International Human Resource Management Issues for the 1990s

A total of 110 senior human resource and industrial relations managers frommultinational companies located in North America, South America, the MiddleEast, Asia, Europe, and Australia responded to a survey designed to elicit theiropinions of the most compelling issues in international human resourcemanagement for the 1990s. The following three within-firm issues were mostsalient: the role of human resources in international operations; managing amulti-cultural workforce; and developing management talent in a global businessenvironment. Three other issues were seen as critically important externalchallenges: human resource aspects of international alliances; the impact of thesocial dimension of the new Europe; and the future role of Japan in Asia andthe world. These issues were discussed in terms of their strategic and managerialimplications.