Wednesday, February 26, 2020

Human Resources Management in the Asia Pacific Essay

Human Resources Management in the Asia Pacific - Essay Example The region has, in fact, emerged as the world's largest consumer market" (Budhwar 2004). The enormous investment and business opportunities offered by Asia-Pacific to foreign entities have always been there. But the generally enigmatic character of this combined market initially discouraged many. MNCs, for example, used to find the Japanese market inhospitable, even impenetrable. As for China, the previous attitude of Saudi Arabia towards that country tells the whole story. Until the 1980s, observed the Brooking Institution in Washington, Saudi Arabia was unwilling to sell oil to China because of perceptions that it was a godless, revolutionary threat. Now, foreign investors and MNCs tread into the markets of all the Asia-Pacific countries on a welcome mat, such that the region has outflanked even EU as host to the most number of MNCs. But it would seem that MNCs have to sweat it out first to make their standard management and employment practices work in this region of widely divergent cultures. "The subject matter of our project is that international organizations are faced with the problem of providing people from differing cultural contexts with a working framework that enables successful co-operation. On the basis of original research, our intention is to extend the knowledge of the internal and external relationships of work groups in various cultural contexts. As co-operation processes play a central role in teams we focus on processes centred on co-operation in and between groups with teams understood as social systems which define themselves in relation to their organizational and social surroundings"(Brewster, Harris, 279: 1999). To understand the challenges inherent in this task, it would be helpful to take up a hypothetical case, say, a consultant assigned by an Australian-based MNC to prepare the ground for the company's foray into a joint venture with an Asia-Pacific market. The first thing to consider is that there is no existing HRM literature here, such that the concept may be new or non-existent in some regions. If these materials are available at all, companies in a particular country may be using different HRM systems. Thus, it is imperative that the MNC consultant develops a new HRM framework that factors in the employment systems being observed by the local company it intends to partner with. The management practices employed by both managers and non-management labour must be fused into this framework. For the purpose of our hypothesis, we pick China as target destination of the Australian MNC since this market exhibits many of the peculiarities of the Asia-Pacific economies. Like many countries in the region, China has responded to the clarion call for globalization by switching to a market economy. This called for the dismantling of state apparatus that planned and controlled the economy, which gave rise to such anomalies as high employment rates but low wages, high welfare and low productivity.  Ã‚  

Monday, February 10, 2020

The Institutional and Cultural Influences on Accounting Essay

The Institutional and Cultural Influences on Accounting - Essay Example Code law legal systems are common in continental Europe, Latin America and much of Asia. (Roberts et al, 2005). In these countries, laws are generally codified (often using a similar framework to that of the French Napoleonic codes of 1804-11). (Roberts et al, 2005). Commercial organisation as well as accounting regulation is governed by commercial codes. Common law on the other hand adopts a philosophy where the role of law is to prohibit undesirable behaviour rather than to prescribe or codify desirable behaviour. Commercial law stems from England where it was exported to the United states and the Common Wealth. (Roberts et al, 2005). The legal/judicial institutions can influence incentives to produce conservative accounting numbers through a series of channels. (Bushman and Piotrosky, 2006). ii. Business Organisation and Ownership. There is also a considerable difference in ownership structure and business organisation across countries. (Nobes, 1992). For example, capital contributed by the government and banks in france is very significant as are small businesses. (Nobes, 1992). Companies in Germany are owned by banks and a majority of shares in public companies are owned and controlled by banks, especially the Deutsche, Dresdner and Commerz Banks. (Nobes, 1992). One would therefore expect accounting methods in Germany to be influenced by these banks since most of the information produced will be done in accordance to their needs. On the other hand, shares in the UK and the USA are owned by institutional investors.