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human resource management
Questions and Answers of
Human Resource Management
In the light of the arguments produced in this chapter, how do you assess the notion of ‘best practice’ in HRM?
What is the role of individual national governments in HRM policies? What arguments would you offer for the views that the role of the state is increasing or decreasing?
Think about two countries that you know something about. What differences can you identify in their values?
Would you say that Britain is high or low context? Why?What aspects of international management might be more susceptible to differences between high and low-contexts?
Using the Hofstede dimensions, what would the key people management considerations be for a UK-based organisation that wished to expand into France, Germany and Japan?
From our discussions of recent criticisms of research into cultural differences:• Can we safely assume the existence of single national cultures?• Is the influence of culture as an explanatory
Explore key journals such as International Journal of Cross Cultural Management and Cross Cultural and Strategic Management. Draw upon some of the evidence to argue how, in any one national setting,
The areas of future interest have started to move away from the psychological perspective towards group and organisation-level questions.How might an organisation’s social networks, or its IHRM
How do bicultural or multicultural employees contribute to organisational life? Do the skills that they have naturally acquired make them the best international managers? Why, or why not?
How well do the indices and measures here reflect your own country? Give reasons for your answer.
Are national cultural differences likely to be more, or less, strong than organisational or gender differences in culture? Explain your views.
How might cultural differences make it difficult for a UK visitor to do business in Japan? Or a Japanese visitor in the UK?
Choose an aspect of human resource management, such as selection, appraisals, training or industrial relations, and explain how cultural differences might affect it.
Argue that an organisation should have clear rules about the management of people that cover operations in all its different countries.Then argue that such rules should be varied for the different
What do we really learn from studying how managers actually spend their time and their decision-making powers in like-for-like organisations in different countries? What are the messages for key
Can HRM specialists rise to the challenge of promoting standardisation while also remaining the guardians of national culture in an organisation?
How important is the ability of international managers to undertake cultural interpretation work to the subsequent success of international strategies?
Is there such a thing as cultural intelligence, and, if there is, can we now specify what it involves? Describe it.
Consider the national framework of employee relations in a country with which you are familiar.What is the balance between the governance of the employment relationship by unions, works councils
Consider the character of unions in a country with which you are familiar. How is this of relevance to managers at organisation or workplace level?
What might be the advantages to management of more centralised bargaining arrangements (multi-employer bargaining at sectoral or even multi-sectoral level)?What might be the advantages to management
What might explain the fact that union membership is higher in some countries than in others?
Are unions a positive or negative in organisational communications? Is the answer dependent upon or independent of country? Give reasons for your answers.
Consider the supports and challenges that joint regulation offers to managements pursuing business performance. Do you feel that strong unions make people management more challenging for managers? Do
Consultation with representative bodies is now required for all organisations over a certain size by the European Union. What reasoning might have led the EU to take such a step?
What associations and connotations might these different concepts have?
What might be some of the implications of the development of flexible working patterns foremployers, individuals and the state?
When and why might an employer prefer to offer a short-term contract rather than a permanent one?
What advantages might accrue to employers and to employees from part-time employment?
What advantages might accrue to an organisation from the introduction of family-friendly policies?
In considering work–life balance:• Might it be that an employee’s total annual working time is of more significance than specific initiatives like flexi-time and compressed working weeks, which
Currently we have little but anecdotal evidence on work–life balance in developing and newly industrialising countries. What do you think the general situation in, say, India or Vietnam might be?
Do the differences in flexible and work–life balance practices discussed in this chapter constitute a barrier to MNCs transferring personnel policies and practices across borders?
Why do countries respond differently in terms of flexibility and work–life balance to what seem similar economic pressures?
What country factors does an HRM specialist need insight into in order to understand the flexibility and work–life balance trade-offs that are preferred in any particular country?
Given the imperatives of modern capitalism, should we expect convergence across countries, or at least convergence across the national operations of MNCs?
Many authors on HRM suggest that organisations should seek to avoid or move away from a Taylorist organisation of work. Why should Taylorism be seen as undesirable?
In your organisation, or one that you know of, what forms of up and down direct communication are used? Elaborate!
Why should the tendency towards greater downward direct communication be stronger and more consistent across countries than the tendency towards greater upward direct communication?
What might create difficulties in the transfer of information and knowledge between individuals within an organisation?
There is no comparable study to that on the organisation of work in the EU for North America.If there were such comparable evidence, how would you imagine that the use of the four different models of
We have limited evidence on how work is typically organised in developing and newly industrialising countries, but what would you expect to be typical?
Consider the basis of your view of the work organisation typical outside the established OECD or old industrialised world. Check that it is consistent with what we do know about the comparative
Why is Taylorism still influential in work organisation a century after its development?
Might the importance of overcoming the gulf between managerial and non-managerial employees be more important to organisational effectiveness in some countries than others?
Which are the best methods to facilitate upward and downward communication? Are they likely to vary with different cultures?
How should an MNC in, say, retail approach work organisation in the various countries in which it operates?
To what extent do you think companies are constrained in their approaches to work organisation by what their managers, and perhaps in particular their line managers, are comfortable or confident with?
Might ‘best practice’ in work organisation be inoperable in some contexts? Is this always because it would not improve productivity performance?
How have management attitudes to the appropriate design of pay systems developed in the last few years?Does this change reflect properly the lessons of recent high-profile experiences?
What reward practices are indicative of the different pay for performance contexts in the USA, Germany, France, UK, Sweden and Japan?Which PfP practices do you think would be the easiest to converge?
Do you think that differences in reward practices across countries reflect differences in national cultures or other influences?
There are extensive discussions in the literature about the influence of national institutions, laws and culture on HRM issues, such as rewarding staff.Obviously, there is a range of different
Why might the close tying of pay to post be seen as outdated?Does this view necessarily reflect the impact of such pay systems on business performance?
What are the main cross-national differences in the nature of pay systems and practices?
How would you characterise the underlying philosophy that British HRM professionals have towards reward, compared with French HRM professionals?
What are the main ways in which national culture influences rewards behaviour?
Is there a danger of focusing too much on national culture as a driver of pay practice?
Recruitment is linked to other practices. If it is difficult to recruit the desired volume of people, or the desired competencies and qualities needed:• What reasons might there be for not being
What sorts of things might an organisation be able to do to give a candidate a very realistic idea of what will be involved in their job?In whose interest is it to offer a realistic preview?If you
Is the increasing application of technology to the recruitment and selection process altering the balance of power between the recruiter and the candidates?If so, in what ways and in whose favour?
There is considerable scope within the design of an assessment centre to allow for local content and processes. Would it matter if any of the following variations in the method were made, and, if so,
In the light of increases in the use of assessment:• Can organisations use psychological tests fairly in multicultural settings?• Do the psychometric properties of tests translate to different
What are the main cross-national differences in the nature of recruitment and selection systems?
Take two contrasting countries – say the UK and France, or India and the USA. How would you characterise the underlying philosophy that HRM professionals from each country have towards selection?
What are the main technical challenges faced by firms that wish to internationalise their selection and assessment approaches?
What are the main issues facing organisations as labour markets become more global?
What are the different resourcing strategies open to organisations as they operate in these global labour markets?
Spend a few moments to reflect on what performance management means to you – jot down your thoughts.• What are the organisational practices you associate with it?• If you have work experience,
Reflect upon an appraisal you have experienced – this could be in relation to the assessment of a piece of work you have completed for your studies.• What were the elements you were assessed or
Review what you know about culture from Chapter 3.Which cultural factors do you believe are likely to most impact the success of performancemanagement processes?
What are the differences between performance appraisal and performance management?
What does a performance management process typically comprise in terms of its component elements?
Where do the origins of performance management and performance appraisal lie?
What are the major challenges to the implementation of ‘global’ performance management practices?
Provide some examples of how culture impacts performance management.
Imagine you are the resourcing and training manager responsible for the establishment of a new operation. You have some influence in the selection of the location, but must meet both quality and
What is VET?
What implications might the difference in initial training provision between the USA and Germany have for the organisation of work and the character of relationships between managers and
What are the institutional features required to support extensive initial VET; and what are the challenges to it being sustained for the long term?
Consider some organisations from different countries:• How does their HRM function measure up against these criteria?• How much of this do they do in practice?• Do HRM specialists aspire to
Discuss the following:• As the boundaries of HRM work have expanded from the original personnel administration department into other more strategic areas, has the definition of the structure and
How important is the professional HRM association in your country (or one you know)?What might it do to achieve more influence?
What are the advantages for the HRM department if its head is on the main board?How might cultural influences noted in previous chapters affect that?
Identify the effect that worker-directors on the supervisory board and the existence of central (company level) works councils might have on the role of the HRM department in Germany.
Discuss and explain:• the reasons for the allocation of HRM responsibilities to line managers;• the reasons for most countries still having HRM controlled mainly by the HRM department.What does
What activities, processes and capabilities might constitute a COE, and how should such units be mandated?What has to happen in terms of the ‘capability building investments’ that are needed? Is
Some MNCs find it a challenge to adopt a standardised delivery model for their HRM services. Imagine that an organisation has chosen to adopt the type of structure shown in Figure 11.2 at a corporate
Given that the notion of ‘HRM’ is seen in some countries to be more advanced than the idea of ‘personnel management’, why might the latter continue to be the preferred terminology in most of
Is a high level of assignment of HRM responsibilities to line managers a sign of HRM influence or of mistrust of HRM specialists? How might this vary by country?
What advantages and disadvantages might a line manager see in being asked to adopt greater HR responsibilities?
Choose three countries for which evidence is presented. How far does the data presented help you to identify the most significant roles in the Ulrich model for each country?
Consider three (ideally other) countries for which evidence features here. What are the key influences on cross-national comparative variation in the place and role of the HRM function?
Are shared service models going to represent a new force for convergence and standardisation of HRM practices on a global basis, or will they result in more localised and customised policies and
Evidence on the role of HRM functions in developing and newly industrialising countries is currently anecdotal at best. What role would you expect them to have? On what are you basing your
It is evident that many academic fields and their ideas are currently being challenged. Ask yourself the following two fundamental questions. Ask them first now before you have read about the main
Why do managers need to be able to understand the importance of attitudes to internationalisation?How would you link them with each of the areas of HRM explored in the previous ‘functional’
Do born-global firms create unique people management and organisational issues? What HRM functions covered in Part Two of this book become most relevant for the management of such firms?
Think of a modern type of business.• Does the argument hold true that it must work through successive stages of internationalisation before it can truly globalise?• How might an organisation
What freedom does an international organisation have in regard to imposing its own approaches to HRM on its operations throughout the world?How can an international organisation, aware of the need to
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