There can be major challenges and complexities facing organisations when they become international in their scope and activities. Comparative people management practice varies from country to country, the reasons for this being partly institutional in nature and partly cultural. This unit explores how and why organisations trade and operate internationally, the different forms that international business operations take and some of the practical and ethical issues that international organisations face from a people management perspective.
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Your 7OS05 assignment questions will closely follow these assessment criteria. Here's what the marker is looking for in each one.
Cover the different ways organisations operate in overseas markets and employ people internationally — exporting, licensing, franchising, joint ventures, wholly-owned subsidiaries, and trading in established, emerging, and new overseas markets. The marker expects analysis of why organisations choose particular modes of international operation and how these choices affect people management requirements and challenges.
Cover foreign direct investment (FDI) strategies, international mergers and acquisitions in home and overseas markets, and international supply chains. The marker wants clear explanation of the strategic options available and the people management implications of each — for example, the HR integration challenges of cross-border mergers vs the staffing demands of greenfield FDI.
Cover multinational corporations, global not-for-profit organisations, international strategic alliances, and international outsourcing, offshoring, nearshoring, and reshoring. Discuss the role of people professionals in developing appropriate policies and practices for their organisation's international form. The marker expects a review that connects organisational structure to practical people management consequences.
Cover managing corporate social responsibility (CSR), sustainability, and governance in international organisations. Discuss regulatory controls on issues such as child and forced labour, low wages, and freedom of association. The marker wants a substantive discussion that acknowledges the genuine ethical dilemmas international organisations face — not just a list of issues, but an exploration of the tensions between commercial pressures and ethical responsibilities.
Cover varied formal institutional frameworks — political, legal, and judicial systems, business and employment regulation, and the distinction between liberal market economies, co-ordinated market economies, and command economies. Discuss the increasing complexity of these distinctions. The marker expects comparison that goes beyond description to explain how institutional differences create different environments for people management practice.
Cover traditions of corporate governance, training and welfare systems, trade unions, and the role of the International Labour Organization (ILO). The marker expects appraisal — a judgement about the strengths and weaknesses of different institutional arrangements and how they shape the context for people management practice in different countries.
Cover major cultural mapping models (Hofstede, Trompenaars, GLOBE) and critiques of these models. Discuss international diversity in management style, employee expectations, approaches to communication, and business ethics. The marker expects critical analysis — engage with the debate about whether national culture models are useful tools or oversimplified stereotypes, and consider the evidence for their validity and practical utility.
Cover major alternative models of people practice that operate globally. Discuss debates about convergence, divergence, integration, and diffusion of people policy and practice. Cover home and host country influences on people practices in MNCs, continued use of host country practices when organisations are taken over, and reverse transfer of practices. The marker expects practical advice grounded in understanding of the complexity of global people management.
Cover major alternative resourcing strategies — ethnocentric, polycentric, geocentric, and regiocentric approaches. Discuss interacting with international labour markets and developing an effective global employer brand. Cover managing expatriates: reasons for employing expatriate staff, selecting and preparing people for international assignments, remunerating and supporting staff on international assignments, and effective repatriation. The marker expects a strategic, practical response.
Cover international management development and careers, the attributes of effective global leaders, the role of L&D in supporting identification of global leaders and their continuing development, and international succession planning and talent pools. The marker wants evidence of strategic thinking about how to build leadership capability across a global organisation, not just a description of talent management processes.
Cover managing a culturally diverse workforce based in different locations internationally. Discuss tensions between home and host country traditions in terms of religion, ethnicity, and gender, and the challenge of managing multi-cultural teams effectively. The marker expects you to justify the case persuasively — explain why EDI matters in an international context and how organisations can navigate the tensions between global consistency and local cultural norms.
Cover balancing centralisation and localisation, designing, structuring, and restructuring international organisations, and managing change internationally. The marker expects critical discussion that acknowledges the genuine complexity of international people management — there are no simple answers, and the right approach depends on the organisation, its strategy, and its operating context.
Cover global employment relations policies and strategies, upward and downward communication in international organisations, understanding that mechanisms for employee voice vary between countries, working with trade unions internationally, and international knowledge management. The marker wants you to demonstrate understanding of the communication challenges that arise from operating across cultures, languages, and time zones.
Cover selecting and implementing appropriate performance management systems, international reward management, and managing disciplinary and dismissal issues in global organisations. The marker expects assessment of the specific challenges of managing performance across borders — cultural differences in feedback, varying legal frameworks, and the difficulty of maintaining consistency while respecting local norms.
Cover working time and holidays, work-life balance, flexible working practices, maternity and parental leave, and the reality of people professionals working around the clock due to time differences and positioning of weekends across the globe. The marker expects you to justify flexible working in the international context specifically — explain why it is not just a nice-to-have but an operational necessity for global organisations.
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