Challenges of Moving Toward a Global Workforce

Challenges of Moving Toward a Global Workforce

Erin Jones

Colorado Technical University

HRM210-1204B-01

Felicia Walters

December 10, 2012

Challenges of Moving Toward a Global Workforce

There are many great business opportunities throughout the world today. These opportunities also come with challenges for managers. The transition of a business to the global market has many business as well as ethical challenges. When moving toward a global workforce there are ethical, environmental, as well as business considerations that businesses must take into account as they expand to foreign countries. HR managers must be flexible and adept when working globally.

Environmental

There are many challenges that can be associated with the transition of a company to the global market. Companies making the transition to the global market and outsourcing must be aware of the risks, laws, and regulations of the environment in the foreign country they are expanding to. These companies that are expanding into foreign countries are finding themselves under very close scrutiny for their environmental performance buy government, non-government, and shareholders; unprecedented liability for the potential harm they may cause to the environment because of their far reaching operations, and consequences and enforcement that is unpredictable. Environmental insurance is offered both in the United States as well as in other countries. Companies' need to look closely at the wording of the policy to make sure it harmonizes with the regulations of the country they are in. With the environmental laws becoming so tough, it has led to more complex risk management. Companies or their leaders must make good decisions on how to manage the environmental risk. This includes deciding how much risk to bear, how to control risk, and how to transfer risk in the most effective way (Russek & Hazelton, 2008). Management should have strategies in place for these risks and issues before completing the global expansion.

Cultural Factors

Global expansion also brings on the challenge and issues of culture. When doing business or planning to do business on an international level, good understanding of other cultures is important. There are barriers between cultures other than language. For example what works well for us in this country may not work well in their country. This could be taken as an insult by the foreign country. As we look at the issues and challenges of culture in the global market, we will see that they reach much further than being able to greet you colleague in their language or give them the right gift. When conducting business in the global market it is important to understand not only the language of the country, but to also understand their laws, economics, customs, workforce, and education just to name some of the things that a business expanding to a foreign country should know about the people and land. These are only a few of the challenges that management faces when in a global organization (Hummel, 2009).

Human resource managers who manage a global workforce must have a complete understanding of the employment and labor laws of the country where they have employees working. When conducting business in a foreign country there may be differences in wages, working conditions, and working hours which are regulated and controlled through trade agreements. To resolve conflicts these agreements managers will need to confer to these agreements. There are not only differences in labor laws, but in education as well. Most countries in which global business is done are developing countries. In most of these countries poverty is abundant and therefore it may be necessary to bring in skilled workers from the domestic country in order to train workers. An understanding of the laws and how they relate to the workforce can help prevent workplace conflicts (Robbins & Judge, 2012).

Culture is learned behaviors and is what distinguishes one group from another. Companies that compete in the global market, when in other countries must respect the business culture of that country. When sending employees to other countries an orientation to the