MGTO 630B
Managing People Globally
for Competitive Advantage
Instructor: Dr. Christina Sue-Chan
Demonstrator: Michelle To, MPA
Introduction: Chapter 3
Saturday, February 15, 2003
Groups



Ferodo: Beiske, Ben; Ilmonen, Jack; Kwan,
Michael; Lui, Tommy
Black & Decker: Chan, Elma; Cheung,
Gordon; Desombre, Jean; Mow, Sammy;
NG, Agnes
LG Group: Brunskill, Tamara; Cheung,
Jacqueline; Nanton, Jason; Quach, SeavEng; Sero Quintana, Euric
2
By the end of today’s class, you should
be
able
to:
 Identify selection criteria for expatriates


Know what to do to make an expatriate
assignment more effective
Evaluate the impact of cultural differences
on global staffing
3
Recall

Duality, institutional, cultural values 
end goal is survival of the firm but
different prescription for how to achieve
that goal



Duality  need the right tension
Institutional  conformity to gain legitimacy
Cultural values  local adaptation
4
Figure 3-1. The Purpose of Expatriation
5
Recruitment Strategies

Ethnocentric


Polycentric


Host-country nationals (HCN) manage own
countries; PCNs at HQ
Regiocentric


Parent-country nationals (PCN) only
divide operations into geographical regions;
transfer staff within these regions
Geocentric

ID best people for key jobs, regardless of
nationality
6
What are the selection criteria to be
used for choosing expats?

Europa construction exercise
7
Guidelines


Don’t assume that a job requires the same
skills from one location to another
Don’t underestimate the effect of local
culture and physical environment
8
Key Issues In Expatriate Staffing



Legal Constraints, Government
Regulation of personnel selection
Job Requirements
Personality, Skills, Attitudes, Motivation
9
Selection Criteria

Personality Characteristics

Perseverance & Patience

for when everything falls apart
 Initiative
 no one will be there to indicate what to try
next
 Flexibility
 to accept and try new ways
10
Technical Skills
Communication - home and host-country
language, verbal, nonverbal, written
 Stress management – to overcome “culture
shock”
 Interpersonal Skills - concern for other members
of a group, tolerance for ambiguity, respect,
nonjudgmental

11
What are some of the things that can
go wrong on an expatriate assignment?

Fred Bailey mini-case
12
Culture
is something that:
Distinguishes one group from another, not
only national, but also
regional, organizational, professional, even
gender cultures
 You learn through socialization
 Is relatively stable

13
Understanding Cultural Differences:
Cultural Dimensions


Tight cultures versus loose cultures
(Triandis, 1989, 1994)
 The extent to which members of a certain
culture share the same values and norms
Hofstede’s dimensions (1980): power
distance, uncertainty avoidance,
individualism, masculinity and long-term
orientation
14
Understanding Cultural
Differences: Communication Style




Implicit versus explicit language (Rosch & Segler, 1987)
Implicit language instills messages with positive
tone to decrease chances of unpleasant
encounters and direct confrontation (Gibson, 1997)
Explicit language communicates directly what it
means, even if resulting message is negative or
harsh
People from collective cultures tend to adopt an
implicit language (e.g. China, Japan, Brazil)
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Culture Impact of Nature of
Constructs: Communication

Delivering negative information honesty and
openly


Important for effective performance in individualist
cultures where explicit and direct communication
is encourage.
Inappropriate in collectivist cultures where implicit
and vague language is used in order to avoid
unpleasant situations and preserve group
harmony
16
Understanding Cultural
Differences: Cognitive Style

Low versus high-context cognitive style (Hall
& Hall, 1987; Witkin & Berry, 1975)
High-context: perceptual tendency to focus on
the context in which the event, object, or
experience is embedded
 Low-context: tendency to organize conceptual
field into discrete parts and to the abstract from
the context and generalize to other settings

17
Cognitive Style and Culture


Societies that encourage social
conformity and socio-cultural
stratification also tend to nurture highcontext (e.g. China, Japan, Indonesia)
Societies that encourage self-reliance and
self-control tend to nurture low-context
(e.g; Switzerland, Germany, US)
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Interviews: Culture and Cognitive Style

Instructions and questions need to
accommodate the culture’s preferred cognitive
style


In individualist cultures, instructions and questions
can be direct and abstract
In collectivist cultures, instructions and questions
need to be embedded in context relevant to the
participants (use examples representative of local
reality)
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Figure 3-4. Human Resource Practices That Support
Effective Expatriation
20
References
Berry, J. W. (1969). On cross-cultural comparability. International Journal of Psychology, 4, 119128.
Erez., M. & Early, P. C. (1993). Culture, self identity, and work. New York: Oxford University
Press.
Gelfand J. M., Holcombe, K. M., & Raver J. L. (2001). Methodological issues in crossCultural organizational research. In Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Research
Methods.
Gelfand J. M., Fitzgerald, L. F., & Drasgow, F. (1995). Theory and measurement of sexual
harassment: A confirmatory analysis across cultures and settings. Journal of Vocational
Behavior, 47(2), 164-177. London: Erlbaum.
Gibson, C. B. (1997). Do you hear what I hear? A framework for reconciling intercultural
communication difficulties arising from cognitive style and cultural values. In P. C. Early, &
M. Erez (Eds.) New perspectives on international industrial/organizational psychology. San
Francisco, CA: The new Lexington Press.
Hall, E. T., & Hall, M. R. (1987). Hidden differences: Doing business with the Japanese. New
York: Doubleday.
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References, Cont’d
Hofstede, G. (1980). Culture’s consequences: International differences in work related values.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Hofstede, G. (1991). Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind. London: McGraw Hill.
Hough, L. M., & Oswald, F. L. (2000). Personnel selection: Looking toward the future Remembering the past. Annual Review of Psychology, 51, pp. 631-664.
McGrath, J.E. (1982). Dilemmatics: The study of research choices and dilemmas. In J.E.
McGrath J. Martin, and R.A. Kulka (Eds.) Judgment Calls in Research. 69-102. Beverly
Hills, CA: Sage.
Obake, R. (1983). Cultural assumptions of East and West: Japan and the United States. In W.
B. GudyKunst (Ed.), Intercultural communication theory (pp. 123-145). Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage.
Rosch, M., & Segler, K. G. (1987). Communication with the Japanese. Management
International Review, 27(4), 56-67.
Ryan, A. M., McFarland, L., Baron, H., & Page, R. (1999). An international look at selection
Practices: Nation and culture as explanations for variability in practice. Personnel
Psychology, 52, pp. 359-391.
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References, Cont’d
Shweder, R. A., & LeVine, R. A. (1984). Culture theory: Essays on mind, self and emotion. New
York: Cambridge University Press.
Triandis, H. C. (1983). Essentials of studying cultures. New York: Pergamon Press.
Triandis, H. C. (1989). The self and social behavior in different contexts. Psychological Review, 96,
506-520.
Triandis, H. C. (1994). Cross cultural industrial and organizational psychology. In H. C. Triandis,
M. D. Dunnette, & L. M. Hough (Eds.) Handbook of industrial and organizational psychology
(2nd ed., vol. 4, pp. 103-172). Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.
Ueda, K. (1974). Sixteen ways to avoid saying “no” in Japan. In J. C. Condon, & M. Sato (Eds.)
Intercultural encounters with Japan (pp. 185-192). Tokyo: Simul Press.
Witkin, H. A., & Berry, J. W. (1975). Psychological differentiation in cross cultural perspective.
Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 6, 4-87.
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