HR training and practices across different cultures

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1. What kind of policies do you think would work best to prevent workplace violence?

The best policies to prevent workplace violence are clear and established strategies that will provide safe and secure workplaces. If someone is intent upon committing an act of violence, the person will engage in this act regardless of any policy that is in place. This has occurred time and time again in America. Therefore, a contingency plan must be in place to address workplace violence incidents and prevent additional victims. Although a person who is intent upon engaging in violence will be able to do so, there are often warning signs that can enable the person to be identified before the person engages in workplace violence. The organization should ensure that they provide counseling services, hire managers who are capable of being competent enough to recognize employees who are displaying signs of aggression, stalking, etc. If employees are displaying these tendencies, the employer must ensure that policies are in place to attempt to provide the victim of any workplace violence with the necessary services to address their traumatic experiences. There should be a zero tolerance approach toward any employee that is engaging in violent actions toward another employee with termination the result of the first offense. Unfortunately, the worst time for the most extreme forms of workplace violence to occur is after an employee has been fired, which is why a strong security detail must exist within the organization as well as a contingency plan for ensuring that if employees come back to engage in violence after being terminated, the least amount of damage can occur.

2. How might an international firm trying to adapt HRM practices to the local culture produce worse results than it would produce by "exporting" HRM practices from the home office?

The international firm trying to adapt HRM practices will produce the worst results when they fail to comprehend the role of local contexts. If the organization engages in what is known as functionalist culture theory, which is placated upon the organization attempting to accurately measure the distance that exists between the institutional and organizational goals and the cultural differences that inhibits the transfer of the company's HRM practices in different locations across the globe. When company's appropriate an inflexible approach that leaves no room for the agency to comprehend change or unexpected outcomes that will emerge as a result of their ideas, procedures and practices as they are incorporated into different institutional contexts and national cultures, the organization will produce a worse result than just exporting the HRM practices from the home office. This approach is inadequate for accounting for MNCs who must span across multiple institutional contexts as they attempt to only incorporate their HRM practices in reference to the organizational culture. The lack of ability for the organization to ascertain how the local employees interpret HRM practices in their own culture will lead to a worse outcome than if the organization is only placated upon its own HRM practices.
3. What, in your opinion, is the most significant impact of a union on the management of human resources? Explain.

In reference to the importance of unions in any organization, they have a significant impact on the management of human resources as they cause HR to refocus their attention on whether or not they have hired expert HR employees who are capable of dealing with the many issues that exist because ...