Q4. Why do many MNCs continue to recruit internally from the home country instead of the local labour market when seeking to hire managerial staff for overseas subsidiaries? What are the limitations of this approach and how should management respond?
Abstract
A selection of perceived and valid reasons encourage Multi National companies (MNCs) to recruit Parent country nationals (PCNs) for managerial positions at overseas subsidiaries rather than employing Host or Third Country Nationals (HCN/TCNs). The reasons range from a good ‘fit’, of the person to their environment (Tarique, 2006) and, the employees actual capabilities of doing the job. However, limitations exist when adopting this approach in various aspects of the process.
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Tenure increases commitment to Parent company goals (Gregersen & Black, 1992)and should be considered in selection process. Organisational support from the firm, avoids the “information gap” (Chorafas, 1967) where communication is overlooked with colleagues abroad. It causes misinterpretation of information or lack of it throughout the course of the assignment. Support will reduce this hazard and increase commitment from to the parent company.
The ability to adjust can be assisted by defining the goals and objectives of the firm; clarity of the job design also helps this process. Therefore the capability of adjustment by expatriate and spouse/family must be considered at the selection stage of the international assignment. Shaffer et al., (1999) research show that more emphasis on designing global positions should exist where jobs are clearly defined and the employee has greater decision-making authority. Job design refers to the role clarity, its discretion and novelty, which in turn relates to the success of the international assignment. A supportive organisational culture both home and abroad will enhance expatriates ability to adjust thus increasing their effectiveness on the job. This should include repatriation support by the provision of a buddy or assignment of a “special employee” to help expatriate navigate the cultural and business terrain as used in the Amos Tuck School’s
Competing in global markets entail many factors and centralization of its human resource practices is certainly vital to improve global competitiveness and empower employees for global assignments. To achieve success in global marketplace, the challenge of all businesses regardless of their size is to understand global corporate cultural differences and invest in human resources which includes selecting and retaining talented employee, training and development whilst encouraging employees to be innovative and creative. Employees selected to work in foreign locations should be prepared beforehand with adequate cross-cultural training. For an organization to be successful in the international marketplace, it must be concerned with this fit from both an internal and
Our business unit is preparing for global growth, with our first international deal closing in New Zealand. Several of the major challenges we face are balancing ‘business as usual’ with preparing for international expansion (including hiring internationally, sourcing new offices) and preparing staff for potential re-deployment. Although I agree with the approach discussed in (Kramar, et al., 2014), in which finding local nationals is a more viable option.
Performance criteria and goals are best established by combining the values and norms of each local environment with the home-office’s performance standards. An individual country profile should be developed and should take into account the foreign subsidiary’s environment. This profile should be used to review any factors that may have an effect on the expatriate employee’s performance. Such factors include language, culture, politics, labor relations, economy, government, control, and communication.
The Multinational Corporation (MNC) manager must have a broader set of skills than a manager of a smaller business. The MNC manager should be extremely flexible, able to speak another language, and be culturally
In analyzing the second reason listed for why outsourcing is used; ‘inability to attract the highest caliber of employees to job functions that may be peripheral to the organization’s core discipline’, companies employ a different kind of outsourcing tactic. This reason leads to offshore outsourcing solutions. If a company cannot attract high caliber domestic employees to job functions secondary to their main function then they seek help where labor may be less expensive and more efficient.
For avoiding failure, expatriate managers must have certain competencies. Here the competencies to ‘handle stress’ and ‘cultural adaptability’ are discussed. Ability to handle stress is an essential competence that all successful managers must have. Expatriate mangers experience stress due to the culture shock, unhappy family settings, work load, increased responsibilities and due to difficulties of everyday expatriate life. If the manager is competent to manage stress using sufficient stress management techniques, he will be able to control the situation and can become a successful manager. Another important competency required for the expatriate managers is cultural adaptability. An expatriate manage can perform well abroad if he has the competency to adapt to multi-cultural environments. If they have competence of cultural adaptability, they can easily develop a global perspective for their business. Such expatriate managers are able to recognize cross-border opportunities and can identify risks with a global perspective.
Therefore, it is in the best interest of the firm to provide the employee with the necessary tools to support his or her reintegration. Furthermore, repatriation programs include the opportunity to discuss the employee’s role once he or she returns. Communicating to the employee the multitude of corporate changes that have taken place in regard to policies, titles, projects, teams and general corporate structure while he or she has been away is an important way to be sure the employee is aware of how they will fit back into their domestic corporate environment. It would be easy to see how an employee might feel that because so many changes have taken place that perhaps a suitable position might not exist for him upon return. Keeping the employee abreast of all changes is an important way to alleviate the stress of returning to his or her home country.
This is an exciting time for our company. As we look to the future, the demand for a more visible and global company are vastly approaching and our company will be a part of this multinational expansion. This guide has been prepared for the employees participating in our first trial run of U. S. Expatriates. Your mission is extremely important. This guide will give instructions on to what is expected during your international assignment. As CEO of the company we want to thank you for your willingness to participate in our global expansion into our new global markets. We have done extensive research and have chosen to start the U. S. Expatriate program in Australia and Singapore. There are multiple benefits for employees who chose to accept this position. Throughout this guide we will identify the benefits, challenges, compensation and travel incentives, as well as rules of conduct in foreign countries. Thank you again for daring to step outside of your comfort zone to be the first participants in our U. S. Expatriate assignment. (Price, 2012)
Expatriation is when a company sends an employee overseas to work. Businesses needs to have a plan in place to insure a successful expatriation assignment. First, the business needs to make sure to choose the right person, who is open to new experiences and cultures. Second, the employer needs to prepare the expat and their family for what they will experience. Additionally, the business should have a program setup to prepare the expat with classes to teach about the culture the person will experience. If the area speaks a different language than the expat, the company should invest in a language tutor to help their employee. In this paper, I will discuss the person I selected for the expatriation assessment assignment. I will display
Hypothesis 2: Foreign nationality of an executive increases the chances of his/her selection to upper echelon towards the TMT internationalization in MNCs
TCS is well aware of the problems that expatriate faces at foreign location such as culture shock, alienation etc. Therefore the company follows a set of actions for expatriate’s career development.
In the case study “Kelly’s Assignment in Japan”, it is very apparent Kelly’s expatriation was extremely mismanaged. Both her family and company were ill-prepared for the transition.
The importance of international manager is very important specially in the case of business contexts within the firm. For example, managers from a foreign parent company need to understand that local employees from the host country may require different organization structure and HRM procedures and this become easily for firms to sell their product and marketing their product successfully to their foreign customers.
Advantages of internal recruitment are more than just cutting on advertisement costs because it offers wonderful opportunities for the current staff to further their careers. Internal recruitment could also be a great way of keeping workers who may have been considering a flight from the company, this is advantageous because the cost of training are at most best insignificant and to the worst much less than it would cost if the organization advertised outside. It 's definitely faster and less costly than outside recruitment and it has the added merits because current employees are a familiar entity. Some organizations conduct external recruitment only to discover later that they have a member of staff who doesn 't fit into the general environ and the mission and vision statement of the organization.
Globalization has increased significantly due to a number of different reasons. With more businesses operating on foreign soil, the issue of cultural differences and its effect on recruiting the right resources to achieve a multinational corporation’s overall strategy is a key consideration for companies. The role of the Human Resource function in international organizations regarding their human capital strategy in these global environments is a critical element for multinational corporations to evaluate and leverage. This research study will focus on understanding if outsource human resource providers can recruit the right employees with the cultural fit and skill set needed in multiple markets at a lower cost for all areas of a multinational corporation’s operation and at any level of the organization’s maturity. Additional research needs to be performed in order to draw a conclusion on this issue.