"Localization" includes several aspects: localization of production and operation, localization of scientific research and development, localization of human resource management and localization of market concept. Among them, the localization of human resource management in cross-cultural management is of great significance for forming a business philosophy with host country characteristics and harmonious cross-cultural communication.
First, the advantages of localization of human resource management
In practice, the talent localization of multinational companies has many advantages compared with other human resources strategies, as follows:
First, strengthen the trust of the country where the subsidiary is located in the company and improve the degree of integration of multinational companies with the market of the country where they are located.
A large number of people from the host country have entered the local subsidiaries of multinational companies to engage in management work. Out of affection for their own country, multinational companies will be restricted from any behavior that harms the interests of the host country. At the same time, a management team with nationals holding important positions will also enable foreign branches of multinational companies to gain more trust and affinity from the host government and people. In recent years, the degree of talent localization of multinational corporations in China has been deepening. While appointing China as the top management of China Branch, LG Electronics (China) Co., Ltd. was renamed as China LG Electronics Co., Ltd. This series of actions is undoubtedly accelerating its integration with China people and China market.
Second, the implementation of talent localization strategy can reduce operating costs.
Like the production localization strategy of multinational companies, the implementation of talent localization strategy can greatly reduce operating costs and make multinational companies profitable. Under normal circumstances, the company will not only invest a lot of money to select and train managers sent abroad, but also enjoy higher allowances and subsidies than the home country, as well as round-trip travel expenses between the home country and the host country. On the one hand, direct employment of personnel from the country where the subsidiary is located can avoid the above expenses, on the other hand, it can make full use of the advantages of low wages in the country where it is located to attract high-quality talents with wages far lower than those of the parent company but significantly higher than those in the country where it is located. At the same time, a large number of expatriate allowances and subsidies have been reduced.
Third, to a certain extent, it ensures the relative stability of the company's managers and improves work efficiency.
When people from the home country go to work in foreign countries, they are mentally unstable due to cultural differences, their families can't accompany them, or they encounter opportunities for cross-border promotion, which makes managers give up their management responsibilities in the host country; Because of the unstable workplace, expatriate managers often have some short-term behaviors in enterprise management. Recruiting local managers in the host country will reduce this negative impact. The residence and living environment of local managers are stable, so the people's hearts are stable, and the management behavior has a sense of long-term development, which is more in line with the interests of enterprises. At the same time, from the company's point of view, it can also reduce the time and frequency of managers' family visits and vacations, and substantially improve the utilization efficiency of human resources.
Fourth, it is beneficial for multinational companies to get familiar with the market situation of the host country more quickly and expand the market.
A country's national conditions are different, and a market has its own rules of the game. Usually, multinational companies must employ a considerable number of local employees when investing overseas. This is mainly because local employees are familiar with local customs, market trends and government regulations, and it is easy to reach an understanding with local consumers. It is undoubtedly convenient for multinational companies to expand their markets and gain a foothold in the local area.
Second, some thoughts on implementing the localization strategy of human resource management
The advantages of localization strategy in human resource management are obvious, and there are also some problems worthy of our attention in the implementation of localization strategy.
1, the management communication of multinational companies is essentially focused on the best integration and communication of multiculturalism and ideas. Every culture has its own characteristics and advantages. When establishing the corporate culture of a branch of a multinational company, we should of course take the cultural background of the host country as the fundamental starting point for the management and market operation of the branch, but we should not be too biased. In the process of implementing the localization strategy, we should fully consider and absorb the advantages of the two cultures, highlight the key points, and not neglect one side. For example, compared with local enterprises in China, foreign-funded enterprises have obvious advantages in core technology, product quality, overall image, comprehensive strength and international operation. When implementing the localization strategy of human resources, we should introduce the advantages of foreign enterprises in culture, management and technology in personnel recruitment and training, such as appointing personnel from the parent company to hold corresponding management positions and training local managers in China with some training methods and contents of the parent company.
2. In multinational companies, employees from two or more countries cooperate with each other. Often, because all members of the company only pay attention to self-development, they cannot form a corporate culture with collective values, which makes enterprises lack long-term cohesion to individuals. Therefore, many companies have implemented the "multi-directional and cross-cultural" strategy in transnational human resource management. In practical application, the following methods can be adopted to avoid "cultural conflict" caused by huge cultural differences among individuals: choosing natives with local nationality; Choose a foreign country with its own nationality; Choose local foreigners to study and work in their motherland; Choose your home country to study and work locally. This strategy enables people with multicultural backgrounds and ways of thinking to be managers of multinational companies, making it easier for them to understand and appreciate the differences between cultures, and they can also play a bridge role in management communication and cultural translation.
3. When human resource management is localized, most enterprises are: important decisions are made by the top management of the parent company, and the daily operation and management is the responsibility of the local supervisor. Local people are in charge of management, which shortens the adaptation period of employees and enables them to enter the state more quickly, but it also makes the management style and corporate culture infiltration of enterprises particularly difficult. In order to solve these problems, the company can adopt the dual supervisor system, give consideration to localization, and bring the advantages of the parent company to its subsidiaries. In other words, the management policy is jointly decided by the heads of overseas branches and parent companies. This arrangement can not only retain the operating characteristics of the parent company, but also facilitate the monitoring of employees of overseas branches and ensure that "feelings" can be "released". Local supervisors can reduce communication problems by taking care of the business in the region, but their own managers are familiar with the background of the parent company and better understand the product characteristics, which is helpful to promote the branch company's understanding of the headquarters.
4. Talent localization strategy is accompanied by talent internationalization strategy. Theoretically speaking, in the personnel strategy of multinational companies, the internationalization strategy of talents should be the most effective. Because it does not consider the nationality of managers, but only from the perspective of ability, it rationally allocates and uses human resources on a global scale, which is more in line with the growing global strategic needs. However, in practice, because many countries where subsidiaries are located require to employ local personnel as managers and realize this requirement through state intervention, there are a series of insurmountable weaknesses in the talent localization strategy. First, in order to internationalize managers, multinational enterprises must disperse recruitment in a large geographical area, train employees in language and culture, and mobilize managers and their families in different countries, which may make the cost of implementing this strategy higher. Second, this strategy requires multinational companies to implement a high degree of centralized control in human resource management, thus limiting the autonomy of regional managers in employing people.
5. The localization strategy of multinational corporations has an important influence on the host country: on the one hand, it has trained a large number of high-quality talents for the host country, and in a sense, it has also reserved management talents for the future development of the host country. Local managers employed by multinational companies have more opportunities to get in touch with foreign advanced science and technology and management experience, and are familiar with the operation mechanism of market economy. The flow of these new enterprise managers and technicians in China will certainly promote the spread of international advanced management experience and technology in the host country. On the other hand, the talent localization strategy of multinational companies makes the local senior managers and technical backbones of some multinational companies have a big gap with ordinary workers in salary and treatment. For example, the salary of Chinese personnel in multinational companies can reach more than ten times that of directors of state-owned enterprises. This salary policy adopted by multinational companies has led to a large number of brain drain from state-owned enterprises. high flyers, who has spent a lot of resources to train, has been given priority by multinational companies, which has brought psychological imbalance to state-owned enterprise cadres at the same level and affected their work enthusiasm.
To sum up, multinational companies hope to achieve globalization, but also realize that in order to succeed, they must realize the localization of management. Localization can reduce the crisis and resistance of local society to foreign investment, and more fundamentally, localization can integrate corporate culture with local culture to achieve a cultural integration, thus making enterprises flourish. In terms of human resource management, localization is beneficial for multinational companies to reduce the high cost of sending overseas personnel and transnational operations, integrate into local social culture, increase employment opportunities in host countries, manage changes, and accelerate integration with the international community. Localization connects the interests of both multinational corporations and host countries, so it has become the core measure for multinational corporations to solve foreign environmental obstacles.