International and Comparative Human
Resource Management
Creating an International Workforce:
IHRM orientation and staffing strategy
Alhajie Saidy Khan
LAIBS
Lecture outline
The context for international HR resourcing
Internationalisation strategy/stage and international
staffing strategy
International orientation and staffing
International assignment success factors
Selection criteria for international assignment
Expatriate selection and strategy
Conditions for using expatriates for international
assignments
Expatriate failure and its consequences
Context for international staffing
Globally integrated and co-ordinated systems and need local
sensitivity and responsiveness.
Global approach to talent source and thus, diverse workforce.
Blurring of traditional lines HR functions and need for resourcing
specialists to also focus on range of related (not necessarily
traditional) HR functions
Increase Merger and acquisition requires staffing in a changing
environment as well as harmonisation of HR practices.
Global networks of integrated systems – greater opportunities for
learning from diverse practices, but also fast and continuously
Rapidly changing and volatile business situations and global
markets and thus speed to recruit, deploy, develop and shed people
CIPD, 2013
Internationalisation strategy and
IHRM orientation
Early
stages of internationalisation = ethnocentric
orientation
Multi-local strategies = ethno, poly and regiocentric
orientation
Regional strategies = regiocentric with element of
geocentric IHRM orientation
International strategy = ethno and plycentric
orientation
Global strategy = geocentric orientation
Edwards and Rees, 2006/11; Harzing and Pinnington, 2011; Perlmutter,
Ethnocentric staffing orientation
Key management positions filled by parent-country
nationals
Advantages:
 Overcomes lack of qualified managers in host nation
 Unified and coordinated policy that help maintain head

quarter control over subsidiaries
Could help transfer core competencies from and to HQ
Disadvantages:
 Could produces resentment in host country
 Can lead to cultural myopia
Polycentric staffing orientation
Host-country nationals manage subsidiaries and PCNs hold
key headquarter positions
Best suited to multi-domestic businesses
Advantages:
 Could help alleviates cultural myopia.
 Relatively inexpensive approach to international staffing
 Helpful for transfer core competencies
Disadvantages:
 Limits opportunity for experience of host-country nationals
outside their own country.
 Can create gap between home-and host-country operations
 Limit HQ ability to coordinate and control subsidiaries
Regiocentric staffing orientation
Nationals of regions manage subsidiaries within their
respective regions
Parent company nationals hold key HQ positions
Advantages
 Allows for greater regional interaction and sharing of across regional
experiences
Shows greater sensitivity to local conditions and demands
Relatively lower wage bills
Eases transition to a global, geocentric orientation



Disadvantages
 Could potentially inhibit ability to see the necessity for global HRM orientation


Potential to improve regional career opportunities at the expense of
wider international career opportunities
Animosities between neighbouring countries could hinder success and
undermine wider strategic vision
Geocentric staffing orientation
Seek best people, regardless of nationality
Advantages:
 Enables the firm to make best use of all its human resources
 Equips executives to work in different international context
 Helps build strong unifying and informal management
network
Disadvantages:
 National immigration policies may limit implementation
 Expensive to implement due to training and relocation costs
 Compensation structure can be problematic
Conditions for successful
Geocentric staffing
Availability of highly competent or potentially
competent employees
Some international experience within top
management
Competent or potentially competent cadre of
managers willing and ready for international
deployment
Willingness to learn and an openness to new
and different experiences and ideas
Key international assignment
success factors
Professional/technical competence
Relational ability
Motivation
Family situation
Language skills
Acceptance of assignment
Torrington et al, 2007
Criteria for selection for
international assignment
Specific organisation
requirements (technical)
Family requirement
Selection decision
Cross-national and
cross-regional
requirements
Host country requirements
Norms and traditions
Language
Knowledge of institutions
and legal system etc.
Mendenhall and Oddou, 1985; See Sparrow, 2007
Corporate and technical criteria
Easily evaluated technical and managerial competencies
of assignee are most important
Organisational situational factors including:
 Requirements to send expatriates to carryout assignments
in certain regions than otherwise
 Involvement of partners as in joint ventures and crossborder alliances
 Using specific skills and function and training as selection
criteria
Cross-national criteria
Individual traits and characteristics that
impact success
or failure of international assignment (e.g. cultural
empathy, adaptability, language ability etc.).
Ability to implement technical and managerial tasks and
be reasonably comfortable in a foreign environment
These criteria are, however, sometimes very difficult to
determine and measure
Host country requirements
Copping
with alternative social norms and forms of
organisation
Ability to manage “hardship postings” (remote locations,
high security risks, poor standard of living conditions)
Capacity to work and live under what might be perceived
as repressive political and social contexts
Legal requirements (e.g. need and difficulty of acquiring
work permit)
Language and other social criteria
Core
situational factor: knowledge and ability to directly
communicate in the language of the host is critical for both
assignee and spouse/family
Family:
could make potential international assignee refuse
international assignment
 Gender:
despite steady increase in dual expatriate careers
couples, some country may be less suitable for female
international assignees
Mendenhall, M. and Oddou’s four
dimensional criteria
Self-Orientation

Possessing high self-esteem and self-confidence


Ability to develop relationships with host-country nationals
Willingness to communicate


The ability to understand why people of other countries behave the
way they do
Being non-judgmental and flexible in management style

Ability to adjust to the ways of country of assignment
Others-Orientation
Perceptual Ability
Cultural Toughness
Source: Academy of Management Review, Vol. 10:1 (pp. 39-47)
See also, Reich and Harzing (2011) in Harzing and Pinnington (eds.);
Tahvanainen and Suutari (2005) in Scullion and Linehan (eds.)
Changing context and changing
nature of international staffing
From expatriate management to, e.g.:
 International commuters & assignees on short term or medium term
business trips
 Contract expatriates
 Employees used on long-term business trips
 Cadres of global managers
 International transferees (from one subsidiary to another)
 ‘self-initiated movers’ (SIMS) - live and work away from their home
country
 Virtual international employees active in cross-border project teams
 Domestically based employees dealing with international suppliers and/or
clients
 Overseas workers attracted to a domestic labour market.
(CIPD)
Expatriate management remain Core
aspect of international staffing function
According
to CIPD, various types of international
employees indicate that the claim changing business
context and requirements have reduced the reliance on
“longer term expatriation in more mature markets and
grown in developing ones and, in the global
community”.
Nevertheless, expatriates management remains a major
aspect of work of HR practitioners responsible for
international assignments
Definitions
 Expatriate: citizens of one country working
in another
 “Inpatriates”: expatriates who are citizens of
a foreign country working in the home
country of their multinational employer
Conditions for using expatriates
When there is desire for international expansion, but lack
of prior international experience
Need or desire to transfer of firm-specific knowledge
An ethnocentric orientation underpinned by strong singlestatus Corporate outlook and strategy
Having new subsidiaries that require guidance
Significant differences between parent country and host
country ‘culture’ and institutional frameworks
When host country regulations cast doubts on fulfilment of
contracts
Why MNCs use expatriates
Management development - acquiring international
management skills and competencies
Coordination and control of/over diverse and
dispersed operations and activities
Effective communication of local needs and strategic
information to and from headquarters
Expatriate failure
Expatriate failure refers to the premature return
of an expatriate manager before the completion
of his or her international assignment due to
the person’s failure to attain the expected
performance levels and due to the persons
continuing inability to adjust to the new work
and cultural environment in the host country
The Cost of Expatriate Failure
Expatriate failure has two cost components:
Direct Costs: Can be easily measured in monetary terms (e.g.:
air fare, relocation expenses, salary and training). Varies
according to position, country of assignment, exchange rates
and nature of replacement
Indirect Costs: Cannot be measured easily in monetary terms,
but may be significantly higher than the direct costs. Examples
include: loss of reputation and market share, morale and
productivity in the local work force, complications with the
host government, lost of credibility and career advancement