International Business Mod14 When The Trailing Spouse Has Successful Career Leaving That Career And Starting

Unlock access to all the studying documents.

View Full Document

International Business, 2e

Geringer, McNett, Ball

Instructor Guide to Module 14

14–16

Education.

expats to perform well, due to restrictions or biases regarding the roles of women within

business contexts. Such discussions should be probed during discussion.

3. How can companies help ensure that more high-potential women are encouraged to

pursue international assignments, and that their expat experiences will be supported and

leveraged effectively?

As suggested above, there are likely to be differences of opinion on this matter. Establishing

GET THAT JOB! FROM BACKPACK TO BRIEFCASE: Laura Gunderson

The focus of this box explores Laura Gunderson’s experiences in preparing for and entering a

career in international human resource management. Her interest in international issues was

sparked by her own international upbringing, which included a broad variety of living and travel

1. How would you evaluate the list of challenges that Gunderson identifies regarding IHRM

support for business success, such as relocation, talent management, recruitment, employee

development, compensation, labor relations, and information systems? Which of these do

you think are most important and why? Which ones might become even more important in

coming years, and why?

International Business, 2e

Instructor Guide to Module 14

14–17

Education.

further. Probing areas in which disagreement or differences in perception are apparent can

further enhance the discussion.

2. Gunderson emphasizes the importance of being prepared, search widely for positions,

expand one’s network, communicate interest, and volunteer for new challenges. Do you

agree with these recommendations? Why or why not? How can you incorporate them within

your own life and professional development efforts?

Students will have various answers to this question, depending on their experience with work

environments as well as their own self-awareness and self-confidence. On one hand, students

will generally find the advice to be sound and valuable. Pushing students, individually or in

International Business, 2e

Geringer, McNett, Ball

Instructor Guide to Module 14

14–18

END OF MODULE EXERCISES

CRITICAL THINKING QUESTIONS

1. What are the implications for international companies of trends toward aging populations

in many developed countries and rapid urbanization in many emerging nations? What

changes are ICs likely to make to successfully respond to these trends?

The average age of the population is increasing because of better healthcare and higher living

standards. The dangers to developed economies are in the increased costs of pensions,

2. Explain arguments against allowing immigrant labor into nations. Who would benefit most

from limiting the number of immigrants into a country? What are the primary arguments

associated with allowing immigrant labor into a nation?

Answers to this may vary. Some will argue that adding immigrant labor to the labor pool

disrupts labor supply and can depress wage rates for citizens. Inflow of labor may also

discourage citizens from pursuing careers in certain areas, due to reduced attractiveness in the

3. Why might brain drain be beneficial for a country whose skilled people move to other

nations? How might a country maximize the benefits from brain drain, while reducing the

potential damage from this mobility of labor?

Brain drain is the immigration of highly educated people from their home country to a country

that offers them better economic and quality of life opportunities. Losing countries could

International Business, 2e

Geringer, McNett, Ball

Instructor Guide to Module 14

14–19

Education.

sponsor their knowledge elite abroad where they can get education and experience that would

be valuable and rare in the home country, and then track them back to responsible positions

that would allow them to contribute to the home country’s development. Such nations might

also work out visa agreements with the receiving nation so that the immigrant’s time in the

new country is limited. This would be a loss for the receiving country, though. While skilled

people are abroad working, they often will send monies back to family or friends back in their

home country, and the total volume of such revenues can be substantial for a nation. Upon the

worker’s return to the home country, if he or she does return, the training and skills acquired

abroad can provide valuable inputs for development in the home country. Ultimately, however,

unless the home country provides opportunities to entice the skilled labor back home, the

prospects for such return and the benefits that might accrue from such reverse brain drain may

be limited.

4. Why might an international company encounter challenges in trying to establish a linkage

between the international human resource approaches it uses and its competitive strategy?

How might these challenges be managed successfully?

The pressure to achieve global integration and reduction of costs and the pressure to respond

to local differentiation help determine which global competitive strategy the company will

undertake. The global competitive strategy adapted by management should be consistent and

will impact the organization’s approach to human resource management. However, a range of

5. Why has there been an increasing use of third-country nationals in the foreign operations

of ICs? Do you think this trend will continue? Why or why not?

International Business, 2e

Geringer, McNett, Ball

Instructor Guide to Module 14

14–20

6. International companies often encounter performance problems with expatriation, where

problems arise due to issues associated with the expatriate’s family. What advice would you

provide to an IC regarding how to avoid such problems?

The answers to this question may vary. It is estimated that the majority of expatriate failures is

7. What are some of the quality–of–life issues that employees should consider before taking

their families abroad as part of an expatriate experience?

The answers to this will vary across students. Some of the factors mentioned may include

disruption of spousal work lives and children’s schooling, challenges of finding suitable spousal

8. Why are expatriate employees frequently paid more than their colleagues at equivalent

job levels in the home office? Do you think this premium is justified?

9. Suppose you are the CEO of an American multinational. On your staff and in the U.S.

operating divisions of your company are several bright, able, dedicated female executives.

They are also ambitious, and in your company, international experience is a must before an

executive can hope to get into top management. An opening comes up for the position of

executive vice president in the company’s Middle East subsidiary, headquartered in Saudi

Arabia. One of the women on your staff applies for the position, and she is well qualified for

the job, better than anyone else in the company. Would you give her the position? What are

the arguments pro and con?

International Business, 2e

Geringer, McNett, Ball

Instructor Guide to Module 14

14–21

10. Using the company example in question 9, suppose another position becomes available,

this one as treasurer of the Japanese subsidiary. The chief financial officer of the company’s

California division applies for this job. She has performed to everyone’s satisfaction, and she

seems thoroughly qualified to become the treasurer in Japan. In addition, she speaks and

writes Japanese. She is the daughter of a Japanese mother and an American father, and they

encouraged her to become fluent in both English and Japanese. Would you give her the job?

Why or why not?

GLOBALEDGE RESEARCH TASK

Exercise 1

Search for ‘Global Services Location Index’ in globalEDGE. The results will display the A.T.

Kearney: Global Services Location Index. Open the external link to review rankings and report.

Exercise 2

globalEDGE ‘Global Insights’ is where profiles of trade blocs, countries, U.S. states, and industries

can be found. When navigated as described in the exercise (i.e. globalEDGE > Global Insights > by

Country > China), ‘Culture’ page of China can be accessed on the left column menu. The link to

the Kwintessential Language and Culture Specialists will be available on the culture page.

Search Phrase: China

MINICASE: Jayden White: Should He Accept an Expat Assignment to China?

International Business, 2e

Geringer, McNett, Ball

Instructor Guide to Module 14

14–22

1. If you were a good friend of Jayden White, what recommendation would you give

regarding whether he should accept the international assignment that has been offered to

him?

Students will have various ideas. Answers to this question depend on student judgment and

values combined with material in the chapter. Issues may include the following: Spouses often

2. What issues should he focus on in making such a decision?

Students will have various ideas on this question. In addition to the points raised in the

response to question 1, Jayden needs to consider his own personal attributes and consider how

well he fits with the requirements of an entrepreneurial start-up in a new culture and context

International Business, 2e

Geringer, McNett, Ball

Instructor Guide to Module 14

14–23

BONUS ACTIVITIES

This section provides you with support of your course above and beyond what is found in the

text. We have developed these resources to support your course, to support your traditional,

hybrid, online, or flipped class.

VIDEO SUGGESTIONS

McGraw Hill’s collection of international business videos is available at

HSBC has recently listed countries that are the best to live in as an expat, so the video “25 Best

TEAM EXERCISES

These may be done individually or in groups or teams, either in or out of class, for later class

presentation. Some are also appropriate for use in hybrid/flipped classroom and online courses.

1. Benefits and Costs of Labor Mobility

International Business, 2e

Geringer, McNett, Ball

Instructor Guide to Module 14

14–24

Education.

report or presentation in class, to help stimulate learning by peers as well as interesting

comparisons. The material in this module is a good place to start their analyses.

2. Global Working Conditions

Assign students to look for some of rich blog sources and prepare reports about working

3. Expatriate Training

Have students report on the types of training available for language and culture, including

4. Expatriate Adjustment Manual

Have students prepare an expatriate adjustment manual for a particular country. We typically

suggest that an expatriate, his or her spouse, and their two children (one who is school age, one

SUPPLEMENTAL ACTIVITIES

Case Studies

Case studies that focus on intercultural issues and their effects in business environments are

available through Ivey Publishing and Harvard Business School. Ivey’s catalog is available for

International Business, 2e

Geringer, McNett, Ball

Instructor Guide to Module 14

14–25

Harvard Cases

“Solvay Group: International Mobility and Managing Expatriates,” examines the challenge

facing the head of International Mobility at Brussels-based Solvay Group. He must consider how

to handle the expatriation status of four talented executives in his company, with each decision

having important personal and professional implications for the executive in question.

CONTROVERSIAL ISSUES

1. Global Debate: Why Aren’t More Women Selected for International Assignments?

This boxed element described earlier in this module’s Instructor Guide provides an excellent

foundation for debating some of the issues raised in the text, including issues about staffing

expatriate positions with women.

2. IB in Practice: Executives with a Global Skill Set Are in Big Demand

This boxed element described earlier in this module’s Instructor Guide can be an interesting

International Business, 2e

Geringer, McNett, Ball

Instructor Guide to Module 14

14–26

Education.

Online and Hybrid: Virtual teams can be assigned to take different perspectives to argue for or

against the issue of whether different skills are needed by executives in order to perform well in

international versus domestic contexts, or between developed country versus developing

country contexts. The discussion could also be designed to address what differences there may

be, and the implications of these differences for what needs to be done, how to do it, and the

required skills associated with these differences. You could ask the teams to conduct research

in support of their perspective, perhaps including interviewing people who are currently

employed in these different contexts, and these assignments can be submitted as a group and

then opened up to discussion and debate on an online class discussion site or blog, or

presented and debated in a Face-to-Face setting.

Face-to-Face: As with the Online and Hybrid assignment, students can be assigned to take

different perspectives as noted above, and then they can be asked to argue their positions

within an in-class debate and discussion.

3. Current Events on International Human Resource-Related Controversy

A focus on current events that are relevant to the module’s topics is a good way to bring home

the concepts, review their application, and build news-review habits. Ask everyone to come

TEACHING SUGGESTIONS

1. National and international periodicals frequently have articles about working conditions in

different countries along with related topics such as IC executive selection and compensation. It

2. National and international periodicals frequently have articles about international business

and approaches to language training, including approaches that may be more appropriate for

International Business, 2e

Geringer, McNett, Ball

Instructor Guide to Module 14

14–27

4. Career planning is a logical link with this material. Some students may think that a foreign

posting is too exotic for them, so this chapter presents a way to expand their horizons. From

5. Guest Lecturer possibilities. Some people who could contribute to the material in this

module would be:

• Human Resource Management professors, particularly if they have international

experience or knowledge.

International Business, 2e

Geringer, McNett, Ball

Instructor Guide to Module 14

14–28

CONNECT TOOLS FOR ASSESSEMENT OF LEARNING

CONNECT CONTENT MATRIX

For every chapter, please refer to the Connect Content Matrix to see what application exercises

are available and what Learning Objectives they help reinforce/assess.

Title

Assignment

Type

Topic(s)

Learning

Objective(s)

AACSB

Accreditation

Tagging

Bloom’s

Taxonomy

International

Labor Relations

Click and Drag

International Labor

Relations

14-01

Reflective

Thinking

Understand

Global Staffing

Policies

Click and Drag

The Strategic Role of

International Human

Resource

Management

14-02; 14-03

Analytical

Thinking

Understand

Preventing

Expatriate

Failure

Click and Drag

Training and

Management

Development

14-04; 14-05

Analytical

Thinking

Understand

Training for

Expatriate

Managers

Click and Drag

Challenges and

Opportunities for

Expatriate Workers

14–05

Analytical

Thinking

Understand

CONNECT ACTIVITIES

1. International Labor Relations

Activity Summary: In this click and drag activity, students are presented with a grid that has

“Union perspective” and “Management perspective” across the top and four elements of

2. Global Staffing Policies

Activity Summary: This is a click and drag activity in which students are given a grid with

International Business, 2e

Geringer, McNett, Ball

Instructor Guide to Module 14

14–29

Education.

How to Use Activity: This works well as an in-class assignments for small groups. After the

teams have completed the assignments, ask about any mistakes that teams made and discuss

those items with the entire class. This can also be done individually as an internet assignment.

3. Preventing Expatriate Failure

4. Training for Expatriate Managers

Activity Summary: This is a click and drag activity in which students are presented with four