Developing a Global Management Cadre

Chapter 10

Prentice Hall 2003 Chapter 10 1

 Developing a Global Management Cadre

 Preparation, adaptation, and repatriation

 Global management teams
 The role of women in international management
 Global multiculturalism: Managing diversity
 Working within local labor relations systems

Prentice Hall 2003 Chapter 10 2

 Maximizing Global Human Resources

Important areas of attention

 To maximize long term retention and use of international cadre
through career management so that the company can develop a top
management team with global experience
 To develop effective global management teams
 To understand, value, and promote the role of women and minorities
in international management in order to maximize those
underutilized resources
 To maximize the benefits of an increasingly diverse workforce in
various locations around the world
 To work with the host country labor relations system to effect
strategic implementation and employee productivity.

Prentice Hall 2003 Chapter 10 3

 Support Systems for a Successful
Repatriation Program
(as recommended by Tung)

 A mentor program to monitor the expatriate’s

career path while abroad and upon repatriation
 As an alternative to the mentor program, the
establishment of a special organizational unit for
the purposes of career planning and continuing
guidance for the expatriate
 A system of supplying information and
maintaining contacts with the expatriate so that
he or she may continue to feel a part of the home
organization.
Prentice Hall 2003 Chapter 10 4
 The Role of the Expatriate Spouse

Effective cross-cultural adjustment by spouses

is more likely
 when firms seek the spouse’s opinion about the
international assignment and the expected
standard of living, and
 when the spouse initiates his or her own
predeparture training (thereby supplementing
the minimum training given by most firms).

Prentice Hall 2003 Chapter 10 5

 Phases in the Expatriate Transition Process

 The exit transition from the home country, the success

of which will be determined largely by the quality of
preparation the expatriate has received;
 the entry transition to the host country, in which
successful acculturation (or early exit) will depend
largely on monitoring and support; and
 the entry transition back to the home country or to a
new host country, in which the level of reverse culture
shock and the ease of re-acculturation will depend on
previous stages of preparation and support.

Prentice Hall 2003 Chapter 10 6

 The Expatriate Transition Process
(Exhibit 10-1)
Entry transition
(initial confrontation)

Adjustment
Exit transition (adaptation)
(anticipatory
socialization) Exit transition
Home Country Host Country
Exit Entry
• Considered for expatriation 8. Departure and travel
• Sensitivity to other cultures 9. Arrival and initial confrontation
• General training, int’l business expertise 10. On-site orientation and briefing
• Considered for assignment 11. Culture shock
• Sensitivity to the host culture Adjustment
• Predeparture training 12. Monitoring and support
• Selection 13. Acculturation, adaptation
14. Failure or success
Prentice Hall 2003 Chapter 10 7
 The Expatriate Transition Process
(contd.)
Entry transition

Adjustment

Home country or new host country

Exit Entry
15. Considered for transfer 18. Departure and travel
or repatriation 19. Arrival and initial confrontation
16. Withdrawal 20. Orientation and briefing
17. Orientation, career 21. Reverse culture shock or new culture
counseling shock
Adjustment
Success
22. Monitoring and support
Failure
23. Acculturation, adaptation

Prentice Hall 2003 Chapter 10 8

 Good Practices Used by Companies in
Making International Assignments
 They focus on knowledge creation and global
leadership development
 They assign overseas posts to people whose
technical skills are matched or exceeded by their
cross-cultural abilities
 They end expatriate assignments with a
deliberate repatriation process.

Black and Gregersen

Prentice Hall 2003 Chapter 10 9

 Global Management Teams

 The term global management teams

describes collections of managers from
several countries who must rely on group
collaboration if each member is to
experience the optimum of success and
goal achievement.

Prentice Hall 2003 Chapter 10 10

 Global Teams in the Modern Global
Enterprise
(Exhibit 10-3)
Global Global Networked International
Environment Strategy Global Teams
Organization

Global competition; Optimizing Global coordination Cosmopolitan

Technological global and integration; HQ’s teams; strategic
developments; resources for local responsiveness; development teams;
Markets; competitive organizational HQ’s subsidiary teams;
Government policies advantage structure, systems; technology transfer
personnel policies teams; coalition (joint
and reward systems venture) teams
that support
cooperation

Prentice Hall 2003 Chapter 10 11

 Criteria for Evaluating the Success of
International Teams
 Do members work together with a common purpose? Is this purpose
something that is spelled out and felt by all to be worth fighting for?
 Has the team developed a common language or procedure? Does it
have a common way of doing things, a process for holding meetings?
 Does the team build on what works, learning to identify the positive
actions before being overwhelmed by the negatives?
 Does the team attempt to spell out things within the limits of the
cultural differences involved, delimiting the mystery level by
directness and openness regardless of the cultural origins of
participants?

Prentice Hall 2003 Chapter 10 12

 Criteria for Evaluating the Success of
International Teams
(contd.)

 Do the members recognize the impact of their own cultural

programming on individual and group behavior? Do they deal with,
not avoid, their differences in order to create synergy?
 Does the team have fun? (Within successful multicultural groups,
the cultural differences become a source of continuing surprise,
discovery, and amusement rather than irritation or frustration.)

Indrei Ratiu

Prentice Hall 2003 Chapter 10 13

 The Role of Women in International
Management
(Adler’s recommendations)

 Avoid assuming that a female executive will fail

because of the way she will be received or
because of problems experienced by female
spouses
 Avoid assuming that a woman will not want to
go overseas
 Give female managers every chance to succeed
by giving them the titles, status, and recognition
appropriate to the position – as well as sufficient
time to be effective.
Prentice Hall 2003 Chapter 10 14
 Global Multiculturalism: Managing
Diversity

Benefits of managing diversity

 Reducing costs of high levels of turnover and
absenteeism
 Facilitating recruitment of scarce labor
 Increasing sales to members of minority culture groups
 Promoting team creativity and innovation
 Improving problem solving
 Enhancing organizational flexibility

Prentice Hall 2003 Chapter 10 15

 Dimensions of Workforce Diversity
(Exhibit 10-5)

Nat
iona
l ori
gin g u age
Lan
Gend
er
ion
Relig
Workforce
Family situation Diversity Culture
Ag
Race e
n Physic
l o r ientatio a l abili
Sex ua Soc ty
io e con
ta l s t atus omi
Mari c st
atus

Prentice Hall 2003 Chapter 10 16

 Diversity Program Guidelines

 Develop and communicate a broad definition of workplace diversity,

including all kinds of differences, such as race, gender, age, work,
and family issues.
 Attain visible commitment from top managers to support programs,
and communicate to employees the importance of diversity to the
firm’s competitive stance – that it is not just a matter of sensitivity
training. Hold managers accountable for meeting diversity goals.
 Avoid stereotyping groups of employees by using titles for them;
focus instead on what all employees have in common, and on each
individual’s value to the firm.

Prentice Hall 2003 Chapter 10 17

 Diversity Program Guidelines
(contd.)

 Set up a broad, diverse pool of talented people to be trained and

eligible for job promotion or selection; but let it be known that the
best person will get the job – and stick by that.
 Set up regular training programs with the goal to gradually change
the corporate culture by educating workers about employee
similarities as well as differences and the value those differences
bring to the firm.

Prentice Hall 2003 Chapter 10 18

 GE Diversity Practices

 Top management commitment and involvement

 Integrated diversity strategy
 Campus recruiting
 Hires expanded at top level to signal commitment and provide role
models
 Career management
 Management of work/family issues (e.g., child care and flextime)
 Diversity education and training
 Communications
 Community outreach

Prentice Hall 2003 Chapter 10 19

 Labor Relations

 The term labor relations refers to the process

through which managers and workers determine
their workplace relationship. This process may
be through verbal agreement and job
descriptions, or through a union written labor
contract which has been reached through
negotiation in collective bargaining between
workers and managers.

Prentice Hall 2003 Chapter 10 20

 Dimensions of the Labor-Management
Relationship

 The participation of labor in the affairs of the

firm, especially as this affects performance and
well-being
 The role and impact of unions in the relationship
 Specific human resource policies in terms of
recruitment, training, and compensation.

Prentice Hall 2003 Chapter 10 21

 Constraints in the Labor-Management
Relationship

 Wage levels which are set by union contracts and

leave the foreign firm little flexibility to be
globally competitive
 Limits on the ability of the foreign firm to vary
employment levels when necessary
 Limitations on the global integration of
operations of the foreign firm because of
incompatibility and the potential for industrial
conflict.
Prentice Hall 2003 Chapter 10 22
 Trade Union Decline in Industrialized
Countries
(Exhibit 10-6)

Sweden
Australia
UK
Germany
1985 New Zealand
Japan
US
1995 France

0 20 40 60 80 100
% of workforce in trade unions
Prentice Hall 2003 Chapter 10 23
 Convergence in Labor Systems

 Convergence in labor systems occurs as the

migration of management and workplace
practices around the world results in the
reduction of workplace disparities from one
country to another. This occurs primarily as
MNCs seek consistency and coordination among
their foreign subsidiaries, and as they act as
catalysts for change by “exporting” new forms of
work organization and industrial relations
practices.
Prentice Hall 2003 Chapter 10 24
 Trends in Global Labor Relations Systems
(Exhibit 10-7)

Forces for Global Current System Forces to Maintain or

Convergence Establish Divergent Systems

Global competitiveness National labor relations

MNC presence or consolidation systems and traditions
initiatives Social systems
Political change Local regulations and
New market economies practices
Free-trade zones: harmonization Political ideology
(EU), competitive forces (NAFTA) Cultural norms
Technological standardization, IT
Declining role of unions
Agencies monitoring world labor
practices

Prentice Hall 2003 Chapter 10 25