The culture of a country in which a facility is located has an important influence on human resource management (HRM) practices. Other important factors are the education and skill level of a country's labor markets, its political-legal system, and its economic system. When a company operates in many different countries, its HR managers need to develop expertise in each country's economic system and political-legal system and gain knowledge about the education and skill levels of the country's workers. HR practices, such as performance management, hiring and recruiting, compensation, training, and policies that reflect the laws and regulations to which the company is subject, all impact its HRM decisions.

This activity is important because these factors affect a company's HRM strategies, which is critical in an age of increasing globalization.

The goal of this activity is to determine which factor most strongly influences human resource management in international markets.

Read each action taken related to an HR policy, then select the appropriate factor to which it most closely pertains.

1. The Japanese subsidiary reduced the emphasis on individual performance evaluations because performance was based on a collective rather than on an individual outcome.

2)2. Changes in European Union employment laws prevented the French subsidiary from implementing its downsizing strategy as planned.

3. The availability of low-cost, high-quality engineers caused the company to move its Asian resource and development center from Tokyo to Shanghai.

4. To encourage workers from capitalist countries to move to countries under socialist systems, such as Poland, the company needed to ensure that those expatriates would keep more of their earnings.

5. The Dutch subsidiary increased hiring and also expanded operations as a result of the availability of high-caliber scientists.

6. The process for filing evaluation forms for employees in the German subsidiary was redesigned because German law allows Germans the right to see their own personnel files.

7. The Russian subsidiary struggled to get employees to pursue advanced science degrees because, under communism, the tie between level of education and salary increases was not common.

8. Collaboration between the Chinese and British subsidiaries collapsed due to differences in the prevailing communication styles in the two countries.

Options

a)Cultural

b)Political -Legal

c)Education and Skills

d)Economic System