HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Introduction

Turkey has been a major destination for overseas direct investments as one of the stable economies in the world. Multinational corporations all over the United Kingdom significantly invested in Turkey in an attempt to expand their operations as well as develop markets in the area. More recently, upcoming multinational corporations from other nations around the world other than the United Kingdom have arrived in Turkey and start their operations. The aforementioned various multinational corporations have brought human resources, majorly expatriates along with financial resources, and in many instances, specific ways of supervising their labour force from their home headquarters. Transferring human resource management could be challenging and highly sophisticated since human resources are the resources which are majorly country bounded. Foreign multinational corporations operating in Turkey experience a wide range of challenging emerging from the transfer process in addition to the adaptation of human resources management practices, as a result of the uniqueness of Turkey traditions together with their national diversity within Asia with regard to employment traditions. It is important to look how multinational corporations from the United Kingdom have tackled the challenges associated with managing HRM in their market base in Turkey compared to adapting their HRM practices to the culture of Turkey.

Managing HR in MNCs

One of the significant issues in managing HRM in multinational corporations is ways of adapting their headquarters or international methods of supervising human resources based on the diverse national aspects in the host nations. Conversely, managing HR would incorporate utilizing their varied labour force and coordinating overseas human resource management operations in an attempt to exploit the full scope as well as benefits of scale as a transnational corporation. Two concepts in managing HRM in multinational corporations have been explored in the multinational human resource management literature, namely, the extent of international standardization against localization of secondary human resource practices. Another essential aspect would be the utilization of their headquarters nationals against the host state nationals with regard to secondary staffing of multinational corporations.

Research on human resource practices in the Turkey subsidiaries of UK multinational corporations has indicated significant pieces of evidence of international standardization of secondary practices in line with their UK parent firms (Özçelik, and Ferman 2006, p.79). UK multinational corporations tend to employ central authority over their subsidiaries in overseas through attempting to move their headquarter practices to the overseas operations. However, in practice, they also adopt the local cultures to some extent. The orientation in the global management of the UK based firms in Turkey has advanced from the 1980s version of the intensely ethnocentric technique to a more decentralized method. The latter offered broad autonomy to state subsidiaries during the 19080s era and finally to a regionalization technique which gave room for UK headquarters to employ more influence over other regional subsidiaries since the 1990s era.

Nevertheless, it was also discovered that the transfer of UK HRM practices to Turkey subsidiaries is not wholly straightforward as a result of the considerable diversities between the UK and Turkey contexts. Diversity HRM practices are among the most prominent examples. A case study involving Turkey operations of UK multinational corporations reveal that implementation of the adopted diversity management practices were subject to considerable domestic adaptations and were at best unfinished. Accordingly, the case involving associated practices were significantly concrete and comprehensive such as global diversity training, international target monitoring and setting, international corporate value programs and international organizational structures aimed at supporting diversity initiatives. Subsidiary managers argue that the significant features associated with the transferred practices were obtained from opportunities and pressures particular to the UK business system as well as refuted concepts of the diverse practices on the grounds of UK and Turkey legislation (Özçelik and Ferman 2006, p.76). The latter may be prohibiting positive discrimination, including the distinctive structure of domestic labour markets and target setting to raise the rate of female managers.

The practice of worker involvement and voice is another marked differential area between the UK and Turkey contexts. Whereas collective channels of communication such as collective bargaining policies and legislative works councils have been broadly implemented in institutions across the UK, practices implementing direct channels of communication with workers are more dominant in the UK as a result of lack of statutory with regard to the involvement of employees in the management process of decision making. Nonetheless, there is proof of broad variations among Turkey subsidiaries of UK multinational corporations in their adoption as well as the implementation of Turkey practices; otherwise, UK home practices based on the firm or sector-specific factors.

Work Environment

In a workplace environment, one of the factors that motivate employees is the appreciation and recognition of individual efforts.  Even though the way an organization appreciates employee matters, the gratitude and appreciation of the employee performance and behaviour in an organization give them a sense of belonging and motivate individuals to perform even better. However, for the branches, of the same organization, the core values need to conform to the mother company but modified to conform to the foreign culture.  Considering the cultural differences, some modes of appreciation and recognition may have a different meaning in other culture. As such, if used, this may send a message that was not intended by the organization.  Another factor that motivates the employees in the workplace environment that supports the basic needs of the individuals even though in line with the values, rules and regulations of the business (Gurbuz and Mert 2011, p.1809). As a result, the employees find their duties and responsibilities interesting because they have support from fellow workers and the management.

However, the management, through the HR department, has to create this kind of environment by considering the cultural backgrounds of the employees, among other needs.  For instance, a workplace environment that has people from different cultures requires the organization to or the HRM practices to factor in the needs of the individuals based on their cultural backgrounds. In other words, the HRM practices in the mother organization may not meet the needs of the employees in a foreign branch because they were designed in conformity to the needs of employees in a particular country. The feeling involved in decision making is also another factor that enhances the sense of belonging and motivates the employees because they are part of the decisions that are made by the organization (Gurbuz and Mert 2011, p.1813). The involvement of the employees in the decision-making processes is also one way of making the workers feel responsible, ensuring they are implemented accordingly.

Employee Motivation

Every organization desires to be successful within the industry, provided that the prevailing environmental conditions remain competitive.  Firms, regardless of market size, they struggle to retain the best employees, recognize their vital roles, contribution as well as the influence they have on the organization (Osabiya 2015, p.62).  Thus, for a company to overcome unnecessary challenges, they are supposed to establish a positive relationship with their workers, guide them towards tasks self-actualization and see to it that employees attain job satisfaction.

According to Aguenza and Som (2018), employers have the responsibility of promoting the motivation of their employees and establish a high work satisfaction rate among the staff.  Accordingly, come up with programs and policies which are meant to encourage job satisfaction is not a simple task hence is costly in terms of time and money. The moment the employers acknowledges that the benefits of motivations within the working environment, the investment made in the worker-related policies indeed can be justifiable (Kovach 1995). However, in case the workers of an organization get dissatisfied with their jobs as well not encouraged to accomplish their task and realize their goals, it will be next to impossible for an organization to attain their goals.

People have various forms of needs that are unceasingly competing with each other as well vary from one individual to the other.  Every individual has a diverse combination include the level of needs, given that some people are propelled by accomplishment while others are centre their needs on security (Dobre 2013).  Accordingly, in case the managers or supervisors are in a position to acknowledge, envisage and control workers behaviours, then they are supposed to be able to recognize the needs of the employees. In that view, it is imperative for the management of an organization to understand what really inspires workers in the absence of assumption.

Motivation, as illustrated by Dobre (2013), is typically the process that accounts for employees’ direction intensity as well as constant determination towards accomplishing a goal.  It was as well defined as the effort and strategy of behaviour, which depicts how hard a person has laboured to attain a given purpose.  In given circumstances, motivations can serve as the illustration as well as the extrapolation of the behaviour of a precise individual’s work presentation. According to Almatrooshi, Singh and Farouk (2016), there are two types of motivation within an organization which are; intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. The former comes from within an individual and brought about by interest, pleasure, love, enjoyment, among other things. In contrast, the latter is from external effort such as through monetary benefits, job promotion, among others(Kovach 1995, p. 93-107).  Thus, external motivation can manifest itself in activities such as play, exploration as well as seeking challenge, which is common while in search of external rewards.  People always compare intrinsic and extrinsic motivation; either way, motivation ha to be facilitated or governed by reinforcement contingencies.

Almatrooshi, Singh and Farouk (2016) argue that motivation, as well as ability, have been acknowledged by researchers as the two elements which influence productivity capacity of workers thus making management to acquire information on having the expertise to work and the will to work. Almatrooshi, Singh and Farouk (2016) assert that motivation contributes to an increase in output productivity; however, it has an optimum level where it cannot pass.  Past optimum level further increase in motivation leads to a decline in motivation.  The above claim proves that while researching for the factors which inspire employees, management of an organization is supposed to be specific to evade over-motivation, which would accelerate a decrease in work output.

However, according to Almatrooshi, Singh and Farouk (2016) about fifty per cent of motivation tends to be intrinsic, meaning that they are from within an individual while the rest which accounts for fifty per cent as well are extrinsic which depend on the external working environment especially the impact leaders have on their employees.   Further, Kovach (1995) argues that the act of inspiring an individual can either come from conscious or unconscious self, as a result, organizational leaders are supposed to know such every single time they are about to motivate their workers. Indeed, whenever managers and supervisors interact with employees, they have an impact on them in one way or another, in terms of behaviors or actions.

Equally, Almatrooshi, Singh and Farouk (2016) highlight that the two forms of motivation are essential; hence, all of them are required for maximum production to be attained.  Indeed, one has to enjoy his or her work. Such enjoyment could come from having a sense of responsibility with regards to what the organization expect of an individual, freedom to carry out one’s duty as well as accomplishments of challenging work.   There is also negative intrinsic motivation which could be due to fear of one getting dismissed for incompetence (Dobre 2013). Besides, there are extra miles that an organization can go for their workers so to inspire them.  Accordingly, employees who are exposed to external motivation see their jobs as a means of attaining their needs.  A company usually offer rewards to influence the action of workers, and such rewards include increased pay and promotion while negative extrinsic incentive includes withholding pay.

Recruitment Methods

Many organize face vast expenditures in terms of time and resources in an attempt to employ new talent. As such, the recruitment process of net talent is quite a tedious task which involves a number of processes including undertaking candidate search and encouraging employee onboarding. The entire process is aimed at finding and maintaining an appropriate cultural fit for the organization. With high resource investment, organizations ought to look for effective methods of recruitment in hiring new staff. The success of the recruitment process is based on the methods used by the organization during recruitment (Almatrooshi, Singh, and Farouk 20165, p.84). A wrong choice of method will result in missed opportunity cost and wasted effort. As such, recruiters need to understand that hiring the right talent for various positions is more difficult today compared to past times. Baby Boomers are currently headed for retirement, while generation Z enter the labour force. On the other hand, millennials go for freelancing.

Internal job postings

Internal job postings refer to a technique of recruitment where the hiring director posts an open position at work for the existing workers solely. The applicants are required to be employees who have spent a particular period working for the company. Therefore, external candidates are excluded from applying for the job position. Hiring companies choose this technique since they are seeking a candidate with sufficient knowledge about the organization’s policies along with procedures. Furthermore, the recruiters have knowledge of their potential candidate hence do not want to waste time and resources on the hiring process. Recruiters also choose this method in an attempt to promote the existing employees. In the case where the hiring manager ascertains that all staff has knowledge of the open job position coupled with equal opportunity for application, it illustrates transparency, fairness and openness in the hiring process.

Internal job postings come with advantages where it improves employee morale. It also demonstrates equal opportunities for workers to progress within the company as well as their career journey. Internal job postings allow works to take a short time in filling open job positions as well as mitigating cost per hire. Eventually, it aids in improving the loyalty of employees and the quality of recruitment metrics.

Disadvantages of internal job postings

On the other hand, internal job postings encompass numerous obstacles. Some of these disadvantages include employees risking mislaying a better paying occupation outside of the company. It also increases competition where the hired workers can differing ways of thinking or opinions from other workers. Incrementally, a company also risks retaining employees who might not initiate new business ideas. With internal job postings, there is a chance of a prejudiced selection process in the case where the organization already considers a potential candidate. As a result, other workers will likely depict behavioural change towards the preferred employee. Therefore, recruiters should not display favouritism or an act of arbitrary in filling the vacant positions without focusing on other qualified employees.

Social media postings

With an increased number of people utilizing social networking platforms to interact. Recruiters are searching for new talented employees in these sites. Firms are now using social networking platforms since they are able to access detailed information about their candidates compared to the case of resumes in the past. Hiring managers can obtain information about a candidate’s personality, statutes, work ethics as well as interests basing on their tweets and comments. The information mentioned above provides recruiters with the chance to look for inappropriate and discriminatory activity. Recruiters are also informed on the suitability of a candidate to the company.

Advantages related to social media postings

Social media hiring is among the several methods of hiring which comes with a number of advantages including the aid in reaching a broad audience since hiring managers are able to attract candidates from diverse backgrounds as well as target dormant talent. Social media recruitment is also a direct, contemporary and inexpensive means of hiring since using social media is quite easy in addition to the ability to target individuals with particular skills. In addition, there is lower costs involved with posting vacancies on social networking platforms when compared with print advertising. Hiring managers are able to obtain a candidate’s background information as well as the easiness in acquiring information in relation to a candidate’s past employment, education and area of residence.

Disadvantages related to social media postings

On the other hand, recruitment using social media possess numerous disadvantages. While social media is a public sphere, a would-be candidate might feel uncomfortable in the case where the employers checks their accounts since the majority of people regard their accounts as private. It also provides missing or inaccurate information since not everybody spends the most time on the internet. Incrementally, the erroneous information presented on social media proves it difficult for hiring managers to measure the correctness of assessing personality. Recruiting using the internet is a bit time-wasting because the hiring process can attract a large population; hence, recruiters will waste a lot of effort in reviewing the high number of applicants.

Recommendations

Recent studies have indicated that firms in different nations have varied human resource management policies and practices. It has further been revealed that the transfer of human resource practices, along with policies to different nations, can present challenges. Some examples of these primary challenges are closely linked to the culture and institutional atmosphere of the host nation.

The objectives of human resource management involve the organization of diverse human capital implemented. Simply put, it is the task of the human resource manager to ensure competency and supreme talent among the company’s employees regardless of the differences between the countries. The latter ensures that the company moves forward. The minor regional disparity ought not to emerge among the workers hindering the success rate and growth of the company. Companies should also avoid risks and cultural differences at all costs while there has to be a reduction in the risk of global human resource to the least minimum (Şendoğdu, Kocabacak and Güven 2013, p.819). The international human resource management is required to adhere to extensive laws and regulations in addition to stringent international practices in relation to taxation at special work authorizations, language requirements, employment procedures and international work locations.

In as much as the prevalence of management theory in the United Kingdom has resulted in global management policies which are applicable anywhere, studies have indicated that managerial behaviours, attitudes and values differ across different cultures. Managing a company comes with a number of ways since there are numerous other differing factors in national cultures; in some cases, require different managerial practices. A number of management theories have implemented organizations based on cultural perceptions (Şendoğdu, Kocabacak, and Güven, 2013, p.823). Primary to management theories is that nations and societies have distinct differences between each other, and the differences are mirrored in the management of the organizations. Management and firms can rarely be excluded from their specific cultural environment. Similar to most management policies, human resource management policies are dependent on cultural beliefs which reflect the fundamental value and assumptions of the country’s culture in which the firms are embedded. The latter raises the question relating to what happens after the transfer of human resource management practices by multinational corporations, especially in instances where the presumptions which underlie such policies fail to fit with the recipient’s culture. The failure in the adoption of human resource management practices to the culture of the host-nation can result in adverse effects which hinder the performance of the subsidiary (Fındıklı, Yozgat and Rofcanin 2015, p.380). Existing studies reveal that multinational corporations adapt to some extent to national cultures where they operate. Furthermore, subsidiaries which are consistently managed with the expectations of national cultures have been discovered to perform better as opposed to subsidiaries which are otherwise managed.

The high potential employees are developed off-the-job as well as on-the-job training. In the case of off-the-training, multinational companies have a training program referred to as the executive development program. The yearly program lasts for about six months, and nearly managers from around the universe take part in it (Glaister et al. 2018, p.152). The content of the training constitutes business simulation, leadership development, action learning and decision management, among others. In the case of on-the-job training, different duties are prepared in accordance with a specific guiding principle where the high potentials need to be the head of multiple business units operating in multiple nations and serving multiple functions as the work experience. The aforementioned work experience is a requirement for promotions for executive positions. In the contemporary world, nearly thirty repatriates are serving at the centre of operations (Glaister et al. 2018, p.160). Further on, there are emerging trans-functional or trans-regional assignments. A manager responsible for the management of global talent asserts that such an internationally-integrated human resource management system has primarily taken a part in the improvement of retention, attraction, and motivation of capable human resources.

Generally, it is asserted that the drastic institutional reforms with regard to employment relations in the course of the previous era may be a primary feature of the human resource management of the UK. Accordingly, the evolution of the UK’s human resource management can be perceived as a model of a self-sufficient procedure at an international level (Cherian and Farouq 2013, p.106). The latter is a process involving collective efforts to fulfil particular expectations in relation to efficient human resource management, fashioned by several local as well as influential influences including democratization and financial crisis.

Hybridization of localization and international standardization

A case study involving UK’s multinational corporations reveal that their methodology to subsidiary human resource management practices could be featured as hybridization (Mellahi et al. 2013, p.2340). Hybridization is a combination of international human resource management standards, together with local practices. Rather than implementing current host policies to subsidiaries, the UK’s multinational corporations try to carefully select characteristic of policies for international standardization depending on valid, actionable logistics such as enhancing the transfer of employees and sharing international corporate values. After selection of the components, there follows the utilization of the global human resource management best practices, basically informed by primary UK firms, as a model of global standardization in relation to the selected characteristics in subsidiary human resource management practices (Mellahi et al. 2013, p.2339). The utilization of benchmarking practices coupled with multinational consultancies is a typical means of evaluating global best practices involving human resource management. On an outward level, firms appear to seek a more ardent forms of globalization compared to other counterparts which tend to depict ethnocentric strategies in their subsidiary human resource management policies such as transfer of headquarter practices in Turkey multinational corporation or subsidiary staffing including massive use of expatriates.

Arguably, the more evident predominant impacts on subsidiary human resource management policies of UK multinational corporations could be elucidated by three components. Firstly, UK firms might experience difficulties in their attempt at utilizing parent policies in the supervision of subsidiary labor force, since there is inadequate mature parent practices as a result of the rapid changes and disputed institutional atmosphere with regard to human resource management in the UK. Secondly, it was discovered that UK managers in commercial headquarters alleged weak validity in their administrative authority, since their companies are grounded on a predominant economy (Kaya 2006, p.2082). As a result of the alleged accountability of origin, they may be unwilling to transfer host policies to subsidiaries. Thirdly, when a company enters the globalization process late, they have the capability of accessing information in relation to the human resource management policies of multinational corporations which faced globalization of human resource management functions earlier using available media channels, benchmarking activities as well as the utilization of universal consultancies.

The transfer level of human resource management practices will be negatively associated with the extent of interaction of the subsidiary with the parent country organizations. It is significant to evaluate the transfer of single human resource management practices as opposed to the general extent of the transfer. The factors involved with the transfer all have diversified extents of effect on the relocation of each practice. Therefore, the extent of cultural influence on human resource management practices differs depending on the particular practice, consequently influencing their transfer level (Kaya 2006, p.2081). Similarly, practices which are incompatible with the domestic regulations which are clearly visible or impact a large section of local workers reveal a low extent of transfer. As such, there is a need for separate description and analysis of each human resource management practice, instead of utilizing an aggregate portion of human resource management policies, as in the majority of current international human resource management studies.

Another significant aspect of the development program for UK firms relates to the networking formulation for the existing members. Alternatives in Turkey constitute up to 100 staff members successfully working through the program at any time, although from the response from company managers in the UK (Aycan 2001, p.254). As such, the applicability and success of the program is not highly regarded. Firms in the program tend to have limited travel due to the great clusters and distance between stores. There is a limited opportunity with regard to travelling as well as venturing into the role of head office or distribution since they are non-existent in a similar capacity as in the UK. Eventually, the chance of meeting like-minded people, developing friendships and future mentors as well as sharing problems is also confined since the program constitutes a small population which cannot generate meeting points and workshops offsite.

Human resource rewards, planning, and staffing

Whereas there are significant differences as the name dictates, human resource management is elaborated in the management of workers only in one nation. Human resource management is engaged with the supervision of workers in three country categories. The three categories are that the host nation where the organization actually originates and the headquarters is based, the parent nation where its branch is located as well as other nations from where the firm may source its research and development, labor or finance (Aycan 2001, p.254).

Conclusion

Multinational companies attempt to obtain a balance between local responsiveness and global integration in several ways all through their practices and policies in managing global workforces. A combined institutional influences, including dominance, the nation of origin and local effects, impact the pattern of human resource management approaches implemented by a multinational company. Intra-organizational features including capabilities of actors related to human resource management, relationships between them as well as the structure of their engagement also plays a critical role in their implementation and actual design of practices and policies in a specified context. Turkey is among the world’s largest economy and has attracted quite a considerable flow of investments. When multinational companies come to Turkey, they display distinctive approaches towards subsidiary human resource management, which largely originates from their headquarters and to some extent, different problems arise within the multinational corporations. The challenges that these multinational companies face include localization in the labor force of subsidiary significant positions and management of strains resulting from the gap emerging from formal as well as informal practices implanted to the headquarters. Other challenges include employee involvement and employee relations. In light of the knowledge of the problems faced by multinational companies and their reactions, systematic and comprehensive assessments of the broader effect of human resource management of foreign multinational companies on employee policies along with outcomes in Turkey will be critical for future research.

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