9 - International Human Resources and Compensation Management Flashcards
What factors have increased economic integration across countries?
Key factors such as
(1) ________
(2) _______,
(3) ________ platforms have increased the economic integration across countries and emphasized the need for human resources management (HRM) practices and systems to be more globally linked and consistent across countries.
free trade
service-based business
ntegrated technology
____ member countries now comprise EU, whose goal is to facilitate the flow of goods, services, capital and human resources across national borders in Europe in a manner similar to the way they cross state lines in the United States.
A similar transition occurred within North America with the passage of ______ in 1994. It created the world’s largest _____. Since its passage, commerce between the United States, Canada and Mexico has more than tripled.
Also, many trade agreements among Asian countries have significantly facilitated commerce integration and made Asia the fastest-growing region in the world with China as the dominant trade leader.
Twenty-seven
NAFTA
free market
The fact that international corporations can choose the countries in which they do business or relocate operations generally results in the selection of countries that have _______. In addition to economic factors, _______ factors are a huge consideration. Beyond the economic and political-legal issues, a country’s cultural environment (communications, religion, values and ideologies, education, and social structure) also has important implications when it comes to a company’s decision about when and how to do business
the most to offer
political-legal
- (a) An _________ is essentially a domestic firm that builds on its existing capabilities to penetrate overseas markets.
- (b) A __________ is a firm with fully autonomous units operating in multiple countries.
- (c) A ________ is a multinational firm that maintains control of its international units through a centralized home office.
- (d) A ______ is a firm that attempts to obtain the local responsiveness of an MNC and the efficiencies of a global firm. It seeks this through the use of a network structure that coordinates specialized facilities positioned around the world.
- international corporation
- multinational corporation (MNC)
- global corporation
- transnational corporation
International human resources management differs from domestic human resources management in several ways.
Functions and activities that are unique to international human resources management include relocation, orientation and translation services to help employees adapt to a new and different environment outside their own country.
Assistance with _______ matters, banking, investment management, home rental while on assignment and coordination of home visits is also usually provided by the human resources department.
Also, the human resources department in an overseas unit must be particularly responsive to _______, ______ and legal aspects of the external environment.
taxation
cultural
political
Basically, there are three sources of managers to staff overseas units.
- The firm can send managers from the ________ or expatriates.
- It can hire host-country _____, natives of the host country, to be managers.
- Also, it can hire _______ nationals— natives of a country other than the home country or the host country.
home country
nationals
third-country
In recent years, there has been a trend to send expatriates on shorter, project-based assignments (two to 12 months versus one to three years) and to shift more quickly toward hiring _______ nationals.
This has three main advantages:
- (1) Hiring local citizens is generally less _______ than relocating expatriates. Local citizens also know the cultural and political landscape of the country and are often more likely to be able to gain the support of local staff members.
- (2) Since local governments usually want good jobs for their citizens, foreign employers may be required to _______.
- (3) Most customers want to do business with companies (and people) they perceive to be ______ versus foreign.
host-country
- costly
- hire locally
- local
Generally describe how the recruitment and selection procedures in foreign countries differ from those used domestically.
Historically, recruitment in foreign countries has been subject to more _________ than in the United States. Virtually all countries have work permit or visa restrictions that apply to foreigners. A work permit or visa is a document issued by a government granting authority to a foreign individual to _________ in that government’s country, and there usually are laws requiring the employment of local people when available.
government regulation
seek employment
How did the tragic events of 9/11/2001 impact immigration and visa granting in the United States?
Since the tragic events of 9/11/2011, there has been a backlash against immigration and a backup in the number of visas granted to foreign workers and students entering the United States. U.S. managers complain that this is making it harder for them to hire top talent. U.S. firms lament that they are experiencing a “reverse ________” as skilled foreign workers leave the United States and seek work in other countries. Some other countries have become less restrictive than the United States in granting foreign residents citizenship and work permits. For instance, the United Kingdom gives graduates of the world’s top 50 _______ an automatic right to work in the United Kingdom for a _____.
“brain drain”
business schools
year
In addition to focusing on individuals, companies are increasingly using transnational teams to conduct international business.
Transnational teams are composed of members of multiple nationalities working _______ on projects that span multiple countries. These teams are especially useful for performing tasks that the firm as a whole is not yet ________ to accomplish. For example, they may be used to transcend the existing organizational structure to customize a strategy for different geographic regions, transfer technology from one part of the world to another, and communicate between headquarters and subsidiaries in different countries.
virtually
structured
In selecting individuals for an international assignment, the following steps should be followed and in the sequence presented.
- Step 1: Begin with _________. This way companies can more easily avoid the problems of forcing otherwise promising employees into international assignments that are bad for them.
- Step 2: Create a _________. After employees have self-selected, organizations can build a database of candidates for international assignments.
- Step 3: Assess candidates’ ________. From the short list of potential candidates, managers can assess each candidate in terms of his or her technical and managerial readiness relative to the needs of the assignment.
- Step 4: Assess candidates’ __________ and _______. Organizations should pay attention to an individual’s ability to adapt to different environments.
- self-selection
- candidate pool
- core skills
- augmented skills and attributes
There are at least five essential elements of training and development programs that prepare employees for working internationally:
- (1) _______ training,
- (2) _______ training,
- (3) assessing and tracking _______
- 4) managing ____ and _____
- (5) _______ —a final, but critical, step.
- language
- cultural
- career development
- personal and family life
- repatriation
For an international assignment, in addition to preparing often for a different language and for practical matters such as different currency, transportation, time zones, and the like, an individual should become acquainted with the following characteristics of the host country:
- (a) Social and ______ etiquette
- (b) History and _______
- (c) _______, including relations between the host country and the United States
- (d) _______ values and priorities
- (e) ________
- (f) Sources of ______ and great achievement of the culture
- (g) _______ and its role in daily life
- (h) ________ structure and current players.
- business
- folklore
- Current affairs
- Cultural
- Geography
- pride
- Religion
- Political
Language and communications differ among cultures. The following list reflects this:
- (a) In England, to table a subject means to put it on the table for ________, whereas in the United States, it means to postpone discussion.
- (b) Information flows to managers in the United States, whereas in Europe, South Africa and other centralized cultures, managers must take the initiative to ______ information.
- (c) Arabs, Europeans and many other cultures resent the tendency of Americans to be _____ in their communications and to get to the point.
- (d) There are _____ ways to avoid saying “no” in Japan.
- (e) When something is described as “inconvenient” by the Chinese, this means that it is _______.
- (f) Expressions of anger are unacceptable in some countries, and in others public displays of anger are _______.
- (g) In many foreign countries, silence is treated as “___________” that belongs to the message sender, whereas in the United States, it is not discourteous to interrupt or break silences.
- (h) Gesturing with one’s _______ is acceptable in the United States, but not in many foreign countries.
- present discussion
- seek out
- direct
- 16
- impossible
- taboo
- “communication space”
- hands
Employee work attitudes and motivations vary among cultures. In _______, for example, employees have tended to be highly loyal to their employer, although there are indications that this may be changing. Latin Americans tend to be loyal to their ________ rather than to their employing firm or job. In the United States, _______ has been the name of the game; in Japan, Taiwan and other Asian countries ________ is more the underlying philosophy.
Participative decision making varies among managers from different cultures, with U.S. managers somewhere in the ______ of the continuum between autocratic and highly participative.
Managers from South America and Europe, especially those from France, Germany and Italy, tend to be highly _______.
Far Eastern cultures tend to stress _______ and lean more toward group decision making.
- Japan
- individual managers
- competition
- cooperation
- middle
- autocratic (of or relating to a ruler who has absolute power)
- harmony