Key Elements Of HR Strategy For International Expansion Of A Company

Any corporate strategy should include elements that refer to the organisation’s strategies in terms of its employees. Such thinking should embrace all aspects of the human resources landscape.

In contributing to an organisation’s strategy, what would you, as an HR manager, responsible for the international aspects of HR of a company, ensure were the key elements of the HR strategy.

As a part of the strategic operations, the human resource management is one of the frequently discussed among the business professionals. Together with the relevant expansions of the responsibilities and the tasks, the role of the department of HR has become more important. The introduction of the trend of the strategic human resource furthermore highlights the tendency of the internationalization and the strategies that needs to be implemented by the HR of the organization towards the expansion of the company in the international aspect. Ahammad  2018 in his article discussed the connection of the world of the business with the internationalisation. As per his insight, the globalisation and the factor of the innovations are taking over the world. There lies a number of factor for taking in consideration while initiating any strategies and planning for the entry or the expansion in the international market. Each and every organization thus requires planning and strategies from the HR of company due to the increased complication and the external factors and the analysis of the complex market.  The essay argues on the fact that towards the contribution of the strategy of the organization, the possible things and the planning that a HR manager needs to undertake for the international aspect of the company he or she is serving. The essay furthermore highlights the key elements of the HR strategy in connection of the elements referring to the strategies of the organization in the terms of the employees.

This study introduces the concept in connection to the internationalization of the growing multinational organization and the role of the HR. It explains the concept regarding the degree of internationalization and the furthermore delves regarding the current changes in the context of HRM of the organization.

The globalization of the activities of the business has tended to develop an increased pressure towards the linking the HRM and the outcomes of the organization. () in their research highlights the increasingly vital role of HRM towards the internationalization of strategies.  The growing interest in the international HM redirects the recognition that has been growing towards effective management of the resource in the international aspect and furthermore is one of the essential determinant of the failure or the success in the international business. The HR managers generally have an important role to play towards the degree of the internationalization of the firms.

The context of the internationalization refers to category or the state of the growth and the expansion in the global domain. The context of the globalization is thoroughly gaining utmost importance regarding the important strategic issues for several of the companies. () in his analysis stated that the factor of the globalization and the internationalization of the firms that is expected to gain further momentum due to the economy of the world which is becoming increasingly integrated with the continued decline of the barriers imposed by the government and the advancement of technology. The context of internationalization does not include any of specific agreed theory regarding the internationalization of organization.

Degree of Internationalization

According the business dictionary (2016), the trend of the internationalisation is bringing the operation of the companies towards the international level. From the side and the category of the operations, the products and the services are being adapted for the customers and the markets other than the domestic one.

The essentiality of the internationalization is the part of the process of the globalisation that is a much more complex phenomenon regarding the international integration. The theories regarding the absolute and the comparative advantages are the basic concepts regarding the economic globalization.

There remains certain factors for the expansion in the international market for a company.

 

Source: (Brewster, Chung and Sparrow)

Organizational factors including market management motivation is the initial factor that forces the companies for the extension of the business market. The next factor is the motives of the organization that is a constraint over the factor of the internationalisation.  There lies three of the main categories of the motives of the organization, that is the market seeking, the resource seeking and the efficiency. The last factor that tends to convince the company for internationalization is the success at the home market.  In the current times of the globalization, in case the information and the data regarding the world wide products and the services are majorly available to everyone, it is a challenging query regarding the successful domestic product that will appear on the international shelves.

There lies various activities that is involved in each and every business that are essential for the strategic planning and the operations of the company.  The function of the H manager are closely connected to each other and hence it is important to receive an overview regarding the dimensions for initiating to explore the HRM as the part of the strategic management in the process of the internationalization and the process of the market entry.

 

Source: (Chen and Chang )

The figure above illustrates the functional dimension of the international business which the HR manager should adhere to while planning and initiating strategically moves for the internationalization of the business. Furthermore expansion towards the internationalization of the business is not possible with the activities related to accounting and finance as the essential part of the functional dimensions.

The creation of effective global work force includes the new class of the employees and the planning of the HR managers of the organization. The growth regarding the knowledge based society together with the pressure of the growing and opening up in the emerging market has led the companies that are cutting edge are recognizing the context of human resources and intellectual capita; that are some of the significant factors possessing as the financial assets towards the building of the sustainable competitive advantages. Good and effective HR management in any of the emerging multinational companies relies on getting the correct people at the right jobs in the correct place in the right time and in the consideration of the right costs.  The managers of the HR department of the organization thus needs to be meshed in a cohesive network regarding which they define and leverage the better and the good ideas on a worldwide basis. Implementation of the correct ideas regarding the stepping stone towards the internationalization of the company by the HR manager are thus can be illustrated in the following basis.

Reasons for going International

The Breaking of all the local national glass ceilings – The initial and the most fundamental step towards the development of the global strategy of the HR program is towards the ending of all the favouritism for the managers who are basically the nationals of the country where the company is based. The ethnocentric companies tends to be xenophobic in nature since they put most of the confidence in the nations of the headquarters country. Multinational companies have more than the token representation on their boards.  

Being the HR of a company, the management of the human resource management effectively that conducts the global business tends to require more awareness in the culture and their ability towards quick response in the dynamic environments.  It is the duty of the human resource managers thus to handle the recruiting, interviewing, hiring and the training of the employees for effective development of the employees that will furthermore help the business to achieve its goal of internationalization. It is furthermore essential to establish the policies and the procedures that are designed for ensuring fair and safe productive facility of the work. So it is important for the HR manager of the multinational companies to expand the definition of the term of the local national rather than to restrict it.

Trace of lifeline – Based on the business strategy of the company, the HR manager should identify the activities that are particularly essential for the achievement of the success in the global context.

Some of the preliminary step of the HR manager of the organization is to define the technical, functional and the soft skills that are needed for the success in each of the lifeline roles. The HR manager must furthermore understand the need of the people and to develop as the executives. They need to be functionally savvy and internationally recognisable towards their approach. The next step for the HR manager towards the internationalisation requires the integration of the team of the business and the HR specialists.

Building of a global database for explaining who and where you are  - One of the main tool of the global policy of the HR has to be the database that is global in nature and simply due to the strategic posts of the companies that remain scattered around the globe and  tends to monitor of the development of the career of many of the HR managers.  For the building of the global strategy as an HR manager it is thus essential to categorize the type of the database with the beginning of the role descriptions and the series of the personal template profiles that queries regarding the curriculum of the managers for the effective determination fo the cultural ties, the skills of the language, the number of the countries visited, the intersts and the number or the nature of the hobbies.

Functional Dimensions

The construction of a mobility pyramid – It is important for the HR manager to evaluate themselves in the terms of their willingness, nature for moving towards a new location as well their experiences and their ability. In the current global market it is thus important to view as a graduated scale and constantly reassess due to the changing circumstances towards the opportunity of the company. This will furthermore encourage the HR Mangers to opt for the overseas deals and plan strategic moves to expand their business in the international level.

 

Source: (Mendy and Rahman )

With the consideration of the five level mobility of the pyramid, it can be illustrated to encourage the managerial mobility. Each of the personal profile of the database of the HR managers should include the filed for the assess of the experts. The shape of the mobility pyramid of the company depends heavily on the markets, the business and the stages of the development evolving together with growth of the company.

Implementation of the Internationalization Strategy of the HR Management

The international human resource strategy refers to the developing programmes and the practices related to the policies that help towards the achievement of the objectives of the organization. The role of the HR Manager in the strategic management is merely latitudinal in nature.

	Traditional HRM	Strategic HRM
Responsibility of HRM	The specialists of staff	The line managers
Focus	The relation among the employees	Partnership with the internal and the external customers
Role of the HRM	Transactional. Respondent and follower	Proactive , fast and integrated
Initiatives	Fragmented, slow and reactive	Integrated
Tome Horizon	Short term	As necessary
Control	Policies, bureaucratic roles	Organic flexibility
Job Design	Specialization, tight labour division and independence	Broad and flexible
Accountability of Key Investment	Cost centre and the capital products	Knowledge and investment centre

 
The HR Manager should define the architecture of the organization. It is furthermore their responsibility to identify the underlying models of the company and the way it does the business. Secondly, the HR manager needs to be accountable for the effective conduction of the audits of the organization. This is because the audit helps in the identification of the components of the architecture that should be altered for the facilitation of the strategy of the internationalization.   The third role of the HR Manager is to take the stock of its own works and set up clear priorities. In the consideration of the business outcomes, The HR Manager needs to join the forces with the line managers for continuous assess of the impact and the essentiality of the initiatives.

Thus towards making the implementation of the internationalization of the strategy of the management of the HR towards the global leading, the following two context needs to be satisfied. Firstly the talent warehouse  in the international scope should be developed without any of the limit regarding the nationality and the geography so that the organization can attract and acquire the managers and the specialized technological talents in the global context. Secondly, the suitable systems of the performances and the benefits are also very much eager to get founded which is furthermore considered as one of the most essential method for the attraction of the talents. As per the example of the valuable experience of Microsoft, it is worthy to be learnt by various countries including both the developed and the developing ones.

Conclusion

Thus it can be concluded that the HRM in the international transformation should enable to take care of a number of corporate and global features and the challenges. The introduction of the trend of the strategic human resource furthermore highlights the tendency of the internationalization and the strategies that needs to be implemented by the HR of the organization towards the expansion of the company in the international aspect. It is furthermore important or essential to build the strategies  by the HR Manager in the effective way so that they attract, satisfy and motivate the employees of the organization and develop values to the headquarters and the shareholders of the company. The growing interest in the international HM redirects the recognition that has been growing towards effective management of the resource in the international aspect and furthermore is one of the essential determinant of the failure or the success in the international business. The HR managers generally have an important role to play towards the degree of the internationalization of the firms. Validity and reliability are thus the tow important factors that will help for the evaluation and prove for the relevance and the trustworthiness of the research.  The generalization of the types and the category  of the market and the modes of the entry furthermore gives an opportunity for the continuing and the analysis of the internationalization strategies  of the HRM in the context of the markets with various level of the development.

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