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TITLEEffectiveness of International HRM Practices at NokiaINTRODUCTIONThis proposed research is an effort to compare and contrast the practices of Finland based telecom giant, Nokia in the field of international human resource management (IHRM).The globalization of business is forcing managers to grapple with complex issues

as they seek to gain or sustain a competitive advantage. Faced with unprecedented levels of foreign competition at home and abroad, firms are beginning to recognize not only that international business is high on top managements list of priorities but that findings and nurturing the human resources required to implement an international or global strategy is of critical importance. Effective human

resource management is essential, especially for small and medium firms where international expansion places additional stress on limited resources, particularly people.The research would focus the HR practice of Nokia in the fields of development of multicultural workforce, management of performance and rewards, and looks into

the ethical issues faced by the company in the context of international HRM. The analysis will also be based on the comparison of theory with the company pract

ice in each topic.Importance of the research

The rapid growth of internationalization and global competition has increased the number and significance of MNCs in recent years, resulting in the increased mobility of human resources (Black et al., 2000). The success of these global business companies depend most importantly on the quality of management in the MNC.

The effective management of human resources is increasingly being recognized asa major determinant of success or failure in international business (Black et al., 2000)

Shortages of international managers are becoming an increasing problem for international firms (Scullion, 1994)

Importantly, IHRM issues are becoming increasingly important in a far wider range of organizations partly due to the rapid growth of small and medium-sized enterprise internationalization and also the emergence of micromultinationals in recent years (Dimitratos et al., 2002).

Recent researches suggests that growing number of cross-border mergers and acquisitions has further increased the strategic importance of IHRM ( Doz and Hamel,1998; Schuler et al., 2004)

Last but not least, the problem of how to internationalize the HRM function itself has been identified as a major issue facing international organizations, andit is seen that same HR policies will not produce the same effects in differentcountry contexts.

The huge Finnish telecom company, Nokia is the worlds biggest cellular phone manufacturer in the international electronic industry. Nokia was established in 1865

as a forest industry company, since then the company has climbed a long way, but has still remained under private ownership. Mr. Jorma Ollila became the CEO in

1992, who then took the companys current strategic direction. The company

s products are divided mainly between four divisions: mobile phones (wireless voice and data devices for personal and business uses), multimedia (home satellite systems, and mobile gaming devices), networks (wireless switching and transmission equipment used in carrier networks), and enterprise solutions (wireless systems for businesses).

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Currently Nokia has more than 50,000 employees, 16 factories in nine countries and research and development facilities in 11 countries. These facts make Nokia a

truly global company.The company has reached 40 percent share of the global handset market along with

the industry leading profit margins of 20 - 25 percent. The core reason behindthe companys growth is Nokias people policy. Analysts like Pollitt (2004) have claimed that the companys people policies stems from Nokia Employee Value Proposition,

which according to companys Corporate Social Responsibility Report is describedas a concrete employment offering for each employee from the very first Nokia day

onwards (Nokia, 2004, 2003).Nokia is one of the most successful multinational enterprises. It is the largest

cellular phone manufacturer in the world. Major business of Nokia is in the field of wireless and wired telecommunications. Nokia have 112,262 employees in more than 120 countries, sales in more than 150 countries and global annual revenue

of 51.1 billion euros and operating profit of 8.0 billion as of 2007. (Annual Report, 2008). Nokias global device market share was about 39% in Q1 of 2008, up from 36% in Q1 2007 and down from 40% in Q4 2007 (http://www.nokia.com/2008/Q1/index.html). Major products of Nokia is mobile handsets for every major markets, including GSM, CDMA, and W-CDMA (UMTS).

Nokia have good R&D department, Production and sales department in many countries throughout the world. In March 2008, Nokia had R&D centers in 10 countries andemployed 30,415 people in research and development, representing approximately

27% of Nokias total workforce.Nokia Market share

RESEARCH AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

It has been established that inductive approach to research is particularly concerned with the context in which the events are taking place (Cooper & Schindler,

2006). Therefore an inductive qualitative approach is considered appropriate. The inductive approach is more flexible and appropriate for the topic of this research. Instead of hypothesizing, basic aim and research objectives has been setout for this proposed research. The basic aim of the proposed research is to provide a comparative analysis of the HRM practices adopted by the multinational mobile giant company, Nokia.

The research objectives for this proposed project are:

To determine the strategy of Nokia on how to develop a multicultural workforce of its employees who are working in 45 different countries around the world. To estimate the degree of international human resource management practices andprocesses used by the Nokia. To determine the strategy of Nokia on how to measure performance of its expatriates and thus rewarding them according to their results. To evaluate the strategy of Nokia for handling the various ethical issues it faces in different countries.