Chapter 4
Recruiting and selecting staff
for international assignments
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Chapter objectives
In Part I, we demonstrated how people play a central role in
sustaining international operations. As international
assignments are an important vehicle for staffing, it is critical
that they are managed effectively, and the expatriates are
supported so that performance outcomes are achieved. The
focus of this chapter, then, is on recruitment and selection
activities in an international context. We will address the
following issues:
 the myth of the global manager
 the debate surrounding expatriate failure
(cont.)
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Chapter objectives (cont.)
 factors moderating intent to stay or leave the
international assignment
 selection criteria for international assignments
 dual-career couples
 are female expatriates different?
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The global manager
 Myth 1: there is a universal approach to
management
 Myth 2: People can acquire multicultural
adaptability and behaviours
 Myth 3: There are common characteristics
shared by successful international managers
 Myth 4: There are no impediments to mobility
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Table 4-1: Current expatriate profile
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Expatriate failure
 Definition: Premature return of an expatriate
 Now recognized that under-performance
during an international assignment, and
retention upon completion, should be
included
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Expatriate failure
 What is the magnitude of the phenomenon?



Suggestion of a falling rate compared with
early (1980s) studies
Evidence is somewhat inconclusive
Discussion about its magnitude has drawn
attention to expatriate failure and prompted
considerable research into its causes
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Expatriate failure
 Direct costs of failure: airfares, associated
relocation expenses, and salary and training




Varies according to level of position concerned
Country of destination
Exchange rates
Whether ‘failed’ manager is replaced by
another expatriate
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Expatriate failure
 Indirect costs (invisible)




Damaged relationships with key stakeholders
in the foreign location
Negative effects on local staff
Negative effects on expatriate concerned
Family relationships may be affected
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Factors moderating expatriate
performance
 Inability to adjust to the foreign culture
 Length of assignment
 Willingness to move
 Work-related factors
 Psychological contract
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Figure 4-1: International assignments: factors
moderating performance
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Figure 4-2: The phases of cultural adjustment
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The phases of adjustment
 The U-Curve is not normative
 The time period involved varies between
individuals
 The U-Curve does not explain how and why
people move through the various phases
 It may be more cyclical than a U-Curve
 Needs to consider repatriation
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Figure 4-3: The dynamics of the employment relationship
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The employment relationship
 The nature of the employment relationship
 Relational: broad, open-ended and long-term
obligations
 Transactional: specific short-term monetized
obligations
 The condition of the relationship
 Intact: when employee considers there has been fair
treatment, reciprocal trust
 Violated: provoked by belief organization has not
fulfilled its obligations
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Figure 4-4: Likelihood of exit
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Organizational commitment
 Affective component: employee’s attachment
to, identification with and involvement in, the
organization
 Continuance component: based on
assessed costs associated with exiting the
organization
 Normative component: refers to employee’s
feelings of obligation to remain
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Why consider the psychological
contract?
 Nature, location and duration of an international
assignment may provoke intense, individual reactions
to perceived violations
 Expatriates tend to have broad, elaborate,
employment relationships with greater emphasis on
relational nature
 Expectations and promises underpin this relationship
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Selection criteria
 Technical ability
 Cross-cultural suitability
 Family requirements
 Country-cultural requirements
 MNE requirements
 Language
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Figure 4-5: Factors in expatriate selection
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Mendenhall and Oddou Model
 Self-oriented dimension
 Perceptual dimension
 Others-oriented dimension
 Cultural-toughness dimension
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Table 4-2: Harris and Brewster’s selection typology
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Solutions to the dual-career
challenge
 Alternative assignment arrangements
 Short-term
 Commuter
 Other (eg. unaccompanied, virtual)
 Family-friendly policies
 Inter-company networking
 Job-hunting assistance
 Intra-company employment
 On-assignment career support
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Table 4-3: Barriers to females taking international assignments
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Chapter summary
This chapter has addressed key issues affecting recruitment and
selection for international assignments. We have covered:
 Four myths related to the concept of a global
manager – that there is a universal approach to
management; that people can acquire multicultural
adaptability and behaviors; that there are common
characteristics successful international managers
share; and that there are no impediments to mobility.
 The debate surrounding the definition and magnitude
of expatriate failure.
(cont.)
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Chapter summary (cont.)
 Cultural adjustment and other moderating factors
affecting expatriate intent to stay and performance.
These included duration of the assignment,
willingness to move, work-related factors and the
employment relationship.
 Individual and situational factors to be considered in
the selection decision. Evaluation of the common
criteria used revealed the difficulty of selecting the
right candidate for an international assignment and
the importance of including family considerations in
the selection process.
(cont.)
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Chapter summary (cont.)
 Dual-career couples as a barrier to staff mobility, and the techniques
that multinationals are utilizing to overcome this constraint.
 Female expatriates and whether they face different issues to their male
counterparts.
It is also clear that, while our appreciation of the issues surrounding
expatriate recruitment and selection has deepened in the past 20
years, much remains to be explored. The field is dominated by US
research into predominantly US samples of expatriates, although
there has been an upsurge in interest from European academics and
practitioners.
(cont.)
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Chapter summary (cont.)
Will the factors affecting the selection decision be similar for
multinationals emerging from countries such as China and India?
If more multinationals are to encourage subsidiary staff to consider
international assignments as part of an intra-organizational network
approach to management, we will need further understanding of how
valid the issues discussed in this chapter are for all categories of staff
from different country locations.
Another area that remains ignored is the selection of non-expatriates,
that is, the international business travelers we discussed in Chapter 3.
In our survey of current literature, there is a paucity of recognition of
this group.
(cont.)
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Chapter summary (cont.)
The various consulting firm surveys conducted into relocation trends
in 2002 that we draw on in this chapter indicate that more
multinationals are resorting to replacing traditional assignments with
business travel as a way of overcoming staff immobility. Likewise,
there is a need for further work into the performance–selection link
surrounding non-standard assignments, including commuter and
virtual assignments.
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Chapter summary (cont.)
It is apparent, though, that staff selection remains critical.
Finding the right people to fill positions, particularly key
managers – whether PCN, TCN or HCN – can determine
international expansion. However, effective recruitment and
selection are only the first step. As we will explore in the next
chapter, maintaining and retaining productive staff are equally
important.
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