IHRM Issues and Practices Report

Executive Summary

IHRM has the capacity to mix human resource practices and the relevant policies across different countries in order to achieve the objectives of specific corporations. Therefore, the approaches used have to flexible to fit the different business and cultural settings tackled. These approaches enable the process of appropriate decision-making¹.

Some of the responsibilities include the selection, training as well as appraisal of both local and international employees. IHRM is also associated with close relations to host governments across the world where they perform some of the above responsibilities for these governments. Even when the scope IHRM demands that they deal with domestic issues, they offer some broader scope for the most common services than the local HRM firms do².

There are several assumptions that are made by the author of the article Talent Management Decision Making. Some of these are normally made in most scenarios that deal with talent management.

The first assumption that is clearly shown here is that the management of firms has a choice to either perform talent management or not³. This choice cannot be exploited in a firm that seeks to achieve success through managing the available talent. The decision to manage talent or not has serious consequences for the overall management and scope of an organization⁴.

A clear talent management procedure should enable an organization to manage the dissemination of information and put in place models on how to appreciate and retain the service of talents available within the organization. Besides this, firms also look to tap into more talent available elsewhere.

Another assumption made here is that people hold onto their jobs for safety and security due to the uncertainties of the world, with or without being given incentives to do so. This has influenced the research done in the article by bringing up the methods that mangers use to enhance the performance of their employees.

The author explains that managers choose methods like the enhancement of intrinsic rewards rather than depending on the increase of benefits and compensations. Through this assumption, managers in organizations formulate value propositions for employees aiming to ward off competitors. These competing firms would probably copy the talent management models if they involved increase in compensation or improvement of benefits for the employees⁵.

The credibility of the authors as an expert in this field is respectable. This is because of the objective approach that they take when dealing with different perspectives and opinions about talent management. The key issues that emerge about talent management in organizations are clearly discussed with reference to different literature that supports the same. These authors review the topic at hand in a systematic way starting with the debate that revolves around talent management issues and the decision-making process⁶.

Then they proceed to examine some of the main factors that influence the processes of decision-making and talent management. The authors also seek to identify some of the areas in this field that would require further research in the future. These identified areas would be informative about the process of talent management for different organizations. For practitioners who seek to develop decision-making systems for talent management, the authors have offered interesting information on how to design these.

For the background to the research done in this article some literature have been used. However, the main literature that was conclusively and critically used here is ‘The future of HR: Key Challenges Through 2015’ which was done by Boston Consulting Group.

The importance of this source comes through the background information that it offers on the challenges that face human resource activities such as talent management. This text identifies talent management as one of the five main challenges that face the profession of managing human resources.

This identification forms the basis for the need to understand the mechanisms through which talent management can be used to boost the performance of an organization. Another important aspect of this text is the scope it offers into the future.

It gives a formulation of important talent management would be for firms now and in the future and how it will shape the entire field of human resource management. The quality of this literature shows that it is valuable by the view of the information that it contributes to both the background and main discussion of this article.

The authors establish issues pertaining to IHRM well. This is done through establishing the linkages and relationships between management decisions and talent management. The article explains the need to reposition human resource activities so that the provision of services can be effected for the benefit of an organization. This shift would also benefit key decisions that relate to talent within the business setting.

The authors also address the criticality of handling ethical issues in IHRM. They discuss about how organizations with international employees are faced with challenge of values and ethics displayed by these employees. Some of these include the critical roles that international employees play in ensuring that international organizations do not fail. In this way, global competition is enhanced bringing out the need for innovation, new ideas as well as international learning⁷.

Another challenge that faces international management of human resources, as identified by the authors, is the shortage of international professional talent. For the institutions that offer services in very competitive fields face this problem since professional talent is sourced from the same pool.

The recruitment and retention of employees becomes an issue for many of these organizations, especially those that are poor in talent management. Companies that seek to operate on the global scale are also faced with the challenge of leadership shortage⁸.

The article also looks into the shift of competition for talent available on the global scale pointing into the growing need to manage talent on the global scale rather than the usual local scale within a country.

Some demographic and societal trends that affect the nature of talent management decisions have also been identified. In the same way, demographic profiles have shifted the availability of labor in different countries. Many organizations have therefore introduced approaches in policy management with the aim of recruiting and retaining employees.

The authors have also looked into some examples of demographic profiles that have influenced challenged and affected international human resource management. One of these trends identified in the article is the aging of the workforce. When the workforce begins to age, the need for recruitment of new talent becomes inevitable.

This is a huge challenge for any organization that seeks to keep its level of human resource management high. This is because new talent is not guaranteed to be as good as the exiting talent due to the issues of experience and loyalty amongst others⁹.

The article is useful for the practice of policies in international human resource management. This is because it identifies the links between management decisions with talent management procedures. It gives a literature review of how the relationship between these two items has developed since the 1990s to date.

It also identifies the key factors that affect talent management and decision making both in the global as well as local context within a country. The appropriate use of frameworks for talent management and the appropriate use of available data in the decision-making process have been identified as some of the important factors that increase attention to an organization¹⁰.

This trend has been observed in the recent past years. This article also identifies some of the challenges that have faced multinational enterprises throughout the last decade. For the diversity of concepts in human resource management, especially on the global scale, this article identifies several ways through which this filed can be enhanced or stimulated for increased effectiveness.

One of this is the consideration to use Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in talent management and the decision-making process. When CSR is incorporated into human resource policies, it becomes a key element in an organization’s recruitment and retention strategies. It is therefore useful in attracting international talent¹¹.

This article has some outstanding strength amidst some weaknesses as well. Amongst the strengths, there is the ability to provide relevant information in a systematic and simple way that is easy to understand. Even though some of the issues discussed contain some complexities, the authors of this article disseminate the information in terms that simplify the complexities. Another major strength of these articles is in the way that the authors approach information contained in other literature in a professional and objective way¹².

The issues that are discussed in the article regarding international human resource management cover the scope of talent management and hence satisfy the expectation of any reader. More importantly, the article discusses the key issues that continue to emerge in the context of decision making with regard to talent management in the field of human resources. Before this is discussed, the authors first engaged a review if the debates that are involved in this field by reviewing a variety of literature.

The use of different literature with different points of view and opinions makes this article rich in content; and objective content for that matter. After all this is discussed in the article, the authors then focus on future trends and prospects in the field of talent management. The originality and value of the reviews done in the article also adds to its strength in satisfactory addressing the topic at hand.

A weakness about this article is in its ability to overcome some of the assumptions that are often made in talent management issues. These assumptions, which have been identified in the first part of this paper, make it weak by the fact that it gives a view that is not entirely true in all cases. Another weakness is that the authors dwell more on other literature done by different authors and only give a small analysis about the subject matter.

This article represents the use of sound research. The research should therefore be incorporated in the collective knowledge base about international human resource management and the related policies. This is because of the scope, which the authors use to do the research in the article. First, they use a diverse collection of relevant literature rich in information that enables us understand better the issue of decision making in talent management¹³.

The literature reviewed in this article varies from that which gives a scope into the history of talent management to that which offers a scope into the expected future trends on the same field.

The objectivity and authority that the authors display in the research compiled in the article make it sound research worth refereeing to now and in the future. They discuss different factors such as the relationship between management decision and talent management as well as the factors that influence these decisions on the global scale.

All this is done using a high level of originality and use of value into the research process. Along with reviewing other relevant literature, the authors of this article also give their informed opinions on the subject matter without compromise to quality. As any other sound research would have, this article contains recommendation and direction for which future research on international human resource management can be done.

Bibliography

Aswathappa, K., and Sadhna Dash. International Human Resource Management: Text and Cases. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill Pub, 2008.

Bhattacharyya, Dipak Kumar. Cross-Cultural Management Texts and Cases. New Delhi: PHI Learning Ldt, 2010.

Snell, Scott, and George W. Bohlander. Managing Human Resources. Mason, Ohio: South-Western, 2013.

Handbook of Research in International Human Resource Management. [S.l.]: Edward Elgar, 2012.

Keeley, Timothy Dean. International Human Resource Management in Japanese Firms: Their Greatest Challenge. New York: Palgrave, 2001.

Lawler, John J., and Greg Hundley. The Global Diffusion of Human Resource Practices Institutional and Cultural Limits. Bingley, UK: Emerald JAI, 2008. Web.

Punnett, Betty Jane, and Oded Shenkar. Handbook for International Management Research. Ann Arbor, Mich: Univ. of Michigan Press, 2004.

Shen, Jie, and Vincent Edwards. International Human Resource Management in Chinese Multinationals. New York: Routledge, 2005.

Sims, Ronald R. Organizational Success through Effective Human Resources Management. Westport, Ct: Quorum Books, 2002.

Sparrow, Paul. Handbook of International Human Resource Management Integrating People, Process, and Context. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, 2009. <https://www.books24x7.com/marc.asp?bookid=29466>.

Ulrich, David, Michael R. Losey, and Sue Miesinger. The Future of Human Resource Management 64 Thought Leaders Explore the Critical HR Issues of Today and Tomorrow. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley, 2005.

Vaiman, V. H. Scullion, and D. Collings. Talent management decision making. Management Decision. 2012. 50(5): 925-941.

Footnotes

¹ Vaiman, V. H. Scullion, and D. Collings. 2012. Talent management decision making. Management Decision. 50(5): 925-941.

²Bohlander, George W., and Scott Snell. 2007. Managing human resources. Mason, Ohio: Thomson.

³ Ibid., 56.

⁴ Sims, Ronald R. 2002. Organizational success through effective human resources management. Westport, Ct: Quorum Books.

⁵ Keeley, Timothy Dean. 2001. International human resource management in Japanese firms: their greatest challenge. New York: Palgrave.

⁶ Punnett, Betty Jane, and Oded Shenkar. 2004. Handbook for international management research. Ann Arbor, Mich: Univ. of Michigan Press.

⁷Handbook of resarch in international human resource management. 2012. [S.l.]: Edward Elgar.

⁸ Ulrich, David, Michael R. Losey, and Sue Miesinger. 2005. The future of human resource management 64 thought leaders explore the critical HR issues of today and tomorrow. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley.

⁹ Lawler, John J., and Gregory Stephen Hundley. 2008. The global diffusion of human resource practices: institutional and cultural limits. Bingley, UK: Emerald JAI.

¹⁰Bhattacharyya, Dipak Kumar. 2010. Cross-cultural management texts and cases. New Delhi: PHI Learning Ldt.

¹¹ Shen, Jie, and Vincent Edwards. 2005. International human resource management in Chinese multinationals. New York: Routledge.

¹² Aswathappa, K., and Sadhna Dash. 2008. International human resource management: text and cases. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill Pub.

¹³ Sparrow, Paul. 2009. Handbook of International Human Resource Management Integrating People, Process, and Context. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.