Lecture International business - Chapter 16: Hiring and managing employees

In this chapter, you will learn about the staffing policies international companies use. You will also: Explore recruitment and selection in host countries and training and development programs, understand how companies compensate managers and nonmanagerial workers, and examine the importance of labor-management relations around the world.

Hiring and  Managing  Employees

16

• Explain the three different types of staffing policies

used by international companies

• Describe the recruitment and selection issues

facing international companies

• Discuss the importance of training and

development programs, especially cultural training

• Explain how companies compensate managers and

workers in international markets

• Describe the importance of labor-management

relations and how they differ around the world

Chapter Objectives

• 83,000 employees in 45 facilities worldwide

• Issues of recruitment, selection, salary, etc.

• All employees take part in cultural training

Labor relations

Staffing policy

Advantages

+ Locally qualified people not always available

+ Tight control over subsidiaries

+ Ease the transfer of special know-how

+ Guard a company from industrial espionage

– Relocations are expensive

– Can give the business a “foreign” image

Disadvantages

Individuals from home country manage

operations abroad

Avoid expensive relocations from other nations

– May resemble a collection of national entities

– Can potentially harm performance

Disadvantages

Individuals from host country manage

operations abroad

Source: Reuters/Vivek Prakash

Local cultural knowledge

+ Business acumen

= Success

In ethnocentric staffing,

operations abroad are managed

by individuals from the home

country In polycentric staffing,

operations abroad are managed

by individuals from the host

country In geocentric staffing,

operations abroad are managed

by the best-qualified

individuals regardless of

nationality.

Develop plan to recruit and select people for vacant and anticipated new positions

Forecasting human resource needs and supply

Going global can severely strain the resources of firms Going global can severely

strain the resources of firms

Do not rely solely on home-country expatriates Local contacts do not guarantee contracts

Treat employees abroad with respect Employ the Web in your talent search

 Recent college graduates

 Local managerial talent

 Nonmanagerial workers

 Current employees

Process of identifying and attracting a qualified

pool of applicants for vacant positions

 Ability to bridge cultural

differences is key

 Expatriates must adapt

to new ways of life

 Assess cultural sensitivity

of job candidates

Process of screening and hiring the qualified applicants with the greatest

best-performance potential

Stage I:

Thrilling experience Stage II:

Downward slide Stage III:

Recovery begins Stage IV:

Embrace local culture

Culture Shock

Psychological process affecting people living abroad that is characterized by homesickness, irritability, confusion,

aggravation, and depression

Readapting

feelings now strange

Cultural Training Methods

Country Studies Area Handbooks

Emerging markets

Basic skills training Apprenticeship

training

Bonus and tax incentives

Bonus and tax incentives

Cultural and social factors

Labor mobility in some markets

Labor mobility in some markets

Greater border investment

Greater border investment

The main methods of

cultural training used to

prepare managers for

training, language training,

and field experience.

Positive or negative relations between

a company’s management and its workers

Source: Z1015/_Bernd Settnik/Newscom

But can be difficult

 Workers in different nations often compete

 Some say this lowers wages and union power

International Labor Movements

International activities of unions are improving treatment of workers and reducing child labor

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