Chapter 11

Global Staffing Alternatives: Expatriates and Beyond

MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS

1. Which of the following accurately depicts the current mindset of U.S. multinational firms regarding the issue of overseas staffing?
   1. The composition of the board of directors of a firm is not an important indicator of whether international skills and expertise is taken seriously
   2. More than 25% of board members in U.S. multinationals possess either important foreign experience or are foreign born in firms that earn more than half their revenues overseas
   3. The breadth of staffing options used by multinationals is often a function of how much revenue they earn abroad and practical and strategic issues
   4. Many U.S. multinationals that depend on foreign markets have done more in recent years to fill top positions with executives who have significant international experience, but do little to provide a pipeline of international opportunities for lower-level managers
2. Which of the following accurately describes a “just-in-time” expatriate?
   1. Employees sent on overseas assignments from a few weeks to a year in length
   2. Employees who must often travel internationally for their jobs, usually on trips lasting from a few days to a few months
   3. Employees who live in one country, but commute to work in another country
   4. Employees hired as needed from outside the multinational to fill a specific role or particular assignment
3. Parent-country nationals (PCNs) are known as expatriates. Common reasons given to send PCNs abroad long-term as expatriates include all of the following except:
   1. The need to provide opportunities for high-potential employees to develop their cross-cultural expertise
   2. The desire to transfer knowledge about the home-country operations to foreign markets
   3. The belief that local employees in a foreign subsidiary lack relevant skills
   4. The belief that a PCN is the best way to monitor foreign operations and instill corporate values
4. Advantages to a multinational firm for hiring host-country nationals (HCNs) include which of the following?
   1. Excellent technical skills
   2. Knowledge of corporate culture
   3. Deep grasp of the local environment
   4. High failure rate
5. The manner in which multinationals recruit and develop their international employees should reflect which of the following: the competitive environment, the availability of talent, and:
   1. The firm’s international strategy
   2. The location of the firm’s headquarters
   3. The challenges inherent in the home-country market
   4. All of the above
6. Which of the following is not important to developing an understanding of the process for the selection and development of international employees?
   1. Knowing which forces impact marketing and branding in multinationals
   2. Knowing what the desired outcomes or results should be
   3. Understanding international staffing challenges facing multinationals
   4. Neither b nor c is important
7. What are the forces impacting multinationals’ efforts to develop their international workforces? These include globalization (which has deepened connections between economies) and the demand for skilled, flexible employees who are culturally sophisticated.
   1. The demand for young employees who are willing to relocate
   2. Demographic trends (e.g., the shrinking, aging populations in developed countries versus the expanding, younger populations in developing nations)
   3. Globalization, which is weakening connections between economies
   4. The demand for senior-level employees who are willing to relocate
8. Key human resource management action areas for multinationals interested in recruiting and developing their international employees include which of the following?
   1. Hiring people with the right skills, competencies, and motivation
   2. Hiring an appropriate number of employees for specific positions and locations
   3. Implement effective retention efforts
   4. Hiring employees at the right price
9. Multinationals with extensive foreign operations have created global training programs that cover large groups of employees and have which of the following goals?
   1. Train more employees to speak another language
   2. Raise cultural awareness
   3. Improve the firm’s marketing and growth rate
   4. Making the individual employee more efficient
10. The consequences of an expatriate’s failure include which of the following?
    1. The multinational hired the wrong person
    2. The multinational provided inadequate training
    3. Preparation and support costs are wasted
    4. Positive momentum for expatriate selection
11. “Failure” for expatriates can be manifested in different ways. Which of the following is an example of how an expatriate can fail?
    1. Finishing the assignment but performing poorly
    2. Coming home early because of various difficulties
    3. Leaving the company once a given assignment abroad is over
    4. All of the above are examples of expatriate failure
12. Multinationals weigh things differently or diverge altogether regarding the factors they use in selecting expatriates. For instance, U.S. firms tend to emphasize which of the following?
    1. A wide variety of evaluation methods for the candidates
    2. Previous performance, technical skills, and desire to go
    3. Managers’ relationships with the candidates
    4. Alignment of location and assignment demands with candidates’ family situations
13. There are many individual factors that impact expatriate success or failure that should be considered in the selection process for expatriates. Which of the following is not such an individual factor?
    1. Extent of cultural differences with home context
    2. Family situation (are trailing spouse/partner, children in the mix?)
    3. Educational background, international experience, technical skills, and language proficiency
    4. Personal attributes—tolerance, flexibility, openness, emotional stability, extroversion, agreeableness
14. Which of the following examples would fall into the category of moderate cross-cultural training expected to be completed within 20–60 hours?
    1. In-depth language training
    2. Role-playing exercises and case analyses
    3. Lectures and videos
    4. Detailed simulations and scenario exercises
15. Which of the following characteristics of Western countries might typically be seen as positives by Chinese expatriates?
    1. People in Western countries are more reserved and direct than in China
    2. Regulations businesses must abide by are vague
    3. The air is cleaner in Western countries so it is easier to breathe
    4. The Chinese expatriate is far removed from key superiors in China
16. While many MBA students in the United States, Canada, and Europe express interest in an international career, they also have reasons they would be unwilling to accept an expatriate assignment. Which of the following was not given by these students as a reason to refuse an expatriate assignment?
    1. Too challenging a job in spite of compensation
    2. A negative (dangerous or unstable) location
    3. Potential family problems it would create
    4. High risk of failure or poor career move
17. Individuals interested in an international career or overseas job should consider which of the following suggestions to help them land such a position?
    1. For higher level jobs, market specialized skills
    2. Seek out and get involved in important national professional groups
    3. Learn additional foreign languages and become as proficient as possible
    4. All of the above
18. Which of the following specific selection philosophies in staffing foreign operations is correctly defined?
    1. Ethnocentric approach: human resource management control is in the hands of the foreign subsidiary
    2. Geocentric approach: key overseas positions are reserved for PCNs
    3. Polycentric approach: ability is all that matters
    4. Regiocentric approach: most foreign employees will not move into headquarters positions

True or False Questions

1. Generally speaking, the greater the percentage of revenue earned overseas the more likely it is that firms will insist that their senior leaders possess significant international experience and a deep understanding of foreign cultures and markets.
2. Less than 10% of board members for U.S. multinationals possess either important foreign experience or are foreign born, even for firms that earn more than half their revenues overseas.
3. Employees sent on overseas assignments from a few weeks to a year in length are known as “boomerangs.”
4. Many U.S. multinationals that depend on foreign markets have done more in recent years to fill top positions with executives who have significant international experience, but do little to provide a pipeline of international opportunities for lower-level managers.
5. Second-generation expatriates are immigrants who are naturalized citizens of a multinational’s home country and then are posted abroad for at least one year to a country other than where they were born.
6. Common reasons to send PCNs abroad long term as expatriates include the belief that local employees in a foreign subsidiary lack relevant skills and that a PCN is the best way to monitor foreign operations and instill corporate values.
7. A big risk associated with posting PCNs abroad as expatriates is that they often lack an understanding of the local business environment, particularly early on, so some multinationals target immigrants when recruiting, hoping to plug them into key company positions in their native countries. The immigrants are known as “boomerangs.”
8. Multinationals that use third-country nationals (TCNs) and regional transfers to develop international cadres perform worse than multinationals that rely on traditional expatriates.
9. One of the forces impacting multinationals’ efforts to develop their international workforces is the demand for skilled, flexible employees who are culturally sophisticated.
10. Everything else being equal, multinationals based in low power distance countries tend to rely on expatriates more, probably because national values reinforce the belief that higher levels of control are necessary overseas.
11. Korean and Japanese multinationals tend to use PCNs (traditional expatriates) in foreign subsidiaries more than European or American multinationals, in part because they value high power distance.
12. Some multinationals with extensive foreign operations have created global training programs to cover large groups of employees, including expatriates with goals such as raising cultural awareness and making multicultural teams work well.
13. The expatriate population has actually been decreasing in recent years because more companies are engaging in international business than ever before and want to hire more HCNs and TCNs.
14. U.S. multinationals seem to have higher rates of expatriate failure (often 30% to 40%) than European firms (failure rates typically around 10%) possibly because Europeans are exposed to a wider variety of languages and intercultural experiences than their American counterparts.
15. Cross-cultural training programs have veered away from superficial efforts to explain business practices and etiquette used in other countries to training that stresses open-mindedness, understanding, and respect.

Short-Answer Questions

1. Compare traditional expatriates with second-generation expatriates.
2. Compare the role of “just-in-time expatriates” with that of “short-term international assignees.”
3. Explain the difference between domestic internationals and international commuters.
4. What are some of the commonly cited reasons to send PCNs abroad long term as expatriates?
5. Define what is meant by a “boomerang” employee and describe some of the challenges they may face when they find themselves back in their home cultures.
6. Describe some of the advantages to a multinational firm of host-country nationals (HCNs) over parent-country nationals (PCNs).
7. Compare the approach used by multinational firms with a geocentric staffing philosophy to those with an ethnocentric staffing philosophy.
8. Describe the characteristics you would expect to see in a multinational firm with a polycentric staffing philosophy.
9. What are some of the characteristics you would expect to find in the global training programs that cover large groups of employees developed by multinationals with extensive foreign operations?
10. Describe the steps recommended to multinational firms to increase their success rate for expatriates.
11. Describe the typical activities included in cross-cultural training and the time range for completion.
12. List some of the suggested activities recommended to improve the repatriation process before and after departure and indicate the timing for each.

Essay Questions

1. Compare the advantages and disadvantages to a multinational firm of using host-country nationals (HCN) with the advantages and disadvantages of using third-country nationals (TCN).
2. How multinationals recruit and develop their international employees should reflect the firm’s international strategy, the competitive environment, the availability of talent, and the challenges inherent in specific foreign markets. Describe this general global talent management process and the desired outcomes that should result from it.
3. Discuss the basic elements that comprise a successful program to select and prepare employees destined for foreign assignments.
4. Cultural toughness has important implications for expatriate adjustment and employees’ willingness to accept assignments. Explain what is meant by “cultural toughness” and discuss how cultural toughness can be managed effectively for expatriates?
5. Describe the suggestions offered to individuals interested in landing an overseas job that could lead to an international career. Which do you think would be more easily accomplished and which more likely to result in being hired?