organizational values and norms is one of human resource management’s most
important tasks. After all, this will contribute to achieving the goal of integra-
tion, regardless of the fact that the company is operating in different geo-
graphical markets and its managers come from different countries.
Management development, careers counselling and periodic transfer to a dif-
ferent assignment (every 3–5 years) are the spearheads of phase III human
resource management.
Phase IV. A major issue for international HRM in this phase is how the
company is to satisfy the requirements of global integration and national
responsiveness. We can find traces of both phase II and phase III here. The large
measure of cultural diversity becomes manifest both in the markets to be
covered and in the organization itself. The real art is to view this cultural diversity
as an opportunity rather than as a problem, which has to be solved. One exam-
ple is to increase creativity and flexibility by being able to maintain a variety
of perspectives, an important approach for solving problems and encouraging
innovation. International HRM focuses on offering promising managers the
opportunity to grow so that an environment for continuous learning will be
created throughout the entire organization. The degree to which such human
resource management can be given concrete expression determines the success
or failure of the (phase IV) corporation (Adler and Ghadar, 1990: 245–254).
De Cieri and Dowling modelSchuler et al. (1993) presented an integrative framework of strategic inter-
national HRM which highlighted the fact that for MNCs there is a fundamental
tension between the needs for global co-ordination (integration) and local
responsiveness (differentiation) utilizing the work of Prahalad and Doz (1987)
and Bartlett and Ghoshal (1989). In addition to the strategic MNC compo-
nents, the framework showed endogenous factors (e.g. MNC structure, MNC
strategy, international entry mode) and exogenous factors (e.g. industry char-
acteristics, country-regional characteristics, inter-organizational relationships).
De Cieri and Dowling (1999) draw on developments in theory and research
since the Schuler et al. (1993) study to develop a revised framework (see Figure 3.2).
Their recent review of international HRM research trends identifies a relatively
new research area, ‘Strategic International Human Resource Management’
(SIHRM). It considers the HRM issues and activities that result from, and
impact on, the strategic activities and international concerns of multinationals
(De Cieri and Dowling, 1999).
In their revised framework De Cieri and Dowling (1999) highlight the fact
that IHRM activities in MNCs are influenced by both endogeneous and exoge-
nous factors. As shown in Figure 3.2, MNCs operate in the context of world-
wide conditions, including the exogenous contexts of industry, nation, region
and inter-organizational networks and alliances. An example is the removal of
72 International Human Resource Management