Discussion Question with Possible Response
1. Why would a company like American Express invest in a Healthy Living program?
Discussion Questions with Possible Responses
1. Based on the information given, how respectfully and effectively did Andrew Pickup
handle his mistake in seeking feedback?
2. How respectfully and effectively did Debbie Nicol handle her mistake in the training
schedule?
v
HR How To
Supporting a Multinational Strategy
HR needs to ensure that their practices align with the organizational strategy. The following are
some ideas to help manage a global HR agenda:
Develop a “global mind-set”, build an HR department that reflects the organization’s global
diversity, build a network of relationships with coworkers in other locations, learn what the HR
best practices are in other countries, be sure training and development programs address talent
needs globally, and use company data bases to create, analyze, and make available information
about employees skills and abilities.
Discussion Questions with Possible Responses
1. Do you think you already have a global mind-set, as described in the first bullet? Why or
Why not?
Answers will vary.
2. How might a global mind-set help an HR manager follow the other guidelines listed?
The global mind-set will help the HR professional to see the macro view of the business
world. It will help the person to ask questions and seek to understand other cultures and
how other ways of operating based on cultural differences.
V. Selecting Employees in a Global Labor Market
1. In order to meet the need of understanding a region’s business and social culture,
organizations often hire host-country nationals to fill most of their foreign positions. Host-
country nationals more easily understand the values and customs of the local workforce
than someone from another part of the world can. Additionally, training and transporting
families to foreign assignments tends to be more expensive than hiring people in the
foreign country.
2. Some organizations will fill many key foreign positions with parent-country or third-
country nationals. This is in part because individuals possessing necessary technical
and human relations skills are not readily available.
3. Whether an organization is hiring immigrants or selecting parent-country or third-country
nationals for foreign assignments, some basic principles of selection apply. Selection of
employees for foreign assignments should include criteria that have been associated with
success in working overseas, such as:
a. Competency in the employee’s area of expertise
b. Ability to communicate verbally and nonverbally in the foreign country
c. Flexibility, tolerance of ambiguity, and sensitivity to cultural differences
d. Motivation to succeed and enjoyment of the challenges
e. Willingness to learn about the foreign country’s culture, language, and customs.
f. Support from family members.
4. In previous research, the factor most strongly influencing whether an employee
completed a foreign assignment was the comfort of the employee’s spouse and family.
5. Research has found successful completion of overseas assignments to be most likely
among employees who are extroverted, agreeable, and conscientious. Qualities like
flexibility, motivation, agreeableness, and conscientiousness are important because of
the challenges involved in entering another culture.
Best Practices
Standard Chartered Bank Invests in Its Expatriates
Standard Chartered Bank has a workforce of 86,000 people of more than 130 nationalities so
they can often fill a need through internal recruitment. The Bank’s Talent Acquisition, Internal
Mobility, and Training and Development teams work closely together to coordinate the
expatriate transition.
Discussion Questions with Possible Responses
1. How might careful preparation for departure help Standard Chartered develop and
retain talented employee?
2. How might thorough planning for the return home help Standard Chartered retain talent?
C. Global Employee Development
1. At global organizations, international assignments are part of many career paths.
2. The organization benefits most when it applies the principles of employee
development in deciding which employees should be offered jobs in other countries.
Discussion Question and Possible Response
1. Why might an organization choose to locate a facility in one of the most expensive cities,
in spite of the higher costs?
ROADMAP: Review and Discussion Questions
1. Identify the parent country, host country (ies), and third country (ies) in the following
example: A global soft-drink company called Cold Cola has headquarters in Atlanta,
Georgia. It operates production facilities in Athens, Greece and in Jakarta, Indonesia.
The company has assigned a manager from Boston to head the Athens facility and a
manager from Hong Kong to manage the Jakarta facility.
2. What are some HRM challenges that arise when a U.S. company expands from
domestic markets by exporting? When it changes from simply exporting to operating as
an international company? When an international company becomes a global
company?
3. In recent years, many U.S. companies have invested in Russia and sent U.S. managers
there in an attempt to transplant U.S.-style management. According to Hofstede (see
Figure 15.3), U.S. culture has low power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and long-term
orientation and high individuality and masculinity. Russia’s culture has high power
distance and uncertainty avoidance, low masculinity and long-term orientation, and
moderate individuality. In light of what you know about cultural differences, how well do
you think U.S. managers can succeed in each of the following U.S.-style HRM
practices? Explain your reasons.
a. Selection decisions based on extensive assessment of individual abilities
b. Appraisals based on individual performance
c. Systems for gathering suggestions from workers
d. Self-managing work teams
4. Besides cultural differences, what other factors affect human resource management in
an organization with international operations?
5. Suppose you work in the HR department of a company that is expanding into a country
where the law and culture make it difficult to lay off employees. How should your
knowledge of that difficulty affect human resource planning for the overseas operations?
6. Why do multinational organizations hire host-country nationals to fill most of their foreign
positions, rather than sending expatriates for most jobs?
7. Suppose an organization decides to improve collaboration and knowledge sharing by
developing an intranet to link its global workforce. It needs to train employees in several
different countries to use this system. List the possible cultural issues you can think of
that the training program should take into account.
1. For an organization with operations in three different countries, what are some
advantages and disadvantages of setting compensation according to the labor markets
in the countries where the employees live and work? What are some advantages and
disadvantages of setting compensation according to the labor market in the company’s
headquarters? Would the best arrangement be different for the company’s top
executives and its production workers? Explain.
9. What abilities make a candidate more likely to succeed in an assignment as an
expatriate? Which of these abilities do you have? How might a person acquire these
abilities?
10. In the past, a large share of expatriate managers from the United States have returned
home before successfully completing their foreign assignments. Suggest some possible
reasons for the high failure rate. What can HR departments do to increase the success
of expatriates?
Taking Responsibility
Coping with Pollution in Beijing
Many HR departments are having a hard time recruiting talented employees to be placed in
Beijing due to the serious air pollution problem.
Discussion Questions with Possible Responses
1. What would it take for you to accept an assignment in a location such as Beijing with
extremely bad air pollution?
Answers will vary.
2. What should a socially responsible employer do to protect its employees in conditions
such as these?
Answers will vary. The employer may want to provide breathing protective gear and room
air filters in the employee’s home and office.
Managing Talent
Global Mindset gives Renault-Nissan a Strategic Edge
Carlos Ghosn has had a global background, including education and experience, which helped
to bring him to the CEO position at Renault-Nissan. His global perspective has helped the
alliance between Renault and Nissan.
Discussion Questions with Possible Responses
1. Would you categorize the Renault-Nissan Alliance as an international, multinational, or
global organization? Why?
2. Suppose you work in the HR function at Nissan when it is identifying employees to work
on the joint manufacturing project in Mexico. Briefly advise the company on how to
prepare these employees to succeed as expatriates.
HR in Small Busines
Is Translating a Global Business?
Case Summary:
This case examines the field of translation, which is a field in which small businesses have
enjoyed rapid growth. The case highlights three companies: TransPerfect, based in New York,
CETRA Language Solutions based in Elkins Park, PA, and LinguaLinx, based in Cohoes, New
York.
Discussion Questions with Possible Responses
1. What kinds of challenges would be involved in recruiting and selecting people to
translate documents from Spanish, Polish, and French into English?
2. Would those challenges be easier to meet by recruiting within the United States or by
looking for talent over-seas? Explain.
3. Suppose a small translation business asked you to advise a company on how to
overcome cultural barriers among a staff drawn from three countries. Suggest a few
ways the company could use training and performance management to achieve this
goal.
HRM DVD Vol 3 Suggested Video with Discussion Questions and Possible Responses
Managers Hot Seat: Globalization and Cross Cultural Communication (9:11)
Video Summary
This video summary is about the challenges that are currently being experienced with
globalization and cross cultural communication. The summary is set showcasing a video
conference with three employees discussing expectations for a project. There is obvious
miscommunication and an uncomfortable conflict resolution that is intended to highlight both the
frustration and complication of dealing with inter-cultural communication and personal
expectations.
The summary continues to highlight the challenges of remote influence and leadership and also
illustrates a clear misunderstanding of how ethnocentric American leaders, cultures and
attitudes can be. Last, the video showcases the challenges with virtual teams. Leaders not
being able to readily communicate with or manage can lead to possible feeling of fragmentation
and disjointed alignment of expectations.
Discussion Questions with Possible Responses
1.) What are some of the challenges with virtual teams?
2.) What are some of the challenges with intercultural and cross-cultural communications and
leadership?
HR in Alignment: The Link to Business Results at Sysco Food Services (22:40)
This video summary highlights the concept of Human Resources as a strategic partner to the
business. It showcases Sysco as an example of a company that has successfully integrated
Human Resources into its strategic planning and execution.
Sysco is the number one food service marketer and distributor in the country. It has annual
revenue of over $26 billion, employs over 48,000 people serving an estimated 500,000
customers. Additionally Sysco provides over 300,000 different individual products that it must
closely manage at all times.
The video illustrates Sysco as a company that has figured out how to excel at innovation and
execution. It has a planning strategy that is driven top down and an execution strategy that is
driven bottom up. It highlights the value that Human Resources has brought to this model and
shows how aligning HR practices can significantly impact strategic initiatives.
Sysco focuses a lot of energy on individual, team, and organizational performance; and all are
measured effectively. Sysco boasts that all employees know how their individual jobs ties into
the overall strategy of the company. It ranks Human Resources up in the highest echelon of
importance alongside Finance, Operations and Customer Support.
Discussion Questions with Possible Responses
1.) What are some of the benefits of Human Resources being a strategic partner
with the business?
2.) What are some of the tools that Human Resources can use to ensure it will remain a
strategic partner and add bottom line value?