IV Semester MBA HR IA T1 Feb 2014
USN:
PES INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY – BANGALORE SOUTH CAMPUS
Hosur Road (1Km before Electronic City), Bangalore -560100
INTERNAL TEST # 1
International Human ResourceManagement (12MBA HR445)
Course: MBA Semester IV
Faculty: Sreeja K
Date: 11/02/2014
Note:
Time Allowed: 90 Minutes
Max. Marks: 50 (Fifty Marks)
Time: 8.30 AM – 10AM
Answer all the Questions.
1. a) Define IHRM
A Model of IHRM (developed by Morgan)
Morgan presents IHRM on 3 dimensions:1) HR activities of procurement, allocation and utilization.
2) The national or country categories involved in HRM activities
 The host country
 The home country
 The other countries
3) The 3 categories of employees of an international firm
 HCNs
(03 marks)
 PCNs
 TCNs
Morgan defines IHRM as the interplay among these three dimensions.
b) Outline the main characteristics of the four approaches to international staffing?
(07 marks)
Approaches to multinational staffing decision
Ethnocentric
Strategic decisions are made at headquarters;
Limited subsidiary autonomy;
Key positions in domestic and foreign operations are held by headquarters’ personnel;
PCNs manage subsidiaries.
Polycentric
Each subsidiary is a distinct national entity with some decision-making autonomy;
HCNs manage subsidiaries who are seldom promoted to HQ positions;
PCNs rarely transferred to subsidiary positions.
Geocentric
 A global approach - worldwide integration;
 View that each part of the organization makes a unique contribution;
 Nationality is ignored in favor of ability:
 Best person for the job;
 Color of passport does not matter when it comes to rewards, promotion and
development.
Regiocentric
Reflects a regional strategy and structure;
Regional autonomy in decision making;
Staff move within the designated region, rather than globally;
Staff transfers between regions are rare.
c) Differentiate between IHRM and domestic HRM?
 Differences between Domestic HRM and IHRM Can be attributed to 6 factors: More HR activities
 International taxation
 International relocation and orientation
 Administrative services for expatriates
 Host- government relations
 Language translation services
 The need for a broader perspective
 More involvement in employees’ personal lives
 Changes in emphasis as the workforce mix of expatriates and locals varies
 Risk exposure
 Broader external influences
(10 marks)
2. a. What is Repatriation?
(03 marks)
 The activity of bringing the expatriate back to the home country. Re-entry presents new
challenges:
 Expatriates may experience re-entry shock or reverse cultural shock.
 Some exit the company.
 The multinational’s ability to retain current and attract future expatriates is affected by
the manner in which it handles repatriation.
b. What are the reasons for expatriate failure?
(07marks)
 Expatriates’ families and spouses face isolation, loneliness and boredom in the new
country and suffer from emotional and physical problems.
 Reward package is not sufficient to survive and maintain life style.
 In host countries, expatriates have to face uncertainties, relate with people with different
culture, values and beliefs.
 Conflicting goals between the parent company, subsidiary or the joint venture company
result in to role conflict.
 Culture shock
 Inadequate career support and repatriation plan.
 Lack of support from headquarters.
c. Discuss the major factors associated with appraisal of expatriate managerial performances?
Performance criteria
 Hard goals: objective, quantifiable and can be directly measured
 Soft goals: relationship or trait-based
 Contextual goals: factors that result from the situation in which performance
occurs
 An appraisal system that uses hard, soft and contextual criteria is advocated
Other Factors Affecting Appraisal
 Who conducts the performance appraisal
 Use of standardized or customized appraisal form
 Frequency of appraisal
 Performance feedback
 Timely
 Geographical distance affects
3. Case study
Hi- Tech Electronics was established in 2006 in Malaysia. The company’s HR policies and
practices are top in the country. But this company is facing a minor problem related to salary and
benefits administration.
The company employed 400 national engineers and 20 expatriate engineers. The expatriate
employees occupied higher positions in all the departments including HR department. The
company’s salary and benefits policies were formulated mainly on the basis of expatriate
employees’ desires. The base salary is same for both national and expatriate employees. But the
expatriates receive additional allowances like international market allowance, settling in
allowance, educational allowance etc. Thus expatriates receive more salary than the national
(10marks)
doing the same job. The national employees demanded the management to pay equally with that
of expatriates immediately.
Questions
1. What is the crucial issue in this case?
Salary discrimination between PCN and TCN.
2. If you were the HR manager of the company, whom do you satisfy?
At present the company is following Balance sheet approach to compensation. It can be changed
to Going rate approach to satisfy national engineers as they are more in number.s
(05marks)
(05marks)