 In this topic, we are going to talk about transferability of human resource policies and practices. In a previous topic, we have discussed about knowledge transfer and transferability of knowledge across national borders. But in this, we are going to particularly talk about transferability of human resource policies and practices. Particularly with the human resource policies and practices is something which is related with the way of doing work. It is not something which is related to your layout. It is not something which is related to your buildings. It is not something which is related to your machinery. It is something which is related to how people will do their work. So it is something which is tangible and cannot be very much easily transferred. So there is a concept of subjectivity in transferability of HRM policies and practices. One of the most important, significant quality of management practices existing in today's world is that most of the managerial policies and practices have been developed in the Americas, in the US and then later on then when Japan developed into a flourishing nation, the Japanese managerial practices they were also incorporated in the organizations. About the transferability of human resource policies and practices, there are basically two schools of thought. One is the culturalist school of thought and the second one is the universalist school of thought. What are these school of thoughts from a purely culturalist school of thought? Organizations and management styles as Crozier puts it, cultural solutions to social problems. So how do you manage? What is your management style? Is it participative or autocratic or coercive? Or do you believe in dictatorship? All these things are cultural solutions to social problems. Socially because when people work together in an organization or in any other place, they are social communities. So it is a social problem which needs to be dealt with cultural solutions. So this is the culturalist point of view. The way you have to manage, basically you have to provide a cultural solution to a social problem. And that means that the context is very important and the culture is very important. On the other hand is the universalist approach. And universalist approach they say that business is business wherever you go. You have to do business. Or managers they have to deal with customers. They have to deal with competitors, unions, creditors and regardless of where they are located. So business has the same components. It has the same stakeholders. It has the same purpose that is of serving the need of the customers and then making it a profitable and commercial solution. So business is business wherever it goes. So that is the universalist approach. You have to do business. Your objective is to satisfy the customer needs and make it profitable. The components are the same. There are customers, creditors, traders and creditors. All these things are present everywhere. So it doesn't matter where you are doing business. It is business anywhere in the world. Then another argument is that the technology carries with it its own imperatives. The kind of technology which drives the manufacturing or service processes of the organization that is also going to affect how you organize your work. For example, if you make an assembly line manufacturing unit, then obviously your work is going to be organized around the assembly line. Now you cannot make an assembly line cannot be organized in the form of teams. Because assembly line is something which is not, which tangibly cannot be established in the form of teams. It is something which has to be in the form of assembly line from things moving from one place to the other and individual parts being monitored and manufactured at various different places. So if you organize the assembly line, then you have to organize it around the assembly line. But for example, if you have an electronic company, then you can bring teamwork between them. Because you have to make one chip and there is a lot of work in it. There can be electronics, there can be mechanical, there can be a lot of other things. So teamwork can have its possibility in it. So the technology of yours, that is also going to determine how the work is carried. In theory, we say that policies and practices cannot be replicated until all the social-cultural environment is transferred. So theoretically, in spirit, it seems that practices and policies cannot be transferred from one place to the other until the entire social setup is transferred from one place to another. But in practice, it is very different. Because human beings, they learn a lot, they are very much flexible, they are adaptable, they adapt to different situations, they learn a lot. So it is not essential that they will provide a complete social and cultural setup so they will learn or adopt a management practice. We have seen that over centuries, human beings have developed a set of universal practices. So the universalist approach of human beings is that all of the people are human beings, they have the same kind of needs, they have the same kind of social needs, basic needs, other kinds of needs. So with different modifications, it is easy and it is something which is doable that universal practices can be established. For example, the practice of weekly holiday. All over the world, weekly holiday is given. So anywhere in the world where you have a week's holiday or you have a holiday after 10 days, nowhere in the world you see that week is for 10 days. Every place in the world, the week is for 7 days. Similarly, there are 9 to 5 working hours in every place in the world. You work during the day, you deal with your domestic issues during the night. So you don't see that anywhere in the world that you are working at night and people are sleeping during the day. So this is a universal set of principles that you have to give a holiday in a week, you have to work with 9 to 5 people and you have to provide them with this basic environment. So it means that it is a continuum between universality and culturalist approach. Then it also depends, another argument is that the type of human resource practices and policies it also affects the transferability. Some types of human resource practices and policies can be easily transferred. Some are different to transfer. Which ones can be easily transferred? Those are the ones that you can easily replicate. For example, the physical layout of a shop, floor or office. You can replicate the physical layout very easily. You can make the office the same way as you have done in America. Then the formal hierarchical structure which is your formal organizational chart you can replicate it. Use of technology. What kind of technology do you have to use? Do you have to use computers? What type of machinery do you have to use? These are all things. But this is something which is subjective to skill availability. If skill is available then you can replicate the technology. Then contractual based employment that you have to hire the people on the contract. This is something which is an holiday entitlement. How many holidays do you have to give? Do you have to give after a week? Do you have to give two? Then how many annual holidays do you have to give? All these things are easily replicated. Then there are human resource practices that can be transferred after some adaptation. For example, quality circles. Quality circles are a way of doing work which is based on teamwork. We see that quality circles were developed in Japan based on their collectivist and harmonious kind of culture. These have been transferred from Japan to other places of the world. Even in an individualistic culture like the US quality circles have been transferred and have been employed to make the work more effective. With the little bit of modifications quality circles have been transferred to British companies as well. Over there what happens is that the work is organized in teamwork. People work together but because it is an individualistic culture the performance of people that is evaluated individually. That is the modification which makes the quality circles effective in other parts of the world as well. Then teamwork what type of teamwork can be done that is also a part of human resource policies which can be applied by different modifications. Then performance appraisal if you do it effectively you can use it with a little modification in other places as well. Motivation styles motivate people because human nature and human thoughts are the same so how can you motivate people with a little modification in different cultures and similarly leadership styles are also incorporated in different cultures because leader-follower relationship is a natural phenomenon and people follow leaders and their dynamics are more or less universally similar and with a little modification similar leadership styles can be employed. Finally there are human resource practices which are heavily entrenched in the national culture and are part of the national culture that you can't replicate in other places because people won't perceive it that way. For example in Japan every day is done with a company song. So if in Pakistan people sing a song before starting the company every morning which is culturally not something which can be accepted very easily. So this is a human resource practice which you can transfer but it doesn't matter if you don't sing a song before starting the company and you are doing your work properly then it doesn't matter. Then for example verbal and non-verbal gestures similarly in Japan you start your work by bowing to your to your boss so it's not necessary that you start your work by bowing the culture of verbal and non-verbal gestures you should follow them similarly if you see that in Pakistan your boss or colleagues call you sir whereas in British culture only a lot of honourable and very celebrated people are called sir so if you see in Pakistani culture multi-national, American, US and other organizations where they call people from the first name when they come to Pakistan and they work and these organizations are established in Pakistan they call each other which is which which cannot be modified because it is something which is entrenched so heavily in the national culture that it is difficult to modify this management practices of calling for example your boss by your first name it is something which the Pakistani people will find it very difficult to do so this kind of management practice would be difficult to implement in your national culture so transferability of human resource management practices and policies that depends on all these things it depends on whether you look at it from a culturalist approach or a universalist approach it also depends on the type of human resource management practice being transferred whether it is easily transferred it has to be modified which is entrenched in the local culture so all these things they affect the transferability of human resource management practices and policies across national borders