INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT by Nilanjan Sengupta and

Mousumi S. Bhattacharya, Excel Books, 2006, pp. XIX+315, Price Rs. 275 (Paper).

In the present era of globalisation, series of mergers and acquisitions and other forms of
business alliances are shaping interactions among nations. It won't be an exaggeration to
say that if any national in the world sneezes, some other nation may catch cold. In this
form of global business, international human resource management (IHRM) is emerging
as a crucial factor because organizations are run by people. But the problem begins due to
differences in people, in their cultural values and mental programs. The socio-cultural
and psychological problems make IHRM a complex process. Any organization which
wants to play in international business must develop the knowledge and the skills to
perceive the similarities and differences that govern the rules of the game. The key to
survival lies in developing a balance between the differences which play a vital role.

The book under review attempts to portray various factors that are concerned with
managing human resources The fancy word for "people." The human resources
department within an organization, years ago known as the "personnel department,"
manages the administrative aspects of the employees. in the international business. The
book has sought to address some of the macro and micro issues that influence IHRM and
has been divided into four parts. Part I is an introduction to IHRM and includes three
chapters. In the first chapter, the focus is to understand the various macro-level
dimensions, such as economic development, geography, language, religion, social
responsibility, political environment and so forth. The factors are intricately related to
one another and influence the overall environment in which business is conducted at any
given point of time. At the planning stage, when a company intends to explore and
establish the possibilities of setting up business ventures in a particular country, the
political and economic risk assessment are critical foreign investing firm. However once
the firm has calculated the above risk factors and decides to enter into business a foreign
country, socio-cultural, historic and geographical factors become important points for
consideration, particularly in relation to day-to-day interactional and operational issues of
return on investment may be balanced by those related to return on relationship, if the
firm wishes to gain acceptability as a viable and enduring business entity in the foreign
land. International Human Resource Management must, therefore, focus not only on
business issues, but on business relationships as well, which are partly, economic and,
partly socio-cultural in character.

Any strategy for a globalization firm needs to address the challenge of balance between
global policy and local approach in the context of managing their business successfully in
different geographical locations. Keeping this in view chapter two 'Strategic Planning'
discusses the steps involved in the formulation of strategies by global firms. Think global
but act local i.e., G. Local strategy has been the ultimate mantra for MNC's success.
Various G. Local strategies followed by MNC's with reference to India are discussed in
this chapter. Chapter three 'HRM in International Context' proposes an integrated
approach in developing an IHRM model. The activities of HRM in the domestic economy
are different from those in the international market in terms of functions, emphasis,
external influences, culture, staffing, training and development, compensation etc. It is
therefore appropriate for an MNC MNC

See: Multinational corporation to develop an integrated approach that takes into

consideration all internal and external factors.

Part II deals with the functional aspect of IHRM including five chapters, namely,
recruitment and selection, training and development, compensation management,
performance management and industrial relations industrial relations
pl.n.
Relations between the management of an industrial enterprise and its employees.

industrial relations
Noun, pl

the relations between management and workers . Recruitment, selection and staffing in
the international context are crucial and must be carefully undertaken to reflect the real
needs of the organization. A judicious mix in terms of providing healthy and competitive
career paths to existing employees at home along with host country nationals is needed.
Generally, multinational staffing decisions are determined by ethnocentric
eth·no·cen·trism
n.
1. Belief in the superiority of one's own ethnic group.

2. Overriding concern with race.

eth approach, polycentric polycentric /poly·cen·tric/ (-sen´trik) having many centers. ,

geocentric ge·o·cen·tric
adj.
1. Relating to, measured from, or with respect to the center of the earth.

2. Having the earth as a center.

ge and the regiocentric approach. A number of recruitment techniques are used like
cross- national advertising, e-recruitment, head- hunters etc.

Training and Development in the international context has been dealt in chapter five.
Training and development of the international staff for foreign assignments has not
gained much attention as a function of HRM. The focus of the firms is more on the
strategy and development of the markets as they are directly related to the assignments.
At best, MNC's hire consultants or use their former expatriates to help them train the new
batch which may be assigned a foreign posting. Companies are therefore skeptic about
the inhibitive cost of the training programs and their real benefits. Nevertheless,
expatriates have the support of a list of websites that can help them gain knowledge of the
new culture.
Chapter six on Compensation Management addresses issues regarding forms of
compensation, factors affecting compensation policy, approaches, practices and social
security systems across some countries. Managing compensation in international context
is a very complex and crucial activity of MNC's. There is a wide gap between salaries
paid for comparable positions in different countries due to different economic systems,
therefore a universally accepted and a fair compensation program requires an in-depth
knowledge about the employment and taxation laws, social security systems, and cost of
living indices of the host countries. It is, thus, imperative for MNC's to understand the
elements, the emerging issues, and the special problems associated with returning
expatriates to their home corporation. The complex nature of international compensation
demands special attention from global organisations operating in a multinational
environment.

Another related issue in IHRM is about Performance Management, which is a complex

process and requires through understanding of the MNC's corporate objectives, individual
manager's performance criteria and his ability to achieve the target. Other factors, such as
the complex international business environment, cultural and work differences in the host
country make expatriate's performance management a very complex process.
Performance criteria of an expatriate is also difficult to standardize, since the hardship
factor in a specific foreign country and nature of business influence the performance
criteria to a great extent.

Chapter seven on Performance Management aims to address issues and challenges related
to expatriates and country specific practices. A related aspect of IHRM is industrial
relations (IR). Healthy IR can enhance employment and further the goal of upgrading
employment quality and skills in foreign subsidiaries, therefore, MNC's should try to win
loyalty and commitment of their employees through international consultations and
bargaining. Chapter eight focuses on international IR issues and country specific
practices.

Part III elaborates the influence of Organisational Dynamics on IHRM and includes two
chapters, namely, role of culture and organisational processes in IHRM. Cultural
differences affect the organisational behaviour within countries. Hence, the knowledge of
culture helps in understanding the beliefs, interpersonal relationship This article or
section may contain original research or unverified claims.

Please help Wikipedia by adding references. See the for details.

This article has been tagged since September 2007. , management styles and value
systems. In this chapter, the focus is on understanding as to which organisational process
needs to be tuned in terms of readjustment to enhance HRM functions. Chapter ten deals
with Organisational Processes in IHRM. It highlights inter-cultural communication,
motivation across cultures, global leadership and decision-making. Each of these
processes affects on its ability to create an effective and a functional framework to
survive, sustain and grow cross- cultural settings and create values out of return on
relationship along with return on investment in terms of their acceptability.
Part IV deals with special issues related to IHRM. Chapter eleven analyses the role of
Global HR Managers. The role has changed rapid by therefore, global managers are
required to have different set of competencies so that they can handle difficult situations
while maintaining peak performance. International managers should be in a position to
manage cultural differences across a variety of attitudes, beliefs and standards. Language
skills are an important ingredient in this context. Cultural differences in communication
styles can also pose problems for HR managers, for instance German response might be
to observe the counter argument and make a logical reply, whereas the typical U.K.
response would be to understate un·der·state
v. un·der·stat·ed, un·der·stat·ing, un·der·states

v.tr.
1. To state with less completeness or truth than seems warranted by the facts.

2. and use humour and the U.S. response would be to restate more firmly and to provoke
a fight. Thus global managers need to understand the impact of global diversity to
enhance organisational effectiveness.

Another issue relating to relating to relate prep → concernant

relating to relate prep → bezüglich +gen, mit Bezug auf +acc IHRM is of Women
Expatriates. Chapter twelve analyses the reasons for lesser number of female expatriates,
related factors and the role of HR manager to help in improving the situation. Beliefs,
attitudes and mindsets of people need to undergo drastic change to prove the equality of
job and occupational chances for women who are handling international assignments. HR
professionals are required to be knowledgeable of employment laws, training,
promotions, recruitment policies etc. Chapter thirteen highlights the issues of Joint
Ventures. Mergers, alliances and joint ventures are considered as a preferred form of
alliance in the intranational in·tra·na·tion·al
adj.
Occurring or existing within a single nation: an intranational conflict; intranational
regions.

in market. The success and failures of these depend upon the selection process, inventing
time and ideal partner. In this chapter the reasons for the failure/success of joint ventures,
the role of culture, HRM factors and methods of overcoming cultural and other problems
are dealt in. The chapter ends with a case study that depicts international joint venture
success (p. 297) of Tata Autocomp Systems, a Pune based company of the Tata group
The Tata Group is India's largest conglomerate company, with revenues in 2005-06 of
Rs. 967,229 million (US $21.9 billion), the equivalent of about 2.8% of India's GDP, and
a market capitalisation of US $57.6 billion now (only 28 of the 96 Tata Group companies
are publicly listed). .

The last chapter deals with the dilemmas of Hiring Inpatriate and Expatriate Managers.
The global organisations may derive several advantages in employing inpatriate
managers in contrast to their expatriate counterparts for their global operations. However,
in making inpatriation as the preferred choice for achieving global competitiveness and
effectiveness of the firm's business goals certain issues are involved. In the absence of
proper training and resultant maladjustment maladjustment /mal·ad·just·ment/ (mal?ah-
just´ment) in psychiatry, defective adaptation to the environment.

mal·ad·just·ment
n.
1. Faulty or inadequate adjustment.

2. , the inpatriate managers may not be able to deliver what is expected. Culture specific
training inculcating sensitivity among inpatriate managers is a must for their success. The
issue is further complicated by the fact that the inpatriate manager need to gain
acceptance of the foreign counterparts for working as global teammates. In the end, it is
really like the horn of a dilemma See under Dilemma.

See also: Horn for global organisations and they need to balance the issues related to the
choices they make before they cross the hump.

To sum, up the authors have done a marvellous job of providing web based information,
which is helpful to the reader to identify the broader areas. However, the book suffers
from certain weaknesses. Lot of grammatical errors clearly reflect the casualness of the
authors. Students may find difficult to grasp lengthy sentences. Improved presentation
and better editing would have improved its quality. Inclusion of name index may allow
the reader to have easy access to the subject. The reviewer is perturbed to find on what
basis country specific practices relating to HRM have been dealt with. Nevertheless, the
book will serve the purpose of professionals and students in the field of HRM.

Kamlesh Jain

Reader in Commerce

Mata Sundari College for Women

University of Delhi, Delhi