International Human Resource Strategy: Comparative Analysis

For each country of Costa Rica and Honduras; select a target city Heredia, Costa Rica and Choloma, Honduras to use in your analysis.
This Course Project is an individual project. As such, your project will provide an in-depth look at how the Walmart company operates overseas in two separate countries. The country comparison project includes a 10-page paper to compare and contrast laws and regulations, mandated compliance issues, demographics, culture, currency, economic and political stability, language, labor relations (unions), HRM policies and practices, HR trends, the likely effects, and the characteristics of the HR department or function of two separate countries. Every member of your team should collaborate and select any two countries (within the seven regions listed below) to compare and contrast.
The complete and polished course project final paper. The 10 -page paper must include the following details.
• Introduction and Background
• International Human Resource Strategy
• Comparative Analysis
Provide as much insight into, and explanation of, the differences or similarities as possible. Use your understanding of the impact of the contextual factors (see below) on the HR policies and practices to estimate what a country's HR policies and practices are likely to be, just in case you can't find specific information on them. Use this understanding in your discussion of the HR policies and practices each team finds the contextual factors of the countries. Make predictions about future trends toward possible convergence of HR policies and practices. Finally, after you have selected the countries and cities, you will use the following scenario as a point of reference to do your comparative HR analysis strategic plan.
Your company is looking for a location for a new production facility in your geographic region. This production facility will hire many local workers for all aspects of the facility (e.g., production, supervision, quality, shipping, and other line functions). There may be a few (but not too many) traditional expatriates in accordance with the country's established regulations. Fill in some details about your hypothetical organization to make the presentation more interesting and more relevant.
Prepare a report comparing and contrasting the cities you have selected from the region. The focus of the report is how the management of your human talent will affect the ability to be successful in that region. You will need to discuss a variety of issues in order to conduct a thorough analysis. The following is a list of the possible issues. These are only suggestions. You probably will not be able to cover everything. It is your prerogative to present the issues you believe are most relevant for the given region. Basically, give a well justified decision regarding the location you have selected from an HR perspective.
Suggested Details
Here are some details that you can include in your research paper:
Analysis of need/availability of talent (local, third country nationals)
Legal obligations and concerns affecting HR and labor relations
Mandated regulatory compliance of the country
Flexibility of the wage bill (ability to adjust hours and ability to adjust headcount)
Labor and management relations challenges that impact the decision-making process of global leaders
Employee Relations
Staffing and Selection
Compensation and Benefit Programs
Affirmative Action (if applicable to the country)
Competence of workforce (education/training)
Turnover rates
Medical and health systems
Cultural dimensions. How do they affect the practice of HR? How will they affect the functioning of the location?
The way the organizations are structured in the country
Political and economic stability, currency exchange issues
Quality and performance standards to create the best place to work for
Mechanisms to attract, recruit and select, and retain qualified talent
Value, empower, motivate, and reward employees
Generating a cohesive culture when leading the organization's vision and mision
Nepotism
Ethical concerns regarding hiring, child labor, bribery, etc.
Salary levels expected by host nationals
Availability of housing, schools, benefits, etc. for expatriates
Other compensation and benefit concerns
Language
Religion and level of orthodoxy
Other norms of the business community (e.g., greetings, meetings, negotiation)
Women in business
Group norms (e.g., individualism/collectivism)
Level of formality (i.e., deference, hierarchy)
Value of time and time consciousness
The final paper should be prepared according to standards for academic integrity. In addition, each paper should be neatly typed, should use appropriate graphics, and should be approximately 10 pages in length, not counting title page, reference page(s) or appendices.
In addition, each paper should be neatly typed, free of grammatical and spelling errors, doubled-space, 12-point font Times New Roman, 1-inch margins, and adheres to current APA guidelines.