Objective
With specific reference to the theoretical frameworks underpinning international human resource
management (IHRM), critique the following case study to facilitate the application of scholarly
concepts to practice.
Case Study
An employee is being coached for a future position at an executive level within a multinational
organisation in the petrochemical industry. She has performed a variety of roles within the company,
all of which were located in her home country, and in non-technical areas. The organisation’s policy is
for each individual on its fast track succession plan to occupy at least one position overseas and
manage a subsidiary or overseas office.
The individual was offered a position in a predominantly Arabic-speaking and Muslim North African
country. It was a relatively new location for the organisation. It had opened an office there because
oil had recently been discovered offshore and there was a great opportunity to drill for oil and share
in the proceeds with the government.
The employee had not been briefed in any way about the country, its security concerns or politics, only
about the exciting oil partnership deal. She had decided that as it was located close to Europe, she
could fly back to her home country relatively easily, if required. With her husband willing to take a
leave of absence, and her young children prepared, she felt she was ready to take on the international
role.
A few weeks before starting her new assignment, she travelled to the country in question. Her first
meeting was with the UK ambassador (there was no Irish embassy in the country), who warned her that her
forthcoming appointment was already widely known about, and not just in a positive way. She was already
apparently on the radar of Al-Qaeda, which was ‘known to be operating within the country’. What’s more,
her place of residence was beside the TV station, which had been taken over recently during a coup d’
état.
To make matters worse, on meeting with the newly appointed oil minister, he announced that the formula
for the royalties split was being amended, so that her organisation would receive less than what had
been originally agreed, so it seemed she would face a difficult challenge in dealing with the
government.
The employee met with a number of locally recruited staff to get acquainted with them in advance of her
assignment. The ‘employees’ turned out to be contractors, and all appeared to be relatives of
government ministers, their appointments ratified by the government. None spoke English and no one had
any expertise in the oil industry.
Finally, the employee discovered that there were no schools that provided schooling in English – or
even French. Arabic was the national language. With small children, she had assumed there would be
plenty of English-speaking nannies and teachers. As for her husband, who had planned to take leave of
absence from his job, it transpired that the government was not granting entry visas for anyone other
than direct employees working for organisations that had contracts with the government.
Source: Rennie, A. and McGee, R. (2012) International Human Resource
Management. London: CIPD.
Instructions
• .
• .
• Engage with the literature and apply this knowledge utilising appropriate theoretical framework(s).
• Structure and format assignment appropriate to an academic work.
• Expect appropriate number of academic references (textbooks and journals) for Masters level
submission.
• Use the APA (American Psychological Society) system of referencing which is a Harvard (name-date or
“in-text”) referencing system.
• Type using double spacing and times new roman (size 12), aligning text to both left and right margins
(i.e. straight lines on the left and right margins).
Assessed on the following categories (unequal weighting per criterion):
• Theoretical underpinnings (70%) – appropriate reference to relevant theories, demonstrating a
knowledge and understanding of how IHRM concepts and frameworks apply to the topic.
• Practical application (20%) – appropriate reference to relevant practice, demonstrating an ability to
apply knowledge of the topic to real world situations.
• Academic presentation and coherence (10%) – appropriate writing style, structure, logic, headings and
sub-headings, font, format, pagination and adherence to APA referencing.
Provisional Marks:
Category
Score
Theoretical underpinnings (out of 70)
Practical application (out of 20)
Academic presentation and coherence (out of 10)
Total (out of 100)