International Business, 14e (Daniels et al.)
Chapter 20 International Human Resources
1) Why is management of international human resources more difficult than directing human resources
at the domestic level?
A) the complications that arise from political, cultural, legal, and economic differences between
countries
B) the challenge posed by managers in other countries that aim to achieve global objectives for the
company no matter the costs imposed on national objectives
C) the greater similarity among foreign subsidiaries than among domestic subsidiaries in terms of
dependence on headquarters for resources
D) the complications posed by dealing with competing agendas from different labor unions in different
countries
2) HRM refers to the range of activities that a company, whether solely domestic or thoroughly global,
undertakes to ________.
A) direct its strategy
B) staff its operations
C) improve its responsiveness
D) integrate business functions
3) ________ refers to the activities that an organization carries out to put the right person into the right
job in the right place at the right time for the right salary.
A) Work force analysis
B) Staff development
C) Human resource management
D) Leadership planning
4) Generally, HRM is more difficult for international companies for all of the following reasons
EXCEPT which one?
A) Dual career and family obligations make it tough to convince executives to leave the home office to
join a foreign subsidiary.
B) Leadership styles and management practices are so similar from country to country that it is difficult
to create a culture of innovation.
C) Complications arise due to enduring political, cultural, legal, and economic differences between
countries.
D) Labor markets are dramatically different in the mix of workers, costs, and productivity.
5) The Human Capital Index, based on a comprehensive global study of more than 2,000 companies,
found that superior human capital practices were ________ correlated with a firm’s financial returns and
were a(n) ________ indicator of increased shareholder value.
A) negatively; lagging
B) positively; leading
C) insignificantly; timely
D) weakly; accurate
6) There is growing consensus that human resource managers must hire, develop, reward, and retain
people whose performance explicitly improves the ________.
A) productivity of the firm’s core competencies
B) fit between the firm’s practices and industry standards
C) firm’s engagement of political authorities
D) firm’s responsiveness to customer complaints
7) Which of the following is LEAST connected to superior HR management at an MNE?
A) increased productivity
B) competitive advantage
C) foreign regulations
D) value creation
8) Mona, a native of India, is employed by IBM in the firm’s facility in New Delhi. Mona is best
described as a(n) ________.
A) expatriate
B) local
C) third-country national
D) home-country national
9) Home-country nationals are ________.
A) used a great deal abroad by polycentric companies
B) citizens of the countries in which they are working
C) citizens of the country where the company is headquartered
D) noncitizens of the countries in which they are working
10) An example of a third-country national is a ________.
A) dual citizen (Canadian and U.S. citizenship) working for a Mexican company in Mexico
B) Canadian citizen working for a U.S. company in Canada
C) U.S. citizen working for a U.S. company in Canada
D) Canadian citizen working for a U.S. company in Mexico
11) Jeanette Thompson, a native Texan, is being sent by her company, Samsung of South Korea, to head
up a new facility in Hong Kong. Jeanette would be considered a(n) ________.
A) inpatriate
B) host-country citizen
C) third-country national
D) local executive
12) Growing demand for expatriates stems from which of the following trends?
A) the emergence of developing countries as high-growth markets
B) the resurgence of developed countries as high-growth markets
C) the reduced need for localized expatriate assignments
D) the longer-term assignments created in response to the global credit crisis
13) Today, most expatriate assignments are for ________.
A) less than one year
B) one to three years
C) three to five years
D) five to ten years
14) Traditionally, expatriates were ________; today, HRM increasingly considers ________.
A) men; women
B) women; men
C) midlevel and midcareer executives; older employees and younger employees
D) older employees and younger employees; midlevel and midcareer executives
15) A company that decides to “localize” expatriate assignments will offer an expatriate the option of
________.
A) serving a shorter assignment in the host country
B) becoming a naturalized citizen of the host country
C) moving to an emerging market closer to the home country
D) retaining a foreign assignment provided he or she accepts the status of a local hire
16) Monica, a Brazilian citizen, earned an MBA from Stanford University and has been working at the
New York branch of Goldman Sachs for one year. Monica is being transferred to Goldman Sachs’ office
in Brazil where she will best be characterized as a(n) ________.
A) local
B) expatriate
C) reverse expatriate
D) third-country national
17) Apex Enterprises, an MNE based in the U.S., is spending too much money on expatriate
assignments. Which of the following methods would LEAST likely help Apex reduce expatriate costs?
A) offering cross-border commuter assignments
B) designing more short-term projects
C) establishing a localization policy
D) expanding core competencies
18) Which of the following most accurately describes the current state of HRM efforts to staff
international operations?
A) Fewer women are accepting international assignments.
B) The length of permanent assignments is rising among middle-managers.
C) There are historic shortages of executive talent for international assignments.
D) Third-country nationals are quickly being replaced by localized expatriates.
19) The three types of interpretative frameworks in international businesses are ________.
A) ethnocentric, polycentric, and geocentric
B) ethnocentric, intercentric, and monocentric
C) monocentric, neocentric, and polycentric
D) intracentric, geocentric, and neocentric
20) Dixon Manufacturing, a British MNE, believes that its business practices are superior, so it does not
make any policy changes in foreign markets. Dixon Manufacturing most likely takes a(n) ________
approach to staffing.
A) ethnocentric
B) polycentric
C) geocentric
D) monocentric
21) A(n) ________ staffing policy framework assumes that the practices and procedures that work at
headquarters will work in foreign operations; as such, executive slots are filled by home country
nationals.
A) polycentric
B) intercentric
C) ethnocentric
D) geocentric
22) Watson Electronics, an MNE based in Canada, tends to follow an ethnocentric staffing model. From
which group will it most likely hire for upper-level management positions in its new facility in
Germany?
A) home country nationals
B) third country nationals
C) host country nationals
D) local citizens
23) What is the primary advantage of an MNE using an ethnocentric framework?
A) minimizing relocation costs
B) developing community support
C) transferring core competencies abroad
D) encouraging innovative business practices
24) 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
25) Ferguson Manufacturing, an American MNE, has facilities in India and Mexico. Ferguson fills
management positions at the facility in India with Indians and management positions in Mexico with
Mexicans. Ferguson most likely follows a(n) ________ approach to staffing.
A) ethnocentric
B) geocentric
C) polycentric
D) intercentric
26) 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.
27) Advantages of adopting a polycentric approach include which of the following?
A) capitalizing on the availability of qualified local managers
B) helping transfer core competencies from the home nation to local subsidiaries
C) increasing the international career mobility for local managers
D) offsetting tendencies for the company to adapt excessively to the local market
28) The staffing policy at Hanover International is to seek the best people for key jobs throughout the
organization, regardless of nationality. Hanover most likely follows a(n) ________ staffing approach.
A) geocentric
B) intercentric
C) polycentric
D) ethnocentric
29) Which of the following interpretative frameworks does NOT automatically presume that a particular
nation provides a solution to every problem or an explanation for every action?
A) ethnocentric
B) geocentric
C) polycentric
D) intercentric
30) An advantage of the geocentric outlook to staffing is ________.
A) encouraging workers to appreciate the unique virtues of a particular country
B) giving people a flexible perspective for fitting operations to different countries
C) removing most behavioral barriers to fully adapting to the chosen local market
D) tapping learning opportunities around the world to generate ideas that enhance core competencies
31) Microsoft has a tendency to hire home country nationals for jobs outside the United States.
Microsoft’s leadership supports a(n) ________ approach to staffing.
A) geocentric
B) ethnocentric
C) adaptive
D) polycentric
32) The HRM requirements of a(n) ________ strategy is well matched with an ethnocentric staffing
policy.
A) multidomestic
B) transnational
C) international
D) global
33) The HRM requirements of a(n) ________ strategy is well matched with a polycentric staffing
policy.
A) transnational
B) international
C) multidomestic
D) global
34) The HRM requirements of a(n) ________ strategy is well matched with a geocentric staffing policy.
A) multidomestic
B) transnational
C) domestic
D) international
35) Firms with global strategies versus those implementing multidomestic strategies are more likely to
use ________.
A) expatriate managers
B) host country nationals in top management positions abroad
C) local managers
D) home country nationals in corporate positions
36) Historically, the most important criterion in selecting individuals for posting to an expatriate slot has
been ________.
A) foreign language abilities
B) technical competence
C) leadership skills
D) flexibility
37) According to the text which of the following is the most important competency in the expatriate
selection process?
A) flexibility
B) business acumen
C) global mindset
D) geographic knowledge
38) Which of the following accurately describes a difference between jobs in the home office versus
those in a foreign subsidiary?
A) Cultural empathy is essential for employees in the home office, but is not necessary for employees in
a foreign subsidiary.
B) Employees in the home office do not need to be familiar with a second language, but employees in a
foreign subsidiary must be proficient in the language of the subsidiary’s host country.
C) Expatriate executives in foreign subsidiaries are less expensive for a company to employ than
executives in the home office.
D) Employees in foreign subsidiaries typically have broader job responsibilities than employees in the
home office.
39) Generally, HRM does not emphasize which of the following characteristics when evaluating the
adaptiveness of an expatriate candidate?
A) self maintenance
B) technology skills
C) cultural empathy
D) sensitivity to host environments
40) Expatriate failure, defined in broad terms, refers to the ________.
A) manager’s premature return home due to poor job performance
B) manager’s miscues, which give competitors a market advantage
C) unintentional dilution of the company’s core competency
D) poor expatriate selection procedures of the MNE
41) Today, which of the following circumstances is LEAST likely to cause expatriate failure?
A) inability of the expatriate’s family to adjust
B) resistance from the expatriate’s partner
C) inadequate technical expertise
D) inability to adjust
42) According to the text, what is the most common concern that expatriates have before they move
overseas?
A) reestablishing a social life
B) missing friends and family
C) learning a foreign language
D) adapting to the culture
43) Shelly, a sales manager at Best Computers, has recently moved from Dallas to Hong Kong for an
expatriate assignment. Shelly is feeling disoriented, irritable, and stressed about her new job and living
arrangements in Hong Kong, which means that she is most likely experiencing ________.
A) uncertainty dislocation
B) melancholy
C) culture shock
D) cultural transition
44) The most common predeparture training for an expatriate is ________.
A) an informational briefing
B) role playing
C) in-depth cultural seminars
D) language training
45) According to research, expatriates posted to ________ encounter the greatest difficulty in finding
accommodations, locating health care, and setting up finances.
A) Australia
B) Saudi Arabia
C) Thailand
D) South Africa
46) The ________ approach to expatriate compensation equalizes purchasing power across countries;
this helps employees enjoy the same living standard in their foreign posting that they enjoyed at home.
A) balance sheet
B) equalization
C) merit
D) differential
47) The ________ of compensation determines an expatriate’s compensation on the prevailing pay
scales in the locale of the foreign assignment.
A) headquarters-based method
B) home-based method
C) culturally based method
D) host-based method
48) The ________ sets the expatriate’s salary in terms of the salary of a comparable job in the city where
the MNE has its headquarters.
A) host-based method
B) home-based method
C) headquarters-based method
D) culturally based method
49) Cost-of-living allowances given to an expatriate during his or her foreign assignment ________.
A) usually involve a compensation reduction because of lower costs abroad
B) are due to the difficulty of duplicating a particular way of living abroad
C) are usually eliminated over time
D) increase the longer the individual is overseas
50) Kevin, a marketing executive with Ace Electronics, has relocated to India for an expatriate
assignment. Kevin’s wife, Julia, and three children have joined him. Ace Electronics provides the family
with money intended to help Julia find a job and develop cross-cultural skills. Which of the following is
Ace providing the family?
A) repatriation allowance
B) hardship allowance
C) housing allowance
D) spouse allowance
51) Johnson Construction is an MNE that designs and builds commercial buildings around the world.
Johnson has a new contract to construct a building in Pakistan. Tom, a construction manager, will be
relocating to Pakistan with his wife, and he will receive additional pay to compensate for the dangerous
environment. Which of the following has Johnson Construction most likely offered Tom?
A) repatriation allowance
B) hardship allowance
C) housing allowance
D) spouse allowance