Test Bank Docx Ch7 Strategic International Human Resource

Chapter 7: Strategic international human resource management

TRUE-FALSE QUESTIONS

1. Organisations considering strategic international HRM practices need to orientate toward staffing practices and country-specific factors such as local laws, regulations and culture.

a. True

b. False

LO: 1

Diff: 1

Topic: Globalisation and strategic international HRM

AACSB: 3

2. The polycentric management orientation and the regiocentric management orientation are the two most dissimilar approaches to SIHRM.

a. True

b. False

LO: 1

Diff: 1

Topic: Globalisation and strategic international HRM

AACSB: 3

3. Cross-cultural training and development is the holistic development of employees at multiple locations to enable them to acquire the ability to interact with individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds and learn to work within multicultural teams.

a. True

b. False

LO: 4

Diff: 1

Topic: Cross-cultural considerations

AACSB: 5

4. When comparing remuneration in Hong Kong to that in Finland, one could assume that employees in Hong Kong appreciate the inclusion of more intrinsic rewards.

a. True

b. False

LO: 3

Diff: 1

Topic: Approaches to strategic international HRM

AACSB: 6

5. Expatriate assignments may fail because of the inability of the expatriate and the expatriate’s significant others to accept or adapt to the new environment.

a. True

b. False

LO: 5

Diff: 1

Topic: Managing international assignments

AACSB: 3

6. Expatriate pre-departure training provides a guarantee that the overseas assignment will be successful.

a. True

b. False

LO: 5

Diff: 1

Topic: Managing international assignments

AACSB: 3

7. The localised approach to remuneration for expatriates provides a salary in line with local employees.

a. True

b. False

LO: 5

Diff: 1

Topic: Managing international assignments

AACSB: 3

8. Repatriation is an important and sensitive process, as employees have to reorient themselves to the home organisation.

a. True

b. False

LO: 3

Diff: 1

Topic: Managing international assignments

AACSB: 3

9. Flexpatriates need to be repatriated using exactly the same process as expatriates.

a. True

b. False

LO: 5

Diff: 1

Topic: Managing international assignments

AACSB: 3

10. When establishing an expatriate presence in Asia it is acceptable to adopt a ‘one size fits all’ strategy as this usually does not lead to any in-country problems.

a. True

b. False

LO: 5

Diff: 1

Topic: Managing human resources in Asia

AACSB: 6

MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS

1. There are four drivers of globalisation. They are:

a. market, cost, governments and cultures

b. market, cost, governments and regulations

c. costs, governments, competition and regulations

d. market, cost, governments and competition

LO: 1

Diff: 2

Topic: Globalisation and strategic international HRM

AACSB: 6

2. Strategic international HRM refers to ‘the set of distinct activities, functions, and processes that are directed at attracting, developing, and maintaining multinational corporations’ human resources’ (Taylor, Beechler & Napier, 1996, p. 960) and must be conducted in line with the organisation’s strategic international management processes, which includes:

a. strategic formulation of global vision, mission and objectives global strategic

b. implementation including global structuring of organisations, job design and training

c. global procurement and logistics along with expatriate transfer

d. both a and c

LO: 3

Diff: 1

Topic: Globalisation and strategic HRM

AACSB: 6

3. An international clothing company, based in the United Kingdom, decides to open a retail chain in Australia. While it uses the same global strategy of marketing to teenagers, it realises that Australian workers have a different approach to selling, sales promotion and customer relations. This organisation would adopt:

a. a global approach to SIHRM

b. a localised approach to SIHRM

c. an adaptation approach to SIHRM

d. an international approach to SIHRM

LO: 2

Diff: 1

Topic: Approaches to SIHRM

AACSB: 3

4. The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) decides to open banks in Singapore and Thailand. However the regulations guiding financial institutions in these countries are different to those in Australia. To operate in these countries CBA would need to take:

a. a global approach to SIHRM

b. a localised approach to SIHRM

c. an adaptation approach to SIHRM

d. an international approach to SIHRM

LO: 3

Diff: 1

Topic: Cross-cultural considerations

AACSB: 6

5. An Australian food processing company decides to set up a plant in in India to service the local population. The company recruits managers to work in India from its Australian workforce as it will be making many of the major strategic decisions in Australia and wants to keep the Australian culture in the organisation. In this instance Holden is adopting:

a. an ethnocentric management orientation

b. a polycentric management orientation

c. a regiocentric management orientation

d. a geocentric management orientation

LO: 3

Diff: 1

Topic: Approaches to SIHRM

AACSB: 6

6. When McDonald’s decided to ‘go global’ it realised that the strategies and practices it used in America would not be suitable in other countries. For example it could not produce beef burgers in India. McDonald’s wanted to keep its image as a healthy and inexpensive family restaurant but realised that employing some local managers was necessary to manage on site. In this instance McDonald’s adopted:

a. an ethnocentric management orientation

b. a polycentric management orientation

c. a regiocentric management orientation

d. a geocentric management orientation

LO: 3

Diff: 1

Topic: Approaches to SIHRM

AACSB: 6

7. Toyota, a Japanese car manufacturing organisation, has expanded into the Australian market. Rather than employing Japanese managers to work in Australia, who may find it difficult to adopt different organisational strategies and practices to suit the local environment, Toyota employed Australian managers. This is because of which dimension of Japan’s national culture:

a. individualism versus collectivism

b. masculinity versus femininity

c. power distance

d. uncertainty avoidance

LO: 3

Diff: 1

Topic: Managing HRM in Asia

AACSB: 6

8. Country-specific factors will determine the SIHRM approach an organisation implements. When local government laws and regulations apply and there is a high degree of dependency on local resources and when the organisation is highly visible the following approach should be adopted:

a. global approach

b. country specific approach

c. localised approach

d. none of the above

LO: 2

Diff: 1

Topic: Approaches to SIHRM

AACSB: 6

9. Managers need to be culturally sensitive when they appraise the performance of employees from different cultural backgrounds. Asian employees are motivated by:

a. by both intrinsic and extrinsic appraisal measures

b. by neither intrinsic nor extrinsic measures

c. more intrinsic measures than extrinsic measures

d. more extrinsic measures than intrinsic measures

LO: 4

Diff: 1

Topic: Cross-cultural considerations

AACSB: 6

10. In order to compete in a global market an organisation needs to have experts with specific knowledge of the local market. This implies that HR managers will need to:

a. recruit and select appropriate employees

b. know the competitors’ strategies

c. know the volume of imports and exports in the industry

d. know the degree of loyalty customers already have to their competitors

LO: 2

Diff: 2

Topic: Approaches to SIHRM

AACSB: 3

11. There are a variety of reasons for why expatriate assignments fail. Which of the following is NOT a reason why expatiate assignments fail?

a. examining if the rules and procedures used by employees are consistent with the new country’s rules and procedures

b. inappropriate selection of expatriates and poor pre-departure training

c. inability of the expatriate and/or the family to adjust to the new environment

d. poor management of the expatriate’s career and the repatriation process

LO: 5

Diff: 1

Topic: Managing international assignments

AACSB: 6

12. When selecting an expatriate for an assignment, what is the specific competence an organisation should consider?

a. the individual’s soft skills, home-country understanding and strategic competence

b. the individual’s intent to return to the company and seek a long-term career

c. the individual’s technical competence, soft skills, intercultural competence

d. the individual’s strategic competence, that they have a specific personality and they have no significant others

LO: 5

Diff: 2

Topic: Managing international assignments

AACSB: 6

13. According to Littrell et al. (2006) which of the following is NOT a step for developing expatriate pre-departure training:

a. conducting a needs analysis to determine the strengths and weakness of the expatriate as well as the needs of the expatriate’s family

b. developing a customised training program that will meet the expatriate’s needs

c. developing a list of courses that the expatriate can attend once they have departed

d. delivering the training program with an individual who is an expert both on expatriation and the particular country where the expatriate will be working

LO: 5

Diff: 2

Topic: Managing international assignments

AACSB: 7

14. Employees who are placed on international assignment where the host country is dramatically different from their home country often experience ‘culture shock’. In which of the following instances would the least amount of culture shock occur?

a. a Japanese employee moving to Africa to work

b. an Australian employee moving to New Zealand to work

c. a Singaporean employee moving to Germany to work

d. an Australian employee moving to Mexico to work

LO: 5

Diff: 1

Topic: Staffing international operations

AACSB: 6

15. To reduce culture shock, an organisation provided training about the values of workers in the host country. The organisation gave the employee information that stated ‘many workers in the host country spend longer hours at work, see work as a way to provide for their families, believe in long-term loyalty to the organisation and believe that people should enjoy work’. This training aims to lessen culture shock in relation to:

a. the language

b. the social customs and events

c. the work ethics and priorities

d. attitudes towards women and other races and ethnicities

LO: 4

Diff: 1

Topic: Cross-cultural considerations

AACSB: 6

16. Which of the following is a sign of culture shock?

a. physiological responses such as restlessness, sleeplessness and headaches

b. feelings of being accepted by members of the new organisation and community

c. a clear understanding of personal and professional roles, values and identity

d. feelings of being able to cope in the new environment

LO: 5

Diff: 1

Topic: Managing international assignments

AACSB: 6

17. An expatriate tax program that guarantees the employee will pay the same amount of tax as if they were located in Australia is called a:

a. an expatriation guarantee levy

b. tax protection program

c. a tax rate lowering program

d. tax equalisation program

LO: 5

Diff: 1

Topic: Managing international assignments

AACSB: 8

18. Once an employee has finished their overseas assignment they return to the home country. The process of repatriation involves re-acclimatising the employee to their home country and organisation. Which of the following does NOT contribute to repatriation problems?

a. the length of time the expatriate spent abroad

b. changes that have occurred to the home organisation and society

c. changes to previous colleagues and social groups within the organisation

d. the amount of effort the organisation puts into repatriation

LO: 5

Diff: 1

Topic: Managing international assignments

AACSB: 8

19. The repatriation of employees can be problematic resulting in the employee being unable to adjust to working life upon return to the home country. One strategy that can be most useful for home-coming employees is:

a. to do nothing as the problem usually passes

b. to be given excessive work tasks to take attention away from the problem

c. to ease into work again by working part-time

d. none of the above

LO: 5

Diff: 1

Topic: Managing HRM in Asia

AACSB: 8

20. The term for employees who travel for brief assignments, away from their home base and across cultural or national borders, leaving their family and personal life behind is:

a. expatriate

b. repatriate

c. flexpatriate

d. none of the above

LO: 5

Diff: 1

Topic: Managing international assignments

AACSB: 8

SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS

1. Name, describe, and state why an organisation would adopt each of the four organisational orientations to manage and staff a global operation.

LO: 2

Diff: 1

Topic: Approaches to SIHRM

AACSB: 8

2. Cross-cultural training and development (CCTD) is the educative and learning tool used to foster the development of employees’ cognitive, affective and behavioural abilities for successful cross-cultural interactions in diverse countries. List the key implications of CCTD for managers.

LO: 4

Diff: 1

Topic: Cross-cultural considerations

AACSB: 6

3. List some of the warning signs of ‘culture shock’. What is the best way to overcome ‘culture shock’?

LO: 5

Diff: 1

Topic: Managing international assignments

AACSB: 6

4. When designing an expatriate remuneration package outline four considerations needed to assist the design and the level of allowances included.

LO: 5

Diff: 1

Topic: Managing international assignments

AACSB: 8

5. Asia plays a critical role in global growth. Japan and China are both large and influential economies with unique cultural characteristics. Contextually, national culture impacts on the efficiency of different HR practices in different countries. What are the similarities and differences between recruitment and selection practice in both Japan and China?

LO: 5

Diff: 1

Topic: Managing human resources in Asia

AACSB: 6

ESSAY QUESTION

1. Imagine that you are an HR manager for a Japanese car company that has attracted international recognition for delivering high-quality cars for the past 12 years. The company has specialised in exports since 1990, expanded its export markets since 1995 and been localising manufacturing plants since 1998. In order to grow international operations further in the face of intensified global competition in the car industry, you are facing the challenge of how to develop further international operations in spite of the increasing complexity of managing different subsidiaries worldwide. Using your knowledge of CHRM decision-making, complete a six step scenario to demonstrate how you can monitor the environment, verify the HR opportunity, and plan, implement and evaluate the HR initiative for this company.

LO: 6

Diff: 2

Topic: SIHRM: A source of sustainable competitive advantage

AACSB: 3