Emerging role of IHRM in contributing to
safety and security and dealing with
terrorism
• Ethics and IHRM
• Mode of operation – sustainability
• NGOs
A model of strategic HRM in multinational
enterprises
 External Factors – Global
Discontinuity, Altered Work Arrangements,
Uncertainty and HRM
• The end of 2019 initiated a rapidly changing,
global disruption unseen since 1919 and the
Spanish Influenza epidemic.
• On one level ‘COVID-19 may be seen as
simply speeding up the rate of change.
• 2022 war in Ukraine and extensive sanctions
against Russia.
• Caligiuri et al (2020) suggests the recent
uncertainties and unsettling of human social
foundations may call on HR actors…
 External Factors – challenges in an
Uncertain world: Safety, security,
Counterterrorism and HRM
• Traditionally many domestic and international HR managers have been
responsible for legal compliance and training issues related to safety in the
workplace
• Less clear are the particular roles, expectations, and portfolios of responsibilities
that IHRM managers incorporate into their existing responsibilities.
• Many MNE have developed their own idiosyncratic systems and processes in
response to a history of ‘critical incidents’ e.g kidnapping of an executive, a natural
disaster.
• Executives in most MNE’s are unwilling to discuss protocols, processes, systems,
and structures in place for this sensitive area.
• Emerging risk categories relate to cyber-terrorism, political terrorist groups
targeting specific firms and industries but also pandemics such as SARs, avian flu,
and airborne contaminants.
• Increasingly HR executives are held at least partially responsible for contributing to
‘the business of resilience’.
 Safety, security, Counterterrorism
and HRM

A review of 24 research papers acts as a preface for

Harvey et al (2021) to present a four-stage model
considering:

1. External terrorism risk assessment

2. MNC response and readiness assessment – the
plan
3. A global mobilization of managerial initiatives, and
finally…
4. Assessment and global process improvement
 5 MNE corporate risk areas
1. In-facility emergency and disaster preparedness – including being in compliance
with local safety laws and standards (e.g occupational health and safety laws in
the USA), protocols for evacuation.

2. In-faculty security – comprised perimeter security, search protocols (truck

inspections, deliveries etc), bomb threat procedures, internal search protocols,
protection of property and equipment, use of cameras.

3. Industrial espionage, theft and sabotage – activities to secure internal

communications (emails, telephones, etc), employee privacy regulations, clearly
defined physical inspections.

4. Cyber terrorism – hardware, software, and human systems to deal with hacking,
information theft, internal sabotage, the sabotage of software systems.

5. Out of facility fire and travel risks – travel policies, policies prohibiting top level
managers from traveling on the same airline flight, hotel evacuation training if
traveling teams of employees are staying at the same hotel.
 External Factors - International
Business ethics and HRM
• Managers involved in international business activities
face many of the same ethical issues as those in the
domestic sense.

• More complex because of the social, economic, political,

cultural, and legal environments in which MNE’s operate.

• Firms which opt to leave consciously or by default to

leave ethical considerations up to the individual
employees not only contribute to the pressures of
operating in a foreign environment, but also allow internal
inconsistencies that affect total global performance.
 Ethics and IHRM

• Ethical relativism
no universal or international rights or wrongs
• Ethical absolutism
one should do what one would do at home
• Ethical universalism
there are principles of right and wrong which
transcend cultural boundaries
 International Assignees…
• Their ability to manage with integrity is job-
relevant
• Pre-departure training should include an ethics
component

To avoid cutting “ethical corners,” expatriates

should:
• not be placed under unreasonable pressure to
deliver good financial results
• be given feedback and reinforcement
 Sustainability and the HRM
function in MNE’s…
• The prioritizing of sustainability issues has an
important impact on IHRM.
• The United sustainable Development goals
cannot be neglected any more
• Companies to rethink practices as sustainability
aims, contributing to three different outcomes:
• the so-called triple bottom line, meaning the
economic, environmental as well as social outcomes
of a firm.
 Sustainability and the
International dimension of
HRM…
• Considerations need to encompass local and global
activities.
• Global mobility must be reconsidered in light of
carbon footprint.
• COVID-19 saw companies react quickly in terms of
global work.
• Evidence that corporate travel is on the rise again,
albeit varying with respect to the travel purpose and
the distance
 Non-govt. organizations
(NGOs)
• Globalization has increased the scale and
importance of NGOs
• The above trend will likely continue well into the
21st century

Prominent examples of NGOs:

Red Cross  Fred Hollows Foundation
 Red Crescent  World Vision
 Oxfam
 Médecins Sans Frontieres
 Summary
• External environment and the impact on
IHRM
• The complex assessment and planning
activities related to safety, security, and
counterterrorist efforts.
• The International business ethics and HRM
• Modes of operation – sustainability
• NGO’s, and the IHRM challenges specific to
these organisations.