Staffing and Developing the Multinational Workforce

1
Staffing and Developing the Multinational
Workforce

• Ibraiz Tarique
• Randall Schuler

2
Overview

• Important Terms
• Types of employees in the multinational workforce
  (MWF)
• Major issues and challenges of staffing and
  developing the MWF

3
Important Terms

• Multinational Enterprise (MNE) a firm that
  operates in two or more countries
• Multinational Workforce (MWF) the workers in a
  multinational enterprise
• Expatriate an employee posted or assigned to
  another country for more than a year

4
The Multinational Workforce

• The task of international human resource
  management (IHRM) professionals in MNEs is to
  build a competent, high-performing workforce that
  gains and sustains a competitive advantage
  throughout the global marketplace (Briscoe
  Schuler, 2004).

5
Types of Employees in the MNE

• Parent country nationals (PCNs)
• Host country nationals (HCNs)
• Third country nationals (TCNs)

6
Parent Country Nationals

• Employees of the MNE who are citizens of the
  country where the MNEs corporate headquarter is
  located

7
PCN Competencies

• Familiarity with the MNEs corporate culture
• Ability to effectively communicate with
  headquarters
• Ability to maintain control over the subsidiary
  operations

8
Host Country Nationals

• Employees of the MNE who work in the foreign
  subsidiary and are citizens of the country where
  the foreign subsidiary is located

9
HCN Competencies

• Familiarity with the cultural, economic,
  political, and legal environment of the host
  country
• Ability to respond effectively to the host
  countrys requirements for localization of the
  subsidiarys operations

10
Third Country Nationals

• Employees who are neither citizens of the host
  country nor citizens of the country where the
  enterprise is headquartered

11
MNE Concerns for its Workforce

• The workforce should be competent
• Cultural competencies
• Skills for the job
• Company knowledge and loyalty
• Flexibility
• Ability and will to manage complexity

12
Staffing a Multinational Workforce

• Global staffing refers to the process of
  acquiring, deploying, and retaining a global
  workforce in organizations with operations in
  different countries (Scullion Collings, 2006)

13
How the MNE Obtains and Develops Its People

• Human resource planning
• Recruitment of competent employees
• Performance appraisals
• Compensation policies
• Development initiatives

14
Recruitment from the MNE Perspective

• Potential employees may be attracted to the
  enterprise through organizational attributes such
  as
• Geographical dispersion
• Type of ownership
• Level of internationalization

15
Qualities of Recruits to MNEs

• Extroverted and open to new experiences
• Affected by their early international life
  experiences

16
Recruitment From the Individuals Perspective

• Individuals are more receptive to global
  assignments in locations culturally similar to
  their own
• Male assignees were more willing to accept a
  foreign assignment and more willing to follow
  their partners than female ones

17
Selection

• Identify critical job dimensions maintaining
  business contacts, technical competence, etc.
• Cross-cultural competencies adjustment to the
  foreign culture and ways of doing business

18
Developing a Multinational Workforce

• Refers to a wide variety of international
  training activities and international development
  activities used by MNEs to develop the competency
  base of their employees (Caligiuri, Tarique,
  Lazarova, 2005)

19
Cultural Competence Training

• Organizations recognize the importance of
  international training and development activities
  
• Cultural competencies enable individuals to be
  more effective in the new cultural environment

20
Cross-cultural Training

• A planned intervention designed to increase the
  knowledge and skills of expatriates to live and
  work effectively and achieve general life
  satisfaction in an unfamiliar host culture
  (Kealey Protheroe, 1996145)

21
Cross-cultural Training Design

• Identifying the type of employee
• Determining the specific cross-cultural
  competency need
• Establishing short-term and long-term learning
  goals
• Developing and delivering instructional content
• Evaluating whether the program was effective

22
Qualities of the Global Leader

• Higher in conscientiousness
• More open and extroverted
• Greater family diversity
• More likely to be fluent in another language

23
Global Careers

• Expatriation provides the opportunity to acquire
  overseas knowledge, and repatriation creates the
  opportunity to transfer and apply this knowledge
  in the organization

24
Conclusion

• MNEs face challenges and issues related to
  staffing and training their multinational
  workforce
• Training programs can increase the cultural
  effectiveness of the workforce

25
Conclusion

• Future research might focus on
• Developing a global mindset
• Non-traditional staffing methods
• Developing uniform staffing and training methods