The current era of globalization has turned the entire working world into one global corporate village. In this regard, organizations are continuously expanding their operations beyond the boundaries of home country to explore newer market possibilities and opportunities. Managing subsidiaries across geographical boundaries requires organizations to implement newer approaches in marketing, finance and most importantly in its HR practices to survive and grow in international markets. Therefore, it is essential that companies use adaptive HR practices that are aligned to the organization’s strategy, leadership, and structure for creating a competitive advantage in overseas’ operations.
There are two main ways through which HR practices and policies can implemented in a global scenario. One is based on a contingent view that stresses on identifying the best fit between organizational strategies and HR policies while the other way is by determining a set of best practices that will assist in enhanced HR performance under any given situation.
As is the case of Alpha, the company practiced a contingent fit rather than best practices as seen in the unsteady foundation of the organization and the damage control that was done to manage the unexpected stumbling blocks. Although, the poly-centric approach helped Alpha in empowering its employees and decentralizing its leadership, a geo-centric or a regio-centric approach would aid the firm in cross-cultural collaboration and teamwork.
It can be quite complex to manage human resources in an international setting. For a firm that is operating globally, a poly-centric approach may not yield long-term success although it involves low-cost recruitment, training, and communication. For an enhanced performance on a global platform, a geo-centric approach would be more adaptive for MNCs so that a transnational orientation can be implemented because talent is recruited based on their experience and skill as opposed to nationality. One of the biggest advantages of this approach is that it uses human resources more efficiently and helps in building stronger cultural and management networks that would in turn propel the organization towards a more sustainable competitive edge.