International & Comparative Human Resource Management
Name：
Nikos Bozionelos
Nationality： United Kingdom
Academic
Title：
Professor
Home
University
（From）：
Durham University
Email
Address：
nikos.bozionelos@durham.ac.uk
Undergraduate Master
English
none
Lectures, Class discussions/exercises, Cases, Video material
(1) Attendance and participation 20%
(2) Group in-class Exercise 30%
(3) Individual Assignment 50%
2 credits
Nikos Bozionelos is Professor of Organizational Behaviour and International Human
Resource Management in Durham University Business School (United Kingdom). He has
background in Mathematics (Ptychion, Patras) Psychology (MA, Liverpool) and
Management (MPhil, Cranfield, PhD, Strathclyde).
He has extensive teaching experience at every level, with specialty at graduate
and executive level. His teaching expertise extends over the areas of Organizational
Behavior/Human Resource Management, International Human Resource Management, and
Careers. He has delivered courses in educational institutions of a number of
countries that, apart from the United Kingdom, include the USA, France, Germany,
Norway, Greece, Romania, Serbia and Turkey. In addition, he has been a visiting
Scholar in institutions that include Carnegie Mellon University (USA) and Rouen
Business School (France).
Dr Bozionelos is researching in a number of areas, with particular emphasis on
Careers and their related a
Course Description
Internationalization and globalization means that firms and organizations
increasingly have operations in more than one country, and that individuals cross
national borders either in expatriate missions or in self-initiated endeavors to
find better employment opportunities.
The aim of the course is to provide participants with knowledge and skills that will
enable them to effectively manage and lead an increasingly multi-national and
multicultural workforce in operations that cut through national boundaries.
Different national locations are associated with differing cultural, economic and
legislative environments. These affect the nature of the workforce and the demands
imposed to its management, including: the need and motivation to work, attitudes
towards the employer, the organization of work (e.g., comfort with teamwork
arrangements), organizational design, preferred leadership styles, nature of
stakeholders, unionization and collective bargaining.
The notions of culture and national culture will be explored, and the importance
of National Culture when considering the transferability of human resource systems
and practices across borders will be highlighted. Participants will delve into
models that allow comparative analysis of national cultures (e.g., Hofstede,
Trompenaars, Schwartz, GLOBE), along with implications and tools these offer for
the management of the workforce. Participants will be also alerted to the limitations
of these models, and to the fact that specific local knowledge is many times required
when complementing the adaptation of a human resource system or
management/leadership approach into another country. On the other hand, management
and leadership approaches that seem universally effective, if designed and
implemented with cognizance of local values, needs and historical facts, will be
reviewed. Advanced knowledge on advantages and disadvantages of a multi-cultural
workforce, along with guidelines and skills of how to maximize the former and
minimize the latter, will also be provided.
Approaches to the management of multinational operations, and options available to
firms for the staffing of such operations will be explored (e.g., home vs. host
country nationals vs. third-country nationals), along with the advantages and
caveats of each. This issue will also be viewed from the perspective of monetary
cost and return on investment for the various options.
Finally, the management of expatriates will be under focus, especially as
expatriation nowadays takes many forms that go beyond the traditional,
corporate-sponsored, expatriation. Participants will become aware of issues
involved in the successful management of expatriation, starting from the search and
selection of expatriates, and extending to the re-absorption of repatriates and
expatriate return-on-investment.
With the completion of the course, participants will have the knowledge and skills
required to successfully respond to the challenges involved in leading and managing
a multi-cultural workforce in operations that cross national borders.
Course contents
SESSION 1: The internationalization of Business & the increasingly
multi-cultural/multi-ethnic nature of the workforce; Human Resource Management
(HRM), and the case for International HRM; Culture and National Culture;
Determinants and consequences of Culture
SESSION 2: How National Cultures differ; Models and Dimensions of National Culture;
Cultural clusters
SESSION 3: The influence of National culture on Business practices, on the
organization of work, and on behavior at work; Approaches to management and to
workforce management in representative cultural clusters.
SESSION 4: The limitations of generic cultural models and the need for localized
cultural knowledge. The caveats of culture as an explanatory force: other
influencing factors (e.g., economic imperatives, employment legislation).
SESSION 5: Advantages and disadvantages of a mutli-cultural/multi-ethnic workforce;
Optimizing the management of a multi-cultural workforce; HRM in cross-border mergers
and acquisitions.
SESSION 6: Operational strategies for Multinational Corporations and approaches to
HRM in international/multi-national operations; the transferability of HRM systems
and practices across national boundaries; Techniques, approaches and styles with
universal applicability; the evidence for Cross-vergence.
SESSION 7: International assignments and their Management; Sources of Staff for
international operations; traditional Expatriation and emerging forms of
expatriation (e.g., self-initiated and globetrotting).
SESSION 8: Expatriate return-on-investment; Selection & Preparation of staff for
international assignments; the management of assignees during their mission; the
management of Repatriation.
Edwards, T., & Rees, C. (2011). International Human Resource Management (2rd Ed.).
Harlow, UK: Pearson (ISBN: 9780273716129). *
Stahl, G. K., Mendenhall, M. E., & Oddou, G. R. (2012). Readings and cases in
International Human Resource Management and Organizational Behavior (5th Ed.). New
York: Routledge. ((ISBN: 9780415892988).
* It is recommended that participants buy this textbook.
** all other readings will be available from the course instructor
Andressen, M., Bergdolt, F., Mergenfeld, J., & Dickmann, M. (2014). Addressing
international mobility confusion - developing definitions and differentiations for
self-initiated and assigned expatriates as well as migrants. International Journal
of Human Resource Management, 25, 2295-2318.
Bozionelos, N. (2009). Expatriation outside the boundaries of the multinational
corporation: A study with expatriate nurses in Saudi Arabia. Human Resource
Management, 48, 111-134.
Bozionelos, N., & Wang, L. (2007). An investigation on the attitudes of Chinese
workers towards individually-based performance related reward systems.
International Journal of Human Resource Management, 18, 284-302.
Calveley, M. (2005). Competencies of international human resource managers. In
Ozbilgin, M. (Ed.), International human resource management: Theory and practice
(pp. 144-155). New York: Palgrave.
Chiang, F. (2005). A critical examination of Hofstede's thesis and its application
to international reward management. International Journal of Human Resource
Management, 16, 1545-1563.
Clark, K., & Lengnick-Hall, M. L. (2012). MNC practice transfer: Institutional
theory, strategic opportunities and subsidiary HR configuration. International
Journal of Human Resource Management, 23, 3813-3837.
Fee, A., McGrath-Champ, S., & Yang, X. H. (2011). Expatriate performance management
and firm internationalization: Australian multinationals in China. Asian Pacific
Journal of Human Resources, 49, 365-384.
Fey, C. F. (2005). Opening the black box of motivation: A cross-cultural comparison
of Sweden and Russia. International Business Review, 14, 345-367.
Hartmann, E., Feisel, E., & Schober, H. (2010). Talent management of western MNCs
in China: Balancing global integration and local responsiveness. Journal of World
Business, 45, 169-178.
Hofstede, G. (1993). Cultural constraints of management theories. Academy of
Management Executive, 7(1), 81-94.
James, R., & Jones, R. (2014). Transferring the Toyota lean cultural paradigm into
India: implications for human resource management. International Journal of Human
Resource Management, 25, 2174-2191.
Kelley, L., MacNab, B., & Worthley, R. (2006). Crossvergence and cultural tendencies:
A longitudinal test of the Hong Kong, Taiwan and United States banking sectors.
Journal of International Management, 12, 67-84.
Lee, L. Y., & Kartika, N. (2014). The influence of individual, family, and social
capital factors on expatriate adjustment and performance: The moderating effect of
psychology contract and organizational support. Expert Systems With Applications,
41, 5483-5494.
Lertxundi, A., & Landeta, J. (2011). The moderating effect of cultural context in
the relation between HPWS and performance: An exploratory study in Spanish
multinational companies. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 22,
3949-3967.
Lertxundi, A., & Landeta, J. (2012). The dilemma facing multinational enterprises:
Transfer or adaptation of their human resource management systems. International
Journal of Human Resource Management, 23, 1788-1807.
Liang, X. Y., Marler, J. H., & Cui, Z. Y. (2012). Strategic human resource management
in China: East meets West. Academy of Management Perspectives, 26(2), 55-70.
McPhail, R., Fisher, R., Harvey, M., & Moeller, M. (2012). Staffing the global
organization: ‘Cultural nomads’. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 23, 259-276.
Mohan, T., Wilkinson, A., & Dhara, S. (2012). Internationalization and HRM
strategies across subsidiaries in multinational corporations from emerging
economies: A conceptual framework. Journal of World Business, 47, 251-258.
Pattie, M., White, M. M., & Tansky, J. (2010). The homecoming: A review of support
practices for repatriates. Career Development International, 15, 359-377.
Qin, C., & Baruch, Y. (2010). The impact of cross-cultural training for expatriates
in a Chinese firm. Career Development International, 15, 296-318.