Strategic Human Resource Management

Section Two

precise measures of organizational learning. It might be
speculated that input controls would be appropriate because
they avoid the necessity of having precise measures of
learning. By selecting employees motivated toward learning and
self-control, less emphasis on other controls may be required.

Organizational Learning in International Alliances

Because organizations’ abilities to learn from alliance partners
are affected by human resource practices and activities, it is
critical to the company’s own welfare that they are
complementary to learning. Several human resource
management practices can facilitate organizational learning.
These include:

• Communicating the strategic goals of the alliance widely
  within the organization, such as the void of
  organizational knowledge that necessitated the alliance


• Forcing the focus of decisions beyond temporary short-
  run gains to the long-range consequences of outsourced
  manufacturing capabilities


• Rewarding organizational learning through career
  progressions based partially on acquisition of knowledge


• Not allowing the alliance partner to control human
  resource management functions, such as staffing the
  venture