The influence of terrorism on human resource practices: a comparative study of Afghanistan and Pakistan

Abstract

Pakistan and Afghanistan are two neighboring countries adversely affected by terrorism through numerous channels including businesses, administrative issues, and human resource management in particular. Having bilateral links, the two countries in the region have a profound historical and cultural relationship with each other, and both are members of the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC). The purpose of this paper is to compare the adverse effects of terrorism on human resource management practices in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Data has been taken from secondary sources in the form of government annual reports of projects, statistics archives, and some scholarly articles published. Results demonstrate that some discrepancies and commonalities exist between Afghanistan and Pakistan in the human resources management practices negatively affected by terrorism. Recruitment and selection criteria are not merit-based, nepotism, discrimination, weak pay structure, loose performance appraisal mechanism, the lack of qualified labors, and no consideration to employees’ safety are the common grounds of HRM practices in both the countries where terrorism makes an enormous contribution to all these wreckages. Lack of documented literature on HRM practices in Afghanistan was the critical limitation of the study. Studies that relate terrorism with HRM practices exist; however, this is the first study that comparatively links terrorism with HRM practices in two neighboring nations; Afghanistan and Pakistan.