Slide international business ch10

Developing a Global Management Cadre Preparation, adaptation, and repatriation  Global management teams  The role of women in international management  Global multiculturalism: Manag

Developing a Global Management Cadre

Chapter 10

Developing a Global Management Cadre

 Preparation, adaptation, and repatriation

 Global management teams

 The role of women in international management

 Global multiculturalism: Managing diversity

 Working within local labor relations systems

Maximizing Global Human Resources

Important areas of attention

 To maximize long term retention and use of international cadre

through career management so that the company can develop a top management team with global experience

 To develop effective global management teams

 To understand, value, and promote the role of women and minorities

in international management in order to maximize those

underutilized resources

 To maximize the benefits of an increasingly diverse workforce in various locations around the world

 To work with the host country labor relations system to effect

strategic implementation and employee productivity

Support Systems for a Successful

Repatriation Program

(as recommended by Tung)

 A mentor program to monitor the expatriate’s

career path while abroad and upon repatriation

 As an alternative to the mentor program, the

establishment of a special organizational unit for the purposes of career planning and continuing

guidance for the expatriate

 A system of supplying information and

maintaining contacts with the expatriate so that he

or she may continue to feel a part of the home

organization.

The Role of the Expatriate Spouse

Effective cross-cultural adjustment by spouses

is more likely

 when firms seek the spouse’s opinion about the

international assignment and the expected

standard of living, and

 when the spouse initiates his or her own

predeparture training (thereby supplementing the minimum training given by most firms).

Phases in the Expatriate Transition Process

 The exit transition from the home country, the success

of which will be determined largely by the quality of preparation the expatriate has received;

 the entry transition to the host country, in which

successful acculturation (or early exit) will depend

largely on monitoring and support; and

 the entry transition back to the home country or to a

new host country, in which the level of reverse culture shock and the ease of re-acculturation will depend on previous stages of preparation and support.

The Expatriate Transition Process

• Considered for expatriation

• Sensitivity to other cultures

• General training, int’l business expertise

• Considered for assignment

• Sensitivity to the host culture

• Predeparture training

• Selection

Entry transition (initial confrontation)

Adjustment (adaptation)

Exit transition

Host Country

Entry

8 Departure and travel

9 Arrival and initial confrontation

10 On-site orientation and briefing

11 Culture shock

Adjustment

12 Monitoring and support

13 Acculturation, adaptation

The Expatriate Transition Process

Home country or new host country

Entry

18 Departure and travel

19 Arrival and initial confrontation

20 Orientation and briefing

21 Reverse culture shock or new culture shock

Adjustment

22 Monitoring and support

23 Acculturation, adaptation Success

Failure

Good Practices Used by Companies in

Making International Assignments

 They focus on knowledge creation and global

leadership development

 They assign overseas posts to people whose

technical skills are matched or exceeded by their cross-cultural abilities

 They end expatriate assignments with a deliberate repatriation process.

Black and Gregersen

Global Management Teams

 The term global management teams

describes collections of managers from several countries who must rely on group collaboration if each member is to

experience the optimum of success and goal achievement.

Global Teams in the Modern Global

Enterprise

(Exhibit 10-3)

Global coordination and integration;

local responsiveness;

organizational structure, systems;

personnel policies and reward systems that support

cooperation

Cosmopolitan HQ’s teams; strategic development teams; HQ’s subsidiary teams; technology transfer teams; coalition (joint venture) teams

Criteria for Evaluating the Success of

 Does the team attempt to spell out things within the limits of the

cultural differences involved, delimiting the mystery level by

directness and openness regardless of the cultural origins of

participants?

Criteria for Evaluating the Success of

International Teams

(contd.)

 Do the members recognize the impact of their own cultural

programming on individual and group behavior? Do they deal with, not avoid, their differences in order to create synergy?

 Does the team have fun? (Within successful multicultural groups, the cultural differences become a source of continuing surprise,

discovery, and amusement rather than irritation or frustration.)

Indrei Ratiu

The Role of Women in International

Global Multiculturalism: Managing

Diversity

Benefits of managing diversity

 Reducing costs of high levels of turnover and

absenteeism

 Facilitating recruitment of scarce labor

 Increasing sales to members of minority culture groups

 Promoting team creativity and innovation

 Improving problem solving

 Enhancing organizational flexibility

Dimensions of Workforce Diversity

(Exhibit 10-5)National

Socioeconom

ic status

Workforce Diversity

Diversity Program Guidelines

 Develop and communicate a broad definition of workplace diversity, including all kinds of differences, such as race, gender, age, work, and family issues

 Attain visible commitment from top managers to support programs, and communicate to employees the importance of diversity to the firm’s competitive stance – that it is not just a matter of sensitivity training Hold managers accountable for meeting diversity goals

 Avoid stereotyping groups of employees by using titles for them; focus instead on what all employees have in common, and on each individual’s value to the firm

Diversity Program Guidelines

(contd.)

 Set up a broad, diverse pool of talented people to be trained and eligible for job promotion or selection; but let it be known that the best person will get the job – and stick by that

 Set up regular training programs with the goal to gradually change the corporate culture by educating workers about employee

similarities as well as differences and the value those differences bring to the firm

GE Diversity Practices

 Top management commitment and involvement

 Integrated diversity strategy

 Campus recruiting

 Hires expanded at top level to signal commitment and provide role models

 Career management

 Management of work/family issues (e.g., child care and flextime)

 Diversity education and training

 Communications

 Community outreach

Labor Relations

 The term labor relations refers to the process

through which managers and workers determine their workplace relationship This process may

be through verbal agreement and job

descriptions, or through a union written labor contract which has been reached through

negotiation in collective bargaining between

workers and managers.

Dimensions of the Labor-Management

Relationship

 The participation of labor in the affairs of the firm, especially as this affects performance and well-being

 The role and impact of unions in the relationship

 Specific human resource policies in terms of

recruitment, training, and compensation.

Constraints in the Labor-Management

 Limitations on the global integration of

operations of the foreign firm because of

incompatibility and the potential for industrial

conflict.

Trade Union Decline in Industrialized

Germany New Zealand Japan

US France

% of workforce in trade unions

Convergence in Labor Systems

 Convergence in labor systems occurs as the

migration of management and workplace

practices around the world results in the

reduction of workplace disparities from one

country to another This occurs primarily as

MNCs seek consistency and coordination among their foreign subsidiaries, and as they act as

catalysts for change by “exporting” new forms of work organization and industrial relations

practices.

Trends in Global Labor Relations Systems

(Exhibit 10-7)

Forces for Global Current System Forces to Maintain or

Global competitiveness

MNC presence or consolidation

initiatives

Political change

New market economies

Free-trade zones: harmonization

(EU), competitive forces (NAFTA)

Technological standardization, IT

Declining role of unions

Agencies monitoring world labor

practices

National labor relations systems and traditions Social systems

Local regulations and practices

Political ideology Cultural norms