International Human Resource

Question 1

PCN

Answer 1

Parent-Country National-person working in a country other than his/her country of origin (Home / Native Country)

Question 2

HCN

Answer 2

Host-Country National-employee of an organization who is the citizen of the country in which the foreign subsidiary is located.

Question 3

TCN

Answer 3

Third-Country National-employee from one of its other foreign subsidiaries. US based company hires someone from Pakistan to work in Qatar.

Question 4

MNE

Answer 4

Multinational Enterprise-a firm which owns or controls business activities in more than one foreign country

Question 5

SME

Answer 5

Small and Medium Enterprise-defined using headcount, annual turnover, or the annual balance sheet total.

Question 6

Index of Transnationality

Answer 6

Is an average of ratios of foreign assets to total assets; foreign sales to total sales; and foreign employment to total employment.

Question 7

Inpatriate

Answer 7

A foreign manager in the US.

Question 8

Multi-domestic Industry

Answer 8

Company is a business that uses a different approach in each of the markets it operates in.

Question 9

Organizational Culture

Answer 9

Is the “sense of common identity and purpose across the whole organization”.

Question 10

Tax Equalization

Answer 10

Employee pays no more and no less tax while on assignment than they would have paid had they remained in their home country.
Ensure that there is no tax incentive or disincentive associated with any particular international assignment.

Question 11

Artefacts (cultural)

Answer 11

Visible organization structures and processes. They can be analyzed using conventional methods of empirical social research, but their meaning is often hard to decipher.

Question 12

Communitarianism

Answer 12

Is about the rights of the group or society. It seeks to put the family, group, company, and country before the individual. It sees individualism as selfish and short-sighted.

Question 13

Diffuse Culture

Answer 13

Is characterized by: a large private life that includes a relatively large number of people; a small public space that is difficult to enter (e.g. an outsider needs a formal introduction from a mutual friend in order to do business with a particular manager); indirect communication that does not always say what is really meant; and no clear distinction between work and private life.

Question 14

High Context Communication

Answer 14

In high context cultures a more indirect form of expression is common, where the receiver must decipher the content of the message from its context

Question 15

Particularism

Answer 15

Pays more attention to individual cases, deciding what is good and correct depending on relationship and special friendship arrangements.

Question 16

Power Distance

Answer 16

a. Represents the scale on which the members of a culture accept that power is not distributed equally in institutions.

Question 17

Spatial Distance

Answer 17

The focus of this dimension is on the distance between people of various cultures when communicating. Distance that is adequate for members of one culture may feel intrusive for members of another culture.

Question 18

Uncertainty Avoidance

Answer 18

GLOBE study includes “the extent to which a society, organization, or group relies on social norms, rules, and procedures to alleviate unpredictability of future events”.

Hofstede study represents the extent to which the members of a culture feel threatened by uncertain, ambiguous, and/or unstructured situations and try to avoid them. Cultures with strong uncertainty avoidance are characterized by strict beliefs and behavioral codes and do not tolerate people and ideas that deviate from these. In cultures with weak uncertainty avoidance, the significance of practice exceeds the significance of principles and there is high tolerance for deviations

Question 19

Agents of Socialization

Answer 19

Based on assumptions that appropriate behavior will have been instilled in the local workforce through training programs and hiring practices, and that the multinational’s way of operating has been accepted by the local staff in the manner intended. In this way, the multinational’s corporate culture will operate as a subtle, informal control mechanism – a substitution of direct supervision.

Question 20

Chaebols

Answer 20

Large industrial conglomerate that is run and controlled by an owner or family in South Korea. A chaebol often consists of a large number of diversified affiliates, controlled by an owner whose power over the group often exceeds legal authority.

Question 21

Greenfield

Answer 21

A type of venture where finances are employed to create a new physical facility for a business in a location where no existing facilities are currently present.

Question 22

Heterarchy

Answer 22

A structural form in which a MNC may have a number of different kinds of centers apart from that traditionally referred to as ‘headquarters’

Question 23

Institutionalism Perspective

Answer 23

Indicates that institutional pressures may be powerful influences on HR practices. Elements which are relevant to HRM are, for example, the characteristics of the education system or the industrial relations system.

Question 24

Integrated Player

Answer 24

Creates knowledge but at the same time is the recipient of knowledge flows

Question 25

Local Innovator

Answer 25

Subsidiaries engage in the creation of relevant country/region-specific knowledge in all key functional areas because they have complete local responsibility.

Question 26

Local Responsiveness

Answer 26

Is to respect local cultural values, traditions, legislation, or other institutional constraints such as government policy and/or education systems regarding HRM and work practices.

Question 27

Matrix Structure

Answer 27

An organizational structure that facilitates the horizontal flow of skills and information. It is used mainly in the management of large projects or product development processes, drawing employees from different functional disciplines for assignment to a team without removing them from their respective positions. Employees in a matrix organization report on day-to-day performance to the project or product manager, whose authority flows sideways (horizontally) across departmental boundaries. They also continue to report on their overall performance to the head of their department, whose authority flows downwards (vertically) within his or her department.

Question 28

Kaizen

Answer 28

Is the continuous improvement philosophy. Japanese word for improvement

Question 29

Pre-departure Training

Answer 29

Is a set of training programs provided before expatriates depart for their overseas assignment, designed to increase the success of expatriates in their international assignments; training might include cross-cultural and language training, business etiquette, and so on.

Question 30

Reverse Diffusion

Answer 30

The transfer of management practices from foreign locations to the headquarters.

Question 31

Six Sigma

Answer 31

The strategy involves creating groups of people within the business or organization who have expert status in various methods, and then carrying out each project according to a set of steps in an effort to reach specific financial milestones.

Question 32

Transnational

Answer 32

An organizational form that is characterized by an interdependence of resources and responsibilities across all business units regardless of national boundaries. The term has also become a descriptor of a particular type of multinational – one that tries to cope with the large flows of components, products, resources, people, and information among its subsidiaries, while simultaneously recognizing distributed specialized resources and capabilities.

Question 33

Affective Dimension

Answer 33

Refers to intercultural competence reflecting the emotional attitude towards a foreign culture.

Question 34

Boundary Spanning

Answer 34

Refers to activities, such as gathering information, that bridge internal and external organizational contexts. Expatriates are considered boundary spanners because they can collect host-country information, act as representatives of their firms in the host country, and influence agents.

Question 35

Commuter Assignments

Answer 35

Special arrangements where the employee commutes from the home country on a weekly or bi-weekly basis to the place of work in another country. Cross-border workers or daily commuters are not included. Usually the family of the assignee stays in the home country.

Question 36

Contractual Assignments

Answer 36

Are used in situations where employees with specific skills vital to an international project are assigned for a limited duration of six to 12 months.

Question 37

Ethnocentric Staffing

Answer 37

Key positions in domestic and foreign operations are held by managers from headquarters (PCNs). Subsidiaries are managed by staff from the home country.

Question 38

Ethnorelativism

Answer 38

An acquired ability to see many values and behaviors as cultural rather than universal. It is characterized by adjustment to foreign cultures and integration.

Question 39

Geocentric Staffing

Answer 39

The MNE is taking a global approach to its operations, recognizing that each part (subsidiaries and headquarters) makes a unique contribution with its unique competence. Subsidiaries are usually managed by TCNs.

Question 40

Intercultural Competence

Answer 40

Defined as the ability to function effectively in another culture.

Question 41

Non-expatriates

Answer 41

People who travel internationally but are not considered expatriates as they do not relocate to another country. Popular terms for these employees include ‘road warriors’, ‘globetrotters’, ‘frequent fliers’, and ‘flexpatriates’.

Question 42

Polycentric Staffing

Answer 42

Involves the MNE treating each subsidiary as a distinct national entity with some decision-making autonomy. Subsidiaries are usually managed by local nationals (HCNs), who are seldom promoted to positions at headquarters, and PCNs are rarely transferred to foreign subsidiary operations.

Question 43

Regiocentric Staffing

Answer 43

Reflects the geographic strategy and structure of the MNE. Like the geocentric approach, it utilizes a wider pool of managers but in a limited way. Staff may move outside their home countries but only within the particular geographic region.

Question 44

Tacit Knowledge

Answer 44

An unwritten, unspoken, and hidden vast storehouse of knowledge held by practically every normal human being, based on his or her emotions, experiences, insights, intuition, observations, and internalized information. Tacit knowledge is integral to the entirety of a person’s consciousness, is acquired largely through association with other people, and requires joint or shared activities to be imparted from one to another.

Question 45

Virtual Assignment

Answer 45

Where the employee does not relocate to a host location but manages, from home base, various international responsibilities for a part of the organization in another country. In this case, the manager relies heavily on communications technologies such as telephone, email, or video conferences. Visits to the host country are also necessary.

Question 46

Foreign Subsidiary

Answer 46

A partially or wholly owned company that is part of a larger corporation with headquarters in another country.

Question 47

Functional Assignments

Answer 47

Are described as more enduring assignments with local employees that involve the two-way transfer of existing processes and practices.

Question 48

Intellectual Capital

Answer 48

Collective knowledge (whether or not documented) of the individuals in an organization or society. This knowledge can be used to produce wealth, multiply output of physical assets, gain competitive advantage, and/or enhance value of other types of capital

Question 49

Strategic Assignments

Answer 49

Refers to high-profile activities that focus on developing a balanced global perspective.

Question 50

Structure Reproducer

Answer 50

Carries the assignment of building or reproducing in a foreign subsidiary a structure similar to that which he or she knows from another part of the company.