HRMT6004: Research Report Assignment Help
Question
HRMT6004: This is research report-based assignment. The students are required to identify three issues related to the International and Comparative Human Resource Management through their learnings of the subject. These issues need to be explored and analysed in detail through an interview with an expatriate and the IHRM issues they faced in their work experience in a different country.
Solution
The solution provides a detailed enquiry into the IHRM issues related to expatriate management in a foreign country. Three of the issues identified include- Cross-cultural issues, Adjustment issues faced by expatriates, and issues related to the training and development of expatriates. In order to explore the issues in detail, a comprehensive literature review is conducted for each of these issues. Additionally, the data generated through the exploratory interviews done with the expatriates is also analysed in detail.
The solution incorporates different sections including an introduction to the expatriate management issues, followed by a comprehensive literature review for each of these issues. Next, the methodology section is written for the research which includes the methodological approach, data collection methods, participant selection criteria, and the analysis methods used in the research. The next section includes the findings of the report, which is followed by a discussion, a brief conclusion, and recommendations for how the IHRM practices related to expatriate management can be enhanced.
Introduction
The solution begins with a brief introduction to the IHRM practices and related issues which arise in expatriate management in a different nation. Our experts have written introduction which orients the reader to the entire research.
International human resource management (IHRM)refers to the process of recruiting, selecting, training and efficiently utilising the human resource at an international level (Pucik et al. 2017). One of the significant features which differentiate IHRM from HRM is that IHRM involves movement of staff across the national boundaries and into different roles within the international organisation’s operations (Farndale et al. 2017). The employees who temporarily reside in a foreign country and work for international firms are known as expatriates (McNulty& Selmer 2016).
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Literature review
Our experts have presented the next section of literature review separately for the three issues identified related to IHRM practices for expatriates.
Firstly, literature for cross- cultural issues for the expatriates are described in detail. Please keep reading to know how our experts have presented a detailed summary and critical analysis of the previous studies related to the cross- cultural issues.
2.1 Cross-cultural issues for expatriates
One of the most common challenges faced by the expatriates is the lack of awareness about the host country’s culture (Chen 2019). Dousin & Sulong (2021) states that expatriates need to realise their capacity to adapt to the host country’s culture and understand the variation between the foreign culture and the home culture to ensure smooth transition. But this might be challenging for the expatriates due to the cultural shock they face during the period of transition.
The second issue identified by our experts is the adjustment related issue faced by the expatriates, for which all the previous relevant studies are described.
2.2 Adjustment issues for expatriates
Working in a new work environment in the host nation poses major adjustment challenges in front of the expatriates. These challenges are attributed to the cultural barriers which the expatriates encounter in the new work environment (Wang 2016). As per Uddin et al. (2020), most of the international firms tend to hire the expatriates on the basis of their technological knowledge but ignore other crucial factors such as the expatriates’ home culture, family and personal needs. Some of the multinational firms lack any provision of cross-cultural training which makes adjustment to the foreign culture even more difficult.
Another issue identified is the training and development for the expatriates. Our experts assure quality in the literature review written by them, a snippet of which you can read below.
2.3 Training and development of expatriates
Zhu et al. (2018) identifies that effective expatriate management is a critical issue in the field of IHRM and is often overlooked. International firms emphasise on the cross-cultural competence of the expatriates but offer very limited cross-cultural training support. Most of the expatriates describe the training and development programs offered to them as useless. Similar observations have been made by Abdullah & Jin (2015) which suggests that expatriate training is strategically important to a firm’s success. However, inadequate or short duration of the training does not seem sufficient. Moreover, firms generally do not provide much follow up training to the expatriates once they are posted.
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Methodology
Next, the methodology section is described in detail, some parts of which you can read below. Our experts ensure that the fundamental of how the research was conducted are mentioned here.
Firstly, the methodological approach used for the research is highlighted.
3.1 Methodological approach
The methodological approach taken in this research is the qualitative exploratory research. Exploratory research is designed to better understand about a specific topic of interest.
The method used for data collection are presented. Our experts have highlighted how the data was collected in a systematic format, a snippet of which is provided below:
3.2 Data collection
The method of data collection used in this exploratory research is semi-structured interview. Interviews are a method of data collection for qualitative research. They usually involve open-ended questions which can generate enriching information about the topic.
The next sub-section of the methodology is the criteria set up for the participant selection in the research.
3.3 Criteria for participant selection
Criteria used to select the participant were that the participant must be within the age group of 35-50 and must also be currently working as an expatriate. Participant was found through a common friend.
Lastly, the methodology section also includes how the data collected was analysed.
3.4 Method of analysis
The method of analysis used in this research is thematic analysis.
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Findings
The next section presents the findings revealed through the study. This section also presents the findings related to each of the issues separately-
The first sub-section for the findings reveals the outcomes concerning the cross-cultural issues faced by the expatriates.
4.1 Cross-cultural issues for expatriates
When asked about the cross-cultural issues faced in the foreign organisation ABC mentioned the cross-cultural issues he faced in the company. The first one described by him was the language barrier. For example, ABC said ‘There have been times when the company people asked me to repeat myself and even, I could not understand their accents. Moreover, there have been times when I miss the politeness of Australians here in the US since I find their way of talking as rude which is drastically different to Australian culture’.
The following sub-section provides a detailed summary of the findings related to the adjustment issues.
4.2 Adjustment issues for expatriates
One of the things which ABC again and again mentioned in the interview was the difficulty he faced in adjusting to the culture of the US. In fact, ABC talked about how he hasn’t yet completely adjusted to the culture. For instance, ABC said, ‘It was not at all easy adjusting in the company. It still feels daunting to go to work each day’.
Lastly, the findings of the study related to the training and development of expatriates is written by our experts.
4.3 Training and development of expatriates
When asked about the training and development policies of the international firm, ABC described the training activities as short-term and focused on improving their job performance and individual responsibilities. ABC also said that the training wasn’t much useful when it came to their adjustment in the foreign culture. ABC said that there was a 9 weekly culture awareness program for the expatriates but there was no language training provided to the expatriates which made the adjustment to the culture even more difficult.
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Discussion
The next section is a discussion which presents an analysis of the findings of the study. Our experts ensure a discussion incorporating a detailed analysis of the findings in the backdrop of the previous studies related to the topic.
Analysing the findings of the research in context of the existing literature makes it evident that there are cross-cultural, adjustment and training and development related issues prevalent for the expatriates in international firms. For instance, ABC faced cultural shock while adjusting to the foreign nation which was potentially due to the lack of knowledge about the foreign culture. The similar finding has been depicted by Dousin & Sulong (2021) which states that expatriates might face cultural shock during the phase of transition. This shows that acquiring knowledge about the foreign culture prior to moving there is crucial for the expatriates to save themselves from cultural shock. Also, cross-cultural issues identified by ABC during the interview were the language barrier followed by food preferences in the foreign culture. The finding is comparable to the study by Princess et al. (2015) which also suggests that there are various cross-cultural barriers like language, cuisines, work norms etc. faced by expatriates in a different work environment. This implies that there are various cross-cultural issues which expatriates face during their international assignment period owing to the difference in language, food, opinions etc.
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Conclusion
A conclusion is provided for the study in the next section. Our experts have written a brief conclusion which is written to summarise all the important points of the report in a short paragraph.
To conclude, the report is based on understanding the issues related to IHRM faced by expatriates with the help of an expatriate interview. The findings from the report suggest that the most common issues faced by an expat in a foreign country include cross-cultural language barrier, lack of language training and effective after-training support from the management of HR along with adjustment issues.
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Recommendations
The last section of the report incorporates the recommendations proposed by our experts which point out how the company for which the expatriate is working can improve their practices to resolve the issues faced by the expatriate.
Some of the recommendations for the US based XXX company associated with the interview participant are:
- The company can offer a short-term pre-departure orientation or education to the expatriates. For example, Apple provides pre-departure training to the expatriates employed in its overseas operations. Pre-departure orientation program will provide expatriates witha brief about the host country’s culture as well as work life and improve their cultural intelligence (Setti et al. 2020).
- Provide effective cross-cultural and language training to the expatriates on arrival. For instance, companies like coca-cola, IBM and many more MNCs offer training not only in the technical aspect but also in cultural and foreign language aspect. Cross-cultural training will make their adjustment in the foreign company easier and faster (Okpara & Kabongo 2017).
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