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International Management > 4. IHRM > Flashcards

4. IHRM Flashcards

1
Q

What Is A Staffing Policy?

A

Staffing policy is concerned with the selection of employees who have the skills required to perform a particular job

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2
Q

Why can staffing policy be a tool?

A
  • For developing an promoting the firm’s
    corporate culture
  • The organisation’s norms and value system
  • A strong corporate culture can help the firm implement its strategy
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3
Q

What are the three main approaches to staffing policy?

A

Ethnocentric
Polycentric
Geocentric

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4
Q

What is the ethnocentric approach?

A

Fill key management positions with parent-country nationals

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5
Q

What is the polycentric approach?

A

Recruit host country nationals to manage subsidiaries in their own country, and parent country nationals for positions at headquarters

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6
Q

What is the geocentric approach?

A

Seek the best people, regardless of nationality for key jobs

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7
Q

Why do firms choose and ethnocentric staffing policy? Believe that

A
  • Lack of qualified individuals in the host country to fill senior management positions
  • Unified corporate culture
  • Value can be created by transferring core competencies to a foreign operation via parent country nationals
    • It makes sense with an international strategy
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8
Q

Cons of ethnocentric staffing policy?

A
  • Limits advancement opportunities for host country nationals- resentment
  • Can lead to “cultural myopia“ – the firm’s failure to understand host country cultural differences that require different approaches to marketing and management.
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9
Q

Why do firms choose and polycentric staffing policy?

A
  • Makes sense for firms pursuing a localisation strategy
  • Can minimise cultural myopia
  • May be less expensive to implement than an ethnocentric policy
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10
Q

Cons of polycentric staffing policy?

A
  • Host country nationals have limited opportunities to gain experience outside their own country and so cannot progress beyond senior positions in their own subsidiaries
  • Gap can form between host country managers and parent country managers
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11
Q

Why do firms choose and geocentric staffing policy?

A
  • Consistent with building a strong unifying culture and informal management network
  • Makes sense for firms pursuing a global or transnational strategy
  • Enables the firm to make the best use of its human resources
  • Builds a cadre of international executives who feel at home working in a number of different cultures
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12
Q

Cons of geocentric staffing policy?

A
  • Can be limited by immigration laws

- Costly to implement

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13
Q

Staffing approach and strategy appropriateness?

A

Ethnocentric- International
Polycentric- Localisation
Geocentric- Global standardisation and transnational

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14
Q

What is an expatriate manager?

A

A citizen of one country who is working abroad in one of the firm’s subsidiary.

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15
Q

3 types of challenges of living and working abroad globally?

A

Personal considerations
Family considerations
Career considerations

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16
Q

What are personal considerations for working abroad?

A
  • Motivation for a foreign assignment
  • Physical and emotional health
  • Maturity and relational abilities
  • Language capabilities
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17
Q

What are family considerations for working abroad?

A
  • Spouse expectations and employment
  • Family adaptation to local environment
  • Local educational opportunities
  • Quality of family life in new location
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18
Q

What are career considerations for working abroad?

A
  • Basis of performance evaluation in new assignment, often must hit the ground running
  • Maintaining links to home company
  • Capitalising on foreign experiences
  • Opportunities to return to home company or other employment opportunities
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19
Q

What is culture shock?

A
  • When in a foreign environment, people frequently cannot use their past experiences to interpret and respond to cues, and their behavior may not produce the expected results, causing heightened anxiety and frustration.
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20
Q

Symptoms of culture shock?

A
  • Seemingly minor things can cause confusion and a feeling of loss of control.
  • State of internal disequilibrium created by the realities imposed by the new culture and the expectations based on the old.
  • This disequilibrium often forces them to question their behavioral habits and can lead to emotional feelings of anxiety, stress, and confusion.
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21
Q

Oberg’s stages of adjustment?

A 
Honeymoon
Crisis
Recovery
Full immersion
Extended:
- Crisis at home
- Recovery
- Immersion back home
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22
Q

Culture shock is not a disease;

A

It signifies that an individual is trying to come to terms with his or her new environment – a good starting point for psychological adjustment.
How to manage it (not avoid)

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23
Q

Challenges of culture shock?

A
  • Mind and body trying to come to terms with new environment

- Symptoms can include; frustration, anxiety, disappointment, depression and insomnia

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24
Q

Buffering effects on culture shock?

Strategies for coping

A
  • Learn about local environment
  • Learn local language
  • Know yourself
  • Explore local surroundings
  • Use local translators
  • Remember why you are there
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25
Q

Improved work and well-being

A

Improved psychological and at times physiological adjustment to new environment

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26
Q

5 Influences on acculturation success?

A 
Cultural knowledge
Cultural distance
Intergroup attitudes
Multicultural competence
Individual roles
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27
Q

What is cultural knowledge?

A

Understand norms, rules, and expectations

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28
Q

What is cultural distance?

A

Similarity between home and local culture

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29
Q

What is intergroup attitudes?

A

Positive attitudes of local culture

30
Q

What is multicultural competence?

A

Capacity to work successfully across cultures

31
Q

What is individual roles?

A

Job duties and responsibilities, including access to local people

32
Q

5 Challenges facing employers (Black and Gregersen 1999)

A
  • Cost
  • Employee performance
  • Assignment failure
  • Repatriation
  • Employee retention
33
Q

What staffing strategies will have expatriate managers?

A

Ethnocentric

Geocentric

34
Q

How many firms did Black and Gregersen study? (1999)

A

Expat management practices of 750 European, American and Japanese firms.

35
Q

What are the cost challenges facing employers?

A
  • Expats cost 2-3 x more than non-expat
  • Costs from $300,000-$1m per annum
  • 2nd most expensive employees after CEO
36
Q

What are the employee performance challenges facing employers?

A
  • Decline in employee performance
  • 1/3 expats fail to meet performance targets
  • Period seen as extended holiday
37
Q

What are the assignment failure challenges facing employers?

A
  • 20% expect workers return home early
  • Jobb dissatisfaction or difficulties adjusting
  • Inability of spouse to adapt/family
  • Inability to cope with larger overseas responsibilities
38
Q

What are the repatriation challenges facing employers?

A
  • 2/3 companies do not have repatriation programmes

- 60% former expats lack chance to utilise experiences

39
Q

What is repatriation?

A

Return to home country

40
Q

What are the employee retention challenges facing employers?

A
  • 25% repatriate workers leave company within 1 year

- Double the turnover rate of non-expat managers

41
Q

Best practices for managing expatriates? (Black and Gregersen, 1999)

A
  • Right people
  • Right reasons
  • Prepare them
  • Provide support for transition and adjustment
  • Provide support for family
  • Devise repatriation programmes
42
Q

Features of successful expats?

A
  • Cultural curiosity /cultural intelligence
  • Knowledge of cultures
  • Patience
  • Interpersonal skills
  • Sense of humour
  • Linguistic ability
43
Q

Features of unsuccessful expats?

A
  • Only excellent technical skills

- No/low cultural awarenes

44
Q

Wrong reasons to send people?

A
  • To reward favoured employees
  • To get mediocre employees out of the way
  • To solve short-term business problems
45
Q

Right reasons to send people?

A
  • To generate knowledge for an organisation
46
Q

Example of right reason to send people?

A

Nokia R&D
• No central R&D organisation
• Instead: operates 30 R&D centres in 10 countries
• Engineers selected to work in teams abroad
• Assignments typically last 2 – 3 years

47
Q

How to prepare staff fro expat assignments?

A
  • Training focus upon preparing the manager for a specific job
  • Management development is concerned with
    developing the skills of the manager over time
  • Gives the manager a skill set and reinforces organisational culture
48
Q

Why is training important for Expatriate

Managers?

A

Can reduce expatriate failure

49
Q

3 types of training for expat managers?

A

Cultural
Language
Practical

50
Q

Why cultural training?

A

Fosters an appreciation for the host country’s culture

51
Q

Why language training?

A

An exclusive reliance on English diminishes an expatriate’s ability to interact with host country nationals

52
Q

Why practical training?

A

Helps the expatriate and family ease themselves into day-to-day life in the host country

53
Q

Training stats prior to expat departure?

A

Only about 30% of managers sent on one- to five-year expatriate assignments received training before their departure

54
Q

Management development programs increase the

overall skill levels of managers through what?

A
  • Ongoing management education

- Rotations of managers through jobs within the firm to give them varied experiences

55
Q

Management development can be a strategic tool to

A
  • Build a strong unifying culture and informal management network
  • Support both transnational and global strategy
56
Q

How to provide support for transition/adjustment?

A
  • Provide overlap with returning manager
  • Develop support network for expatriates at HQ
  • Dedicated contact person in HR department
  • Regular contact with repatriated employees
57
Q

How to provide support for family members?

A
  • Include family in pre-departure training
  • Help spouses find employment
  • Help family members learn new language
58
Q

Frustrations of returning employees?

A
  • Temporary assignments
  • Demotion
  • No opportunities to apply foreign experience
  • Lack of recognition for overseas assignment
59
Q

Features of successful repatriation programmes?

A
  • Planning next assignments for returning expats

* Preparation for changes in personal/professional landscapes

60
Q

How Should Expatriates Be Evaluated?

A
  • Both host nation managers and home office managers evaluate the performance of expatriate managers
    • Home country managers tend to rely on hard data when evaluating expatriates
    • Host country managers can be biased towards their own frame of reference
61
Q

How Can Performance Appraisal Bias Be Reduced?

A
  • More weight should be given to an on-site manager’s appraisal than to an off-site manager’s appraisal
  • A former expatriate who has served in the same location should be involved in the process
  • Home office managers should be consulted before an on-site manager completes a formal termination evaluation
62
Q

The Key Issues In Compensating Expatriates

A
  1. How to adjust compensation to reflect differences in economic circumstances and compensation practices
  2. How to pay expatriate managers
63
Q

How Should National Differences In Compensation Be Treated?

A
  • Currently, there are substantial differences in executive compensation across countries
  • Research shows
  • a top U.S. executive made an average of $525,923 in the 2005-2006 period, compared to $278,697 in Japan, and $158,146 in Taiwan
64
Q

Should pay be equalized across countries?

A

• Many firms have recently moved toward a compensation structure that is based on global standards
- Especially important in firms with a geocentric staffing policy
• But, most firms still set pay according to the prevailing standards in each country

65
Q

What approach do most firms take to pay expats?

A

Balance sheet approach

66
Q

What does the balance sheet approach do?

A
  • Equalizes purchasing power across countries so employees have the same living standard in their foreign posting as at home
  • Adds a financial incentive to take the position
67
Q

5 components of a expat compensation package?

A
  1. Base salary
  2. Foreign service premium
  3. Various allowances
  4. Tax differentials
  5. Benefits
68
Q
  1. Base salary
A

Normally in the same range as the base salary for a similar position in the home country
• can be paid either in the home currency or in the local currency

69
Q
  1. Foreign service premium
A

Extra pay the expatriate receives for working outside his country of origin
• generally offered as an incentive to accept foreign assignments

70
Q
  1. Various allowances
A

Hardship, housing, cost-of-living, education

71
Q
  1. Tax differentials
A

May have to pay income tax to both the home country and the host-country governments no reciprocal tax treaty exists
• company usually covers extra tax assessments

72
Q
  1. Benefits
A

Many firms provide the same level of medical and pension benefits abroad that employees receive at home

International Management (5 decks)

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