Is HR a weak link in the global chain? - human resources - includes related article

HR Magazine, June, 1994 by Stephanie Overman

You can extend your international expertise without overextending yourself.

Experts may insist that human resource managers need to extend their international view, but practitioners often question why they need to add this expertise to their long list of responsibilities--especially when they don't foresee their organizations going abroad any time soon.

In many companies, "the function in charge of globalizing management is itself still rather parochial," says Vladimir Pucik in the book Globalizing Management. "This will have to change."

The global HR role "is a natural extension of the positive orientation toward human resource management and the recognition of the strategic role that it can and should play," says Pucik, an associate professor at the Center for Advanced Human Resources at Cornell University.

Melissa DeCrane, director of the Corporate Resources Group in Chicago, sees international expertise as a very real asset for HR people because every company is challenged by the global marketplace. "Companies are either acquired by foreign companies or are acquiring foreign companies almost overnight," she says. "Even though HR people may perceive themselves as domestic, they never know when it's going to hit them."

It's important for personal career development, DeCrane says, because "without any international understanding or exposure, you run the risk of cutting yourself short."

SEPARATE COMMUNITIES

Lauren O'Leary isn't so sure that human resource management is becoming global. She still sees two distinctly separate communities--one domestic, one international.

"There really is no point where one finds oneself one day domestic and the next day international," O'Leary says of her experience. She is manager for human resource planning and development for Baxter World Trade Corporate in Fort Lauderdale and director of the South Florida International Initiative.

Initially, O'Leary believed that she should jump on the international bandwagon, "but now I'm more cynical. HR people need to be more aware of international human resource issues, but their focus is usually domestic." And, she says, "people are so busy; you can only learn about so much.

"You hear everything is going international, but I haven't felt that has become a reality yet. We're getting closer and closer, but we're not there yet," says O'Leary.

However, O'Leary does agree that some domestically oriented HR managers should learn something about international affairs. "Probably the best reason to get more exposure to international issues is business-related. If your boss is involved, you should be. If significant profits come from offshore, you should be involved," says O'Leary, noting that 25 percent of Baxter's sales, and even more of its profits, come from outside the United States.

Pucik sees no mystery in how to develop global HR skills: "Hire people with cross-cultural competence, provide them with opportunities to learn about HR in different parts of the world through assignments, projects and interaction with their peers; and appraise and reward them for seeking out challenging international assignments and for contributing to the implementation of global strategies."

HOW TO BEGIN

But what about HR professionals who want to learn something about international issues while continuing to handle all their domestic responsibilities?

There's usually not much point in the domestic HR professional becoming expert in technical country-specific areas such as tax and employment laws, O'Leary says, but, at a minimum, she advises all HR managers to concentrate "on valuing cultural diversity, on understanding how different cultures work differently."

Go to school, study international business, join international associations, she suggests. (See Help in Honing International Skills.)

"If you work in a division of a global company, ask to get involved in a project supporting a nondomestic subsidiary. Even if it means working a few extra hours a week."

O'Leary advocates becoming fluent in at least one new language, and finally, she says, "learn to roll with the punches, learn to be flexible and accept that anything can happen. There is no recipe for training. So, if a person has the interest, eventually there will be plenty of opportunity."

Help in Honing International Skills

There are new ways for HR professionals to hone their international skills, according to Patricia Digh, SHRM vice president of International and Diversity Programs.

SHRM's Institute for International HR is offering a new international certificate program, which will be unveiled at the Society's annual conference in St. Louis, June 26-29. The intensive three-day program is designed for the "increasing number of largely domestic HR professionals who are interested in international, but who feel they are too much at the beginning stages (to attend) the international conference," says Digh. The SHRM program is a well-thought-out professional development experience that looks at the global picture, then focuses specifically on the human resource function and finally ties the two together.