International human resource management purpose, main features and challenges of cross-cultural performance management

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International human resource management purpose

Introduction Of International human resource management purpose

International human resource management purpose, In order to thoroughly discuss the problem of performance appraisals in context of different culture and evaluate the practices, it is important to first define the terms related to the concept. Expatriates are defined as people who are working in foreign countries. Managers who are assigned to assess the performance of expatriate employees and home country employees, who are on a foreign assignment for at least 6 months, are known as expatriate managers (Huang, Chi & Lawler 2005).

According to Armstrong (1998), performance management is “a strategic and integrated approach to delivering sustained success to organisations by improving the performance of the people who work in them and by developing the capabilities of teams and individual contributors” (1998:7). Another important concept that should be understood before discussing it in detail is performance appraisal. According to experts, performance appraisal is one of the steps in the entire performance management process (Dowling, 1999). It is considered as the evaluation of an individual’s work performance in order to arrive at objective personnel decisions (Jafari, Bourouni & Amiri 2009).

There is a limited research on cross-cultural performance management as brought out by the research conducted by Peter Woods on cross-cultural performance management of Australian and Singaporean expatriates (Woods 2003).

Although, an effective expatriate performance management is crucial for corporations, there are only a few studies regarding the performance appraisals and culture (Milne 2007). This is also supported by evidence in the Woods paper, which shows that Australian and Singaporean expatriates had problems with the system of foreign performance appraisals being used because it paid a very little regard to the cultural context (Woods 2003).

It is considered that due attention towards the cultural-context is important in designing performance appraisal tools. Results of research conducted by Woods show that sometimes the problems that are generally associated with appraisal tools, are not the problems of human resource management but common work problems that workers might face because of having difficulty in adapting to a new work environment and culture (Woods 2003).

On similar lines, the research by Huang, Vliert & Vegt (2005) shows that performance appraisals that disregard cultural context are considered to be problematic. This report will therefore, analyse the features, challenges and problems of cross-cultural performance management, utilising the Woods paper and other relevant literature.

International Performance Appraisal and Performance Management

Performance appraisals of expatriates is a complex process and deciding the criteria for international appraisals is more complicated than designing appraisals for employees working in the home branches of parent companies (Fenwick 1999). Companies that require conducting appraisals for expatriates might be conducting two appraisals simultaneously i.e. one home-based appraisal and one host country-based appraisal. In order to ensure effectiveness sometimes appraisals are performed twice a year (Dowling 1999). Some of the approaches that can be employed for performance management of expatriates involve:

• Integrative Approach

Integrative approach involves combination of both the home-based and host country-based approaches in order to maintain objectivity in the appraisal system (Nell 2011).

• Self-Evaluation

According to Armstrong (1998), another…