DHRM focuses on managing employees within one country and deals with a single set of regulations, currency, and tax rates. IHRM involves managing employees across multiple countries with differing cultures, work ethics, political environments, legal systems, health and safety standards, and education levels. Some of the additional complexities IHRM faces include navigating varying degrees of corruption, government stability, terrorism, and complying with local codes of conduct and religious beliefs.

1. DOES HRM DIFFER SIGNIFICANTLY BETWEEN
NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL CONTEXTS?
By Munya Zvimba & Craig Halliday

2. WHAT IS HUMAN RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT?(HRM)
 “ Typically, HRM refers to those activities
undertaken by an organization to effectively utilise
its human resources.” (Dowling, 2008)
 “The process of hiring and developing employees
so that they become more valuable to the
organization”. (business dictionary, 2014)
 Some of the activities could include:
 Human Resource planning
 Staffing ( recruitment, education, selection & placement)
 Training & development

3. WHAT IS DOMESTIC HUMAN RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT (DHRM)?
 DHRM occurs when employees reside within one
national boundary.
 DHRM tends to deal with one currency and one tax
rate and one set of regulations.

4. WHAT IS INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT (IHRM)?
 “All issues related to the management of people in
an international context including; human resource
issues facing MNCs in different parts of their
organisations and comparative analyses of HRM in
different countries’ (Stahl and Björkman, 2006)
 “The complexity of working in different countries
and employing different national categories of
workers is a key variable that differentiates
domestic and international management.” (Dowling,
2008)

5. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN DOMESTIC HRM &
IHRM?
 DHRM focuses on one domestic market which
usually has one nationality, where as IHRM deals
with different markets and different nationalities.
(whatishr.com, 2014)
 Other areas of focus for IHRM include:
 Culture.
 Work ethic.
 Political and legal.
 Health & Safety.
 Economic.
 Staffing.
 Placement.
 Education.
 Training and development.

6. CULTURE
 DHRM tends to focus on one culture.
 IHRM has to deal with different cultures.
 IHRM has to be aware of issues such as the local
codes of conduct, religious beliefs and hierarchy’s
in local communities.

7. CULTURE
 10 most corrupt countries.
Source: Transparency International, 2014

8. CULTURE
 10 least corrupt countries.
Source: Transparency International, 2014 .

9. WORK ETHIC
Source: BBC
2012

10. POLITICAL & LEGAL
 Most mnc’s home nations have stable
Governments and proper rule of law.
 A stable government equals economic stability.
 IHRM has to consider the political climate when
expanding abroad.
 Here are some examples of unstable governments:
 Egypt –Arab springs.
 Ukraine –Divide between Russian speaking
Ukrainians and the indigenous Ukrainians.

11. POLITICAL & LEGAL
 Terrorism and Kidnapping(Scullion et al, 2007)
 Here are some examples of kidnappings:
 2005 – BBC reported that 6 Shell oil workers were
kidnapped in the Nigerian oil delta. (BBC, 2005)
 2010 – CBC reported that 7 local oil workers were
kidnapped from Exxon Mobil Corp to disrupt
operations of western companies
 2014 - Daily mail reported an employee of Sigma
Ltd (sub-contractor for Chevron Texaco) was
kidnapped and held to ransom for
£72000.(Dailymail, 2014)

12. HEALTH & SAFETY

13. EDUCATION
 Education levels determine what type of workforce
is available.