Question

Assignment Number 1: People are being asked to work from
home due to Covid 19 crisis. Evaluate how this trend may shape
up the various HRM practices in future like training,
performance appraisal, communication, pay for performance,
promotion, discipline, industrial relations etc. Also write your
thoughts/your reflections on whether, which of the following
HR organization will become more relevant and which one will
become less relevant:
I
1. Transactional HRM
2. Centre of Expertise
3. Corporate HRM
4. Embedded HRM
Write your answer in 500 words.​

Answer 1

Answer:

The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed a massive number of employees, who were already facing stress from the health risk itself, to working from home. Compounding this stressor, many managers are now leading remote teams for the first time. This sudden change has exacerbated the challenges of collaborating and leading from a distance, challenges we in the field of international business (IB) understand well, but that have remained largely unaddressed in management practice. In 2018, RW3 surveyed 1620 employees from 90 countries regarding their experiences working on ‘global virtual teams’ in multinational enterprises (MNEs). While most of the respondents identified their work on global virtual teams as important for job success, only 22% received training on how best to work in their geographically distributed teams, 90% of which had two or more cultures represented. The picture is not much better at the leadership level. Among the virtual team leaders, only 15% described themselves as “very effective” with less than 20% receiving training on how to lead from a distance

Answer 2

Explanation:

Relevance of extant international business (IB) research, and more specifically work on international human resources management (IHRM), to address COVID-19 pandemic challenges. Decision-makers in multinational enterprises have undertaken various types of actions to alleviate the impacts of the pandemic. In most cases these actions relate in some way to managing distance and to rethinking boundaries, whether at the macro- or firm-levels. Managing distance and rethinking boundaries have been the primary focus of much IB research since the IB field was established as a legitimate area of academic inquiry. The pandemic has led to increased cross-border distance problems (e.g., as the result of travel bans and reduced international mobility), and often also to new intra-firm distancing challenges imposed upon previously co-located employees. Prior IHRM research has highlighted the difficulties presented by distance, in terms of employee selection, training, support, health and safety, as well as leadership and virtual collaboration. Much of this thinking is applicable to solve pandemic-related distance challenges. The present, extreme cases of requisite physical distancing need not imply equivalent increases in psychological distance, and also offer firms some insight into the unanticipated benefits of a virtual workforce – a type of workforce that, quite possibly, will influence the ‘new normal’ of the post-COVID world. Extant IHRM research does offer actionable insight for today, but outstanding knowledge gaps remain. Looking ahead, we offer three domains for future IHRM research: managing under uncertainty, facilitating international and even global work, and redefining organizational performance