RSM462 – Project Brainstorming and Key Goals
Chapter 1:
Agenda
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What are the key things to think about in International Human Relations Resource
Management? Define and Explain.
How has managing expatriates evolved in terms of needs and processes?
How does domestic HR differ from international HR?
What are the upcoming challenges for existing IHRM? How has increased awareness on
optionality, greater transparency, and faster diffusion of best practices impacted the field?
Why this matters to me: Eventually do want to get international work assignments –
understanding how HR thinks about staffing and how to best position myself to align with their
needs and upcoming trends will help facilitate this. Also eventually want to work my way up to
management – understanding the basic considerations with staffing for multinational
enterprises will be critical.
Key Questions
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What are the main similarities and differences between domestic and international HRM?
o Similarities – core areas are the same, both require procurement, allocation, and
utilization (or planning, staffing, training & development, industrial relations,
performance management, compensation)
o Different: Domestic HR only involves the employees within one single, national
jurisdiction; whereas IHRM must consider the interplay of human resource activities, the
countries it operates in, and the type of employees it needs. This results in more HR
activities, the need for broader understanding, more involvement in their employees’
personal lives, changing focus as the workforce mix of expatriates and locals vary, risk
exposure, and broader external influences
Define these terms: IHRM, PCN, HCN, and TCN.
o IHRM – requires understanding three different perspectives. Cross-cultural behaviors in
an organization operating in multiple countries, how different countries employ HR, and
how multinational companies employ HR
o PCN – Parent Country National – expatriate sent to host country from headquartered
country
o HCN – Host Country National - sourcing talent from host country
o TCN – Third Country National – expatriate that is not from headquartered country sent
to host country
Discuss two HR activities in which a multinational firm must engage that would not be required
in a domestic environment
o To facilitate management in a global context, HR must account for international
taxation, international relocation and orientation, administrative services for
expatriates, manage host-government relations, and offer language translations services
as needed.
o Taxation – should make sure that there isn’t a tax incentive or disincentive when moving
abroad. This type of policy is called tax equalization.
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Relocation and Orientation – you need to plan for pre-departure training, ensure that
the employee has a good understanding of immigration and travel details, provide
information on housing, shopping, medical care, recreation, and schooling options, and
finalize compensation details like delivery of salary overseas, determining different
overseas allowances, and how to treat taxes.
Why is a greater degree of involvement in employees’ personal lives inevitable in many IHRM
activities?
o Domestic HR has relatively fewer activities that involve the employee’s personal life.
Specifically, they may provide employee benefits with coverage for family, and perhaps
some relocation assistance, but not much more than that. In contrast, IHRM requires
ensuring that employees have a good understanding of their housing arrangements,
health care, compensation package, advice on banking and investments, coordinating
home visits, and final repatriation. For example, some countries require physical
documentation of a marriage certificate before granting a visa for an accompanying
spouse. Ensuring that the expatriates’ children get appropriate education is another
example.
Discuss at least two of the variables that moderate differences between domestic and
international HR practices?
o Factors that moderate differences include the cultural environment, industry that the
multinational is involved in, the importance of home-country domestic market, and
attitudes of senior management. How is Bosch’s senior management thinking about
these different international markets? (Probably very important, esp. for Asia)
o Culture – shared knowledge structure that reduces variability in values, attitudes, and
behaviors
 Culture shock – Psychological disorientation because people misunderstand or
do not recognize important cues
 Emic vs. Etic  Emic is culture specific, whereas etic is culture-common
(universality)
 At the firm level, it’s becoming more etic (convergence), whereas at the
individual level, it’s becoming more emic (divergence)
 However, even emic, need to avoid local practices like nepotism
o Industry type–
 Porter: is competition global (commodities), or is it multi-domestic (CPG)?
Bosch’s portfolio includes a mix of products that are competitive globally
(software, industrial technology, and energy and building technology) and multidomestic (consumer goods) We would expect their international HR practices to
be more similar to domestic for consumer goods.
 Laurent: How to develop co-ordination
 Recognize that parent’s HR has its own values and assumptions of home
culture
 Recognize that this is not better or worse but are different have
different strengths and weaknesses, which are especially visible abroad
 Foreign subsidiaries have different way of managing that may not
necessarily be better or worse but may be more effective locally
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Ensuring that differences in culture is acknowledged and enabling their
discussion
 Ensuring the discussion of cross-cultural perspectives could develop
more creative and effective ways of managing people
o Importance of national markets (US vs. Switzerland)
o Attitude of Senior Management to International Operations
 If domestic market importance is emphasized, then corporate goals and
objectives, and subsequently managers, will focus on domestic issues,
minimizing differences between international and domestic.
Additional considerations:
o Asymmetric events, PESTLE
Concepts
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Defining IHRM –
o IHRM requires understanding three different perspectives – how people behave and
work across countries, how HR works in different countries, and how multinational firms
should approach HR
o Activities include the following 6 activities:
 1. HR Planning (Klaus needs to figure out incentives, compensation, etc. while
aligning with colleagues and external mobility service providers)
 2. Compensation (ideas to manage expatriate compensation include relocation
allowance, efficient calculations of the cost-of-living allowance, cap on
allowances, housing allowance and/or costs, and travel expenses)
 3. Training and Development (what is the purpose of these international
assignments? To train local? To bring up expatriates and inpatriates? What
training do they need? Technical, cultural, etc.)
 4. Industrial Relations (How should HR help facilitate the relationship between
management and employees? Designing policies, engaging stakeholders, etc.)
 5. Performance Management (What does an expatriate need to do in order for
his assignment to be successful?)
 6. Staffing (Should local talent be recruited, or should expatriates be brought
in?)
o IHRM can be modelled three different ways:
 1. Categorized in three different ways (procurement, allocation, and utilization)
 these can be expanded into staffing (recruitment, selection, placement),
planning, training & development, compensation, industrial relations, and
performance management
 2. Host-country, parent-country, and other countries may be source of labor,
finance and other inputs
 3. Three categories of employees of an international firm
 Host-country nationals, parent-country nationals, and third-country
nationals
o Key themes to consider: Expatriates adapting to local culture, managing expatriates and
dynamic with locals, managing expensive compensation, local training and development
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What are the best companies in the world doing to implement something
similar? ( e.g. Walmart…)
Chapter 2
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Definitions of culture,
Cultural concepts,
Results of intercultural management studies such as Hofstede, the GLOBE study, and others,
Reflections on cross-cultural management research
Discussion of the development of cultures
Questions
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Define culture. How can culture be conceptualized?
o Intercultural comparative research – term used in Europe to describe discipline that
deals with comparisons of various cultures; also referred to as cross-cultural
management
o Understanding different cultures first became important when low performance and
unforeseen conflicts of many foreign business enterprises led to questions about
transferability of English-speaking world practices
o Goals of cross-cultural management studies
 WHAT - Describing behavior in organizations within countries and cultures
 Describing what people in India might be doing versus Canada.
 TREND - Comparing behavior in organizations across countries and cultures
 Showing how people in India work differently than in Canada.
 HOW - Explaining how employees, customers, suppliers, and business partners
from different countries and cultures interact, and how to improve said
interaction
 Tailoring command-and-control structure to India’s work culture while
allowing more flexibility and openness in Canada
o Term for culture originated from colere – plant cultivation
o Kluckhohn and Kroeber condensed 164 definitions and used it to develop the following
definition
 Consists in patterned ways of thinking, feeling, and reacting, acquired and
transmitted by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievement of human
groups…including their embodiments in artefacts; the essential core of culture
consists of traditional ideas and especially their attached values.
o Geert Hofstede used software programming as an analogy for culture.
o Hansen describes culture as customs of the community that are followed by the
majority. Had standardization of the following
 Communication (Chinese more formal)
 Thought (Americans in independence)
 Feeling (Americans in Entrepreneurial, Creative)
 Behavior (Conscientous)
o Schein – concept of culture revolved around three layers:
 1) Artefacts – visible organizational structures and processes
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2) Value – Part visible, part invisible (Abortion)
3) Underlying Assumptions (Democracy, Christianity) – Include convictions,
perceptions, thoughts, and feelings, usually invisible
o Klukhohn and Strodtbeck – assumptions are organized independently of individual cases
in typical patterns in each culture based on the human capacity to survive. Schein
expanded on Klukhohn and Strodtbeck’s ideas with the following 6 questions:
 The Nature of Truth vs. Reality. Do people follow traditional convictions or do
they experiment?
 The Time Dimension. How important is defined? What is the focus – past or
future? Is it short term or long term?
 Effect of spatial proximity and distance. How close is considered intimate. What
objects are considered private vs. public?
 Nature of being human. What does it mean to be human? Are we good or bad?
Can people change and develop?
 The type of human activity. Active vs. Passivity
 Nature of human relationships. Social order. Team vs. Individual
Outline the cross-cultural management study by Hofstede and discuss it.
o First major study in cross-cultural comparative research and was positioned on values
level.
o Hofstede collected 116,000 questionnaires from IBM employees. Employees had various
qualifications, were from a variety of professional groups, and the study took place in
two different periods in IBM subsidiaries.
o From their answers, he extrapolated four major dimensions: uncertainty avoidance
(how much they value control/risk), femininity vs. masculinity (interpersonal
relationships, role flexibility, work-life balance vs. individual achievement, heroism,
financial success), individualism vs. collectivism (individual is more impersonal and
personal achievement-oriented, whereas collectivist plays more emphasis on the
important of group success, less formal relationships), power distance (low power
distance such as Canada, boss is available to all whereas high power distance there is a
strong sense of hierarchy)
o Criticisms include the cultural identities of the researchers as being from Western
industrial may have played a role this led to Confucianism (long-term vs. short term)
 Long term (great endurance, position of ranking based on status, adaptation of
traditions to modern conditions, respect of social and status obligations within
certain limits, readiness to subordinate oneself to a purpose, the feeling of
shame)
 Short term (personal candor and stability, avoiding loss of face, respect of social
and status obligations without the consideration of costs, low savings rates and
low investment activity, expectations of quick profit, respect for traditions,
greetings, presents and courtesies based on reciprocity)
o Recruitment and selection  in societies low on ‘in-group collectivism’ your resume’s
focus on individual achievement would be prioritized, whereas in societies high on ‘ingroup collectivism’, your resume’s focus on teamwork and leadership would be valued
more greatly
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Training and development – in societies high on gender egalitarianism, women have the
same chances for vertical career advancement as men
o Compensation – in societies high on uncertainty avoidance, employees tend to be rather
risk averse and prefer fixed-compensation packages.
o Task distribution – high on collectivism tend to emphasize group work
o Other criticisms include fact that approach was determinist and universalist (reducing
cultures to a few dimensions), lacking theory (due to dimensions being developed after
collecting the data), focused on values (but does not address the underlying
assumptions and deeper motives of managers’ actions), practices vs. perceived practices
(wishful thinking), lack of separation between values and behavior, imposition of
Western outlook on research, focus on country vs. culture (see Yugoslavia), national
cultures are not the only influencer (company culture could be another).
o To address these shortcomings, future research should also consider:
 How do differences between groups, organizations, and country and individual
levels account for trends?
 Don’t think of cultures as being homogenous – try to include variance due to
intracultural factors.
 Culture should not be measured as the only influencing factor, other variables
like sex, class affiliation, status, income should also be taken into account.
 Cultural variables may interplay off each other. (no empirical evidence though)
Outline the methodical procedures and the results of the GLOBE study.
o Transnational project initiated by Robert J. House, Global Leadership and Organizational
Behavior Effectiveness.
 Phase 1 – develop dimensions, Phase 2 – gather data, Phase 3 – analysis of
effects of leadership behavior on the performance and attitudes of employees
 Goal of Globe via these questions?
 Universally accepted and effective leadership behaviors, attributes, and
organizational practices?
 Leadership behaviors, attributes, and organizational practices only
effective in certain cultures?
 How important are social and organizational context in determining the
effectiveness of leadership attributes and behaviors and its acceptance
by subordinates?
 How much do behaviors and attributes in specific cultures influence the
economic, physical and psychological wellbeing of the members of
societies researched in studies?
 Relationship between socio-cultural variables and international
competitive capacity of the various sample societies?
 Dimensions
 Institutional Collectivism (Organizational and societal institutional
practices encourage and reward collective distribution of resources and
collective action)  what are organizations and societies doing to
ensure that everyone is working together as a group? E.g. compensation
for group performance…
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In-Group Collectivism (Degree to which individuals express pride,
loyalty, and cohesiveness in their organizations or families)  do you
belong to the company?
 Uncertainty avoidance – extent to which society, organization, or group
relies on social norms, rules and procedures to alleviate unpredictability
of future events
 Power distance – degree to which members of a collective expect power
to be distributed equally
 Gender egalitarianism – degree to which the group minimizes gender
inequality
 Assertiveness – degree to which individuals are assertive,
confrontational, and aggressive in their relationship with others
 Performance Orientation – degree to which collective encourages and
rewards group members for performance improvement and excellence
 Humane Orientation – degree to which a collective encourages and
rewards individuals for being fair, altruistic, generous, caring, and kind
to others (how much is having a conscience and kind rewarded?)
 Criticisms
 Limited industry focus (though it has expanded into finance, food, and
telco)
 Equivalence of culture to country
Compare cross-cultural management studies and list advantages and disadvantages.
o Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner Study
 Seven dimensions from three aspects: relationships between people, concept of
time, and concept of nature
 Relationships between people
o Universalism vs. Particularism (Universalist – if good, always
good; particularist – if good, check if it applies to individual
cases and depending on relationship and special friendship
arrangements)
o Individualism vs. Communitarianism (do people regard
themselves primarily as individuals or as part of a group?
Primary objective is individual vs group aims)
o Emotional vs. Neutral (neutral is less personal, business is
objective, emotional cultural, emotions are freely expressed
across many social contexts)
o Specific vs. diffuse (specific focuses on precision, an objective
analysis of circumstances and presentation of results, whereas
diffuse cultures take other context variables into consideration)
o Ascription vs. Achievement – Status ascribed from birth such as
gender, origin, and gender vs. performance
 Concept of time
o Sequential vs. Synchronic concept of time where they may be
more past, future, or present oriented (sequential is behavior
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that occurs successively, and synchronous is the possibility to
multitask)
 Concept of nature
o Internal vs. External Control
 External – adapting to environment
 Internal – withdrawing from environment
 No empirical basis for characterization of differences in national characteristics,
no justification of classification schema, or why they used previous studies
(Hofstede)
o Hall and Hall
 Four dimensions
 High vs. Low Context Communication – high focuses on indirect form of
expression; low focuses on communicating to the point and verbalizing
all-important information (French vs. Germany)
 Spatial orientation – physical distance between people when
communicating
 Monochrome vs. polychrome – sequential vs. synchronic
 Information speed – how fast you share information with strangers (US
– high, Europe low)
To what extent do cultures undergo changes? What do you think about the statement: Cultures
in Europe are becoming more similar?
o Child found that studies positioned on macro level show convergence, while employeelevel analysis micro showed divergence.
Chapter 3
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What are the issues of standardization and localization in general for MNEs and how do they
particularly manifest themselves in IHRM activities?
o There are 8 factors that impact management demands – flow and volume of
information, size, structure, geographical dispersion, control mechanisms, national
cultures and languages, host-country demands, operation modes.
o The key question is figuring out which processes, routines, and procedures and practices
can and should be transferred abroad.
o The idea is that local staff should be able to eventually replace expatriates while
operating as normal – this is done by training and developing the local workforce while
fostering the multinational’s corporate culture onto the local staff.
o Global standardization – Reach consistency, transparency, and alignment of
geographically fragmented workforce around common principles and objectives.
o Vs. Local Responsiveness – Respect local values, traditions, legislation, or other
institutional constraints such as education systems and/or government policy regarding
HRM and work practices.  can be used to better reach local markets
o Balance of standardization is dependent on the firm’s strategy structure, firm size, and
maturity.
o Whereas localization is dependent on cultural environment, institutional environment,
firm size and maturity, mode of operation, and subsidiary role.
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For Standardization: A large MNE with long international history and extensive crossborder operations pursues a multinational or transnational corporate strategy that is
supported by a corresponding organizational structure and is reinforced by a shared
worldwide corporate culture.
For Localization:
 Cultural environment – Social cultures with more integrated personal social
relationships may value a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards, those
with more personal independence and isolation may value extrinsic rewards,
and those without a strong and enduring social matrix may value intrinsic
rewards
 Institutional environment – consider things like local certifications (Germany),
efficacy of localized organizational structure (India), performance assessment,
team briefings (China) – country-of-origin effect – multinationals are shaped by
institutions existing in their country of origin and attempt to introduce these
parent-country-based HRM practices in their foreign subsidiaries; host-country
effect – impact of local institutions of host country on subsidiaries’ HRM
practices. In headquarters, this is called home-country effect. Reverse diffusion.
Transfer of practices from foreign locations to headquarters.
Factors that impact standardization and localization:
 Subsidiaries
 Gupta and Govindarajan interpret a MNE as a network of capital,
product, and knowledge flows, with information flows being the most
important.
 Global Innovators – important subsidiaries that provide important
transfer to other units and are important in the transnational model
 Integrated Player – Creates knowledge but also receives knowledge as
well
 Implementers – rely heavily on knowledge from the parent company
but give relatively little knowledge back
 Local Innovators – don’t receive much information, nor do they give
back much information as well (complete local responsibility, in
polycentric firms)
 Information is sticky – making integrative approach harder. Also
knowledge sharing hostility or knowledge hoarding in Russia, resistance
to chance, low-risk initiatives, and resistance to initiatives that threaten
power base
 Coordination, Communication and Control
 Martinez and Jarillo – coordination is the process of integrating
activities that remain dispersed across subsidiaries
 There are structural/formal and informal/subtle coordination
mechanisms
o Structural/formal is non-person oriented  this is attributed to
simpler internationalization strategies. Includes communication
leaflets, written materials  only one-way.
Informal/subtle coordination is person oriented  Usually
required for more complex internationalization strategies. HR
managers can exchange knowledge, expectancies and
experiences on the different local contexts. Powerful line
managers can also act as thought leaders involved in the
process and help achieve broader support for translational HRM
measures. Also requires support from senior management.
What are the stages a firm typically goes through as it grows internationally and how does each
stage affect the HR function?
o As companies grow, their organizational structures change, typically due to strain
imposed by growth and geographical spread (harder to micromanage with 100 people),
need for improved coordination and control across business units (too complex to
micromanage), and constraints imposed by host-government regulations on ownership
and equity (see China).
o Typically the main route is by starting off with exporting, then establishing a sales
subsidiary, then starting manufacturing in the foreign country, and then establishing a
network of subsidiaries. Alternative routes include licensing before diving into foreign
production, or subcontracting before diving into foreign production or establishing own
network. It can also be leapfrogged by acquiring an existing firm. May also be impacted
by external factors (government forcing joint venture  see China), or are formed
expressly with the international market in mind.
o Export  typically the first stage. Handled by intermediary (foreign agent or distributor)
as local market knowledge is deemed critical. As it grows, an export manager may be
appointed to control foreign sales and seek new markets, further growth may result in
establishment of an export department.  major point of control is home office.  HR
does not play a major role in development of policies around IHRM.
o Sales Subsidiary  May seek to establish own sales subsidiary in the market – due to
problems with foreign agent, increasing confidence with international sales activity, the
desire for greater control, and/or decision to provide greater support to exporting
activity. Export manager may be given same authority as other functional managers. 
usually staffed with PCN’s  where HR starts to get involved
o International division  foreign production or service facility  counter government
controls, take advantage of cheap labor, reduce shipping costs  JV or own foreign
production facility or buy local firm  may trigger creation of separate international
division  more formal HR policies required, especially around compensation and predeparture training  challenge around who is considered to have expertise and
ownership
o Global product/area division  tension between need for national response at
subsidiary and global integration requirements at headquarters  reason for national
responsiveness…differences in market structure, distribution channels, customer needs,
local culture, and pressure from host government  reason for more centralized global
integration  large multinational customers, global competitors, and increasingly rapid
flow of information and technology, and economies of scale  key issues around
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centralization vs. decentralization + type or form of control exerted by parent
organization
Global integration vs. Local  four options…matrix, mixed structure, heterarchy,
transnational, or multinational network
 Matrix – Integration across more than one dimension (Product Division by Area)
 Area managers responsible for all product in area, product manager
responsible for one product in all areas  challenges due to dual reporting
(leading to conflict and confusion), lots of new communication channels
(resulting in informational logjams), overlapping responsibilities (resulting in turf
battles), barriers of distance, language, time and culture (hard to resolve
conflicts and clarify confusion quickly)  best if in the mind  ideal manager
are folks who know the business, have good interpersonal skills, can deal with
ambiguity, and have responsibility and authority within the organization.
 Mixed structure – Geographical profit centers with worldwide product
managers…  more complex than matrix
 Heterarchy  each center may be a center and a global coordinator of discrete
activities, centralizing R&D in a specific subsidiary  less reliant on top-down
mechanisms of hierarchy and more on normative mechanisms like corporate
culture and shared awareness of central goals and strategies  temporary
constellations of teams with stress on lateral communication and dialogue
between units and individuals  management presented as catalyst, architect,
and protector of knowledge rather than a monitor and resource allocator
 Transnational  Local flexibility, global integration
 Multinational as a network
 Useful in subsidiaries that have developed into significant centers for
investments, activities, and influence (Waymo vs. Google). Dyadic
interaction, taking place between various actors at many different
organizational levels and covering different exchanges.
 Such MNEs are loosely coupled political systems rather than tightly
bonded, homogeneous, hierarchically controlled systems. Network of
exchange relationships, including headquarters and national
subsidiaries, external organizations, such as host governments,
customers, suppliers and competitors. E.g. Toyota, GE
o Delegation of decision-making authority to appropriate units
and levels
o Geographical dispersal of key functions across units in different
countries
o Delayering of organizational levels
o De-bureaucratization of formal procedures
o Differentiation of work, responsibility, and authority across the
networked subsidiaries
 Beyond networks  meta-national. Used to describe firms comprised of three
types of units. First, locally imbedded ‘sensing units’ are responsible for
uncovering widely dispersed sources of engineering and market insights.
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Developing new technologies and processed can no longer be assumed to be
the sole task of a conveniently located home-country HQ R&D unit, or even a
MNE-based center of excellence. Second – ‘magnet’ units are described as
attracting these unpredictably dispersed innovative processes, creating a
business plan to convert these innovations into viable services or products.
Finally, a third set of units are responsible for marketing and producing
adaptations of the products and services for a range of customers around the
world. Race to identify and access new technologies and market trends, turn it
into innovative products and services, and scale and exploit these innovations in
markets around the world.
o Place of HR in structural forms
 Centralized HR – large, well-resourced HR departments responsible for a wide
range of functions. Key role for corporate HR was to establish and maintain
control over world-wide top level management positions, such as divisional and
subsidiary managers, so that strategic staffing was under central control.
Operate in product-based or matrix structures.
 Decentralized HR companies, characterized by devolving the HR responsibilities
to a small group who confined their role to senior management at corporate
HQ. Consistent with decentralized approach of other functions. Operate within
product or regional-based structures, with only one reporting using a matrix.
 Transition companies, characterized by medium-sized corporate HR
departments staffed by a relatively small group at corporate HQ. Operate in
decentralized, product-based structure though again one company reported
using a matrix structure.
What are the specific HRM challenges in a networked firm?
o Flow of information, co-ordination, control
o Structural-formal focus (secondary controls are personal networks) vs. Cultural-informal
focus (secondary controls are job authority)
 Control through personal relationships (social capital)
 Control through corporate culture (recruitment and selection, training and
development, reward, and promotion)
Country of origin can strongly influence a firm’s approach to organization structure. As MNEs
from China and India internationalize, to what extent are they likely to differ from that observed
for Japanese, European and US MNEs?
o China (Grassroots, tight family control)… vs. Japanese (greenfield) vs. US (autonomy) vs.
European (matrix)
Chapter 4
1. Describe the formation process of cross-border mergers, acquisitions and international joint
ventures. What are the major differences?
a. Cross-border alliances are co-operative agreements between two or more firms, under
the assumption that all parties will benefit. There are two types of arrangements:
i. Non-equity border alliance – great example is Pixar and Disney for launch of Toy
Story. Where profit and responsibility distribution is defined explicitly in
contract, and each party acts as its own legal entity with separate liabilities.
1. Examples: Management Contract, Licensing, Franchising, Subcontracting
(Offshoring, Onshoring)
ii. Equity modes – involves a foreign direct investor’s purchase of shares in a
country other than its own
1. Examples – M&A, JV, Subsidiaries
iii. Others – Mixed form of non-equity and equity
b. Mergers are an agreement between equals to join together. Acquisitions are when one
company buys a controlling interest in the other.
i. Due to globalization, both mergers and acquisitions have seen a tremendous
increase in growth. This is due to the nature of M&A as a way to facilitate quick
entry into the market. Reasons for why a firm may merge or buy are to get
closer to the customer, acquire technology, secure favorable tax rates, diversify
risk, capitalize on favorable exchange rates, capture on favorable political or
economic conditions or react to government policy.
ii. Quality of employee relations can drastically impact the value realized from the
partnership – ranging from employee support to employee resistance. Factors
that influences where a company may fall on this spectrum include type of
cross-border alliance, integration of organization, difference in management
styles, and efficiency potential from the combination.
1. Successful integration of tasks is heavily dependent on human
integration. There were five key factors: visibility and continuity from
leadership, communication processes, integrating mechanisms,
acquired people retained, volunteer personnel loss  phased approach
– first let people meet before discussing task allocation, then following
up with task integration after human integration had been achieved
iii. Key challenges in M&A: Top management can expect to lose 20% of their
executives in the first year, and more later on. Personnel issues are often
neglected, delayed or not a priority. Finally, a lot of M&A’s fail or do not achieve
long-term results.
1. In cases where companies remain separate (M&A was for portfolio
reasons), integration will be less of a key concern.
c. JV’s have also experienced tremendous growth in the past two decades and is the
dominant mode of entry in countries like China.
i. An IJV is a separate legal organizational representing the partial holdings of two
or more partners, in which at least one of the parent companies is not
headquartered in the country of operations for the IJV. IJV is subject to joint
control, and each is a separate economic and legal entity.
ii. Many are two partners, as the number of partners increases, the complexity of
international human resources management will also increase.
iii. There are varying types of equity ownership: 50-50, 51-49, where the different
levels of control have implications for the control of IJV.
iv. Key challenges
1. HR must manage relations at the interfaces between IJV and parent
companies. May follow different sets of rules or other dualities.
2. HR must develop specific HRM practices and strategies at IJV level. Must
also recruit, develop, motivate, and retain human resources at IJV level.
d. Why IJV
i. Gain knowledge and transfer knowledge
ii. Host government insistence
iii. Increased economies of scale
iv. To gain local knowledge
v. To obtain vital raw materials
vi. Spread the risks
vii. Improve competitive advantage in globalized markets
viii. Provide cost-effective and efficient response to globalization
e. Many IJV’s fail because of lack of interest in human resources and cross-cultural
management.
2. Describe the development phases of an M&A and the respective HR implications.
a. Key phases of M&A: Pre-M&A, Due Diligence, Integration Planning, Implementation
i. Pre-M&A – screening of potential partners with consideration of
advantages/disadvantages
ii. Due Diligence – Focuses more in-depth on the potential benefits of the merger.
Product-market fit, tax considerations, and HR (compatibility and culture) is
considered.
iii. Integration Planning – when planning from Due Diligence is carried out
iv. Implementation and Assessment – plans are put into action
b. HR department becomes increasingly involved as M&A evolves. Those who are involved
earlier are more likely to succeed.
i. Increasing involvement of HRM in strategic decision-making, formalization of HR
practices, supporting the creation of organizational capabilities through training
& development, and development of independent line managers also were key
contributors to the success of the M&A.
c. Think about M&A in terms of three conceptual tools: Resources, Processes, Values
i. Resources – Tangible (money and people) vs. Intangible (Goodwill and brand),
especially termination
ii. Processes – Activities to turn resources into valuable goods and activities, such
as training & development and appraisals
iii. Values – Way in which employees think about what they do and why they do it
(decision making and key priorities)
d. Expatriates in M&A
i. Importance of expatriates in integration of mergers, but no empirical evidence
for acquisitions. Rather, successful integration is based off managers’ industry
experience, experience with similar projects (especially cross-border alliances),
and level of intercultural competence.
ii. There should be a good mix of expatriates and local members in top
management, with integration viewed as collective learning process
iii. On the acquiring firm side, having a good command over the language and
cultural sensitivities is also important, especially if the acquired firm is from a
developing country. Could be argued that language is dependent on flow of
information.
e. Different characteristics of HRM across countries
i. US tends to be more performance-oriented, short-term, and has more extensive
training and development
f. Post acquisition implication on HRM
i. Tended to move towards performance-based pay
ii. Acquirers adjusted to local culture
iii. American HRM tend to reflect short-term-ism
iv. Japanese HRM tend to reflect long-term, collectivist, consensual, team-based
national philosophies
v. French – prefer French managers
vi. German – most anxious to adopt international practices in their acquisitions
(forcing themselves to be more informal)
3. Outline the development phases of an IJV and the respective HR implications.
a. Formation  Development  Implementation  Advancement of activities
i. Formation: Partnership between parent companies is center of interest
b. Stages are not independent of each other, HRM is involved in all stages
i. Includes activities of recruitment, selection, training and development,
performance management, and compensation
c. Different roles of HRM
i. Partner – take the needs of all stakeholders into account and demonstrate
thorough understanding of business and market
ii. Change Facilitator and Strategy Implementer – Conceptualize and implement
new strategies on how to foster trust-based communication and cooperation
with relevant partners. Also requires developing a stable learning environment.
iii. Innovator – Be able to identify talent for IJV strategies and adapt to changes in
IJV stages.
iv. Collaborator – Create win-win situations characterized by sharing over
competing between different entities in IJV
d. Role of expatriates
i. Functional gatekeepers (competition for control by parent companies via
staffing key positions)
ii. Different cultural expectations, management styles, and strategic objectives of
parent firms  loyalty to parent company
iii.  Involvement in strategic decision making and social integration can reduce
turnover  limited by increase in shares of foreign partner
iv.  Bringing in external technical experts rather than repositioning internal
4. In which way do cultural and institutional differences impact the HR integration in M&As and in
IJVs?
a. Language differences pose communication barriers, different cultural backgrounds lead
to different values, policies, and behaviors which may be difficult to integrate, loyalty to
own organization, employee buy-in
5. What are the barriers to internationalization for SMEs?
a. Shortage of working capital to finance exports
b. Identifying foreign business opportunities
c. Limited information to locate/analyze markets
d. Inability to contact potential overseas customers
e. Obtaining reliable foreign representation
f. Lack of managerial time to deal with internationalization
g. Inadequate quantity and/or untrained personnel for internationalization
h. Difficulty in managing competitor’s prices
i. Lack of home government assistance/incentives
j. Excessive transportation/insurance costs
6. What are some of the typical challenges for HRM in internationalized SMEs?
a. Importance of founder/owner
i. Experiential market knowledge of owner is assumed to have a direct impact on
choice of foreign markets
ii. Usually start with those that are geographically and culturally close before
branching out
iii. Those with positive attributes towards internationalization like international
work experience or networks more likely to internationalize
b. Recruitment, selection, and retention
i. Many less qualified graduates do not meet requirements of large organizations
and forced to work for SMEs
ii. Reasons for SME – good working atmosphere, less anonymity, high degree of
information, and low requirements for mobility
iii. Challenges – career opportunities, employee benefits, progressiveness of
company, training programs, pay, and international work opportunities
iv. Managers must be both highly qualified with international experience and
highly motivated
c. Challenge of learning
i. No formal if any training at all – often short term oriented
ii. Should focus on boundary-spanning roles to enable them to pay attention to
characteristics that may be important in internationalization
iii. Combine with strategy and communication seminars
iv. Motivate employees to communicate and share
d. Expatriate management
i. Most important factor was language training courses, cross cultural was not as
important  also sent to external training institutions
e. Limited resources of HR and outsourcing
i. Complexity of HR leads to significant drain on management time and resources
– neglecting revenue production
ii. Complexity of HR may mean that inexperienced managers may make
suboptimal HR decisions
7. SME-MNE partnerships – information sharing, HR sharing, relationship sharing…
Chapter 5
1. Outline the main characteristics of the four approaches to international staffing.
o Perlmutter stated that there were four different approaches to international staffing:
ethnocentric, polycentric, and geocentric. The fourth was added later: regiocentric.
o Perlmutter used different aspects of org design, including decision-making, evaluation
and control, information flows, and complexity of organization. He also included
perpetuation (recruiting, staffing, and development).
o Ethnocentric: (treating foreign nationals with kid gloves, no opportunity)
 Few foreign subsidiaries have any autonomy, and strategic decisions are made
at headquarters. Key positions are held by managers from headquarters.
Subsidiaries are managed by staff from the home country PCNs.
 Reasons for:
 Perceived lack of qualified HCNs
 Need for strong communication, coordination, and control links with
corporate HQ.
 Can reduce perceived high risks in novel environments (people you
trust).
 Ensure compliance with overall corporate objectives and policies, or
because local staff may lack level of competence required.
 Disadvantages
 Limits promotion opportunities of HCNs, leading to reduced productivity
and increased turnover
 Adaptation of expatriates to host countries often take a long time,
during which PCNs often make mistakes and poor decisions
 Income gap in favor of PCN may be viewed by HCNs as unjustified.
 For many expats, key overseas position means new status, authority,
and an increase in standard of living. May affect expatriates’ sensitivity
to the needs and expectations of their host country subordinates which
may be quite different to the perceptions of the PCN manager.
o Polycentric (Sort of like a portfolio handling)
 Involves MNE treating subsidiary as a distinct national entity with some
decision-making autonomy. Usually managed by local national HCNs, who are
seldom promoted to positions at headquarters, and PCNs are rarely transferred
to foreign subsidiary operations.
 Advantages:
 Employing HCNs eliminates language barriers, avoids adjustment
problems of expatriate managers and their families, and removes the
need for expensive cultural awareness training programs
 Employment of HCNs allows a multinational company to take a lower
profile in sensitive political situations

o
Employment of HCNs is often less expensive, even if a premium is paid
to attract high-quality local applicants
 This approach gives continuity to the management of foreign
subsidiaries, and avoids the turnover of key managers that, by its very
nature, results from an ethnocentric approach
 Disadvantages:
 Bridging gap between HCN subsidiary managers and PCN managers at
corporate HQ is difficult. Language barriers, conflicting national
loyalties, and other cultural differences (personal value difference and
differences in attitudes to business) may isolate corporate HQ from
foreign subsidiaries  becomes federation of independent national
units with nominal links to corporate headquarters
 Host country managers have limited opportunities to gain experience
outside their own country and cannot progress beyond the senior
positions in their own subsidiary. Parent country managers also have
limited opportunities to gain overseas experience. As HQ positions are
held only by PCNs, the senior corporate management group will have
limited exposure to international operations, and over time, this may
constrain strategic decision-making and resource allocation
 Host government may effectively dictate that key managerial positions are filled
by its nationals. Also MNE may wish to be perceived as a local company as part
of strategy of local responsiveness.
Geocentric (like Walmart)
 Takes a global approach to its operations, recognizing that each part
(subsidiaries and headquarters) make a unique contribution with its unique
competence. Accompanies by worldwide integrated business, and nationality is
less important than ability. Aim to understand the challenges of being global on
one hand while still being deeply rooted in the local countries on the other.
 Advantages
 Enables MNE to develop an international executive team which assists
in developing a global perspective and an internal pool of labor for
deployment throughout the global organization
 Overcomes federation drawback of polycentric approach
 Supports cooperation and resource sharing across units
 Disadvantages
 Host governments want a high number of their citizens employed and
may utilize immigration controls in order to increase HCN employment
if enough people and adequate skills are available or require training of
HCNs over a specified time period to replace foreign nationals
 Most countries require MNEs to provide extensive documentation if
they wish to hire a foreign national instead of a local national. Providing
this documentation can be time-consuming, expensive, and at times
futile. Also, may be difficult to obtain a work permit for accompanying
spouse or partner

Geocentric policy can be expensive to implement because of increased
training and relocation costs. Related factor is the need to have a
compensation structure with standardized international base pay, which
may be higher than national levels in many countries.
 Large numbers of PCNs, TCNs, and HCNs need to be sent abroad in
order to build and maintain international cadre to support geocentric
staffing policy. Requires relatively long lead times and more centralized
control of staffing process. Reduces independence of subsidiary
management in these issues, and loss of autonomy may be resisted by
subsidiaries.
o Regiocentric (like Accenture)
 Very similar to geocentric in that it utilizes a wider pool of managers but in a
limited way. Staff may move outside their home countries but only within the
particular geographic region (NA)
 Regional managers may not be promoted to headquarter positions but enjoy a
degree of regional autonomy in decision-making
 Advantages
 Facilitates interaction between managers transferred to regional
headquarters from subsidiaries in that region and PCNs posted to the
regional headquarters
 Reflects some sensitivity to local conditions, since local subsidiaries are
usually staffed almost totally by HCNs
 Disadvantages
 Can produce federalism at a regional rather than a country basis and
constrain the MNE from developing a more global perspective
 While this approach does improve career prospects at the national
level, it only moves the barrier to the regional level. Talented managers
may advance to jobs in regional headquarters but less frequently to
positions at the MNE headquarters
2. Which factors determine the choice of a staffing approach? Would a MNE choose the same
staffing approach worldwide? Place your arguments in the context of the model outlining
determinants of staffing choices.
o PCNs
 Advantages
 Maintain and facilitate organizational control and coordination
 Promising managers are given international experience
 PCNs may be the best people for the job because of special skills and
experiences
 Assurance that subsidiary will comply with MNE objectives, policies, etc.
 Disadvantages
 Promotional opportunities of HCNs are limited
 Adaptation to host-country may take a long time
 PCNs may impose an inappropriate HQ style
 Compensation for PCNs and HCNs may differ
o
TCNs


o
o
HCNs

Advantages
 Salary and benefit requirements may be lower than for PCNs
 TCNs may be better informed than PCNs about the host-country
environment
Disadvantages
 Transfers must consider possible national animosities
 Host government may resent hiring of TCNs
 TCNs may not want to return to their home country after the
assignment
Advantages
 Language and other barriers are eliminated
 Hiring costs are reduced and no work permit is required
 Continuity of management improves, since HCNs stay longer in their
positions
 Government policy may dictate hiring of HCNs
 Morale among HCNs may improve as they see future career potential
 Disadvantages
 Control and coordination of HQ may be impeded
 HCNs have limited career opportunity outside the subsidiary
 Hiring HCNs limits opportunities for PCNs to gain foreign experience
 Hiring HCNs could encourage a federation of national rather than global
units
Determining how to staff
 Context specificities
 Cultural differences  staffing culturally distant subsidiaries with PCNs
had a positive effect on labor productivity
 Institutional environment may include legal and education system, with
the latter linked directly to staff availability
 Country-of-origin effect  MNEs trying to transfer management
practices from their home country to foreign locations
 Host-country effect  subsidiaries influences by local environment
 Type of industry
 Company specific variables
 Strategy of the company, international experience of the firm,
corporate governance, and organizational culture
 Local unit specificities
 How subsidiary was established (greenfield, merger, acquisition, or
share partnership)
 Strategic role of subsidiary, strategic importance for MNE as a whole,
and questions of need of control and where decision making happens
 IHRM practices

Selection, training and development, compensation, and career
management (including expatriation and repatriation)
3. What are the reasons for using international assignments?
o International assignments are expensive with pressure to reduce costs  why should
we use expats instead of locals?
o Reasons for:
 Position filling (see Foxconn) – organization has a need (filling a managerial or
technical skills gap)
 Management development – assist in the development of common corporate
values – HQ staff transferred to subsidiary operations, or subsidiary staff
transferring into the parent operations, or to other subsidiary operations. May
be for varying lengths of time and may involve project work as well as trainee
position. Perceived link between international experience and career
development can be a motivator for staff to agree to such transfers.
 Organizational development – need for control, transfer of knowledge,
competence, procedures, and practices into various locations, and to exploit
global market opportunities (technology transfer, launching new endeavors)
o Most of the reasons for international assignment eventually lead to organizational
development
o Types of International Assignments – Short-Term, Extended, Long-Term
 Short-term: up to three months, usually for troubleshooting, project
supervision, or a stopgap measure until a more permanent arrangement can be
found
 Extended: up to one year, similar to short-term assignments
 Skills transfer/problem solving, management development, managerial
control
 Typically up to 6 or 12 months, unaccompanied the family, mostly
informal selection process with little bureaucracy
 Pros: high flexibility, simplicity and cost-effectiveness
 Cons: Taxation, side-effects (alcoholism, high divorce rate), poor
relationships with local colleagues, work permit issues
 Long-term: varies from one to five years, involving a clearly defined role in the
receiving operation (e.g. a senior management role in a subsidiary). Long term
assignment has also been referred to as a traditional expatriate assignment.
 Filling positions or skills gaps, management development, organizational
development
 Typically 12-36 months, family joins the assignee abroad, formal
procedures
 Pros: good relationships with colleagues, constant monitoring
 Cons: Dual-career considerations, expensive, less flexibility
o Alternative assignment types: commuter, rotational, contractual, and virtual
 Commuter: special arrangements where employee commutes from the home
country on a weekly or bi-weekly basis to the place of work in another country.
Cross-border workers or daily commuters are not included. Usually, the family
o
of the assignee stays in the home country. For example, employee may live in
London but work in Moscow.
 Reasons for: requires a particular problem to be solved and the assigned
employee due to their experience and qualification is needed in two
places at the same time or that target country is unstable.
 Not always an effective substitute due to build up of stress from
intensive travel commitments and impact on personal relationships
 Rotational Assignments – commute from home country to a place of work in
another country for a short, set period followed by a break in the home country.
Family usually remains in home country
 Contractual assignments – assigned for a limited duration of 6 to 12 months.
R&D is one area that is using multinational project teams and lends itself to
short-term contractual assignments in conjunctions with longer-term
assignments and virtual teams.
 Virtual assignments – does not relocate to a host location but manages from
home-base, various international responsibilities for a part of the organization
in another country –
 main reasons for (shortage of experienced staff prepared to accept
longer term postings, immobile family, and cost containment)
 Disadvantages: role conflict, dual allegiance, and identification issues
between person in home location and virtual work group in foreign
subsidiary. Time allocated to virtual vs. real work. Communication is
mainly through conference calls, videoconferencing, and emails, and
requires good skills in using these media.
 Still requires face-to-face meetings.
 Self-initiated assignments – initiated by the individual – interested in an
international challenge, have adequate language skills, an international mindset,
and are quite entrepreneurial. Can increase international mobility potential in
the organization. Need to manage them carefully and understand their
motivation to stay in the MNE. Similar anchors between organizational and selfinitiated with respect to career anchors of internationalism, challenge, and
work-life balance. Different in security.
Roles of an expatriate
 Agent of control, agent of socializing, network builder, transfer of competence
and knowledge, boundary spanner, language node
 Agent of direct control – ensuring compliance through direct supervision
(Germans like to do this) – reflects ethnocentric predisposition
 Agent of socialization – assist in transfer of shared values and beliefs – bumblebees – may have negative results at subsidiary level
 Network builders – fostering interpersonal linkages that can be used for
informal control and communication purposes
 Consider this – people nurture and protect their networks, to be very
selective about the way they use their connections, and to evaluate the
potential damage to key individuals in their networks if the connection
was to be used inappropriately
o Know how they operate and what is important to them. Also
develop credibility and trust that you will help them when the
opportunity comes up.
 Time abroad allow you to increase the number and variety of networks,
building channels for the transfer of ideas and competence
 Boundary spanners – gather information that bridge internal and external
organizational contexts (collect host country information, act as representatives
of their firms in host country, and can influence agents – embassy)
 Language nodes
 Transfer of competence and knowledge
 Better understanding of name and reputation, and code of conduct and
attitude to occupational health and safety
 Creation of environment of openness and support for cross-fertilization
of ideas and implementation of best practice
 Need for flow information between expatriate and host location and
back
 Personal networks
 Link in duration of assignment and effective transfer of knowledge
 Ability to teach and motivation to act as knowledge transfer
 Dependent on local employees willingness to learn and relationships
o Own expatriates may be forced to take over some of the responsibilities of colleagues
due to differences in knowledge levels  spend a lot of time on less challenging tasks 
erode in own level of competency
o Non-Expatriates  do not relocate to another country – international sales staff
 Home and family issues, work arrangements, travel logistics, health concerns,
host culture issues
4. What is the role of inpatriates? Do inpatriates guarantee a geocentric staffing policy?
o Foreign location to parent country (usually corporate HQ)
o Expected to share local contextual knowledge with HQ staff in order to facilitate
effective corporate activities in these local markets. At the same time, they get to
experience the HQ corporate culture and learn firm-specific routines and behaviors that
enable them to master future management tasks within the organization. As a result,
inpatriates seem to act both as knowledge senders and receivers.
o Key drivers for recruiting and transferring inpatriate managers
 Desire to create global core competency and a cultural diversity of strategic
perspectives in the top management team – thus increasing organizational
capability to think global and act local
 Desire to provide career opportunities for high potential employees in host
countries, i.e. HCNs and TCNs
 Emergence of developing markets which often represent difficult locations for
expatriates in terms of quality of life and cultural adjustment
o
Strategy of inpatriation also underlines that the strategic importance of HQ is still
predominant, indicating that the knowledge of the culture, structure, and processes
specific to HQ are still important requirements for vertical career advancement
 Usually trains manager for a top management position back home  may be a
first and limited career step  reflecting ethnocentric approach
 May not receive same ROI  can only be guaranteed if career
opportunities for inpatriate HCNs or TCNs existing within HQ and across
wider organization
 Importance of trust, fit, firm-specific learning, and career prospects
critical to retaining inpatriates
5. Recruitment and selection of international managers?
o Recruitment – searching for and obtaining potential job candidates in sufficient
numbers and quality so that the organization
o Selection – process of gathering information for the purposes of evaluating and deciding
who should be employed in particular jobs
o Differences between domestic and international staffing
 Dependent on orientation (ethnocentric, polycentric, geocentric, or
regiocentric)
 Constraints by host governments
 Reluctance of domestic managers to recommend and release their best
employees
 Internal recruitment of expatriates (reduce selection risks, guarantee present
and past investments in human capital)
6. As a newly-appointed Project Manager of a research team, you believe that you will be able to
manage the project virtually from your office in London, even though the other six members are
located in Munich. This will solve your personal dilemma as your family does not want to be
relocated. The project has a six-month deadline. What factors should you consider in order to
make this virtual assignment effective?
7. Should multinationals be concerned about expatriate failure? If so, why?
o Expatriate failure – premature return of an expatriate – represents a selection error,
often compounded by ineffective expatriate management policies
 Issues with this definition – expatriate may be ineffective and poorly adjusted,
but if not recalled, still not considered a failure
 Expatriates may leave the MNE within the first or second year after repatriation
because they feel their newly acquired knowledge is not valued.
o Costs of failure
 Direct – airfares, associated relocation expenses, and salary and training
 Indirect costs – failure with host government officials and key clients, loss of
market share, difficulties with host-government officials, and demands that
expatriates be replaced with HCNs
 Also impact on expatriate – loss of self-esteem, self-confidence, and
prestige among peers  decreased motivation, lack of promotional
opportunities, and perhaps increased productivity to compensate for
failure, impact on expatriate’s family relationships
o
Reasons for expatriate failure
 In Job - Inability to adapt either on the part of the spouse or the manager,
maturity of manager, and issues with coping with higher responsibilities
inherent in the position, firm-specific issues and deficient performance, family
concerns, poor candidate selection
o Reasons for Success
 Career and talent management (before, during, and after) is the single most
important factor in retaining employees after assignment
 Activities of the MNE and support for expatriate and families were major
success factors
8. What are the most important factors involved in the selection decision?
o Prospective candidate may reject expatriate assignment either for individual reasons,
such as family considerations, or for situational factors such as the perceived toughness
of a particular culture
o Technical ability
 Multinationals place heavy reliance on relevant technical skills during expatriate
selection process  may not necessarily apply to achieving task in foreign
cultural environment
o Cross-cultural suitability: competence, adjustment and other indicators
 Intercultural competence – soft skills (psychological, personal features,
international experience, and language knowledge)
 Capacity to internalize and provide training to local personnel is often neglected
o Intercultural competence
 Function effectively in another culture – cultural empathy, adaptability,
diplomacy, language ability, positive attitude, emotional stability, maturity
 Affective dimension reflects emotional attitude towards a foreign culture
 Cognitive layer relates to culture-specific knowledge
 Ability – actual intercultural behavior
o Intercultural competence and related concepts – cultural intelligence and global
management competencies, global leadership
 Grasp, reason, and behave effectively in situations characterized by cultural
diversity
o Ability to adjust to foreign culture
 Phase 1-Honeymoon/Tourist: Excitement, anxiety, fear of the unknown or a
sense of adventure.
 Phase 2 - Novelty wears off, realities of everyday life in the foreign location
begin to intrude, homesickness sets in, and a downswing may commence –
feeling that the party is over – creating negative appraisals of the situation and
the location leading to a period of crisis
 Phase 3: How individual copes with psychological adjustment – failure as an
early recall.
 Phase 4 – Levels off over time to healthy recovery
o Overview of important adjustment variables

Antecedents of cross-cultural adjustment (individual, job, organizational, nonwork)
 Modes of cross-cultural adjustment (strategies of adjustment such as coping)
 Outcomes – (interaction adjustment, work adjustment, and general adjustment)
to psychological and socio-cultural influences
o Family, Country/Cultural Requirements, MNE Requirements, Language all impact
success of selection process
o Intercultural competence and dimensions
 Tolerance for ambiguity, interpersonal skills, empathy, non-judgementalism,
flexibility, learning orientation
9. Dual career couples
o Language and cultural difficulties may inhibit employment and the challenges of
immigration may make potential employers unwilling to consider an expatriate spouse
candidate who would need immigration support
 Inter-firm networking (place accompanying spouse or partner in a suitable job
with another multinational – sometimes in a reciprocal arrangement)
 Job-hunting assistance – employment agency fees, career counseling, work
permit assistance – may provide a fact-finding trip to host location before the
actual assignment
 Intra-firm employment – sending couple to same foreign facility, perhaps the
same department. Not all MNE or couples are comfortable with same work
location. Also, difficulties in work visa.
 On-assignment career support – lump sum payment for education expense,
professional association fees, seminar attendance, language training to upgrade
work-related skills and employment agency fees, also offer non-standard
assignments – commuter and virtual assignments
10. Female expatriates
o Women are significantly underrepresented in expatriates
o Women are interested in but feel may not be considered
o Initially put-off by prejudice, but as assignment progresses do not believe it hinders
effectiveness
o Attitudes of HR directors were a major barrier to selection of female expatriates