International Human Resource Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 1

International Human Resource Management - Essay Example It has about 337 stores in 41 territories including in the UK and overseas and employs over 78,000 people worldwide (M&S, 2012). The company which was established as a partnership firm by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer, in the year 1894, went on to become a public company by 1926 and ventured into international markets during early 1970s. The company first set shop in France during 1975 with the opening of its stores in Paris. However, although the venture proved to be significantly profitable in France, the rest of the company's operations in the rest of Western Europe failed to garner profitable returns. This fuelled the closure of its stores in France in March 2001, amidst wide scale protests against the corporate decision (BBC, 2001a). 2. Introduction The unprecedented success garnered by retail chains across the world in terms of profitability, particularly posts the globalization phenomenon has been very well documented in academic literature and scholarly researches alike. A lthough there is a certain degree of validity and authenticity to the hypothesis, that internalization of retail stores is bound to result in immense popularity and profitability; the recent cases of closures of huge multinational giants, such as the withdrawal of the clothing chain C&A from the UK markets in the year 2000 (BBC, 2000b); the closure of UK based retail giants Tesco and Boots and the France based Carrefour from the Japanese markets, as recent as 2011 (The Guardian, 2011), indicates otherwise. This study on the closure of Marks & Spencer stores in France, aims to highlight the various core issues related to the operations, functioning and performance of international retail stores overseas, and assess the manner in which M&S approached the closure of its stores in the country. 2.1. Organizational context of IHRM The business of retailing entails operating of firms in a global context and at the same time adjusting and adapting to the local needs. Over the years, various global retailers have invested in international ventures with varying degrees of outcomes in terms of profitability and success. As more and more companies join the quest of aggressively pursuing international expansion as a part of their core strategies, it is all the more vital for them to take into consideration various factors which may play a key role in shaping their success in the process (Kraft and Mantrala, 2010). This in turn requires IHRM to be organized and efficient in its functioning. The organizational structure is dependent on the HR strategies developed by the management which is often embedded as the company's corporate strategy and can be based on its international division structure (i.e. production, marketing, finance, personnel etc., see Figure 1 Appendix 1); or the Functional structure (See figure 2 Appendix 2); or the geographic location structure (see Figure 3, Appendix 1) or the product structure (See Figure 4, Appendix 1) (Aswathappa and Dash, 2007). 2.2. Cross border alliances: The new wave of globalization has brought along with a trend of accelerated investment in cross border alliances in varied forms ranging from conventional approaches such as international exports and foreign direct investments (FDI) to relatively more contemporary methods such as cross border acquisitions, mergers, and franchisee agreements (OECD, 2001; Markusen, 2002; Neary, 2004). The choice of entry strategy into foreign markets depends