Introduction
In business administration, human resource management (HRM), international business management (IBM), and relocation are all interconnected topics. International experience and IBM are inextricably linked. Nevertheless, the IBM factor cannot be neglected because foreigners retain IBM workers regardless of where they carry out their responsibilities. This means that the HRM department at the main work area is still responsible for expatriate management.
Nowadays, in a competitive business environment, having a workforce that understands the world’s ways is no longer a luxury; it is a competitive must. As a result, it is not unexpected that the vast majority of midsize and big firms are presently sending professionals abroad, with intentions to increase the number of people on such assignments in the future. Human resource managers must adjust their HRM techniques to the host country’s conditions as the workplace has gotten more diverse. Due to disparities in national cultures, economic realities, and regulatory environments, U.S.-based enterprises in the Middle East have a particularly difficult time dealing with HRM difficulties. The administration of expatriates dispatched to Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries is one issue American businesses face. The paper presents a case study of an American worker assigned to a project in Qatar to demonstrate that the HRM must examine four significant factors in order to help the expatriate. The four aspects are instruction, awards and career measurement, recruiting and selection, and worker retention and motivation.
The Unique Case
Melissa Lamont is a top female executive for a significant global news media organization headquartered in the United States. She has been assigned to the corporation’s Middle-East office in Doha for three-year foreign assignments. Melissa will work as the deputy director of the economics and business team in Doha, where she will be in charge of reporting on business and economic concerns around the Middle East. The team’s male colleague is a Qatar national with twenty years of experience with the organization, ten of which were spent in the United States and ten in Qatar. The business and economics team in Doha consists of 50 journalists. The group’s mean lifespan is 32 years, and around 70% of the reporters are male. The team comprises various ethnicities, with 10% Qataris, 40% from other Middle East nations, and 50% from Europe and the United States. The primary language of the multinational company is English.
Melissa has spent eight years working for the New York-based news media business. She is of US nationality and has never worked abroad. Melissa is a married woman whose spouse is a freelance journalist. He and their two children will relocate to Doha for the duration of her assignment. Melissa’s husband can continue working as a freelance journalist while in Doha. Melissa has two children, a girl and a boy, who will both attend school in Doha. None of the family members have any severe medical difficulties and are in good health. Melissa can only communicate in English.
Performance Management
One of the most gratifying and career events in a person’s career might be a foreign placement. On the other hand, expatriates are costly for the employer, and a surprising amount of them fail. Foreign language anxiety, failure of the person to succeed in their new position, and discontent with the mission itself have all been identified as common factors. It is expensive to send someone to live and work abroad. Companies must be mindful of personal circumstances when considering sending someone overseas. While posting an LGBTQ person to a strict Islamic nation is not unfeasible, it does necessitate careful thinking and additional support.
Ho et al. (2016) highlight the importance of performance management training for employees. However, the authors do emphasize that there is a void in the literature regarding employee training – the direct influence of education on a company’s monetary success. The conclusion is that education as an HRM activity should not be performed solely for the purpose of improving the performance of employees without being quantified in terms of return on investment (ROI).
One of the most important responsibilities of HR professionals is to provide training. It entails increasing workers’ competency by providing them with the necessary information, skills, and attitudes to complete their tasks. The HRM department is also responsible for detecting skill shortages depending on specific job performance and practices in the organization. Melissa Lamont will be assigned to her US-based media company’s Middle Eastern branch in Doha, Qatar. For the next three years, she will serve as an executive assistant in the economics and business area. Given her lack of experience working in a foreign nation, training will be an essential part of her HRM preparations for the job.
Selection and Recruitment
Employees must be ready for the reality that life will be different during international assignments, and it will not always be spectacular and exotic. There will be different cultures to surmount, as well as loneliness and cultural stress. Families and partners must brace themselves for the upheavals. In the company, new connections must be formed, and a new facility must be implemented. It is beneficial to go into foreign assignments with reasonable expectations than to go in unready and refuse. Harris et al. (2018) study how rewards affect performance outcomes. According to the writers, an individual’s compensation has a favorable impact on their production to the company. The authors of a comparable study discovered that there is significant evidence to suggest that motivations and reminders have a good effect on overall employee attitudes, which includes personal performance.
Individual people should participate in cross-cultural training before embarking on international missions to better understand their attitudes and preconceived notions, as well as what to anticipate in the foreign environment. There are numerous less formal methods of preparation. Potential overseas assignees should be required to read books, news, and blogs to get a sense of the new culture. They can listen to the radio and even watch films to put the puzzle piece of daily life in the new location together.
One of the most important roles of HR professionals is to conduct the hiring process on behalf of the company. Finding eligible applicants for open positions in the company is what recruitment entails. Following the receipt of applications, the next stage is to review and shortlist candidates with the best credentials, knowledge, and abilities to fill the post. The HR staff then performs verbally or in writing conversations with potential workers to assess their competency. Different companies have different methods for assessing job candidates. While some organizations do only one screening, others undertake multiple before deciding on the best candidate. This is how the selection procedure works. Workers who are best qualified to bring value to the organization’s objectives are chosen by HR practitioners. Apart from educational achievements, the management considers a variety of additional characteristics of the job candidate, such as interpersonal and communication abilities, depending on the nature of the business; they also look into the speaker’s feelings towards the company.
According to the study by Pinto, Patanakul, and Pinto (2017), there is much gender bias in companies during development and performance rating activities, such as advancements. Women, in general, are shown to be the most vulnerable to workplace abuse, according to the study. Melissa’s role in this regard is to promote women’s rights so that women have equal possibilities to advance in their professions as males.
Melissa, who is now an executive assistant at her new job, will be responsible for overseeing the acquisition and recruitment of qualified staff as needed. Although, it is essential to emphasize that the Doha office has a lot of ethnic and gender diversity. As a result, the HRM should start by educating the expatriate on the best practices in these two areas. Since just 30 percent of the 50 workers in her area are women, the issue of gender equity in the corporation appears to be lacking. Melissa’s job in this regard is to promote women’s rights so that women have the same possibilities to advance in their jobs as men.
Employee Motivation
A cross-cultural supervisor could be a work colleague in the new office. New ex-pat workers should ideally have a mentor at their new location as well as one at home; It is prevalent for foreign residents to feel estranged from their previous work and work colleagues. A mentor’s specialized conversation points may include management structure, organization, gender concerns, meeting protocol, negotiation, and strategic planning. On the other hand, a tutor should be a source of advice to which the decision to retire can turn when problems occur.
Even a few subtle messages and instructions can help freshly arrived ex-pats navigate challenging circumstances. Learn not to compare your existing traditions with new ones; remember that the new culture is different but not necessarily wrong; this is good. Understanding different planning approaches and starting with the basic expectation that people in a foreign environment are open and welcoming, even if communication with them is difficult, will help them find their place in the new team.
Although English is the worldwide business language and the dialect of the destination country’s business, a conversational level mastery of the target dialect will contribute to society and conquer cultural differences. This is also crucial for trailing couples; foreign language anxiety can be exacerbated for a partner who has less discipline in their day but lacks the courage to create their own life.
Aside from mentorship, a corporation should have a standardized reporting mechanism in place while a worker is on deployment internationally. Regular monitoring is the best way to stay knowledgeable about how the task is proceeding, what innovative concepts and critical details have been managed to gather, and how to identify any problems in advance. Companies should plan most of their assignees’ time abroad by inspiring them to describe their experiences in various ways, such as written form or conferencing.
Cultural difference is a severe disorder that can result in melancholy, feelings of alienation, and even sickness. Almost everyone experiences culture shock to one degree or another. Some people struggle to adjust, experience loneliness, hate the new society, and believe that everything is fine at home. Recognizing cultural differences and discovering small ways of dealing with them should all be part of the planning process for life abroad, such as working to demonstrate connections between ex-pats and individuals from the new culture. Maintaining a busy schedule and attempting as a family to explore the unfamiliar surroundings; planning to visit marketplaces, trying out cuisine, and organizing pleasurable events and activities, such as a beach trip; is natural.
Many of these concerns apply at the conclusion of abroad assignments. A posting overseas may be a problematic event, and it is not uncommon for people to come home with continuous learning and objectives to discover that they have changed – as well as the fact that their old friends, coworkers, and place of work have transformed. Some of the benefits of a foreign assignment include enhanced confidence, a more significant viewpoint, more compassion, and more extraordinary problem-solving ingenuity. Businesses must capitalize on these new skills rather than simply expecting the employee to fit back in. Planning should begin several months before an assignment departs.
It should be noted that all of the preceding ideas revolve around staff commitment and engagement. This means that all HRM initiatives, including recruitment and selection, education and training, and bonus and employee evaluation, are aimed at improving team morale and keeping top performers. Employee engagement is determined by how happy they are. A dedication to their jobs in the organization is the result of motivated staff. In the end, the organization will be able to realize its objectives. Melissa’s mission in Doha requires a high level of employee engagement because half of the personnel comes from Europe and the United States. As a result, due to problems such as cultural clashes and language barriers, some people may want to leave; this necessitates the maintenance of positive staff relations. One of Melissa’s responsibilities in the Doha office will be to resolve such sensitive topics in a comprehensive way that does not jeopardize workplace relations and ensures that resourceful employees are maintained. As a result, the HR department of the organization should consider emphasizing the importance of motivation and retention during the process of internationalization.
Conclusion
To summarize, HRM currently appears to play a crucial role in expatriation. Despite the employee’s relocation to a foreign country, the department’s mandate remains intact. The purpose of this article was to shed light on HRM’s role in preparing expatriates for abroad assignments. Four major HRM principles that managers should address are discussed. Recruitment process, education, bonus and accomplishment, and retention and motivation are only a few of them. With regard to academic work, the paper concludes that equitable and bias-free recruitment methods are critical for developing a motivated staff.
Apart from coaching, a company should have a consistent reporting structure while a worker is overseas. Regular monitoring is the key to staying up to date on how the project progresses, what fresh ideas and essential details have been procured, and how to solve any problems before they arise. Companies should plan the majority of their assignees’ stay abroad by communicating their experiences in various ways, such as publishing or conferencing.
Before venturing on global missions, employees should receive cross-cultural training to better understand their perceptions and preconceptions, as well as what to anticipate in the foreign environment. There are other less formal methods of preparation. To gain a sense of the new culture, potential abroad assignees should be obliged to study literature, news, and blogs. They can listen to the news and even watch movies to piece together daily puzzles in the new location.
One of the most significant duties of HR experts is to manage the hiring process on the company’s behalf. Recruitment comprises finding qualified candidates for available positions in the firm. After receiving applications, the following step is to assess and shortlist candidates with the best credentials, knowledge, and competencies to fill the position. The HR department then conducts verbal or written interviews with potential employees to assess their competency. Intercultural communication is a severe problem that can cause depression, estrangement, and even illness. Almost everyone has some form of cultural shock. Some people strain to adjust, endure loneliness, despise the new society, and continue believing that everything back home is better.
Female participation is a frequent practice that the administration should address. Both leaders benefit from training since it provides them with the essential information, abilities, and approaches to fulfilling duties. However, training evaluation is required to verify that it is represented in the firm’s economic success. An organization’s reward system, as well as its staff retention rules, both result in increased engagement, good organizational and personal productivity, and staff retention. As a result, the difficulties listed above are some of the issues Melissa will need to familiarize herself with as she begins her Doha job.
Reference List
Harris, L., Majerczyk, M., and Newman, A. H. (2018). ‘An examination of how the effort-inducing property of incentive compensation influences performance in multidimensional tasks’, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 149, 185-196.
Ho, A.D. et al. (2016). ‘Exploration of hotel managers’ training evaluation practices and perceptions utilizing Kirkpatrick’s and Phillips’s models’, Journal of Human Resources in Hospitality & Tourism, 15(2), pp. 184-208.
Pinto, J.K., Patanakul, P., and Pinto, M.B. (2017). ‘The aura of capability: gender bias in selection for a project manager job’, International Journal of Project Management, 35(3), pp. 420-431.