International HRM

International HRM: Expatriation of Employees

Companies have already begun to rethink and reorganize their traditional international strategies due to the globalization of markets and the ever-growing competition in the international business arena (Holdrege and Mohr 2004). For multinational companies to be successful in the global market and remain their competitive edge against other companies, they must develop strategies that will transact business that will take advantage of global resources and markets (Briscoe and Schuler 2004). As managements begin to develop and implement global strategies, they also begin to concern themselves with issues regarding global human resources. Undeniably, HR (Human Resources) issues, according to Briscoe and Schuler (2004), are among the most critical issues for the success of multinational companies.

            The function of international human resource management (HRM) can be viewed as the principal provider of the “soft” coordination instruments; as a result, its importance has increased tremendously (2001).  (1992) states that globalization along with relative alterations in strategies has changed the role and content of international HRM and has brought it closer to the strategic core of business. The four international HRM tasks are known to increase the coordination of globally dispersed activities in multinational companies as it underpins the development and functioning of an integrated network on strategic, organizational and individual levels: (1) international transfer of managers, (2) provision of management training, (3) use of international teams, and (4) design and implementation of performance evaluation and reward systems (Holdrege and Mohr 2004). It must be noted though that as there is increasing significance of international HRM in the field of international management, past researches has been limited in three ways: First, numerous existing studies have analyzed problems associated with the expatriation of employees (i.e. Tung 1987, Boyacigiller 1990, Bandai 1992, Haring 2001, Shay and Back 2004, Law et al. 2004) while other aspects on international HRM issues are less tackled frequently; Second, most researches have directed towards operative problems associated with the implementation of HR policies under different environmental situations while important strategic facets of international HRM have received only inadequate attention; Finally, existing studies are known to focus only in certain countries or regions like the Asia-Pacific (i.e. De Cirri and Dowling 1997, Bee et al. 2003, Rowley et al. 2004), Mexico (i.e. Paik and Teagarden, 1995 Gomez 2004) or Eastern Europe (i.e. Holdrege and Wedge 1998, Fey at al. 2000, Weinstein and Bolo 2002) rather than addressing rarely on wide issues faced by multinational companies.

This paper will be addressing the issues on expatriation of employees. Liu (2005)

states that there is a relationship between the number of overseas assignments

and employees’ intentions to leave. This paper will evaluate and assess the

relationship between expatriates’ assignment experiences and turnover intention.

In addition, challenges of the cross-cultural management to organizations will be

identified and evaluated as well. In relation to this, the cultural theory will be

applied to practical situations in the international HRM. Theoretical perspectives

in association to the challenges in expatriating .

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