International Business: The Challenges of Globalization, 9e (Wild)
Chapter 16 Hiring and Managing Employees
1) The customary means by which a company fills up vacancies in its offices is called ________.
A) a staffing policy
B) an employment policy
C) onboarding
D) outsourcing
2) Which of the following is an appropriate and widely-used method for staffing international
business operations?
A) collective narcissism
B) cronyism
C) nepotism
D) geocentric approach
3) Firms using a(n) ________ primarily use parent country nationals to staff higher-level foreign
positions.
A) ethnocentric staffing model
B) polycentric staffing model
C) geocentric staffing model
D) monocentric staffing model
4) Hyundai tends to follow an ethnocentric staffing model. From which group will it most likely
hire for upper-level management positions?
A) parent country nationals
B) host country nationals
C) third country nationals
D) primary country nationals
5) CADE International, a MNC, typically fills high-level foreign positions with host country
nationals. Which staffing model is most likely used by CADE International?
A) ethnocentric staffing model
B) polycentric staffing model
C) geocentric staffing model
D) monocentric staffing model
6) Which of the following statements regarding ethnocentric staffing is true?
A) It can facilitate the transfer of special know–how.
B) It is a relatively inexpensive policy to implement.
C) It allows a company to “blend in” with the local market.
D) It is a good choice for companies operating in highly nationalistic markets.
7) Which of the following is a major drawback of ethnocentric staffing?
A) high costs of relocating managers
B) loss of control over host-country operations
C) loss of control over home-country operations
D) difficulty in the transfer of special know-how between branches
8) A(n) ________ manager champions the ways of foreign markets as comparable, if not more
enlightened, than the practices of his or her parent company and home nation.
A) ethnocentric
B) geocentric
C) monocentric
D) polycentric
9) A ________ policy would give the foreign units of a company a degree of autonomy in
decision–making.
A) centralized production
B) vertical integration
C) mass customization
D) polycentric staffing
10) An important advantage of polycentric staffing is that it ________.
A) re–creates local operations in the image of home-country operations
B) eliminates the high cost of relocating expatriate managers and their families
C) helps a company develop global managers who can adjust easily to any business environment
D) employs managers from home who will look out for the company’s interests
11) Which of the following is a drawback of the polycentric approach?
A) Host-country nationals become more committed to company headquarters than to their local
colleagues.
B) Successful local units may increasingly function independently and pay less attention to
headquarters.
C) Local units depend too much on headquarters for resources and innovations, with little
incentive to develop their own.
D) Local managers study international business and cultural practices in other markets in
preparation for international assignments at the expense of not fully investing in understanding
the host country.
12) A company that hires the best-qualified individuals, regardless of nationality, to manage
foreign operations is utilizing a(n) ________ approach.
A) horizontal integration
B) geocentric staffing
C) ethnocentric staffing
D) vertical integration
13) Which of the following statements is true of geocentric staffing?
A) It reduces the high cost of relocating expatriate managers and their families.
B) It employs managers exclusively from the home country to look out for the company’s
interests.
C) It helps develop global managers who can adjust to any business environment.
D) It emphasizes on re-creating local operations in the image of home-country operations.
14) Firms using a geocentric staffing model are primarily concerned with ________.
A) ensuring that home office views and policies are maintained
B) gaining support and assistance from local communities
C) hiring the best person available regardless of nationality
D) employing local managers with technical expertise
15) The major disadvantage of a geocentric staffing policy is its potential for ________.
A) creating barriers for the host-country office
B) being costly due to high salaries and moving costs of managers
C) creating legal problems for the home-country office
D) losing control of host-country operations
16) The approach recommended by Jerome is called ________.
A) vertical integration
B) ethnocentric staffing
C) horizontal integration
D) geocentric staffing
17) The approach recommended by Valerie is called ________.
A) polycentric staffing
B) ethnocentric staffing
C) vertical integration
D) horizontal integration
18) Which staffing policy should Swingset consider if it wants its foreign operations to be
managed by the best-qualified individuals regardless of nationality?
A) nepotism
B) ethnocentric staffing
C) geocentric staffing
D) employee referrals
19) The process of staffing a company and ensuring employees are as productive as possible is
called human resource management.
20) Citizens who are working and living in their home country are called expatriates.
21) Companies use ethnocentric staffing to re-create local operations in the image of home–
country operations.
22) A polycentric staffing strategy can facilitate the transfer of special know-how to branch
operations.
23) In ethnocentric staffing, operations outside the home country are managed by individuals
from the host country.
24) Ethnocentric staffing places managerial responsibility in the hands of people intimately
familiar with the local business environment.
25) The major drawback of polycentric staffing is the potential for losing control of the host-
country operation.
26) In geocentric staffing, operations outside the home country are managed by the best-qualified
individuals, regardless of their nationality.
27) An ethnocentric policy can create barriers for the host-country office.
28) A major drawback of geocentric staffing is that it is expensive.
29) The first phase of HR planning involves taking an inventory of a company’s current human
resources.
30) Differentiate between the three types of staffing policies used by international companies.
What are the advantages of each?
31) Discuss the disadvantages of an ethnocentric staffing policy. How do bonuses, tax incentives,
and employee expectations contribute to high personnel costs?
32) Citizens of one country who are living and working in another are called ________.
A) local employees
B) domicile residents
C) repatriates
D) expatriates
33) CADE International, an MNC, adheres to an ethnocentric staffing approach when filling
senior-level positions for its foreign locations. As a result, CADE most likely devotes significant
resources to ________.
A) distributing products
B) building effective supply chains
C) selecting and training expatriate managers
D) determining compensation for local employees
34) The process of forecasting both a company’s human resource needs and its supply is called
________.
A) human resource planning
B) human resource accounting
C) recruitment
D) selection
35) Which of the following is the first phase of human resource planning?
A) developing a plan to recruit and select people to fill vacant and anticipated new positions
B) estimating the company’s future human resource needs
C) taking an inventory of the company’s current human resources
D) promoting employees to positions of greater responsibility
36) Which of the following phases of human resource planning involves decruitment?
A) normally occurs when a company decides to discontinue manufacturing or selling in a
market.
B) estimating the company’s future human resource needs
C) taking an inventory of the company’s current human resources
D) promoting employees to positions of greater responsibility
37) Planning for decruitment normally occurs when a company ________.
A) discontinues manufacturing or selling in a market
B) finds that current HR levels are lesser than anticipated needs
C) plans to establish multiple foreign subsidiaries
D) hires new executive leadership to implement a growth strategy
38) Which of the following terms is defined as the process of identifying and attracting a
qualified pool of applicants for vacant positions?
A) orientation
B) outsourcing
C) recruitment
D) selection
39) To help speed up the process of getting approvals for local operations, a firm would most
likely benefit from hiring ________.
A) home-country managers from the company’s headquarters
B) managerial talent from the host country
C) recent college graduates trained in the home country
D) third–country expatriates with extensive experience in the field
40) ________ would most likely be recruited for non-managerial positions at foreign subsidiaries
that do not require specialized skills.
A) Recent graduates from colleges in the home country
B) Home–country specialists
C) Workers from the local host-country market
D) Current employees from the company headquarters
41) Companies typically recruit ________ to train individuals placed in more demanding non-
managerial positions at foreign branches.
A) workers from the local market
B) recent college graduates from the host country
C) qualified third–party nationals
D) specialists from the home country
42) The process of screening and hiring the best-qualified applicants with the greatest
performance potential is called ________.
A) performance appraisal
B) orientation
C) recruitment
D) selection
43) ________ is the early return of an expatriate manager to the home country because of an
inability to perform in the overseas assignment.
A) Culture shock
B) Expatriate return
C) Expatriate failure
D) Managerial incompetence
44) The psychological process of readapting to one’s home culture after working in a host-
country culture is called ________.
A) social loafing
B) assimilation effect
C) reverse culture shock
D) expatriate failure
45) An expatriate manager who returns after a few years from an overseas assignment to find
that there is no position for him in his home country office experiences a(n) ________.
A) reverse culture shock
B) expatriate failure
C) cognitive dissonance
D) assimilation effect
46) ________ is a psychological phenomenon that may lead to feelings of fear, helplessness,
irritability, and disorientation.
A) Expatriate failure
B) Repatriation
C) Culture shock
D) Depression
47) John has been transferred to an office in Japan for a year. In his first few weeks, he began to
feel confused and rejected as well as a sort of mourning for home. John is experiencing
________.
A) expatriate failure
B) repatriation
C) acculturation
D) culture shock
48) Which of the following is most likely to occur in the honeymoon stage of culture shock?
A) New arrivals are fascinated by aspects of the new culture.
B) Individuals become annoyed by unpredictable quirks of the new culture.
C) Emotions hit rock bottom for visitors.
D) Visitors better understand and appreciate local customs and behavior.
49) One challenge facing Hudson Foods as it expands into Europe is getting through all the
bureaucratic and legal regulations surrounding the food industry. Erica plans to hire a manager to
ensure that this challenge is overcome. Who among the following will Erica most likely recruit
for this position?
A) a local manager with strong government contacts
B) an experienced manager from the Hudson Foods U.S. headquarters
C) a native of the target market who is a recent U.S. college graduate
D) a candidate from the U.S. with extensive management experience in the frozen food industry
50) The new subsidiary’s production facilities will employ approximately 100 full-time
nonmanagerial workers. Who among the following will Erica most likely recruit to fill these
positions?
A) highly productive workers relocated from developing nations
B) bilingual U.S. citizens who speak the language of the host country
C) qualified workers from the local market
D) workers from the American headquarters who are interested in gaining international
experience
51) Culture shock affects an expatriate’s job satisfaction level but does not tend to affect his or
her effectiveness and productivity at work.
52) The process of reducing the size of an organization’s workforce is called decruitment.
53) The process of recruitment involves screening and hiring the best-qualified applicants with
the greatest performance potential.
54) To speed up the process of getting government approval for local operations, companies
must hire home country nationals.
55) Companies typically recruit locally for non-managerial positions.
56) The process of identifying and attracting a qualified pool of applicants for vacant positions is
called recruiting.
57) Reverse culture shock is the trouble expatriates face while adjusting to a new environment in
which they find themselves.
58) Having the freedom to choose whether to accept or reject an expatriate assignment increases
the likelihood a manager will be successful at the assignment.
59) Expatriate failure refers to an employee’s early return from an international assignment
because of inadequate job performance.
60) The psychological process of readapting to one’s home culture is seldom difficult for
expatriates who have successfully adapted to new cultures.
61) Reverse culture shock is much milder than the initial culture shock an expatriate faces.