Coursework A

Globalisation is the ever increasing interaction, interconnectedness and integration of people, companies and countries through trade flows, cultural penetration and investments across borders (Briscoe et al., 2009). Consequently, the need to efficiently and effectively manage the complexity of organizations stretched across borders may have evolved the role of Human Resource Management into a multi facet strategic form, International Human Resource management. Despite being two sides of the same coin and having several commonalities, the multicultural aspect and institutional and environmental constraints add to the complexity of IHRM (Brewster et al., 2007).
The aim of this coursework is to scrutinize various IHRM strategies adopted by MNCs in the face of various environmental and institutional circumstances and to reveal the pros and cons of the seemingly neutral façade of the IHRM strategies. The layout of the coursework will be based on the ‘Eight-point star of IHRM: a framework of key aspects’ (Figure 1) which identifies the eight distinct and fundamental areas of IHRM’s scope (Ozbilgin, 2005). Each of these eight aspects is interlinked to form the crux of IHRM and will be discussed in light of relevant journal articles and academic evidences.

(Ozbilgin, 2005)
The Global Workforce: This section will cover the categories of human capital available to MNCs in the international arena: Host-country nationals (HCNs), Parent-country nationals (PCNs) and Third-country nationals (TCNs). IHRM is the interplay amongst HR activities, types of employees and the country of operation. (Morgan, 1986)
International Context: The analysis of global patterns of diversification, amalgamation, modification and persistence of management practices determine the response of HR in terms of divergence, convergence and cross-vergence (Jackson, 2004). MNCs may choose to operate the ethnocentric, polycentric, geocentric (Perlmutter, 1969) or regiocentric