OLG 122: INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
COURSE OUTLINE
By
Dr Chacha Matoka
Course description
Faced with the continuing growth of globalization in industry, Human Resource
professionals are increasingly required to demonstrate understanding of the intricacies
of conducting HRM programs in international and cross-cultural contexts. This course
will examine organizational and employee perspectives on the design and delivery of
international HRM programs. Issues to be explored include strategies for global
recruitment and selection, multi-country compensation programming, cross-cultural
adjustment and repatriation, performance management and career development for
multinational employees, and international labour relations.
Learning Outcome:
Upon successful completion of this course, you will have an understanding of:






How HRM contributes to organizational performance in three different ways:
through sound functional basics; through effective realignment when the
external environment changes; and by building an organizational context so that
the organization can cope with the dualistic forces that it confronts
Global integration and the means of achieving it
Local responsiveness and how adjusting to local conditions interplays with global
integration
Methods of internationalizing – alliances, mergers and acquisitions
Diversity management, performance management, talent development and
succession
Ethical issues in international human resource management
1
TOPIC ONE: INTRODUCTION TO INTERNATIONAL HUMAN
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT: THE CONTEXT
Subtopics:
1.1 International business and International Human Resource
Management
1.1. The internationalization of business
1.2. The internationalization of Human Resource Management
TOPIC TWO: Strategic International Human Resource Management
2.1. Strategic IHRM
2.2. Evolution of the multinational enterprise
2.3. A model for Strategic IHRM
TOPIC THREE: Organizational structure and design of the multinational
enterprise
3.1. Global organization design: an introduction
3.2. IHRM and organizational design
3.3. Designing the multinational enterprise
3.4. It’s more than formal structure
4
5
T00KKKKKKKK
TOPIC FOUR: Cross-border mergers and acquisitions, international joint
Ventures and alliances
4.1. Cross-border M&As, international joint ventures, and alliances
4.2. Managing the cross-border merger or acquisition
4.3. International joint ventures
4.4. Alliances and partnerships
TOPIC FIVE: Country culture and MNE culture
5.1. The most important issue: culture
5.2. Cultural attitudes and values and management practices
5.3. Impact of culture on IHRM
5.4. Research in IHRM
TOPIC SIX: Global employment law and labor relations
6.1. Global employment law and enforcement
6.2 Comparative employment law
6.3. Extraterritorial application of national law (with special attention
6.4. To the US and Tanzania)
6.5. Application of national law to local foreign-owned enterprises
2
(With special attention to the US and Tanzania)
6.6. Union and labor relations
6.7. Immigration law
6.8. MNE employment policy and practice
TOPIC SEVEN: Global ethics and labor standards
7.1. The ethics of HR decision making in foreign operations: a general perspective
7.2. International standards
7.3. Balancing the extremes: suggested guiding principles
TOPIC EIGHT: Global workforce planning, forecasting, and staffing the
multinational enterprise
8.1. Global workforce planning and forecasting
8.2. Staffing the multinational enterprise: an introduction
8.3. Global staffing choices: implications for multinational enterprises
TOPIC NINE: Staffing the global enterprise: selection of international
assignees
9.1. International assignees and international assignments
9.2. Staffing with international assignees
9.3. Successful expatriation
9.4. Immigration law
TOPIC TEN: Training and management development in the global enterprise
10.1. Training in the global enterprise
10.2. Management development in the global enterprise
TOPIC ELEVEN: Global compensation, benefits, and taxes
11.1. Compensation and benefits for expatriates
11.2. Designing a compensation strategy for multinationals
TOPIC TWELVE: International performance management for international
assignees and foreign managers
12.1. Purposes and roles of international performance management
12.2. Challenges to the effectiveness of the IPM system
12.3. Managing the IPM system
12.4. International assignee and foreign manager development
12.4. Senior managers’ attitudes about international performance management
12.5. Overcoming IPM challenges
12.6. Characteristics of effective IPM systems: guidelines
3
TOPIC THIRTEEN: Health, safety, and crisis management in the global
enterprise
13.1. Employee health and safety around the world
13.2. Health and safety for international assignees
REFERENCES:
Anne-Wil K Harzing and Ashly Pinnington (2010)International Human Resource
Management
by Anne-Wil Harzing and Ashly H. Pinnington (2011) International Human Resource
Management
Ashly Pinnington, Dr Anne-Wil K Harzing and Anne-Wil K Harzing (2012)
International Human Resource Management
Chris Brewster, Paul Sparrow and Guy Vernon ( 2011) 920International Human
Resource Management
Chris Rees and Tony Edwards (11 Nov 2010) International Human Resource
Management: Globalization, National Systems and Multinational Companies
Dennis Briscoe, Dennis R. Briscoe, Randall S. Schuler and Randall Schuler (2008)
International Human Resource Management: Policy and Practice for Multinational
Enterprises (Global HRM) by
Peter J. Dowling, Marion Festing and Sr. Allen D. Engle ( 2007) International Human
Resource Management30
1
2
3
4
4