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Unit 16: International HRM

As a result, this multicultural style gave AMD the much-needed competitive edge. AMD's Dresden Notes
factory broke production speed records, in less than two years and went through three generations
of chip redesign without major errors in a year. The AMD dilemma suggests that success depends
on the willingness of employees to let down their defences and talk about ethnic and national
personalities and the way they learn from each other. AMD's case has developed Dilemma
Theory (Trompenaars, F., Hampden-Turner, C., 1998) a much discussed theory now worldwide
and commonly known as THT Theory. According to this theory, insidious culture clashes and
most management problems are a result of the human habit of viewing life in terms of all-or-
nothing choices. It is always winning versus losing strategies, right versus wrong answers and
good versus bad values. Business issues must not be approached as a contest between good and
evil, or the potential benefits of "evil" might be lost. It is better to interpret clashes as a reconcilable
dilemma.
An example of more down to earth corporate culture can be of Sears, the second largest retail chain
of the world. Sears emphasise on three Cs. Compelling place to work, compelling place to shop
and compelling place to invest. Sears believe these cultures when practiced takes into account
overall growth and prosperity of their organisation. Incidentally, they also align their performance
management system with three Cs. Similarly Wal-Mart, the largest retail chain of the world also
believe their all employees are their Associates and hence as a matter of corporate culture and
practices, Wal-Mart shares all strategic information with employees to get the benefit of
empowerment and motivation. Wal-Mart achieves significant rate of growth every year.
All these international examples, therefore, illustrate how successfully managing culture of an
organisation, it is possible to be effective in international operations.
Some of the Indian examples here also will authenticate the international experiences. We have
the most successful stories of organisational transformation, i.e., Aditya Birla Group Under
Kumar Mangalam Birla, which metamorphoses itself into a modern multi cultural transnational
with more than 72,000 people drawn from 20 different countries. In his words transformation is
about turning aspirations into reality, converting setbacks into opportunities. It is about courage
of conviction. It is about what Charles Handy calls "the creation of new alchemists from ordinary
people". Transformation is the end result of a highly energised process that combines human
ingenuity with its indomitable spirit to make new things happen and create value.

Therefore, all these examples illustrate how developing and sustaining a conscious culture in
the work place can contribute to the growth and prosperity of a global organisation. Work
culture as a separate branch has received priority due to globalisation.
To illustrate we can site the example of Jack Welch, CEO, General Electric, who created a new
corporate culture to meet the business objectives. Key elements of GE's corporate culture are as
under:
1. Redesigning the role of the leader in the new economy: creating followers through
communicating a vision, and establishing open, caring relations with every employee.
2. Creating an open, collaborative workplace where everyone's opinion is welcomed.
3. Empowering senior executives to run far-flung businesses in entrepreneurial fashion.
4. Liberating the workforce; making everybody a participant through improving vertical
communication and employee empowerment.
Managing culture is an important IHRM issues, is evident from the above examples. All the
above corporate examples provide some guidelines for international HR managers.
The global reconfiguration of businesses has resulted in changes in training needs. Multinationals
require the delivery of HRD training that is cost-effective, flexible and culturally relevant.
Training needs to be delivered in different time zones and in dramatically different cultural

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