62 Part 1 the Practice of Human resource Management boundaries by multinational companies. It involves the worldwide management of people, not just the management of expatriates. Companies that function globally comprise inter- national and multinational firms. International firms are those where operations take place in subsidiaries overseas which rely on the business expertise or manufacturing capacity of the parent company; they may be highly centralized with tight controls. Multinational firms are ones in which a number of businesses in different countries are managed as a whole from the centre; the degree of autonomy they have will vary. As reported by Welfare (2006: 8), Dr Dickman of the Cranfield School of Management believes that the main contrast between national and global HR practice is the need to see the bigger picture: `The difference is the higher complexity and the need for sensitivity to different cultures and different business environments.' Dickman stated that under- standing the local context is key and an inter- national HR person needs to be asking questions such as: What is the business environment here? are confined to one country. As Ulrich (1998: 126) contended, globalization requires organizations: to move people, ideas, products, and information around the world to meet local needs. They must add new and important ingredients to the mix when making strategy: volatile political situations, contentious global trade issues, fluctuating exchange rates, and unfamiliar cultures. They must be more literate in the ways of international customers, commerce and competition than ever before. In short, globalization requires that organizations increase their ability to learn and collaborate and to manage diversity, complexity, and ambiguity. Bartlett and Ghoshal (1991) argued that the main issue for multinational companies is the need to manage the challenges of global efficiency and multinational flexibility. Research conducted over a number of years by Brewster and Sparrow (2007) demonstrated the growth of what they called `globalized HRM'. They noted that: