concerns and sensitivities discussed within the chapter. Section 7 concludes
this chapter.
2 ISSUES IN DISCUSSING HRM IN
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
In achieving the objectives of this chapter there are three main difficulties. The first
is in finding a suitable alternative term for ‘developing’ country that breaks out of
the accepted developing–developedworld paradigm. This paradigm is readily adopted
and employed in the few texts currently available on management in developing
countries (e.g. Jaeger and Kanungo, 1990). The paradigm projects a view that
‘developing’ countries should become more like the ‘developed’ countries: the
United States and Western Europe in particular. The aim of developmentthen
becomes to make the developing countries more like the developed countries. This
includes introducing ‘modern’ management methods, in order to manage staff
more efficiently. This definitional problem will be addressed in more detail later.
The second difficulty is to find an alternative term for human resource management
which, as we explain later, enables us to break out of an instrumentalview of
people in organizations, which sees human beings as a means to an end. Again, we
will say more about this later. The third (which is connected to the first two) is to
overcome the inadequacies of current cross-cultural theory in understanding the
management of people in ‘developing’ countries. Cross-cultural understanding and
analysis is required at at least three different levels (see Figure 9.1).
Inter-continental level. Interactions take place across continents with Western
powers, both historically as former colonial countries, and through the activities
of modern multinational companies, and as a result of the predominance of
Western education. These interactions were dominated economically, militarily
and often ideologically by the colonial power (Reader, 1998). Today they are dom-
inated economically through interactions with both multinational companies
and multilateral agencies, particularly the World Bank and the IMF, and bilateral
agencies of Western governments (Barratt Brown, 1995). The predominance of
Western education ensures an ideological disparaging of indigenous thought sys-
tems. Again, there is tremendous potential to develop effective hybrid systems of
management with admixtures of Western and indigenous thought systems and
practices. This is being undertaken in India, for example by the Human Resource
Development (HRD) systems being developed in Indian companies (Rao, 1996).
Cross-border level. Emerging trading blocs among countries such as
Southern African Development Community (SADC) in Southern Africa are
encouraging interaction among countries, rather than between the developing
country and its former colonial master (Mulat, 1998). For example, colonial
HRM in Developing Countries 223