Quick Study Questions
Quick Study 1
1. Q: A firm that staffs its operations abroad with home-country nationals uses a staffing policy
called?
A: In ethnocentric staffing, operations outside the home country are managed by individuals
controls over the decision making of branch offices abroad.
2. Q: Polycentric staffing is when a company staffs its operations with people from where?
A: In polycentric staffing, operations outside the home country are managed by individuals
training programs in which host-country managers visit home offices for extended periods.
3. Q: Geocentric staffing is typically reserved for whom?
A: In geocentric staffing, operations outside the home country are managed by the best
qualified individuals, regardless of nationality. This policy is reserved for top level managers.
Quick Study 2
1. Q: The process of forecasting a company’s human resource needs and supply is called what?
A: Human resource planning is important in order for the firm to forecast its human resource
needs and supply. The process involves three stages: (1) taking an inventory of the company’s
2. Q: When recruiting employees, from where can employers attract qualified applicants?
A: Companies recruit their employees internally or through external sources. Likely candidates
within the company (current employees) are those managers who were involved in previous
stages of an international project. Companies also recruit from among recent college graduates
3. Q: Culture shock is a psychological process that affects people who live where?
A: Culture shock is a psychological process that affects people living abroad and is
characterized by homesickness, irritability, confusion, aggravation, and depression. It is
important in the selection of international managers because it is often the cause of managers
Quick Study 3
1. Q: What constitutes the most basic level of cultural training?
A: For managers, the goal is often to create informed, open-minded, and flexible employees
with cultural training appropriate to their duties. Environmental briefings typically include
Nonmanagers also have a need for training and development, especially in developing
countries where basic educational opportunities are limited and industrial experience may be
2. Q: What type of training is said to get one “into the mind” of the local people?
A: Language training is the type that is used to get the trainee “into the mind” of local people.
Quick Study 4
1. Q: A manager who goes to work in an unstable country might receive a bonus called what?
A: Hardship pay is the term used for bonuses given to managers who are asked to go into a
particularly unstable country or one with a very low standard of living.
2. Q: Some factors that contribute to the compensation of expatriate managers include what?
A: Compensation for managerial employees must reflect the cost of living in that country.
Culture plays an important role in the compensation of expatriate managers. For example, many
Quick Study 5
1. Q: Because labor–management relations are human relations they are rooted in what?
A: Labor–management relations are the positive or negative condition of relations between
company management and its workers. Positive relations between labor and management can
2. Q: German workers have a direct say in the strategies and policies of their employers under a
plan called what?
A: Under a plan called codetermination, German workers enjoy a direct say in the strategies and
company meetings by actually voting on proposed actions.
Ethical Challenge
You are an expatriate manager at a manufacturing facility in Asia on your first assignment abroad.
You are aware of increasing concern among your employees (mostly young women) about wages that
barely permit them to live at subsistence level. The plant is not unionized, and you know that your
superiors in your home country are not particularly supportive of efforts to organize workers. In fact,
despite the calm demeanor when the subject of unions is raised, you believe that upper management in
the home country could react severely if workers unionized. Headquarters would likely shift production
elsewhere, close the plant, and transfer you elsewhere.
16-5 Can you propose anything that might improve conditions for workers that would also get the
approval of upper management?
A: As manager of the manufacturing facility, headquarters could be asked for things other than
salary that could improve the standards of living for the workers. A donation to a local charity
16-6 If you attempted what you proposed above but then failed, would you encourage workers to
unionize? Explain.
A: Student responses for this question will vary. However, for companies that have shifted
production to certain low cost manufacturing hubs, many students might feel that the threat to
Teaming Up
Suppose you and several of your classmates are a team assembled by your employer to decide whether
to begin personality testing all employees. A British firm found that the top three reasons people quit
or underperform are rooted in personality rather than skill, knowledge, or qualification. Personality
testing in the workplace is widespread in Australia, Europe, and the United States, but is catching on
in Asia.
16-7 What personality traits might help explain poor performance? Explain.
A: Do personality traits affect performance? Such question is always relevant. Companies will
always be looking for highly effective and productive employees. Personality can have
(b) Extroversion represents the degree to which an employee will be sociable, talkative,
assertive, active and ambitious. This trait will lead to better interpersonal skill and higher
(d) Agreeableness represents the extent to which an employee can be good natured and liked by
16-8 Could the reason why Asian societies have not used such testing in the past be rooted in
culture? Explain.
A: Asian countries have been slow to adopt the use of personality testing in the workplace.
This has in part been due to cultural differences. In Chapter 2, the importance of culture in the
values and behavior of a society was discussed. The Hofstede Framework developed five
16-9 What advantages might global aptitude tests offer firms doing business globally?
A: Students will likely need to do research (in the library or on the Internet) to answer this
question adequately.
Practicing International Management Case
Expatriation or Discrimination?
16-12 Q: In addition to those mentioned in the case, what are some other advantages associated with
the hiring of local managers in emerging markets?
A: Local managers have intimate knowledge of the local culture and how the local business
been able to do with an expatriate in charge.
16-13 Q: What steps should a company take to ensure that, if taken to court, it can demonstrate that
staffing cuts have not been discriminatory?
A: It should do exactly as Ricoh had done in the case. It must have documentation and hard
performance.