Introduction
Expanding a business overseas is most frequently associated with financial profit. Still, sometimes, company owners neglect the probability of difficulties that may emerge once employees are forced to live and work in another country. Multinational organizational structures may involve a variety of obstacles to business performance. These barriers can be different: economic, cultural, environmental, or associated with some personal issues. It is crucial to identify these challenges so that proper strategic human resource management (HRM) initiatives could be utilized to eliminate the threat to performance.
Performance barriers
The principal business performance obstacle resulting from the complexities created by multinational companies is cultural accommodation. People who have moved to another country experience both national and local cultural differences, which they may find hard to understand and accept. A successful HRM practice in such a case would be arranging orientation for those workers who are expected to move to a new location. By doing so, HRM specialists will simplify the process of assimilation for the employees and their families.
Another possible performance barrier is the divergences in corporate cultures of the home and host divisions of a multinational organization. The best way to mitigate this issue is for the HR manager to communicate with the HR department of the host country and discuss the similarities and differences in their work. Once the common and divergent features are known, the HR manager will be able to inform expatriated employees about them and train them on the approaches practiced in their new place of work. Finally, there is a probability of professional misunderstandings between new employees and those who have worked in the host country’s office for some time. To decrease the likelihood of this problem, such HRM initiatives as professional training (personal or paired) might be useful.
Conclusion
Barriers emerging in multinational organizations are complicated, but it is quite possible to mitigate or avoid them altogether with appropriate HRM techniques. Be it cultural or corporate changes or any other challenge, HR managers can find solutions by learning about the obstacles beforehand and coming up with solutions for them. Only by working together as a single unity will branches functioning in different countries bring the most profitable outcomes for the company.