INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

International Human Resource Management

International Human Resource Management

Introduction

International business is the study of the transactions that take place throughout to meet the needs of individuals and organizations. These economic activities are business operations, born in the case of export or import goods, and direct investment funds in international companies. Thus, the study of business focuses primarily on international activities of large firms or multinationals multinationals based in one country but in other operations. These organizations represent the most of the investment and trade worldwide. Beside, the actual efficiency, the organization needs to focus on the cross cultural difference in the countries they are going to operate. Keeping inv view this need, the paper addresses the business differences between UK and Japan and analyse the HR management strategies that the foreign companies can adopt operating in Japan.

Japan

Japan is a key market in the global strategy of multinational companies. To be successful, foreign companies have to show a real commitment to long-term goals set directly in Japan. This can be the form of offices and production facilities and manufacturing, or in laboratories. Sometime in the 1980s many believe that Japan will control most markets for manufactured goods in the Far East and Southeast Asia, probably including Oceania and Eastern Siberia. It will be competitive in Central Asia, in Arabia, in the Middle East, in the Balkans and Eastern Europe. It turned out that their view was correct (Hymes, 2004, 69). Business relations with Canada will continue to grow, as will the communal enterprise with the USSR and Mainland China. And as Japan grows, it will increasingly import more manufactured products-probably soon becoming the largest importer per capita of any country in the world. As it imports more, so will it manufacture more with its exports, by 1985, accounting for something between 8 and 10 per cent of the world's total export trade. As Japan grows it will continue to consume technology as fast as it can obtain it. Either internally or from abroad. And, at an ever-increasing rate, she will recognize and accept her responsibilities for assisting in the development of less affluent countries. The question is what's in it for the UK business in Japan and how they manage the cultural differences across Japan (Hymes, 2004, 68).

Political, Institutional and Regulatory Pressures

Japan's political system is based on a democratic government where absolutely all citizens of age have the right to vote and stand for national and provincial elections. The Japanese government system is based on the Constitution of Japan, also known as the Peace Constitution, because it affirms the Japanese commitment to peace and its renunciation of war. The Constitution also defines the role of the Emperor, the rights and duties of citizens, the responsibilities of the different branches of government and other regulations on how to operate the government (Canale, 2001, 47). However, one of the significant factors is that the Japanese government has taken certain steps toward speeding its liberalization process, but even so the process has ...