The International Face of Human Resources Management

THE INTERNATIONAL FACE OF HUMAN
RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
FIRST EDITION
BY
NSUBUGA HAROONAH
The International Face of Human Resources Management i
© Copyright 2015 by Nsubuga Haroonah
ISBN: 978 - 9987 - 9791 - 9 - 6
First Edition: 2015
First Print: 2015
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted

or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means; electronic,
mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented,
including copying and recording, or in any information storage
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copyright owner.
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Published by:
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P.O.Box 1596
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Zanzibar - Tanzania.
ii The International Face of Human Resources Management

DEDICATION
This book is dedicated to my wife; Nakyanzi Fatuma, my

daughters; Tharwa and Husnayaan as well as my sons; Tharut,
Thamur, Humoud and Ramadhan who exercised a great
deal of perseverance by accommodating the vacuum, stress
and loneliness I created whenever and wherever I was busy
researching and working on the production of this book. May
the Almighty God reward them abundantly for the high degree
of patience they portrayed!
The International Face of Human Resources Management iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
It is a naked fact that putting together ideas that culminate into

a production of a piece of work like this one in most cases is
the effort of the author. But, it may have a lot of loopholes and
it may be incomplete without the support and input of other
people. Therefore, the idea and production of this work have
become a reality with the upper hand of several people who
accepted to share their views and experiences with the author
either directly or indirectly. To all of them, I register my sincere
thanks and appreciation. Some of them included:
The administrations of the Zanzibar University for the continued

advise, encouragement and support to whosoever is able to
publish. Management accords much attention to academic
works whenever it is considering appointment and promotion
of staff from one level to another. Therefore, their support with
the word of wisdom is very much appreciated.
I would like to express my gratitude to a number of people

who extended to me a great deal of support and whose wealth
of knowledge and experience especially in Human Resources
Management were of tremendous value to me in enriching this
book.
In this connection, I am very much indebted to Dr. Serwanga

Jamil; the Dean of Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Zanzibar
University and Ms. Namugenyi Maimuna Matovu; for the great
role they played in peer reviewing this manuscript. I would like
to re-affirm that I indeed owe them a lot.
iv The International Face of Human Resources Management
Last but not the least, my sincere thanks and appreciation go
to Mr. Abbas Mohamed Omar; the Director of the Zanzibar
University Library Services whose unfailing type setting
assistance made the speedy completion of this manuscript.
Despite the fact that this book is of immense value to many

people who have become stakeholders in its production, I am
fully a ware of its weaknesses that are often typical of authors,
I bear the full responsibility thereof a lone.
The International Face of Human Resources Management v

PREFACE
There are questions that are frequently asked by learners and
practitioners of Human Resources Management in developing
organisations and economies especially as regards the next step
of action after HRM. Secondly, organisations engage personnel
who are lacking international exposure and therefore find it
extremely difficult to handle the challenges and demands of
human resources from an international perspective. As a way
of helping such personnel out of this serious problem, this
manuscript is developed.
This is so because IHRM guides the workforce to change
attitude and begin thinking and reasoning globally not locally.
This implies that, international staff may easily be accepted and
warmly received by local staff without any due prejudice and
discrimination. This is due to the fact that with globalization,
the whole world has become so tiny that there is a lot of labour
mobility which is making people prove more cordial since they
may become co-workers, separate after sometime but end up
working together in a different environment after sometime.
IHRM is increasingly becoming more significant in terms of
management of the affairs of domestic and international staff
as globalization continues to influence the rapid growth of
international businesses and global competition.
IHRM is also becoming an issue of concern because businesses
are recognizing the fact that, the success of global business
depends largely on the quality of the manager in place
specifically and the quality of the international human resource
manager generally.
vi The International Face of Human Resources Management
This is the case resulting from the availability of the increase
in the number of global strategies that resulted into the
establishment of core companies as well as their subsidiaries
all over the globe that require forward looking and competent
human resources managers who can only be provided by IHRM.
Above all, there are also many people today taking on

international assignments in the field of Economics and Politics
that need to be oriented into the proper functioning of and
management of international assignments.
These are some of the justifications therefore that were based

upon to develop this manuscript which offers a detailed account
of the International Human Resources Management, issues,
challenges and remedies to enable international employees
execute their international assignments with ease.
This edition is indeed handy as it offers a wider array of

paradigms and approaches aimed at facilitating effective
human resources management efforts, principles and insights
for the optimal utilisation of the workforce more especially on
the international labour market.
I am therefore optimistic that this edition is going to work as

a catalyst for attitude change of domestic employees towards
international human capital since the latter also play a pivotal
role in the success of business enterprises as they bring the
much desired skills to their assignments abroad, transfer of
technology inclusive.
The International Face of Human Resources Management vii

Last but not the least, I wish to thank in advance those
individuals who will provide constructive criticisms aimed
at the improvement of this book as well as those who will
endeavour to adopt and implement the valuable ideas analysed
therein. To those who have contributed either directly or
indirectly towards the realisation of this manuscript, are greatly
appreciated. Thank you very much and you are wished fruitful
reading.
viii The International Face of Human Resources Management

LIST OF TABLES
Table 9.1 : Depicting Ebola outbreak and transmission in

West Africa, adopted from http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/
outbreaks/2014-west-africa/case-counts.html
The International Face of Human Resources Management ix

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2.1: Depicting the International nature of HRM.

World map image adopted from noobnetworks.com/
world-globe.gif, accessed on Wednesday 17.12.2014.
Figure 3.1: Depicting different languages. Adopted from

Photobucket.com/image/language/barrier…./
htm) Saturday 29.11.2014 at 12.45 p.m.
Figure 3.2: Depicting scenes of political instability on the fall

of the Gaddaf regime in Tripoli, Adopted from http://
www.theepochtimes.com/n2/world/caution-precedes-
military-force-in-libyan-crisis-52350.html&h, visited
on 23rd June, 2013.
Figure 3.3: Depicting a sample of a recruiting agency.

Adopted from http://www.lth.hotel.com/london_events/
image/recruitmentagency, accessed on 27th April, 2014
Figure 5.1 on staff performance appraisal adopted from www.

reference for/business.com/staff/appraisal, accessed on
Friday 5.12.2014 at 12.27
Figure 5.2 showing close supervision and monitoring of a

subordinate by the superior, adopted from Microsoft
Powerpoint
Figure 6.1 showing the world’s ten most corrupt leaders,

adopted from Amnesty International Report of 2004.
x The International Face of Human Resources Management
Figure 6.2: Depicting rule of law, adapted from www.google.
co.tz/rule+of+law.Accessed on Friday 5.12.2014
at 12.09 a.m.
Figure 6.3: Depicting political turmoil in Egypt adopted from

www.democracynow.org/2013/8/15/ massacre in _
Cairo_Egypt_on_brink.
Figure 6.4: Depicting signs of insecurity. Adopted from, www.

globalconflictawareness.blogspot.com/insecurity.
accessed Friday 5.12.2014 at 12.16 p.m.
Figure 6.5: Showing the pace at which industrialized economies

are developing as Astronomers frequently go to the
moon.
Figure 6.6: Showing raw Cocoa being manually processed,

adopted from www.blogspot.com/rawcocoa. accessed
on Wednesday 17.12.2014 at 12.40 p.m.
Figure 6.7: Depicting mineral resources being extracted using

machinery. Adopted from https://au.smallbusiness.
yahoo.com/ minerals

Figure 6.8: Depicting political instability, adopted from
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/world/caution-
precedes-military-force-in-libyan-crisis-52350.html&h,
visited on 23rd June, 2013.
The International Face of Human Resources Management xi

Figure 6.9: Depicting difference in terms of trade, adopted from
https://www.google.co.tz/
search?q=differencence+in+term+or+trade. Accessed
on 23/04/2014
Figure 6.10: Depicting gold reserves some MDCs possess,

adopted from www.ask.com/unfavourablebalance of
trade. Accessed Friday 19.12.2014 at 3.30 p.m.
Figure 6.11: Depicting lazy staff being forced to work,

adopted from Mongosi Roberto at www.
OHMYGOODNESS.COM, visited on Monday 29th
September, 2014.
Figure 6.12: Depicting Absenteeism at work places.

Adopted from Morris at www.illustrationsource.com.
Absenteeism.
Figure 8.1: Depicting sexual harassment at work stations.

Adopted from http://www.123rf.com/photo_9550722_
sexual-harassment-of-women-at-workplaces 26/04/20
14
Figure 8.2: Depicting stress-packed-mind adopted from http//

www.123rf.com/photo_11411214. Accessed on
24/04/2014.
xii The International Face of Human Resources Management

LIST OF ACRONYMS
£ Pound
ADEA Age Discrimination in Employment Act
AGOA American Growth Opportunity for Africa
AIDS Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
ANDEAN Andean Community Countries
ASEAN Association of Southeast Asian Nations
BARS Behaviourally Anchored Rating System
BHINNEKA TUNGGAL IKA Unity in Diversity
BOS Behavioural Observation Scale
BOT Balance of Trade
BSEC Black Sea Economic Cooperation
C&B Compensation and Benefit
CEDAW Convention on Elimination Discrimination
Against Women
COMESA Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa
ECOWAS Economic Community of West African
States
DHRM Domestic Human Resources Management
DRC Democratic Republic of Congo
EAC East African Community
EEU Eurasian Economic Union
EFTA European Free Trade Association
EPA Equal Pay Act
ERISA Employee Retirement Income Security
Act
et.al And others
EU European Union
FIDA (U) Uganda Association of Women Lawyers
GAFTA Greater Arab Free Trade Area
The International Face of Human Resources Management xiii

GCC Gulf Cooperation Council
HC Home Country
HCE Host Country Employees
HCN Home Country National
HCNs Host Country Nationals
HRM Human Resources Management
HRNA Human Resources Needs Analysis
HRNA Human Resources Needs Assessment
HRO Human Resources Officer
HRP Human Resources Planner
ICSC International Civil Service Commission
IHRM International Human Resources
Management
ILO International Labour Organisation
IMF International Monetary Fund
MBO Management by Objectives
MC Multinational Corporation
MNCs Multinational Corporations
MPRA Mail Partnership- Recruitment Agency
MW Minimum Wage
NAFTA North American Free Trade Agreement
NGO Non Governmental Organisation
NUDIPU National Union of Disabled Persons of
Uganda
OSHA Occupational Safety and Health Act
PA Performance Appraisal
PC Parent Country
PCNs Parent Country Nationals
Ph.D. Doctor of Philosophy
POC Personality Oriented Criteria
PP Probationary Period
xiv The International Face of Human Resources Management

PRO Public Relations Officer
PSRP Public Service Reform Programs
REC Recruitment and Employment
Confederation
SAP Structural Adjustment Program
SCI Save the Children International
SHA Sexual Harassment Act
SMART Specific, Measurable, Achievable,
Realistic and Time bound
SNA Staff Needs Assessment
SPA Staff Performance Appraisal
TAMWA Tanzania Media Women Association
TAWLA Tanzania Women Lawyers Association
TBS Trait Based System
TCE Third Country Employees
TCNs Third Country Nationals
TCU Tanzania Commission for Universities
TOT Terms of Trade
UAE United Arab Emirates
UNICEF United Nations International Children’s
Educational Fund
USA United States of America
USD United States Dollar
ZAFELA Zanzibar Female Lawyers’ Association
ZU Zanzibar University
The International Face of Human Resources Management xv

xv
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents Pages
Title page ................................................................................. i
Publisher’s notes ..................................................................... ii
Dedication ............................................................................. iii
Acknowledgement ................................................................. iv
Preface ................................................................................... vi
List of Tables ......................................................................... ix
List of Figures ......................................................................... x
List of Acronyms ................................................................. xiii
Table of Contents ................................................................. xvi
Chapters .............................................................................. xvii
xvi The International Face of Human Resources Management

CHAPTERS Page
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION, APPROACHES AND SCOPE OF
INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
................................................................................................. 1
CHAPTER TWO
RELEVANCE OF IHRM AS AN ACADEMIC
DISCIPLINE ......................................................................... 20
CHAPTER THREE
INTRICACIES OF INTERNATIONAL STAFF
RECRUITMENT .................................................................. 29
CHAPTER FOUR
COMPLEXITY OF INTERNATIONAL STAFF SELECTION
............................................................................................... 50
CHAPTER FIVE
STAFF PERFOMANCE APPRAISAL:
ISSUES, CHALLENGES AND REMEDIES
............................................................................................... 83
CHAPTER SIX
BENCHMARKING AN INSTRUMENT OF PERFORMANCE
MANAGEMENT ................................................................ 109
The International Face of Human Resources Management xvii

CHAPTER SEVEN
WORKFORCE DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT
IN INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS
............................................................................................. 151
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHALLENGES FACING DUO CAREER COUPLES AND
INTERNATIONAL FEMALE EMPLOYEES ......................172
CHAPTER NINE
EXPATRIATE WORK - A BED OF ROSES AND SWEETS? ..
..............................................................................................196
BIBILIOGRAPHY ............................................................. 218
xviii The International Face of Human Resources Management

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION, APPROACHES AND SCOPE

OF INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCES
MANAGEMENT
The International Face of Human Resources Management 1

After reading this chapter, readers should be able to appreciate
key terminologies such as Approaches, Human Resources
Management and International Human Resources Management.
Secondly, they should be able to appreciate and analyse the main
approaches to International Human Resources Management
(IHRM) such as Ethnocentric, Polycentric, Regiocentric and
Geocentric. Finally, they should be in position to identify the
key similarities and differences among these approaches.
HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT DEFINED
It ought to be recalled that Human Resources Management

(HRM) is understood differently by many academia and authors.
For example, it is used to refer to the practices and policies one
needs to carry out the personnel aspects of one’s job in terms of
managing, acquiring, training, rewarding and providing a safe,
ethical and fair environment for one’s company’s employees,
Cary (2004:2).
Human Resources Management (HRM) may also be

understood as a strategic, integrated and coherent approach to
the employment, development and well-being of the people
working in organizations. (Amstrong, 2009) and according
to Byars and Rue (2006:4), Human Resources Management
encompasses those activities designed to provide for and
coordinate the human resources of an organization.
It is also understood as a set of organizational activities aimed

at effectively managing and directing human resources/labour
towards achieving organizational goals. This may explain
2 The International Face of Human Resources Management
why Human Resource Management at times is understood as
“Resource-Centered”, directed mainly at management needs
for Human Resources to be provided and deployed.
These definitions lead to the fact that the basic functions of the
Human Resources Department are:
 Human Resources Auditing/ Planning

 Carrying out Human Resources Needs Assessment
 Staff Recruitment
 Staff Selection
 Staff Training and Development
 Staff Performance Appraisal and the like.
APPROACH DEFINED
As regards the paradigm approach, in this book, it is used to

refer to a method of doing something or dealing with a problem.
“Approach in Latin means “go nearer to.” And this is a more
technical meaning. http://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/
approach accessed on 22/04/2014 at 04:15 p.m.
It is worthy noting that, on defining the paradigm, corporate

culture philosophy is very essential because it determines how
an organization wants to view this paradigm especially in
respect with its functions and how it wants to manage human
resources for its survival.

INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCES
MANAGEMENT DEFINED
It is a common fact that due to globalization, the whole world

has become a very tiny village. This has forced managers to
grapple with complex issues as they seek to gain or sustain a
competitive advantage. The world over, firms are faced with
unprecedented levels of foreign competition at home and
abroad. Thus, they recognize that:
• international business is prioritized by their contemporaries,
• finding and nurturing the human resources required

to implement an international or global strategy is
of paramount importance for the survival of the said
managers as well as the organizations they are heading!
Therefore, International Human Resources Management

(IHRM) is understood as the ability of management in an
organisation or companies, to strategically and coherently
approach the overall management of the employees, who in
many ways contribute to the objectives of the business. It refers
to the management of people in multinational companies in a
structured and thorough manner. In short, IHRM is about the
worldwide management of Human Resources Brewster, 2002;
Brewster & Suutari, 2005).
However, a broader definition of International Human

Resources Management is that, IHRM is about understanding,
researching, applying and revising all human resource activities
in their internal and external contexts as they impact the process
of managing human resources in enterprises throughout the
global environment to enhance the experience of multiple
stakeholders, including investors, customers, employees,
partners, suppliers, environment and society.
IHRM may be understood as a set of activities aimed at

managing human resources at international levels to achieve
organizational objectives and gain a competitive edge over
competitors at national and international levels. http://www.
studymode.com/course-notes/International-Hrm-1486239.
html Accessed on 27/4/2014.
In this direction therefore, IHRM includes conventional

HRM functions such as recruitment, selection, training and
development, performance appraisal and dismissal, but done at
international levels.
The international nature of HRM leads to activities like global

skills management, expatriate and repatriate management,
global training, global recruitment and staffing, benchmarking,
international labour remuneration and compensation and so on.
International Human Resources Management involves typically

three categories of workforce namely:-
• Home Country Employees (HCE)- These are a set of

employees belonging to home country of the firm where
the corporate head quarter is situated.
• Host Country Employees (HCE)- These are staff
belonging to the nation in which the subsidiary is situated.
• Third Country Employees (TCE)- These are the
employees who are not from home/host country but are
employed at subsidiary or corporate head quarters. For
example, a number of tertiary institutions worldwide
including the Zanzibar University in Tanzania that is
owned by Darul Imaan Charitable Association of Saudi
Arabia employ from the international labour market
(nationals of other countries) who work as Third Country
Employees.
Domestic Human Resources Management (DHRM) and

International Human Resources Management (IHRM)
Compared
Human Resources Management understood from the domestic
and international perspectives has a lot in common despite
the fact that, there are various differences between the two
paradigms. In this respect, this part is analyzing scenarios where
the two converge on the one hand and differ on the other hand.
Similarities between Domestic and International Human

Resources Management
Domestic and International Human Resources Management
have a lot in common and the following arguments are serving
as very good examples:-
• It is arguably true that, the Human Resources Management
activities that are performed in an international context are
very similar to those performed in the domestic context.
This may explain why Aswathappa and Dash (2007: 66)
argue that; “The Human Resources Manager therefore
needs to plan for the human resources, hire the right
people in right numbers, train and develop, compensate,
maintain and motivate employees, whether his or her
domain is domestic or global.”
• Another similarity relates to environmental forces that

impact on the Human Resources departments in the global
and domestic businesses. These forces among others
include political, legal, cultural and economic constraints.
These are similar worldwide despite the caution given by
Shen (2005) that in an international context, however,
there are multiple country-specific forces that have to be
considered and taken care of when dealing with human
resources.
• Domestic Human Resources Management (DHRM) and
IHRM have similar functions in personnel management
that among others include human resources audit, human
resources planning, staff recruitment, staff selection,
staff training and development and staff performance
evaluation.
• Globalisation impacts both Domestic and International
Human Resources Management. In this context,
Bamber et.al., (2004) identified 3 perspectives in which
globalisation affects the two paradigms; HRM and
IHRM: (1) economic - global convergence and ‘race
to the bottom’, (2) institutionalism - differing national
regulations and (3) integration - both, global economic
trends and national peculiarities affect HRM in domestic
and in international businesses.
• At both local and international levels, there are tendencies
of discrimination and corruption that affect HRM and
IHRM. Discrimination in terms of color, sex, creed,
political affiliation, ethnic background commonly affect
staff recruitment, selection and staff evaluation processes
in both domestic as well as global labour markets.
• DHRM and International Human Resources Management

aim at maximizing the utilization of human capital for
the achievement of not only the individual employee
satisfaction and goals but also for the success of business
entities through the development of organizational health,
culture, effectiveness and efficiency.
Differences between Domestic and International Human

Resources Management
Domestic and International Human Resources Management

on the other hand differ a lot. The following arguments depict
clearly the areas in which the two paradigms divert. These are:-
• Domestic Human Resources Management is in most

cases done at national level and International Human
Resources Management is effected at international level.
For example, hiring a County Chief in one of Zanzibar’s
villages of Tunguu in Kati (Central) District; South Region
is not the same as hiring a Country Coordinator of Ford
Foundation with a seat in either Nairobi or Dar es Salaam.
Automatically, the latter process is more complex.

• Domestic Human Resources Management focuses
at managing employees who as much as possible are
belonging to one nation and International Human
Resources Management focuses at managing employees
hailing from different nations. In International Human
Resources Management, these employees are technically
referred to as Home country, host country and third
country employees.
• Domestic HRM is concerned with managing limited

number of HRM activities including but not limited to
issues like Human Resources Auditing/Planning, Staff
Recruitment, Staff Selection done at domestic or national
level and IHRM is concerned with managing these very
activities plus additional activities such as expatriate
and repatriate management as well as compensation
management for international employees.
• Domestic HRM is less complicated due to less influence

from the external factor. IHRM is complicated as it is
affected heavily by global events arising from globalization
including cultural differences, distance and home versus
host government influences.
• With IHRM, the workforce is obliged to think and reason

globally not locally. This implies that international staff
may easily be accepted and warmly received by local staff
without any due prejudice and discrimination. This is so
because due to globalization, the whole world has become
a very tiny village that there is a lot of labour mobility
which is making people prove more cordial since they
may become co-workers, separate after sometime but
end up working together in a different environment after
sometime.
APPROACHES TO INTERNATIONAL HUMAN

RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
The following are the four approaches to International Human

Resources Management. They are; Ethnocentric, Polycentric,
Regiocentric and Geocentric.
1. Ethnocentric Staffing Approach
This is a staffing policy or approach which the recruiting firm

uses to judge one’s culture in relation to the values, norms and
standards of another culture or ethnic group determine one’s
suitability for employment. Ethnocentric Approach may also
be seen as the staffing policy employed in companies that
have international strategy orientation whereby the workforce
from parent country are sent to a host country. For instance,
when a Chinese enterprise invests in Indonesia, China is the
home country and Indonesia is the host country. If the Chinese
enterprise is ethnocentric, it will expect Indonesians to accept
the inherent superiority of China. This presupposes that all
investments will be made in accordance with the Chinese
method of operation, business strategy and business plan.
According to the proponents of this approach, most if not all

key management positions are held by parent country nationals.
This is so because of the belief that home country nationals
are superior in terms of intelligence, reliability, exposure,
experience and performance compared to local staff.
Merits of Ethnocentric Staffing Approach
The Ethnocentric staffing approach has a number of advantages

and the following are among them:-
• It eases the communication and coordination flow between

the parent and host countries and/or organizations. This
is essential because these two are critical aspects of
organizational life span since there is no communication
breakdown. This means that issues and problems that
emerge are forthwith addressed and solved. A saying goes
“a problem addressed is a problem half solved.”
• Internal contradictions, conflicts and disputes are greatly

minimized to the greatest extent because the workforce
may be sharing the same culture, values, norms, interests,
motives, educational background and nationality.
• The risk of having inadequate number of qualified Host

Country Nationals (HCNs) is averted since the bulk of the
workforce hail from parent country or corporation.
• Cohesion is yet another usefulness of the ethnocentric

approach because the workforce join together, co-operate,
socialize and work in unison to achieve both individual
staff objectives and organizational goals.
Short comings of the Ethnocentric Staffing Approach
Advantageous as it is, the ethnocentric staffing policy has a

number of weaknesses including:-
• The ethnocentric staffing approach hinders the promotional
opportunities of the Host Country Nationals since most
of or all job slots are taken by Parent Country Nationals
(PCNs). Practically, this affects the productivity levels
of the Host Country Nationals and may lead to increased
levels of labour turnover and unemployment in the host
country.
• There is a huge difference of compensation packages

between Parent Country Nationals and Host Country
National which is seen as unfair, illogical and unreasonable
by Host Country Nationals especially when there is no
big contrast in the academic qualification of the PCNs
and HCNs. At times, this leads to occurrence of conflicts
among staff of the same business unit.
• The expatriate workforce may take quite long period of

time to get acclimatized to host country work environment
and a long the way, the expatriate staff may make serious
managerial errors since they are new in the country and
environment. The errors may be detrimental to the firm’s
steady progress!
2. Polycentric Staffing Approach
This is a staffing approach which focuses at the top portfolios

of a business unit being filled by home-country personnel as
much as possible. However, due to unavoidable circumstances,
top management posts may be filled by other personnel from
without the country. Proponents of the Polycentric staffing
approach usually see profit potential in a foreign country despite
the fact that the foreign market tends to be extremely hard to
comprehend and to enter.
Strong points of the Polycentric Staffing Approach
Just like the Ethnocentric staffing policy, the Polycentric

Approach has a number of strong points which its proponents
capitalize upon to justify its adoption. Some of these are:-
• Engagement of Home Country Nationals (HCNs) has the

potential to eliminate language problems for the expatriate
staff plus their family members. It is arguably true that
language proficiency is one of the key issues in doing
successful business. Therefore, with language barrier,
a lot may go wrong. This approach therefore enables
corporations to save a lot of funds that they would be
incurring in language proficiency training programs for
their staff.
• In spite of the fact that business corporations may be

forced to pay high salaries with the aim of attracting
highly skilled, talented and specialized international
labour especially the Home Country Nationals (HCNs),
this approach is still far better and cheaper in the long
run as compared to hiring Parent Country National
(PCNs) because by virtue of their international stature,
they are costly to the recruiting business entity that has to
advertise internationally, has to incur flight costs for the
international labour, has to incur interview costs over and
above spending funds on language proficiency training
sessions if such international staff are to be of any use in
a foreign land, owing to the skills and competencies they
bring to the job, then, they are cheaper.
• Corporations employing this staffing policy may benefit

from it as it curbs the problem of turnover occurring
in Parent Countries (PCs) on engaging Home Country
Nationals who are more stable since they are operating
from home. These also have the ability of managing the
subsidiaries more efficiently and effectively given the
opportunity of heading such corporations.
However, this approach has several shortfalls such as:-
• Some Parent Country Nationals (PCNs) do lack the

necessary experience and exposure of carrying out over
seas or international assignments. They may depend on
guess work as they lack career mobility experience and
have not worked with Home Country Nationals (HCNs)
before. In most cases, this causes conflict among the
international and some local staff which may stagnate
the subsidiary business entity in terms of reduced vision
in strategic decision-making capabilities coupled with
reduced market share and clientele.

• Bridging the gap between Home Country (HC) and the
Parent Country (PC) staff at headquarters is a contentious
issue especially with regard to language barriers,
conflicting national loyalties and differences emanating
from personal values, attitudes to business and so on. This
may result in a Multinational Corporation (MC) becoming
a ‘federation’ of independent national units with weak
linkages to the corporate head quarters.
3. Regiocentric Staffing Approach
This is a staffing policy that employs staff hailing from within

a given region. A Corporation implements a regional strategy
when much more benefits can be obtained by sharing functions
across regions. Some international staff are transferred within
the same region for their work stations. For instance, on adopting
a regiocentric staffing approach, an international business entity
having a number of Asian, European and American employees,
a manager working in the American Continent will be moving
only within the same region.
Therefore, the Regional Headquarter plans and organizes

collaborative efforts among local subsidiaries. It is tasked
to design regional strategic and business plans, research
and development agenda based on the local environment, it
conducts local executive selection and training programs, it is in
charge of product innovation, budget management, marketing
strategies, customer care management and/or public relations.

In addition to the above functions, the headquarter manager
is charged with the responsibility of conducting regional
research and development programs, he/she is in control of
foreign exchange, he/she manages inter and intra company
loans, drawing budget for the subsidiary, selection of executive
officials of the subsidiary as well as establishment of corporate
culture.
Strong points of adopting a Regiocentric Staffing Approach
Adopting the Regiocentric Staffing Policy provides numerous
advantages such as:-
• It provides employment opportunities to the local people
because the local subsidiaries are almost a hundred
percent staffed by Home Country Nationals (HCNs).
This is important because resources would be siphoned
and used to develop foreign staff at the expense of local
people.
• It stabilizes the economy as many local people are
employed. Those who would be redundant, disorderly and
prove a real source of regional instability are at work and
therefore busy attending to their respective duties. Hence,
leading to a strong, stable and viable region to live and
work in.
• The subsidiary is easy to manage because it is operating
within familiar and user friendly local conditions. Nothing
is either new or strange. Therefore, business entities do
not need to incur expenses on staff training and retraining
in terms of cultural and language differences.
• There is smooth flow of information and easy interaction
among executives transferred to regional headquarters
from subsidiaries in the region and the Parent Country
Nationals (PCNs) attached to the regional headquarter.
This is because of the similarity in language and other
things that would prove a barrier. For example Kenya and
Tanzania use Kiswahili. If a Kenyan was employed in
Tanzania, he/she would have problem with the Kiswahili
spoken and used as the official language in Tanzania.
• More often than not, it may be the basis for a multinational
corporation to change gradually but systematically from
a purely ethnocentric or polycentric staffing approach
to a geocentric staffing approach. This is because of the
easy staffing procedures and plans this staffing approach
focuses at.
Demerits of a Regiocentric Staffing Approach
The Regiocentric Staffing Approach has a number of shortfalls
including but not limited to:-
 Whereas this approach has the potential to improve career
prospects at the national level, it only moves the barrier
to regional level workforce who may advance to regional
headquarters but more often than not, positioned at the
parent country headquarters of the corporation.
 It has the potential of enhancing Federalism at a regional
scene instead of enhancing it on a national basis. This
therefore, constrains corporations from taking a global
stance.
4. Geocentric Staffing Approach
This is the staffing philosophy that seeks to field the best

performing staff in key vacant portfolios of business entities
without being bothered by staff nationality, ethnicity or religious
affiliation as agitated for by the underlying philosophy of global
business entities.
Merits of the Geocentric Staffing Approach
 It enhances cooperation and resource sharing opportunities
among different business units within and without the
region of operation. The problem of budgetary limitation
and other resources is therefore solved as resources are
exchanged and shared among the subsidiaries.
 It enables a multinational business entity to develop
an international executive team which assists in
establishment of a global village as well as an internal
pool of potential employees ready for redeployment
globally. The staff redeployed abroad are already familiar
with operationalization of foreign assignments.
 The Host Country that may want a high number of her
citizens employed may utilize her immigration controls
in order to force HCN employment especially if enough
personnel with the perquisite competencies and skills are
available.
 It overcomes the federation drawback of the polycentric
approach.

Short Comings of the Geocentric Staffing Approach
• In most cases, the Geocentric Staffing Approach proves

pretty hard and costly to implement due to high training
costs coupled with high staff relocation expenses. This
presupposes that there is need to have a compensation
plan which may be higher than one offered at a national
level.
• This approach proves too expensive since many enterprises
demand for full documentation about the potential staff
hired from the international labour market. The costs are
incurred in respect of interviews, selection procedures
that are time consuming. These some time also end up in
a fiasco!
• Host governments usually prefer many of their citizens
being accorded first priority when it comes to the issue
of employment to foreign staff. Also, such governments
in most cases utilize immigration controls to force
employability of Home Country Nationals if enough
people and adequate skills are unavailable. This policy
locks out specialized personnel.
• In most cases, the Geocentric Staffing Approach faces the
problem of large number of PCNs, TCNs and HCNs being
sent overseas with a view of building and maintaining
the international team required to support it. This is so
because the Approach requires a more centralized control
of the staffing process but this may be resisted by the
subsidiary units.
CHAPTER TWO
RELEVANCE OF INTERNATIONAL HUMAN

RESOURCES MANAGEMENT AS AN
ACADEMIC DISCIPLINE

Indeed, International Human Resource Management (IHRM)
is not only a topical theme but it is also relevant in the academic
field. This explains why numerous tertiary institutions the
world over are capturing it as one of the most vital areas of their
academic programs. It ought to be recalled that, International
Human Resource Management may mean a set of activities
aimed at managing human resources at international level to
achieve institutional objectives and gain a competitive edge
over competitors at national and international levels. Therefore,
its relevance is seen basing on the following arguments:-
Benchmarking
The study of International Human Resources Management

(IHRM) equips academicians with the knowledge of managing
organizational performance world wide. This is particularly
holding much water in situations where the process of leveling
the competitive edge of organizations is adhered to. Enterprises
are in position to borrow leaves and success stories of sister
and/or competitive firms especially in terms of production,
marketing, customer care and public relations, financial
management, human resources management and sales, for the
organization’s prosperity worldwide. These issues are taught in
theatre rooms and they make IHRM a vital academic discipline
especially to those studying Human Resources Management at
tertiary levels.

Global Recruitment
Academicians are provided with an opportunity to appreciate

issues of labour mobility over time and space. In case the
domestic labour market does not provide sufficient source of
applicants, the foreign labour market then is the best alternative.
The discipline prevails strategies of luring applicants from over
seas labour markets required to fill vacant portfolios in another
economy. At least the concept of global recruitment is grasped
and upon its application, personalities with a great deal of
experience are obtained from the international labour market.
Global Staff Selection
Just like the case of global recruitment, in cases where the local
market can not produce the required staff, the international
labour market is resorted to for purposes of staff selection.
Therefore, this emphasizes the relevance of IHRM as one of
the disciplines of study because the very best staff are selected
from the foreign labour market. This also plays another major
role of enabling firms manage the issue of succession planning.
Firms the world over do not need to manage crises in case staff
leave but conveniently resort to the international labour market
to fill the existing human resources gaps.
Employability on an International Scene
The discipline is relevant as it equips scholars who have

appreciated the science to secure and access job offers on an
international scale. This is so because they are exposed to the
science and management of local and international staff and
this kind of exposure helps them to fit in the system with ease
and they execute tasks with much confidence.
It improves the capacity and knowledge of problem

solving
Many international managers work with people from different

background including but not limited to culture, color,
nationality, beliefs, norms and values. The international nature
of the discipline makes it handy for those who apply it to be
problem solvers as they base upon international standards in
conflicts, dispute and problem solving. This is double edged
because besides being problem solvers, such staff are also
trying hard to be part of the solution to the many malaise of
organizations the world over.
Management of global workforce
The discipline is again very relevant as an academic package

because it enables practitioners to respond to domestic and
international pathologies of organizations. This is through
designing Human Resources practices that leverage across
boundaries and adapt to local conditions. It is believed that
effective management of human resources on an international
scale translates into organizational success story.
Both the staff and management are basing upon their

international exposure to bring their skills and competencies to
their respective jobs which propels success in both the domestic
and international markets.
Enhances preparation of policies favouring
International Market
The aspect of globalization has compelled the industrial sector

to engage in international business as to gain competitive
advantages and becomes a significant contributor in maximizing
organizational operations. Human Resources managers are
challenged to develop strategies proportionate to the needs and
demands of the market forces. For example, organizations are
taking their services nearer to the clientele but ensuring that
such goods and services are of high quality. This explains why
enterprises the world over are doing business at their respective
headquarters and at their subsidiary companies.
Organisational Revitalisation
The relevance of this discipline in the academic arena is

also appreciated in the fact that it promotes revitalisation of
organisations and companies the world over for purposes of
efficiency and effectiveness. Firms are making reforms in the
organisational structures by thinking their management styles
and expanding span of control. The organisational revitalisation
is also creating a need for additional skills for managers on how
to deal with the human capital from all walks of life at all times.
Promotes International Labor Relations
The other relevance of IHRM is derived in the fact that it

promotes intra, inter-company and inter-state relationships
world wide. This is because of its approach of integration of staff
from all works of life regardless of their individual differences.
This leads to effective work execution since firms are desirous
of achieving the targets for which they were established. The
mixture among local and international human capital leads to
competition among staff and the firms reap a lot out of this kind
of stiff competition.
Enhances Adoption of Global Changes
Further still, International Human Resources Management

is becoming very relevant as an academic discipline because
theories of IHRM are part and parcel of the core curricula in the
area of Human Resources Management as taught at many tertiary
institutions world wide. Thus, knowledge of the management
of human resources at an international scale is appreciated.
This is healthy for the continued growth of enterprises because
business entities are able to stand the test of time since they are
in possession of the most important factor of all the factors of
production. That is to say, the human capital!
Secondly, the discipline is very relevant in the academic field

because studying International Human Resource Management
produces administrators and managers who are able to
formulate and implement policies and strategies which enable
their companies to cope with global changes. Knowledge of
this discipline enables managers to create an international
workforce which is flexible enough to adapt to any changes
and still succeed in the international assignments.

Promotes Competencies of Change Agents
The discipline inspires its products to be very competent

change agents in organizations since the said products are
able to appreciate most of the local and international factors
which ought to be accorded all the due attention for effective
implementation of change in the organizations. This is the
case because the discipline is emphatical on attitude change of
employees as to be able to accommodate those in leadership
and their colleagues regardless of their differences in colour,
nationality, gender and religion. The employees are expected to
work in unision and as a team, accept and support one another
for the success of the enterprises.
Training of Multinational Teams
Training is one of the core features of both Human Resources

Management and International Human Resources Management.
Therefore, the discipline is of much relevance in the academic
sector because it grooms Human Resources Managers who in
turn take up the responsibility of conducting training for the
staff. This helps them improve performance of the organizations
at local and international levels. Those trained are in position to
work as teams as they are equipped with tools of training and
training others. Eventually, everybody in the firm is in position
to perform effectively and efficiently as the result of training.

Promotes Managerial Skills and Competencies
The discipline is found handy in the curriculum of Human

Resources Management because its products are equipped
with different managerial skills, competencies, systems,
approaches and strategies that are essential in performance
management and/or evaluation at domestic and international
perspectives. The discipline therefore equips its products with a
clear understanding of the functions of the human capital at all
levels. The products are therefore competent enough to work
anywhere and at any time in this competitive environment.
Further more, the discipline equips Human Resources Managers

with skills of effective decision making especially in terms
of staff recruitment, selection, promotion, firing, transfer or
deployment either domestically or internationally. This is based
on the understanding that the discipline provides knowledge
of decision making that affects individual staff, management
specifically and the enterprises in general. Figure 2.1 shows
that with IHRM, HRM is accorded a new face whereby
organisational staff develop a positive view or attitude towards
Human Resources Management done globally other than
continue thinking and operating locally.

Figure 2.1: Depicting the International nature of HRM. World
map image adopted from noobnetworks.com/world-globe.gif,
accessed on Wednesday17.12.2014
In short therefore, it is clear from the foregoing analysis

that International Human Resource Management is of much
relevance in the academic field because it plays a very important
role in providing managerial skills and competencies to its
products who handle management tasks at the international
scene over and above being a source of employment to
them at a multinational perspective. In fact as the argument
goes that knowledge equals power, this discipline enhances
one’s employability the world over. www.google.com/
knowledgeispower, accessed on 20/04/2013.

CHAPTER THREE

RECRUITMENT

The recruitment process involves a systematic procedure from
taking an audit of the current stock of staff available, sourcing
the candidates themselves to arranging and conducting the
interviews. This requires many resources time inclusive.
It involves identification of vacancy, preparation of job
description, person specification, advertising the vacancy and
managing the response, short-listing, arranging interviews,
conducting interview and decision making. (Adopted from
www.recruitment.naukrihub.com/ recruitment, and accessed
on 20th June, 2013)
In principle, this depicts that recruitment starts with running

some adverts in the mass or electronic media whereby the
advertising firm is expecting people to express interest to join a
firm on accessing the advertisement.
Recruitment is defined differently by various academicians

and authors. For instance, Rao (2005: 124) views it as “the
process of locating and encouraging potential applicants to
apply for existing or anticipated job openings.” Recruitment
may be defined as “the process of luring the best of the very
best applicants to fill vacant portfolios in a firm.”
Whether or not a particular job vacancy will be filled by someone

from within, or from without the organization, depends on
the organization’s human resource policies, the requirements
of the job to be filled, the talent to be found and often, the
organizational politics surrounding the decision (Nankervis et.
al., 2002).

Nsubuga (2013) argues that recruitment may also be understood
as the part of the employment process that “aims at matching
the successful applicants with the requirements of the available
openings at a given time in a firm.”
It is also understood as “a mechanism through which individuals

are matched with the relevant available organisational tasks,
projects, programs and duties that may be deemed necessary by
the management in place at a time.”
Recruitment is also seen as “a legal mechanism of obtaining

the right number of resource persons needed at a time to fill
the right vacant posts at the right time and in a right unit or
section.”
It is noted from the foregoing definitions that the very best

have to be searched for to avoid painful regrets by sourcing
regionally or globally if the home labour market does not
provide the required personnel. In fact, it is expected that this
ought to be the approach if the recruiting organization has
business engagements in the domestic or local, regional, or
international markets.
Recruitment carried out across boarders of recruiting firms and

economies is rather complex. There are numerous difficulties
associated with this exercise and among them are analysed in
this chapter.

RECRUITMENT
The world over, the recruitment exercise is very complex more

especially in poorly managed organizations. The complexity is
glaring in cases of re-deployment as the exercise may be marred
by corruption and inexperience of the recruiters. Numerous
variables explain the complexity of the recruitment exercise
from the international perspective and some of these are:-
Financial and Economic Crisis
Many economies around the world are experiencing financial

and economic crisis. These are leading to redundancy of
labour coupled with non recruitment policy in organisations.
Thus, making it next to impossible for organisations to effect
the recruitment process. This has resulted into rising levels of
unemployment or retrenchment. Firms can not therefore recruit
especially from the international labour market.
Unattractive Job – Offers
People are always searching for lucrative jobs for a smart take
home package. Therefore, any job offer that is not attractive
is avoided by prospective job seekers. This also applies to
those types of jobs that are boring and have limited chances of
personal growth of the workers.

Subjective and Conservative Internal Recruitment Policies
Staff recruitment will be complex if a policy of filling

vacancies through internal promotions depends on seniority,
job knowledge and past work experience of several years. In
such a scenario, finding qualified applicant proves laborious.
Head-hunting
Nsubuga (2013:47) argues that organisations search around

the domestic larbour market for highly specialized personnel
who may be recruited to fill vacant portfolios but more often
than not, they fail to get the right personnel. The only option
therefore is to search the regional, continental and international
labour markets for the required candidates.
This move causes numerous difficulties because of the cost

involved. For example, besides the resources that will be paid
in form of facilitation for movement of the candidate from
the home to the new labour market, a firm may incur transfer
costs. This often happens in the world of football where players
transferring from one Club to another have proved very costly.
This is the case between Manchester United and Real Madrid
in the case of Christiano Ronaldo or even Chelsea’s Jose
Mourinho. The later was head-hunted from Spain’s Real Madrid.
These examples may explain why in the world of football still,
scouts are always sent to watch big competitions the world over
with the target out searching best players and best coaching
personnel that may be lured to new clubs globally.

The other variable that makes head-hunting very difficult is
that, many people especially in the developing world fail to
market themselves unto the international scene despite the fact
that they may be possessing the requisite and specialized skills.
They are unknown because they fail to upload their profiles on
the websites! So, despite the numerous advertisements aimed
at luring such specialists to the organization, the effort does
not bear any positive results as they are neither accessed nor
known.
Cost Involved
According to ibid (2013:47-48), Head–hunting proves complex

in terms of cost involved and language used. As regards the
language problem, many people misinterpret things and things
become abstract. For example; when one says that James
went to bank but does not provide details, one may remain
wondering which bank because there is a river bank and a Bank
presupposing a financial institution.
Secondly, the cost of the advertisements featuring in international

media may be prohibitive. They feature on radio, television as
well as in news papers. Some firms may not be rich enough to
run several of such vital advertisements on the one hand and on
the other hand, some people may not be in position to access
the adverts in question. Hence, people fail to access the adverts
and the personnel required are not recruited.

Cost of recruitment may also be in terms of time spent on
searching for the personnel required. Skilled personnel may
not readily be available on the labour market at the time of
the search. Therefore, during periods of the search, practically,
work stalls and this is to the detriment of the firm.
Further still, cost may be in terms of interview sessions that

may be conducted aimed at filling the vacant portfolios. Some
firms engage international recruiting agencies whose services
are payable at very high rates as they are in form of consultancy.
In some organizations, inducting or orienting the new staff into

the firm is also a costly exercise. The incoming staff need to
know their new firm in and out as to be able to operate within
the scope and expectations of the management specifically
and the firm in general. Thus, making orientation very useful
despite the fact that it is too costly to most firms with either
little or start up capital.
Corporate Cultures and Core Values
Organisations exist due to core values. They may be reluctant to

change them. Therefore, a firm may fail to secure the required
applicants as a failure to get those fitting in its values. For
example, some business entities take employment medical tests
as they fear taking on either sickly or pregnant applicants. Some
of the organizations are International Labour Organisation
(ILO), Save the Children International (SCI) and UNICEF.

Language Barrier
Recruitment for international business entities may also be

difficult due to corporate cultures. Issues like language, norms,
values, beliefs, institute cultures form part of corporate cultures.
Corporate cultures may be repugnant to the incoming member
of staff. For example, in Tanzania, “Good Morning” as a form
of greeting is given to different meanings within the same
country. For instance;
• Mwangaluka mayo? Good Morning Madam? This is as

per the Sukuma people of Tanzania Mainland.
• Habari za unjuu? How is the morning? This is used by

the people of Bwe Juu; South region of Unguja yet the
Sukuma use Ulemhola?, for how are you?
Mfereji is yet another good example from Tanzania Mainland

where it refers to pipe for sewage system while in Zanzibar, it
simply means tap used for obtaining clean water!
Many examples of languages used in many parts of the world

also do exist. These make the world of international staff
recruitment a living hell. Figure 3.1 is depictive of a sample of
languages which prove a barrier if one is using them without
any mastery thereof.

Figure 3.1: Depicting different languages. Adopted from
Photobucket.com/image/language/barrier…./htm) Saturday
29.11.2014 at 12.45 p.m.
Modern channels of Transmission
Adverts on job offers may not be accessed by the would be

target audience especially in some remote areas due to lack of
power and other factors. Therefore, recruiting organisations
may fail to secure the required applicants! Some of the channels
employed include the celebrated social media of Twitter, You
Tube, Face Book, Internet, E-mail. Others are telephone calls,
fax messages and the like.
Organisational aims, objectives, mission, vision and goals

that are vague
Objectives are supposed to be SMART; specific, measurable,

achievable, realistic and time bound. It is arguably true
that executing tasks and working with organizations whose
objectives are not SMART is an acid test. An objective such as;
“We shall hire only Ph.D. holders of 23 years and below by the
year 2050” can not be realistic and if a firm sticks to its guns, it
may not get the target applicants!
For purposes of effective work execution therefore, since
organizational aims and objectives are affected by time and
space, they ought to be periodically revisited and revitalized.
Lest, there could be scenarios where the environment in which
the firms are operating is changing yet the firms are static which
will be self-defeating and detrimental to the firm.
Legal restrictions
Recruitment may prove too difficult to be carried out by
the Personnel Manager because of the legal arm of either
government or international institutions. For example, a firm
by law may be required or barred to recruit certain categories
of people such that however much it advertises, it may fail to
obtain the personnel required. In this case, the Civil Rights
Acts that are emphatical on the recruitment of the minorities,
women and the disadvantaged groups may serve as appropriate
examples.
In Uganda, the National Union of Disabled Persons of Uganda
(NUDIPU); an umbrella NGO of people with disabilities,
formed in 1987 to bring together various categories of persons
with disabilities, headquartered at Kisasi; Kampala, Uganda,
argues that disability is not inability. Meaning that any physical
challenge on one’s body does not necessarily translate into
failure to perform or execute tasks.
Hence, one must not be denied an opportunity to be hired
due to this lame excuse as it is the individual carries out tasks
not the physical impairment. There are so many able bodied
persons around the globe who are lazy, who hate work and
responsibilities but not necessarily because they are disabled.
Therefore, it demands that employers must engage people with

disabilities. International Labour Organisation (ILO) forbids the
recruitment of the under-age persons (Child labour). UNICEF
and Save the Children International forbid child neglect, abuse,
exploitation and the like.
Ethnic concerns
Many Personnel Managers consider applicants basing on

technical know who other than technical know how. There is
corruption (TKK, Brown envelop), nepotism, collision in firms.
In such situations therefore, recruitment may not be easy in
some organizations where such vices are the order of the day.
Discrimination or corruption
Discrimination due to colour, sex, creed, political affiliation

(winner takes it all) is also at play. Applications from Blacks are
in most cases not honoured in organizations around the world!
Therefore, in places where such a social vice has taken strong
root, it may be too hard for people to secure employment. Thus,
a puzzle to the Human Resources Officer who is trying to effect
the role of recruiting.

Political instability
Whereas it is true that working abroad may be lucrative,

some areas are hazardous to life unless hardship allowance is
captured within the salary structure. For example South Sudan,
Afghanistan, Iraq, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC),
Somalia, Syria, Palestine and the like where there is political
insecurity almost on a daily basis.
On political insecurity, Gomez-Mejia et.al (2004: 620) argue

that Corporations tend to rely on expatriates for top management
positions when the risk of government intervention in the
business is high, when actual or potential turmoil within the
country is serious, when the threat of terrorism exists and when
there has been a recent history of social upheaval in the country
……Most Western ventures in the Republics of Eastern Europe
and the former Soviet Union are run by expatriates. The same is
true in the few remaining communist countries where political
instability remains potentially high. Figure 3.2 serves as a good
example of political instability in Libya.

Figure 3.2: Depicting scenes of political instability on the fall
of the Gaddaf regime in Tripoli. Adopted from http://www.
theepochtimes.com/n2/world/caution-precedes-military-force-
in-libyan-crisis-52350.html&h, visited on 23rd June, 2013.
Government Interference
This may be due to vested interests in some government

officials and end up throwing their weight behind a candidate/
an applicant. Some posts are accorded to only political party
supporters. This may explain why, buying off voters is the
order of the day especially in the developing economies. Thus,
making recruitment very challenging to a recruiting agency or
organisation.

Qualification required
This is a problem of either over or under qualification. The

labour market may have either too many qualified or too few
qualified personnel and it becomes an uphill task to make a
head way at the time of recruitment. For details, please, see
Nsubuga (2013:9-11).
Crime Rate
In areas where the crime rate is the order of the day, international
recruitment may be a nightmare. For example in Mexico, cases
of rape, murder, drug abuse are rampant! One may not dare
to respond to a job advert that may feature in the mass and
electronic media in such dangerous places. Hence, making
recruitment from the international scene very challenging.
Weather Conditions
Very extreme hot, cold, stormy weather conditions may be

a stumbling block for people to apply for international jobs.
People just get scared of such extreme weather conditions and
they shun a way. This could either be too hot or too cold to
be accommodated by potential employees. More often than
not, flights the world over are cancelled due to such extreme
weather conditions.
There is no way therefore one would travel to either to look for

a jot or to attend a job interview or even to report for duty under
such severe and unfriendly weather conditions. Hence, making
it laborious for a Human Resources Officer to recommend
recruitment of people in organisations.
Family Ties
Separation of families may also curtail mobility of potential

employees worldwide. Potential applicants may not want to
risk separating with their spouses, children and other close
relatives to go to take up foreign assignments. Separation is
such a stressful phenomenon to both the staff and the family
members especially to the newly married couples.
PRACTICAL REMEDIES TO THE INTRICACIES
In order to obtain the desired calibre of staff organisations are

targeting for from within the home and foreign labour markets,
they have to walk an extra mile especially if the quality of staff
required in a firm is not readily available as clearly observed
from the aforementioned intricacies. The impediments have
to be removed for the smooth movement of potential staff
from one labour market to the other through application of the
following strategies just among others:-
Ensuring Security to the employees
It goes without any argument that people desire to work in

secure places because there is no spare part for one’s life.
Insecurity will bog down any reasonable or minimum effort
put in by either an organization or an economy for its sustained
growth and development. Therefore, to ensure that peace
and security prevail, organizations and economies can attract
staff by strengthening and establishing life insurance policies,
providing accommodation in peaceful and secure areas or even
by providing security personnel to the experts, potential staff
and their family members. Stories of abductions of family
members and/or expatriate staff in many parts of the globe are
serving as good examples and they discourage people from
sending in their application letters for the would be juicy jobs
internationally.
Use of modern and local channels for communication
A combination of both modern and local channels to advertise

the vacant portfolios in a firm or an economy is advisable. This
is so because message will not be able to reach far and wide for
the benefit of the cross section of applicants. If only a few and
unreliable means of advertisement were employed. Modern or
local channels of communication may include television, social
media, magazines, mobile phones, fax machines and radio.
E-recruitment
This strategy will enable organizations to largely avoid the

cost which is normally involved in traditional recruitment
approaches. There are organizations that offer return air
tickets to applicants who show up for interviews and some of
them even end up failing the interviews. Despite their failure,
organizational resources have already been squandered unto
flights of such unsuccessful interviewees. A one hour video
clip capturing an interview session may turn the whole exercise
into a very cheap adventure when received by a recruiting
organization across boarders.

More often than not, e-recruitment enables organizations avoid
vices like corruption and discrimination. With e-recruitment
therefore, more qualified applicants will be attracted to apply
for the post and the recruitment firm will enjoy the advantage
of selecting from many applicants.
Use of Recruitment Agencies
Recruitment intricacies including advertisement costs may also

be averted through the use of Recruitment Agencies whereby
applicants are encouraged to upload their credentials for the
benefit and analysis of the recruiting agency. The recruitment
agency scrutinizes the credentials and recommends either the
suitability or otherwise of the applicants.
There are many agencies offering recruitment services the

world over. Examples just among others are; Recruitment
and Employment Confederation (REC), the Mail Partnership-
Recruitment Agency (MPRA), First CALL UK Limited. Figure
3.3 is emphatical on this point.
Figure 3.3: Depicting a sample of a recruiting agency.

Adopted from http://www.lth.hotel.com/london_events/image/
recruitmentagency, accessed on 27th April, 2014
Flexible Organizational Core Values
Organisations ought to have dynamic and flexible core values

so that revitalizing them from time to time may not be a huddle.
A number of variables lead to changes in the core values of
organizations. Some of the variables are; variations of labor
qualifications, sex of the labour, age of the labour, global
political and economic interference, government regulations,
globalization, the changing business world and the changing
nature of work and workers that is giving birth to issues of
career development and career plans.
Flexible Organizational Culture
Organizational culture ought to be an enabling culture that

is capable of changing from time to time, organization to
organization and place to place. This leads to firm’s ability to
hire different applicants from different sources, economies,
organizations, nationalities, gender, regions, religions and so
on. This also enables the recruiting firm to be fair, objective
and non discriminatory. In this case therefore, depending on
the nature of a recruiting firm, issues such as dressing style,
language, values, norms and beliefs should as much as possible
matter less during the time of recruitment.
Avoiding nepotism and selfishness
These are indeed bad vices and practices that ought to be

avoided if the recruitment exercise is to produce attractive
and competitive applicants even from the international labour
market expressing interest in applying for the vacant portfolios.
Therefore, tribal, national, religious and ethnicity issues should
be immaterial at the time of recruitment.
The Firm’s Recruitment Policy
Recruitment with an international stature most likely to bring

about good results depends largely on the firm’s Recruitment
Policy. This should be well designed, tested and carefully
fitted into the firm’s recruitment process. It should reflect what
the firm desires in terms of employment qualifications, job
security and staff motivation, what the firm expects to offer in
terms of job execution, on the job training, staff development,
promotions and other relevant incentives.
It is advisable that a firm should develop both strategic and

business plans on which the rest of the policies of the firm
should rotate. Such policies among others include staff training
and development policy, recruitment and promotions policy,
succession policy. This is essential because the firm shall not be
managing crises in case staff need to go for short or long term
training, annual leave, emergency leave or even when there is
a breakdown in administration caused by natural calamities or
resignation of the top executives.
Such plans and policies shall detail;
• when to recruit,
• who to recruit,
• where to recruit from (internal or external labour markets),
• why recruit and most importantly,
• how to recruit. These details will go along way in enabling
the recruiting firm avoiding to revisit its labour laws from
time to time either to suit their interests or to exploit the
workforce.
Scenarios where the firm is inconsistent lead to frequent law

suits between the employers and the workforce as terms and
conditions of appointment are revisited, violated and therefore
changed by management without the consent of the concerned
and/or affected employees!
Recruitment of highly skilled Personnel
A firm that is recruiting globally ought to be so selective that

the applicants should be highly skilled and competent in order
to be able to carry out multiple tasks but with a handful of
employees. This is advantageous because a few but all round
experts are recruited and later maximally engaged in the firm’s
activities, programs and projects. This is so because the firm
will recruit too few staff but because they are versatile, they
will be able to handle most of the tasks, projects and activities
of the firm that would be executed by many less qualifies and
experienced staff. This has a strong relationship with the aims
of Human Resources Planning which are discussed in detail by
Nsubuga (2013:3-4).

Organizational objectives, goals, mission and vision
Organisational objectives, goals, mission and vision should

be well defined without any ambiguity so that the would be
applicants appreciate the firm all round before deciding to
join it. This implies that there should be a match between the
applicants and the nature of the operations of the recruiting firm.
This encourages many people to work for such an organized
and systematic organisation.
Attitude of the local staff towards international labour
Effective response to advertisements on job opening on the

international labour market may be hampered by the attitude
of the local workforce towards the international labour. The
negative attitude in most cases is in relation with fears that
international staff are hard working, highly qualified, very
expensive and that they are going to be appointed to take up the
portfolios of the local staff whose performance, capabilities,
qualification may be wanting. These therefore in most cases do
block the coming of international staff.
Effective execution of work by international workforce

required a total change of attitude if international recruitment is
to be effected and if it is to be beneficial to the recruiting firm.
The international applicants need to be seen as development
partners not as enemies or competitors coming to grab offices
and therefore rendering local staff jobless and useless!

CHAPTER FOUR
COMPLEXITY OF INTERNATIONAL STAFF

SELECTION

It is arguably true that staff selection is not independent
of staff recruitment. This is so because if the recruitment
process is messed up with, there shall be far reaching negative
consequences unto the staff selection exercise. This implies that
the effectiveness of recruitment has a significant impact on the
success of the selection process. The selection process should
provide as much reliable and valid information as possible
about applicants so that their qualifications may be carefully
matched with the requirements of the job being advertised.
Staff Selection is understood differently by various authors. For

instance, according to Mondy & Noe, (1993), Staff Selection
is the process of choosing from a group of applicants the
individual best suited for a particular position.
Rao (2005: 144) defines Staff Selection as the process of

picking individuals who have relevant qualifications to fill jobs
in an organization. It may also mean fixing the right number of
resource persons that have been lured to the firm in the right
portfolios, in the right unit and at the right time. It is an activity
or task a Human Resources Officer effects immediately after
the recruitment exercise is over.
These definitions coil down to one fact that, the Human

Resources Officer must be conscious when recommending staff
engagement because on misfiring/failing to measure up to the
demands of the job offered by producing shoddy work, the firm
may collapse! Hence, the Human Resources Officer is not duty
bound to recommend for appointment anybody who applies for
the vacant portfolio in the firm, but, should be so selective that
the best applicant out of the very best is the only one who is
recommended to be considered for appointment.
This view is also supported by Gary (2004: 2) who argues

that managers ought to be selective while managing human
resources because they would not want to hire wrong persons,
experience high turnover and find employees not doing their
best.
This explains why Nsubuga (2013:64) equates this paradigm

to Person-Job-Fit as it has much bearing on specialisation
which is also an essential element of job offers and job design
in organisations. The hired employees are expected to apply
their skills, abilities and competences unto the job offered for
its effective execution and for propelling the selecting firm to
its horizons.
SOURCES OF STAFF SELECTION
Ibid (2013:65) argues that there are two sources from which
staff are obtained in organizations and these are the;
• Internal Source (local or domestic) and the

• External Source (foreign or global). He discusses them
in a detailed form.
(A) Internal/local or domestic Source of Staff Selection
As regards internal source, the employee is selected to fill the

existing vacant portfolio in a firm. The local staff are strongly
encouraged to express interest of applying for the advertised
vacant post. For whosoever is selected, this works as a
motivating factor for him or her to work extra hard to convince
the management that he or she is the most suitable staff for
that post. The hard work portrayed may lead the staff to be
promoted to new and greener positions in the firm.
Internal source of staff selection is a kind of re-deployment

from one unit or department to another within a firm. It can be
from one area or level of management to another. In most cases
and in most organizations, most people climb the ladder from
first line to the top level of administration.
Ibidem (2013:65-71) contends that the two sources have far

reaching negative and positive advantages to the organizations
which are employing them in their staff selection procedures.
These are briefly highlighted here under:-
Merits of the Internal (domestic) Source of Staff Selection
Selecting resourceful persons from within or from the domestic

labour market is advantageous in the following ways:-
Cost effectiveness
This is because vigorous advertisement of the existing openings

in the firm is not carried out. Hence, at times, an internal memo
or advert pinned on the notice board may be adequate to bring
the knowledge of the existing gap to the attention of the staff
on the understanding that they would express interest to apply
for the vacant portfolios.
Skipping Interviews
Interviews may not be conducted because those who may

express interest in applying for the vacant post are already
known in and out by management. In fact, some of them may
have wealth of experience already on the operationalisation
of the tasks of the portfolio advertised. This may explain why
there may be no need also for induction and these help to cut
down costs of staff selection.
Time Saving
The process is faster as there are no complications involved.

No meticulous preparations carried out in terms of interviews,
advertisements, short listing of most suitable personnel to be
interviewed and selected. It is therefore not practically laborious
and this may explain why managers prefer internal or local staff
selection mechanisms to external approaches.
Motivating factor
Internal staff selection motivates the staff who has internally

been selected or re-deployed to a greener position of the firm
to work extra hard to assure management that he or she was
indeed the right choice or the most suitable for the portfolio as
to be considered again for promotion when another opportunity
prevails.
Meanwhile, even those who have missed the chance this time
around, they remain optimistic that there is green light for them
to be promoted when another opening unfolds. This in a way
motivates almost all staff of the organization to triple their
effort and work zealously anticipating promotion and along the
way their hard work leads to organizational success story.
Staff are already known by the management
Management re-deploys staff from one area or level of

management to another basing upon their previous performance.
All their strong and weak points are already known to
management and therefore, there is less need for induction
of the staff in their new portfolios. This is an advantage to
management because they do not spend resources on induction.
On the other hand, staff also know those in authority in and out
and therefore, they already know what management wants or
expects of them in terms of work execution. They know how
much they may be willing to offer in terms of remuneration. So,
undue expectations are curbed in the organization.
Maximum utilisation of the human capital
Many firms the world over are experiencing economic down

turn and for this matter, they are running deficit budgets. In
such circumstances therefore, it may be hard for them to hire
new staff. The easiest and cheapest way to fill the vacant posts
is either promoting or re-deploying the existing staff to the
vacant posts.

The promoted staff are charged with the responsibility of
executing the tasks in the organization without necessarily
adding extra staff. Thus, resources are saved for other very
important assignments and tasks of the firm. However, in
practice, most firms accord the promoted staff a responsibility
allowance whose aims are double-faced namely:-
• As a motivating factor
• As a facility to enable the staff execute tasks with ease.
But, it is not full salary.
Reduces redundancy
Redundancy with all its effects are reduced at the workplace as

it becomes peaceful with minimum degree of conflict, dispute
and disturbance. In fact, even others vices such as roomer
mongering and gossiping are tremendously reduced if not
curbed in a firm. Staff are so busy that they have no extra time
left for engaging in issues irrelevant to their work.
The only language people are speaking is relating to work,

results, meeting deadlines and the like. Hence, leading to
organizational goal attainment as Staff are busy attending to
their duties or are minding about their responsibilities and
business!
No undue expectations
This is so because staff know the firm’s revenue and expenditure

patterns, weaknesses and strength. The re-deployed or promoted
staff continues to earn salary falling within or slightly above
the original salary bracket. In most cases, staff joining from
competing firms come with varying expectations including and
not limited to fat salary, fat allowance, promotion to the greener
portfolios of the organization.
During times of financial quagmire, staff are patient and

expectant that the situation will improve or normalize so that
they are paid their dues in full. A fresh staff who has just joined
may not have that degree of patience. The fat salary enables
the staff to enjoy some good standard of living culminating
into purchase and command very expensive family vehicles
like Hammer as well as putting up nice looking bungalows for
the family. On failure to get all these at times within a short
spell of time, the staff begins to agitate for higher pay and the
situation may worsen when the staff mobilizes colleagues to
strike against management due to miserable pay!
It reduces labour turn over
This is possible because staff get access to the greener positions

of the firm. Naturally, man is always over demanding and man
is never satisfied with whatever man has. Man always wants
to get more and more. Therefore, on serving the firm, man
expects promotion, fat salary and allowances. On failing to
satisfy man’s ego, man changes behaviour that culminates
into bad workplace behaviours including but not limited to
late reporting to duty, absenteeism and labour turn over. This
is always avoided if staff were selected from within the firm.

Good Public Relations
Mutual trust amongst management and support staff becomes a

reality. This is because staff believe that each one of them has
the potential to be re-deployed to greener portfolios of the firm.
Thus, their relationship is cemented. There is full cooperation
amongst them. They promote the organization by working hard
and endeavouring to market their firm far and wide. Hence,
enhancing its credibility and image to the external world! Such
a strong working relationship might not be enjoyed in case those
in administration joined the firm from the external source!
Enhancement of Succession Planning
Leaders in firms occupy administrative portfolios for only

a short period of time. They normally come and go because
the positions they occupy are public offices (not personalized
and they are not permanently) held. The beauty therefore with
internal source of staff selection is that the senior staff groom
the junior employees who may take over from them as effective
successors either at the end of the tenure or any time there is a
vacant post in the firm.
This is indeed a good sign of good governance if a manager

trains people who can replace the manager when need arises.
So, nobody develops headachy or panics looking for a successor
since many have been groomed and can easily be picked up or
recommended for re-deployment.

It is a training tool or strategy
It is a good training tool for Line or Middle Managers.

In organizational culture and development, most people
climb ladders of administration humbly from first level of
management, then to the middle level of management to the top
level of management (Barney and Griffin, (1997) and Nsubuga
(2006).
People acquire leadership skills and experience through this

approach. Therefore, Internal source of employee selection
proves a handy strategy for grooming and training future
leaders. It is advisable that firms adopt it so that they avoid
leadership vacuum that normally occurs when they have to
be forced to search for people with leadership potential and
competencies to fill existing human resources gaps!
CHALLENGES OF THE INTERNAL (LOCAL/

DOMESTIC) SOURCE OF STAFF SELECTION
Nsubuga (2013) argues that advantageous as it is, the Internal

Source of Staff Selection has a numerous shortfalls that discredit
it as a tool of staff selection. Some of the weaknesses are:-
Corruption and Nepotism
Selecting staff from a domestic or local scene may be flawed

by tendencies of corruption and nepotism. There is always a
very high degree of in-house or internal lobbying and people
end up occupying posts basing on lines of technical know who
other than technical know how. Teams gang up against others
to contest for the vacant posts. This procedure more often than
not produces residues who can not deliver. The more talented,
skilled, forward looking, creative and visionary leaders are left
out. The resultant effect is decline of the organization due to
employees whose performance is wanting because they got the
job opening through the ventilation or backdoors!
Dependence on only domestic or local expertise
Internal source of employee selection is so bad that fresh ideas

and strategies such as transfer of technology that would have
been shared and enjoyed from the external or international staff
are missed. Usually, employees are expected to bring to their
job with them a lot of skills, competencies and abilities and
experiences. All these are missed as internal or local staff have
little to offer! A saying goes; “although an old broom knows all
corners, a new broom sweeps better.”
Rift and bad blood amongst staff
Selecting staff from within or from the local labour market is

disadvantageous because it causes rift or bad blood amongst
those who have succeeded with their counterparts who have
missed the chance. This may explain why many people do
neither congratulate nor come to pay allegiance to the newly
appointed staff. There is hatred and antagonism amongst staff
and this is very unhealthy to the firm (people do not work
together for the common good and goal).

There are accusations and counter accusations as staff are
always quarrelling, fighting and there is no cohesion amongst all
of them. Due to the existing poor working relationship amongst
staff, work is not executed. Strained working relationships lead
to work stagnation and poor productivity.
This problem also affects those who loose power during

political elections. There are those who refuse to accept defeat
and decide to declare a war against the elected personnel.
Besides failure to recognise/congratulate them, they even
skip the swearing in ceremonies. The action of Kenya’s Prime
Minister; Raila Omollo Odinga and his running mate; the
former Vice President; Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka who dodged
Uhuru Kenyatta’s Swearing in Ceremony on Tuesday 9th
April, 2013 as the Fourth President of the Republic of Kenya
by taking leave to South Africa (to rest as the duo argued) is
clear testimony of rift and bad blood among those who win
and those who loose posts of leadership in organisations and
governments as the case may be!
Breeds industrial action by disgruntled staff
On failing to clinch greener posts in a firm, staff show their

discontent by behaving negatively to the dismay of the
management. Some change their pattern of work by refusing
to play an active role in the activities of the firm and others
completely resign. There are those who organize sit down
strikes aimed at paralyzing the organization as well as making
management feel the pinch! During the time of industrial
action, work remains at a standstill and this is detrimental to
the organization and the entire management.
Creates human resources gaps
This is always the case in case re-deployment is effected in

a firm. By moving from one level or area of management to
another as a result of internal staff selection, Human Resources
Gaps are created in an organization. This means that tasks
in some units may not be carried out as there are no staff to
execute the tasks. Just like industrial action, this also creates
gaps in an organization. This justifies the argument that internal
or domestic selection of staff is indeed disastrous to the steady
growth and development of an organisation.
Time wasting
Time is usually wasted when trying to identify new staff to fill

the existing Human Resources gaps. Identification of the right
person to fill the right portfolio at the right time is not an easy
task for the Personnel Officer of a focused and well managed
organization. The person required is one with proven record
of experience, is one who is visionary, outward looking with
technical skills. Such individuals are rear species to be found in
firms more especially in the developing economies.
Challenges in filling the Human Resources Gaps
Filling the gaps created by promoted staff is indeed a big

challenge because it bears financial implications. Despite
the fact that organisations in most cases survive on squeezed
budgets and to avoid such they must minimize expenditure
as much as possible, on adopting the internal staff selection
strategy, they incur some unnecessary expenditure which they
would have avoided since filling Human Resources Gaps has
financial implications.
For example, they may be forced to run some advertisements

in the mass and electronic media to attract the best and most
suitable applicants expressing interest in filling the existing
human resources gaps. At times, organisations may be forced
to organise and therefore spend on interview sessions because
management may be interested in committing its vacant
portfolio with the right personnel at the right time.
Constructive Criticisms
Internal source of employee selection is disadvantageous

because it takes on local or domestic staff who might be less
likely to make constructive criticisms that may be vital for the
betterment of the firm through change. The most absurd thing
is that, at times they keep quiet even if they see things are not
going on well in the organization. This is so because they are;
• benefiting a lot from the system or

• just protecting themselves from the leadership
or
• just defending the status quo at the expense of
the firm. Somebody new in the system is not
expected to behave in this manner!

Favoritism rather than competence
In poorly managed organizations especially in the developing

economies, Internal Staff Selection mechanism may be a
prophet of doom to the recruiting firm because some people
may be picked and promoted to greener portfolios of the firm
not basing on competence, rather, they are selected as a favour!
Sometimes those in authorities prefer selecting staff from the
local scene or are targeting insiders because they may not be
able to criticize management.
This is because they are a soft sport that may end up becoming
very effective spectators of whatever management is doing
without pointing out the errors the authorities are committing!
Above all, there are just a handful of leaders who genuinely
accept and accommodate criticisms despite the fact that not all
criticism are negative in nature.
Tendencies of unit raiding within the firm
This is a scenario where either different departments and/or

units may compete for the same resource persons or the same
staff may compete for portfolios existing in the same units.
Normally, there are more people than administrative portfolios
in organizations but some people are greedy and they keep vying
for similar posts. This cripples the departments specifically and
the firm in general. Thus, justifying the argument that internal
staff selection is a disappointment in most firms and in most
cases!

(B) External or Foreign Source of Staff Selection
Nsubuga (2013) contends that this is a scenario where the

potential staff come from without the firm or the country. They
are selected from the external or foreign labour markets. More
often than not, they come as a result of recommendations,
referrals, adverts, or appointments. Just like the Internal Source
of Staff Selection, this approach also has a number of strong
and weak points. These are analysed as follows:-
Merits of the External /Foreign Source of Staff Selection
This is basically a scenario where staff are not selected from

within the organisation. They are picked from the external
environment. The strategy bears a lot of benefits to both the
workforce and the selecting firm. Some of them are:-
Importation of new ideas in the methods or operations of

work
It should be recalled that at the time of appointment, it is a vital

expectation of the selecting organizations to expect a lot from
the incoming employee because the firm must deliver in order
to survive the test of time. So, if the domestic labour market has
little to offer, the external or the international labour market is
resorted to in order to salvage the situation.
This is where staff are selected and they bring their competencies
unto the job. They are supposed to be creative, innovative and
forward looking. They must execute tasks beyond the call of
duty by suggesting and implementing new ideas, techniques
and methods of work operation. Such staff open up subsidiaries
or branches of the organization in other parts of the economy
and/or continent.
Examples to this effect are quite numerous. In academic

institutions for instance, parallel programs are established in
terms of:-
(i) Day
(ii) Evening
(iii) Weekend
(iv) Long Distance Learning
(v) Sand witch
Similarly, several campuses are started, several study modes

are initiated such as
(i) Term System

(ii) Quarter System and the like.
These provide opportunity to all types of clientele to take part

as they are so user friendly. The working class benefits most
as people continue working in order to earn a living as well as
being in position to finance their study programs if they fail to
access financial support from their employers specifically or
from other general sources.

Easy transfer of technology
Incoming staff bring their experiences from home firms.

External staff selection is so beneficial to the firm hiring the
new applicants because of the possibility of the re-birth of
knowledge, skills, competencies in work execution and service
delivery that are introduced in the firm. Their new workplaces
stand to benefit a lot from their past experiences if all staff
adjust and adopt the new approach of work execution. Both
staff and the firm become more efficient, effective and prove to
be multi-goal-directed.
Best potential applicant selected
This is possible because of the stiff global competition from

applicants from all over the globe. A firm picks the best of the
very best and this enables the firm to survive the test of time.
Here, the selecting firm does not take on non performing staff. It
grabs those few with proven knowledge and record of effective
performance, hence, avoiding non starters or residues. Joining
on merit and in such kind of competitive environment leads to
organizational success because the new staff bring new skills
and competencies to their portfolios which are boosted a long
the way. This propels the success story of the firm in question.
Disputes and conflicts
The staff who have been nursing ill feelings and attitude
towards others are checked. Therefore, rift among them is
brought to an end. With the coming in of the new staff from
the external labour market, a new chapter is opened virtually in
all aspects of organizational life span such as service delivery,
work execution, customer care, team work spirit and the like.
These lead to organizational success because the staff become
more focused and prove to be mono-goal directed. Petty issues
behind their conflict do not feature anymore as they are all
expected to work in unison and deliver to their level best in
respect to the expectation of the management. No work is at a
standstill as a result of the disputes or conflict among staff.
Reduction in rates of corruption
This is more especially among some members of the recruiting

and selection panels. In most cases, these two aspects are marred
with vices such as bribery, corruption, nepotism and conspiracy
such that potential staff do not join according to technical know
how, but rather, according to technical know who. This impacts
negatively both the management and the firm because poor
output is registered because input was also wrong!
The external staff selection procedure brings to an end the

degree of corruption going on in firms because people get jobs
after submitting “brown envelopes or after shaking hands below
the tables” with those in charge of recruitment and selection
exercises. In Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, some parts of Rwanda,
Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo, this is referred
to as “toa kitu kidogo or TKK.”
Many organizations around the globe are avoiding selecting non

performing individuals by entrusting the recruitment, selection
or placement exercises to re-known and reputable firms like
Charity Jobs, Total Jobs and School Jobs of the United Kingdom
Firms are therefore assured of good output in terms of service
delivery resulting from good input in terms of staff selected to
offer quality service.
It is cost effective
In spite of the fact that the selecting firm incurs some expenditure
in terms of advertisement and planning interview sessions, it
is arguably true that the exercise produces the right personnel
with the competence and charisma required to execute the work
efficiently have been obtained, thus, being worthy the firm’s
expenditure. Since the incoming staff are highly skilled and
talented, the cost-benefit analysis depicts that the expenditure
is justifiable.
It enhances competition
Competition is enhanced among the old staff and the new

staff that have been selected from global labour market and
old (domestic) staff. Non performers are checked and hard
working persons may be picked! Both staff work hard enough
to justify their appointment. They keep the sprit of hard work
very high and the sky is the only limit to attract the attention
of management that may consider promoting them again when
another golden opportunities unfolds.

Grievances and Conflicts are minimized
Before effort to select staff from without the firm, in most cases
and in most firms, there are misunderstandings among some
staff in the various establishments. But, on selecting applicants
from outside the firm, such misunderstandings are minimized
or even come to an end. Mutual trust and respect amongst the
staff set in with time and staff learn to work and live amicably
with one another.
Encourages Labour Mobility
By selecting staff from without the organization, labour mobility

with all its advantages is encouraged. New staff normally come
with some special benefits. For example, technical support
from the mother country or financial support from the former
employer may be accorded to the new employer or workplace.
In most cases, such support is obtained as the two firms
forge official working relationships after officially signing
memoranda of understanding (MoU) that bind the two firms
together.
In the world of business, firms benefit a lot in situations where

staff have been exchanged. In the academic world, opportunities
for higher degrees are also shared among Institutions of Higher
Learning where staff have been exchanged or recruited.

Easy Compliancy with stipulated policies and laws
Staff selection from the external labour market is advantageous

to the recruiting government or economy because the foreign
staff may be subjected to payment of taxes such as Pay as You
Earn (PAYE), Residence Permits, Work Permits and Visas.
More often than not, foreign firms and staff do avoid violating
the law by easily complying by the laws of the land. The host
country utilizes the revenue collected from foreign firms or
staff for national building.
COMPLEXITY OF STAFF SELECTION FROM GLOBAL

LABOUR MARKET
Nsubuga (2013) argues that the exercise of selecting staff

from the external or international labour market has numerous
challenges and he discusses a number of them including:-
Cost involved
Unlike the internal source of staff selection which is so easy

and cheap, the opposite is directly true. Selecting staff from
foreign labour markets is so challenging because most potential
employees express interest in joining the firm on accessing
advertisements. The advert itself in mass or electronic media
is very costly and some firms may not afford the cost. Hence,
making external staff selection a very big and contentious issue.
More over, the cost of maintaining staff selected from the

external labour market will go up because the foreign staff are
entitled to receiving expatriate or experience allowances. In fact,
some of them even qualify and are paid hardship allowances.
These show how costly and challenging staff selection from
without is.
It demoralizes, frustrates and de-motivates
The long serving employees of the firm are most affected by the
strategy of selecting staff from the external labour market. In
Organisational Psychology and under Psychological Contract,
staff do contribute a lot towards the growth and development
of the firm in terms of effort, loyalty or love, time, commitment
or diligence, being organisational citizens, respect, sense
of humour, cooperation, hard work, being ethical, courtesy,
honest, modesty, humility and working beyond the call of duty
all of which help firms to survive the test of time. But, they
are expectant of positive response from the management to
continue contributing effectively.
The response expected is in form of tangible/intangible rewards

whereby pay rise and carrier opportunities are examples of
the tangible rewards. Yet job security and status are examples
of intangible rewards or promotional inducement. Therefore,
whereas an employee has been working so hard expecting
some fortunes but misses them because a new staff from the
external labour market is preferred and henceforth selected to
fill a gap, the employee gets demoralized, de-motivated and
frustrated. This clearly depicts the weaknesses of the staff
selection exercise from the external labour market!

Time consuming
This is so because the processes of recruitment and selection

of staff are wearisome and very sensitive that must be effected
with a lot of care as to avoid recruiting and selecting staff whose
performance may be found wanting. So, the exercises must not
be effected hurriedly. A great deal of care and consciousness
are expected from the selection panel.
So, advertising, short listing, interviewing and taking final

decision to hire the very best of the most successful candidates
indeed consume much time. Otherwise, the firm may end up
not being selective but taking on anybody who has expressed
interest in working for the firm. This is why this type of staff
selection exercise is challenging.
Importation of bad cultures into a firm
Organisations receive application and select staff of various or

different background in terms of sex, education, religion, tribe
and nationality. They may not be known to management. So,
they may join the selecting firm with uncivilized behaviours
and cultures that end up abusing the cherished local culture
including but not limited to sex abuse, religious as well as
cultural distortion. Many people have fought, others have
abused fellow staff, many have quarreled and a handful of staff
have committed murder. These have the potential to destabilize
the firm. Hence, failing to achieve the objectives and goals for
which it was established.

Takes long to build trust among staff
Unlike a scenario where staff were selected through the internal

or domestic approach and they are expected to be closer and
known to one another, the external source of staff selection is
quite different. Staff selected may be meeting and therefore
working together for the first time. Being new and therefore not
familiar with one another may bring about mistrust amongst the
staff.
Some staff may either fail to associate or to cooperate with

their colleagues and their attitude or action may be detrimental
to the firm. Trust among them may come with time though
after working together and knowing each one’s strength and
weaknesses as well as likes and dislikes. It is then that they
may start delegating their work or unit to one another whenever
such is called for!
Gives birth to increased levels of creeping false, positive

and negative errors.
As a result of mistrust and lack of cooperation amongst the staff,

both the staff from the internal and external sources of selection
begin to develop negative attitude towards one another. There
may arise accusations and counter accusations for wrong doing
and as time goes by, this may lead to total resentment, peddling
of lies against one another, roomer mongering may become the
order of the day and this may send negative signal towards the
very staff specifically and the organization in general. Thus,
affecting staff and organizational reputation, credibility and
image.
Staff performance
The output of staff is affected as a result of compliancy. Unlike

staff selected from the local or domestic labour market, those
selected from the external or foreign labour market may fail to
execute their tasks due to pressure from the host organization
or government that may demand that in order to work, one must
be ready to conform and/or to abide by the rules, regulations
and principles in force. For example, payment of taxes such as
Pay as You Earn (PAYE), payment of contributions to specific
national social security fund system, receiving salary and other
allowances in local currency as hard currency may promote
inflation in the host economy. All these may be understood
negatively by the staff from the foreign labour market and may
jeopardize the staff’s performance as the staff has to abide by
the existing policies!
Sub standard socio-economic and political facilities or

standards
Staff, spouses and children specifically and families of staff

selected from the global labour market may be subjected to sub
standard socio-economic as well as political amenities especially
if the host employer or government develops a negative attitude
towards such staff. Internal labour may receive poor or sub
standard services in terms of health care, educational facilities,
poor political support and the like.
These may have far reaching negative repercussions to the

performance and endurance of the foreign staff. The staff
may feel oppressed, suppressed, undervalued, ignored and
underrated. Thus, may end up resigning.
Over exploitation or siphoning of resources
Staff from the global market may prove extremely costly to

the recruiting or selecting firm or government to maintain. For
example, demanding executive housing, luxurious transport
system, costly medical cover and the like. In this case therefore,
such staff are maintained on tax payer’s money despite the fact
that firms have meager resources and run budgets that are in
deficit.
Unemployment of local people
This is automatically a resultant effect of the selection of

expatriates. The tendency to select staff from the international
labour market may be a disadvantage to the people in the local
labour market because the later may loose job opportunities as
the available slots go to foreign staff. This may explain why
there is always a rift among local and foreign staff either in
organizations or some societies. This may lead to cases of
murder engineered by local people. The social and cultural
horror that hit South Africa in the recent years where the local
hunted and killed foreign workers may be sighted as a strong
evidence to support this argument.

PRACTICAL REMEDIES TO THE COMPLEXITIES OF
INTERNATIONAL STAFF SELECTION
As clearly observed from the aforementioned intricacies, they

have the potential to bog down the speed at which a firm may
be performing and/or moving in terms of staff selection from
the international labour market. Due to this problem, a number
of practical remedies are advanced in this section to overcome
the intricacies of international staff selection and some of these
are analysed here below:-
Encourage concealment of staff benefit packages and

entitlements
It is true that staff selected from the international labour market

usually enjoy more benefits than staff selected from the local
labour market which is detested by local staff. Therefore, in
order to curb this bad situation, it is advisable that as much
as possible, the firm should offer good remuneration packages
to all staff and secondly, staff salary, staff allowances and in
general, organizational remuneration system of employees
should be an individual staff matter. That is to say, be made
known to an individual employee other than being publicized.
This implies that the Accounts Section should be conscious

when developing staff pay rolls and lists that ought to be as
confidential as possible. Pay slips should also be kept in utmost
confidentiality as possible.

Disclosure, transparency and openness of local and foreign
staff entitlements should not be encouraged to avoid frustration,
de-motivation and negative perception towards staff from
the external labour market. At the time of advertisement, a
simple statement like “Successful candidates shall be offered
an attractive salary” may suffice. However, this does not all
mean that management should utilize this caution to lie or to
manipulate or to over exploit the workforce. Even if the salary
structure is concealed, it must remain attractive enough to give
staff hope and to motivate them work extra hard.
Opting for Host Country Employees (HCE)
In order to overcome the tension between host country and

third country employees, the selecting firm should be strategic
enough by filling the vacant portfolios of an external branch with
applicants from the host country that is hosting the recruiting
and selecting firm. Otherwise, if not, Host Country people will
not feel that they are left out intentionally. Thus, averting the
would be tension either in a firm or in the economy as the case
may be!
Selection of experts who may not be available in the domestic

labour market
In order to curb the rift and conflict among local and international
staff that results from international staff selection processes,
it is advisable that firms should ensure that the domestic
labour market is exhausted before taking on applicants from

the international labour market. The resultant effect is that,
opportunities shall be created for local applicants to fill the
available openings especially if they do not require highly
skilled and specialized international employees. Thus, calming
down the would be resisters in the domestic labour market.
To this effect, many governments prefer employing their

nationals to foreigners especially if the local applicants have
perquisite qualification. The government of Zanzibar serves
as a good example in this case. Section 36 (1) (b) of her
Employment Act 11, 2005 reads;
No employer shall be permitted to employ a foreigner except in

the following cases:
(a) Where no Tanzanian with the required

qualification is available
(b) Where the vacant position is a management

position for which the employer is allowed
to employ a person of his or her choice under
the provisions of the Zanzibar Investment
Promotion and Protection Act 2004. (Zanzibar
Employment Services 2005)
Establishment of strong Ethical Code of Conduct
It is advisable that before effecting international staff selection,

a firm should establish an Ethical Code of Conduct which as
much as possible should tally with the local culture, values,
norms and beliefs. This will preserve the local culture from
extinction as a result of the influence of the international staff.
For example, proper dressing style, language use and other
related cultural norms.
However, this does not necessarily mean that international

standards should not be put into consideration. This is so
because international principles are tested and they are
standardized to suit all situations and environments the world
over. For example, the UN ethical standards are international in
nature and there is no way they may contradict country specific
ethical codes.
In this connection therefore, Article 9 of the Constitution of

the International Labour Organisation (ILO) may serve as a
very good example in amplifying on this issue. It stresses that
the responsibilities of the ILO officials shall be exclusively
international in character, thus the prohibition for them to seek
or receive instructions from any government or from any other
authority external to the Organization.
This is harmonized by the Standards of Conduct for International

Civil Service 2013. This important text of the UN system,
adopted in 2013 by the International Civil Service Commission
(ICSC), updates the Standards of Conduct in the International
Civil Service, prepared in 1954 and revised in 2001. It was
welcomed by the United Nations General Assembly in its
Resolution 67/257.

The ICSC Framework for Human Resources Management,
approved by the General Assembly in 2000, illustrates the
overarching nature of the Standards of Conduct, noting that
they are linked to all elements of the Framework and states
that “although organizations’ internal cultures may vary, they
face similar ethical challenges. Standards for ethical conduct
promote common values and define the behaviour and
performance expected of international civil servants.”
This new text aims at providing for the international civil

service standards that, like those of 1954 and 2001, become an
indispensable part of the culture and heritage of the organizations
and are of similarly enduring quality.
Encourage team work and cooperation amongst staff
Effective organisational performance is never a province of one

individual employee. But, rather, it results from a combination
of efforts of all staff. Therefore, for effective work execution,
there shall be a mix of both internal and external staff who
must work as a team and in unision for the success of the firm.
This approach covers the incompetence either the staff from
the local or international labour market could be having. This
implies that a firm depends on employees selected from the
local as well as the international labour markets.

Hiring Seconded and Recommended staff
The recruiting and selecting organization may avoid the too many
challenges imbued in international staff selection by making
sure that it takes on only those applicants that are seconded
or recommended by international agencies. Such seconded
and recommended staff are already known in and out by the
seconding or recommending international agency pertaining
to their character, personality and level of performance. Their
performance should not be wanting and this may go along way
in curbing down the tension of the would be detesters from the
local labour market.

CHAPTER FIVE
STAFF PERFOMANCE APPRAISAL: ISSUES,

CHALLENGES AND PRACTICAL REMEDIES

After going through this chapter, readers should be able to
appreciate the concept SPA, analyze at least five reasons why
SPA is effected in organizations at both local and international
scenes, appreciate at least two types of PA, appreciate at least
two criteria for PA, appreciate at least two procures for PA,
assess at least eight (8) rating errors (challenges) that discredit
Staff Performance Appraisal Systems both in domestic and
international market and appreciate at least seven remedies to
the challenges of SPA.
Achieving the aforementioned objectives requires a thorough

coverage of a number of topical issues on Staff Performance
Appraisal and this is the gist of this chapter. The chapter therefore
among other topical issues covers a detailed explanation of
the concept Staff Performance Appraisal, arguments for SPA,
types of Performance Appraisal, Appraisal Criteria, Procedures
for Performance Appraisal, Rating Errors (challenges) which
discredit the validity of Staff Performance Appraisal systems
in organizations at both domestic and international scenes and
an appreciation of the practical remedies for the Rating Errors
(challenges) of SPA.
This part begins with definitions of some key concepts of the

paradigm at stake and some of them are as follows:-
APPRAISAL DEFINED
Impartial analysis and evaluation conducted according to

established criteria to determine the acceptability, merit,
or worth of an item. http://www.businessdictionary.com/
definition/appraisal.html#ixzz1K1MPfdjn 23/04/2014
PERFORMANCE DEFINED
It implies the accomplishment of a given task measured

against preset known standards of accuracy, completeness,
cost and speed. http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/
performance.html#ixzz1K1KfRYtM 23/04/2014
STAFF PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL DEFINED
Just like other concepts in different fields, Staff Performance

Appraisal is given to different definitions. For instance, it is
understood as the process often combining both written and oral
element whereby management evaluates and provides feedback
on employee job performance, including steps to improve or
redirect activities as needed. Adopted from http://www.inc.
com/encyclopedia/employee-performance-appraisals.html
Retrieved on 10th August, 2014.
Also, it is defined as a method by which the job performance is

documented and evaluated. Adopted from http://en.wikipedia.
org/wiki performance_appraisal. Retrieved on 10th August,
2014.
It is also commonly referred to as employee appraisal,

meaning that SPA Systems are regular reviews of employee
performance in organisations. In other words, it is the
evaluation and assessment of individual employee of a firm
in terms of the contributions to the attainment of the overall
goals or objectives thereof. Figure 5.1 is emphatical on staff
appraisal.
Figure 5.1: Depicting staff performance appraisal, adopted
from www.reference for/business.com/staff/appraisal, accessed
on Friday 5.12.2014 at 12.27
FACTORS FOR EFFECTING STAFF PERFORMANCE

APPRAISAL
In all organizations over time and space, the exercise is essential

and it is carried out due to a number of reasons including but
not limited to:-
Assessing employee’s strength, weaknesses, opportunities

and threats pertaining to his/her job execution. This is
technically referred to as the SWOT analysis of individual
employees. It means Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and
Threats that an employee brings to the job. Firms are interested
in this because it enables them to keep only the human capital
that is an asset and not a liability for their success.
Motivating staff. It is arguably true that SPA is effected to
enable firms take decision either to promote, train, transfer
or demote staff. In situations where the results of SPA are
positive, decision is taken to promote the appraisee and this
is a motivating factor to the individual appraisee and other
colleagues who end up tripling their efforts anticipating similar
decision from management during the next evaluation period.
Identify the level of employee’s job performance in reference

to the set performance standards and goals. This is expected
to enable the appraiser to be fair and objective when evaluating
staff. Therefore, one can smoothly and objectively do so with
knowledge of what an appraisee was expected of by the firm.
That is to say, the set performance standards.
This means that before an employee is demoted, promoted,

transferred or fired, decision to this effect should be taken
after effectively carrying out staff performance evaluation. It
is absurd to note that decisions are taken against staff in many
firms especially in poorly managed organizations the world over
without any formal performance appraisal being effected! The
opinion of one officer (who may be biased may be depended
upon by management to terminate one’s contract without any
due evaluation!)
Identify individual’s fullest potential to perform. Despite

the fact that at the time of engagement, successful applicants
are issued job offer letters including details of job specification
and job description, many have the potential to walk an extra
mile and contribute beyond the expected scope by the firm.
Therefore, a genuine evaluation procedure will find one who
contributes much more an asset to the firm than one who
contributes just the minimum. It is therefore the former who
will be rated highly and hence promoted first. Unfortunately,
this is not the case in most poorly administered organizations as
this may be a providence of a few top officials in a firm.
Establish the criteria used to allocate organizational award

system in relation to employee’s contributions as well as the
actual award to be offered. Most institutions the world over
use award as a strategy to inspire staff to perform to their fullest
potential. Some firms offer either tangible rewards such as pay
rise and career opportunities or intangible rewards such as job
security and status (promotional inducements) and the like.
Identify employee training needs. This is essential because a

firm may not really know the cause of poor performance until
training needs assessment is carried out. For example, is the poor
performance due to motivation factors or it is an administrative
problem? It is due to personal weaknesses or character of an
individual employee? Is it institutional or domestic in nature?
Is it attitudinal? What is it exactly?
Satisfy the overall organization’s needs. This is of particular

interest to organisations as they may be in need of checking their
take and policies on issues of staff development, appropriate
staff deployment, salary reviews or even disciplinary procedures
and action.

TYPES OF PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL SYSTEMS
There are basically 3 types of Staff Performance Appraisal

systems. For better results of appraisal sessions, application of
a combination thereof is encouraged. The types are:-
1. Continuous monitoring of staff performance
In principle, this is the day to day interaction between the

superior and the subordinate. It is expected to be effected by
either the immediate boss or the Human Resources Officer. The
duo discuss the issues that may affect performance with the
view of taking some corrective measures in order to prevent
small deviations from affecting the performance of staff. If not
handled at the very early stage and it is handled at a later date,
it may end up exploding!
2. Periodical appraisals/reviews
The periodical reviews are always effected after a specified

short period of time aimed at reviewing the progress of an
individual employee’s performance. It is technically referred
to as the Probationary Period (PP) in most organizations. One
serves on a probationary time frame because management
wants to study one’s performance and this short time is enough
to enable the authorities to take a decision of either confirming
an employee holding a certain portfolio or not.
However, periodical and short as they are, their results are

useful as they are depended upon when compiling the formal
comprehensive appraisal report. The period normally varies
from three to six months and also varies from organization to
organisation.
NB:- In most poorly managed organizations, this principle is

usually abused as staff work in acting capacities for more than
six months. In fact, in some organizations, it is endless as one
may serve in an acting capacity for several years! This is poor
human resource management practice that ought to be avoided
by any serious organization.
Staff working in acting capacity for longer periods of time

have been seen or heard being resentful. They show signs of
frustration and demotivation. As if this is not enough, they are
even entitled to less pay which at times may not be equivalent to
their salary scale. This may explain why, frustrated as they may
be, they end up contributing less than their usual capacity and
this is detrimental to the firm especially if such staff is holding
key portfolios of the firm. They end up none performing!
3. Formal Comprehensive Appraisal
This is the third and last type of staff performance appraisal

system. It is the principle appraisal exercise effected annually.
It is properly documented and its results are the ones on which
an organization can base upon to effect decisions of promotion,
demotion, or terminating the services of an individual employee.
It is vital to note that formal as it is, it is not advisable that it

should be employed independent of the first two. It is better to
consider the record of the results of the three types and the final
results obtained may give a better picture of the performance
of an individual employee. Hence, decision taken may be more
objective than results of a single type of SPA.
APPRAISAL CRITERIA
Staff Performance Appraisal can base upon several criteria in

different organizations but the major ones are analysed in this
section. They are:-
1. Personality Oriented Criteria (POC)
The POC is a scenario where the appraiser concentrates on the

job holder’s qualities, personality and characteristics such as
the ability to relate or to interact as well as to get along with
other staff. The appraiser chooses the appropriate descriptive
alternative from a given list or scale. The scale is technically
referred to as Behavioural Observation Scale (BOS). It may
also be called the Behaviourally Anchored Rating System
(BARS).
The BOS or BARS is a handy criteria because it helps

management to identify the loners from those normally desire
and wish to work in unision. The former normally desire to work
independently. The driving force behind this attitude is that, the
loners regard themselves as the best of all staff. They think that
they are the think tank of the organizations and therefore, they
should carry out tasks and others emulate or follow them!

It is arguably true that this criteria is holding much water
because if one’s personality is such that one can not relate with
colleagues, then, how can it be possible for the firm to achieve
success through unision or teamwork?
2. Results–Oriented Criterion
Here, the appraiser is much concerned with the results achieved

by the appraisee. The achievement standard measures are
established and the appraisee is rated according to how close
or far his or her performance results are from the established
targets.
An objective appraisal system is expected to consider the

degree to which an individual employee was closely supervised,
monitored and mentored in order to keep in line with the agreed
upon performance measures for the best results expected by the
firm. A closely supervised and monitored subordinate is most
likely to meet deadlines, register success and therefore register
results required by the firm as Figure 5.2 illustrates.

Figure 5.2 showing close supervision and monitoring of
a subordinate by the superior, adopted from Microsoft
PowerPoint.
The appraisee makes his/her assessment basing on the

quantifiable objectives/targets but not on personal qualities or
work characteristics. This approach is referred to as Management
By Objectives (MBO) in the US.

3. Trait Based System (TBS)
The Trait Based System (TBS) is system of performance

appraisal that focuses at individual work execution in enterprises.
It relies on factors such as integrity and conscientiousness.
However, it has a major drawback in that employees usually
change their behaviour and a manager using it to evaluate a
changed employee may end up wasting his/her precious time
as it does not portray the colour and character of an individual
employee especially during the time before and the time after
the fundamental change of individual employee character or
personality!
In addition to this, the Trait Based System is not sound enough

because it can easily be influenced by office or departmental
politics or internal organizational contradictions and hence do
not end up reflecting the true picture of employee performance.
In this case, Manager’s attitude toward the employee may
influence the results of the appraisal without necessarily
reflecting the employee’s specific behaviour, personality,
character and over all performance!
This leads to poor evaluation results if the attitude of the manager

is negative towards the appraisee! This may explain why a
manager may demand dismissal of an individual employee and
if he/she is not dismissed, the manager threatens to resign. “It
is either him or me to leave.” They demand.
Also, this explains why a handful of managers especially in

personalized administrative systems do not want an open ended
or face to face evaluation systems because a subordinate should
not access or know the report made by the boss but, should
only receive dismissal letter when it is being served to him/her
after the influence and distortions by the boss at Promotions
and Disciplinary Committee meeting to which the employee is
not a member!
In fact, many poor human resources managers and other people

in authority make use of the Promotions and Disciplinary
Committees to tarnish the names of their subordinates or
potential competitors to be fired. Therefore, the innocent
subordinates become victims of circumstances!
BEST PRACTICE FOR OBJECTIVE PERFORMANCE

APPRAISAL
In order to achieve the desired goals for carrying out SPA, it

is important that some best practices that have been tested and
employed over space and time are adopted. Some of these best
practices are:-
• Ensure that there is a mutual understanding and agreement

of the type of SPA that is going to be adopted. For example,
is it the short term, the long term or the continuous term?
However, as argued before in this chapter, there is no
single SPA type that is the best. It is therefore advisable
that the best practice is to use a combination of all the
three types of SPA as much as possible for better results.

• Both the Appraisee and Appraiser have to decide and agree
upon the performance measures that are to be considered
in the evaluation exercise. In fact, employees need to be
briefed on this at day one. That is to say; the time they
are engaged. This helps them to keep remembering the
evaluation as well as the evaluation measures that they
have to portray when executing their tasks. It is however
absurd to note that most employees are not taken through
these measures at the time of orientation. So, on several
occasions, most firms use some evaluation measures that
are either foreign or that have never been used and thus
familiar to the employees!
• The appraiser and appraisee ought to prepare thoroughly

the tools of evaluation so that one is not taken by surprise.
In this case, if one is a University Don, the tools expected
to be employed among others would include; preparation
of lecture notes, effective teaching-learning sessions,
timely marking of assignments as well as timely provision
of feedback, report of Head of Department, eagerness,
enthusiasm, efficiency and effectiveness at personal
research, student’s research supervision and management,
outreach programs engaged in. Efficient student’s research
supervision enables students not to over stay on a single
program. In addition to these, external examiner’s reports
also are a viable performance measurement tool.
• It is vital that the exercise is made as open as possible

whereby all stakeholders should be informed of the
schedule, duration and other perquisite details of this
exercise. Stakeholders must not be taken unawares. That
is why it is the best practice nowadays that the exercise is
a face to face activity.
• All data about the staff due to be appraised should be

gathered in advance and as much as possible, be sent to
the evaluating team before the time of the evaluation for
perusal and familiarization. This helps them to take well
informed decisions in regard to the fate of the appraisee.
• The appraisers’ remarks and recommendations must be

sent to management for approval before implementation.
Many of such recommendations are not discussed face
to face by both the appraiser and the appraisee. They are
therefore usually smuggled into manager’s office behind
the back and knowledge of the appraisee. This is why the
exercise is usually found to be wanting and subjective!
RATING ERRORS WHICH DISCREDIT THE

OBJECTIVITY OF SPA
As already discussed in this chapter, it is arguably true that

Staff Performance Appraisal (SPA) is an essential evaluation
instrument. However, viable as it is, it has a number of flaws
that are advanced in this section that render it almost useless.
These stem from its rating errors analysed here below:-

The Halo Effect
This is a scenario where an employee is proved a star performer

all the time in an organisation. Due to this record, any mistake
he/she makes is but overlooked by the appraiser who tends to
rate the appraisee highly although some of the mistakes would
give a world of difference if the appraiser had to be objective
by taking into account the negative side of the appraisee.
In other words, the appraiser takes things for granted and
considers the appraisee as a perfect employee. This is
misleading because perfection is not a quality of man. Mankind
is susceptible to errors.
The Horn Effect
This is a scenario where an evaluator or appraiser tends to

capitalize on one small and poor incident to judge and rate the
appraisee as a non performer, resulting into overall evaluation
showing poor results and/or performance. This is indeed very
bad because under normal and ideal circumstances, a single
mistake should not be depended upon to judge one as inefficient
and henceforth rated as a poor performer.
Central Tendency
This is a scenario whereby the appraiser clusters the appraisee

around a central measurement. More often, this is at “average”
or “middle” or “Central” point on the measurement or scale. In
most cases, the appraiser is influenced by the fear of rating the
appraisee either too high or too low.
Latest behaviour
This is a scenario whereby the appraiser is prejudiced by the
latest behaviour of the appraisee and generalizes according to
latest behaviour or incident or action by the appraisee. One
may be judged a performer or otherwise basing on the latest
behavior. For example, an employee who all along has been a
star performer but on annoying the immediate supervisor, such
an employee may be judged useless. The opposite here is also
true!
Generosity
Generosity refers to a scenario where due to fear of upsetting
an employee, the appraiser will overlook poor performance and
considers only the good performance. This may stem from the
strong bond between the appraiser and the appraisee such as
blood relations, or nepotism, or close workmate and the like.
Indeed this is a challenge because one is expected to be fair and
objective when dealing with others in one’s official capacity in
an organization.
Strictness
This is a scenario where an appraiser who expects too much
from an appraisee will tend to be too strict. No matter how good
the performance is, it cannot escape the appraiser’s critic. This
is not healthy in an organization because it frustrates, upsets,
demovates and demoralizes the appraisee! He or she may begin
showing signs of withdrawal in terms of work execution. One
may intentionally withdraw by refusing to continue making a
genuine contribution to the survival of the organization!
Stereotyping
This is an attitudinal issue whereby one nurses the feeling that

an individual cannot perform well due to cultural background
or racial difference or religious or political affiliation or gender
or nationality.
In this context, Nsubuga (2013) argues that since time

immemorial, Americans believed that women or blacks can not
make very good managers. They argued that America is neither
for women nor for Blacks. History is however reversing the
trend as many women and Blacks are either elected or appointed
in strategic positions of power. For example, Samantha Power
is the US Ambassador to the UN.
Projection or Similarity
This is a tendency to like those who are like us and dislike

those who are not like us and consequently rating them basing
on this shaky relationship. This breeds sentiments of tribalism,
gender differences, political affiliations, religious differences
and the like. An appraiser with such sentiments is bound to be
subjective when evaluating others and this renders the whole
exercise rather laborious and challenging!
Spillover
This is a scenario where an appraiser refers to past incidents and

views when handling the current situation. This may lead one to
let past ratings or periods affect one’s current views or period.
Therefore, when employing SPA as an evaluation instrument,
it is advisable that one should limit evaluation to the period at
hand because people grow, people change and circumstances
also do change. The changing environment enables one realize
one’s errors committed long ago and reforms for the better.
Inter-individual standards
This is a scenario where an appraiser samples all employees

and chooses to use one of them as a model employee to rate
all other workers. This is extremely unfair. Performance must
be measured against one’s agreed upon performance standards
or measures and not against the performance of others. In this
case, an appraiser needs to follow the record of the performance
of the appraisee yesterday, today as to judge the appraisee in
regard to tomorrow.
Above all, SPA aims at evaluating an individual employee

and not employees in terms of contributions to the overall
performance of an organisation. Such a strategy is bound to give
divergent views, results and conclusions on one’s performance
as one is compared to others.
PRACTICAL REMEDIES TO THE CHALLENGES OF

SPA
Desirous as it is, SPA is found wanting due to the afore-

discussed errors. This explains why experts in Human Resources
Management have come up with Benchmarking as yet another
approach of staff performance evaluation. So, it is discredited
and it can not be a strong and viable tool for evaluating staff
performance in organizations. Therefore, to rescue the situation,
this section is designed to offer some practical remedies that
can be employed to recoup the lost glory of SPA as a sound
appraisal tool. They are:-
• One way of tackling the challenges of Halo and Horn

Effects, an appraiser needs to be so keen, lenient and
considerate when taking up this responsibility. The
appraiser should have keenly followed the performance
and behaviour of the appraisee by recording all incidents
that would be captured during the evaluation time. Proper
recording of events and incidents implies that nothing
more or less was forgotten or skipped the keen eye of
the appraiser before, during and even after the evaluation
process. Since there shall be no omissions, then, SPA may
regain its lost glory.
• Keep biasness to the utmost minimum level: Although

a Human Resources Officer who carries out the evaluation
exercise is human being who is also susceptible to errors,
it is advisable that as much as possible, one must be
as objective as possible when evaluating employees.
Therefore, the Human Resources Manager has to train the
evaluators to minimize personal biasness especially when
evaluating those who are not like them or those who are
not pro their group in any organizational set up!
• Avoid comparing performance of multiple employees:

Since it is true that there are no two people who are
the same, also since staff join organizations basing
on different terms and conditions, it is advisable that
supervisors, managers and appraisers should rate workers
on individual basis without necessarily comparing one’s
performance with one’s contemporaries and counterparts.
Doing so would lead to biased evaluation outcomes or
results.
• Standardize format: In order to minimize biasness,

an appraiser may be advised to design and follow a
standardized review format that would apply to all
individual appraisees. In principle, this presupposes that
one is treating each appraisee equally. Hence, making
an appraisee comfortable and trust both the evaluation
system as well as its outcomes.
• Central Tendency: It is hoped that this challenge came

as a result of the appraiser failing in carrying out his/
her duties effectively as a human being susceptible to
errors and mistakes. Therefore, to control this problem,
evaluation needs to be done at different levels and by
different persons. This is so because it may be almost
next to impossible for the different appraisers to commit
similar mistakes of appraising the same employee at the
central or middle position.
• Use of External or Impartial Evaluators: Engagement

of an external and impartial evaluator could be useful
because his/her comments may be more trusted in
determining the fate of the appraisee. With a third party
getting involved, the results of the evaluation may
overcome the test of time. This may be the reason why
evaluation procedures at all levels take into account the
use of internal and external examiners or evaluators. In
most cases, they are impartial and objective.
• Challenges of Latest behaviour: Since this is where the

appraiser may be prejudiced by the latest incident, action
or behavior of an individual employee to generalize the
evaluation, the appraiser should endeavour to base the
evaluation upon the performance standard against the
performance of the appraised employee. For instance,
if performance standards require a carpenter to take two
weeks to produce ten chairs, evaluation should capture
and record performance indicators. The record therefore
shall clearly portray the performance of the appraisee
without necessarily considering the scrappage registered
during the course of the execution of the work.
• Generosity: This implies that an evaluator fears that he

might upset the employee being evaluated. The appraiser
considers good performance only and overlooks poor
performance. Closeness of employee and the evaluator in
most cases contributes very much to this ugly situation.
Closeness may be explained in terms of nepotism or other
social relationship.
Therefore, since this weakness might have rooted from the

time of the hiring of the employee, this could be avoided
by employing people according to merit other rather than
according to technical know who. It is arguably true that
if one is not weak, one will automatically deliver to the
expected levels and one does not desire favours from the
supervisor.
• Strictness: This occurs when the evaluator has high

expectations from the employee. To such evaluators,
satisfactory is neither good enough nor impressive. It is
therefore advisable that an evaluator of this calibre and
attitude should not be the sole evaluator. Comments from
other persons should be sought with the view of justifying
the output of the evaluation process as being fair or
objective.
• Establishment of Performance Evaluation

Committee: Kicking out biasness in staff evaluation may
require establishment of an independent and impartial
Performance Evaluation Committee of the organization.
It is convened to discuss issues concerning organization
and employees in general. This Committee may give
informed and unbiased decisions which may be sound to
the organization, appraiser and appraisees.
• Stereotyping: It is arguably true that with stereotyping,

an appraiser believes that a certain employee cannot
perform well due to cultural and/or racial or ethnic factors,
religious beliefs and political affiliation, there is need to:-

(i) mount training sessions specifically targeting
evaluators in organisations aimed at perception
and attitude change. Ashly and Tony (2000)
are also of this opinion as they argue that
supervisors need to be trained in order to
eliminate rating errors such as halo, central
tendency and leniency and the like.
(ii) Secondly, evaluation process should not be

a province of a couple of people in a firm. It
should be all inclusive. That is to say, should
engage many more staff of the Department of
Human Resource to be assured of better results
of evaluation.
(iii) Thirdly, the spectrum of such evaluators should

take cognisant of the different social-economic
and political background. Here, biasness is
controlled.
• Spill over: Since this is a rating error in which an

individual evaluator continues to down grade employee for
performance errors, action taken and mistakes committed
in the past before the current performance evaluation, this
is wrong and needs to be revitalised through the following
strategies:-
(i) Objectivity by avoiding antagonism as it is most

likely to influence decision and attitude towards the
appraisee.

(ii) Reliability: It should produce consistent judgment,
results or output though different evaluators may be
engaged but similar results should be obtained.
(iii) Practicability whereby, the instruments used should
be easy to utilise or manage by both the work force
and management especially the Human Resources
Manager.
(iv) Honesty to yourself, the appraisee and the system

at large whereby one is not subjective. One calls
a spade a spade and not a big spoon regarding all
matters of the process of evaluation.
(v) Sensitivity: Here, appraiser objectively evaluates

a worker and produces unbiased results. This helps
an employee to either improve or maintain the level
of enthusiasm and commitment to the attainment of
organisational goals.
(vi) Validity whereby the data or measures based upon in

the course of evaluation is valid and individualised.
Invalid data or measures can give biased results.
• Inter-individual-standard: This is wrong since the

appraiser uses a model employee to evaluate other workers.
An evaluator must employ standard measures to rate the
work force without any reference to other employees!

• Development of a Performance Management System:
Organisations aiming at registering biase free results of
performance appraisal should establish and institutionalize
a Performance Management System charged with the
noble duty of clarifying what, who and when to evaluate.
The expected appraisal out comes. It also clarifies the
objectives, outcomes, targets as well as pronouncing the
evaluation outcomes or results.

CHAPTER SIX
BENCHMARKING AS AN INSTRUMENT OF
PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT


After going through this chapter, readers should be able to
appreciate the concept Benchmarking, appreciate a brief history
of the evolution of the concept Benchmarking, appreciate at least
ten strong points of Benchmarking, acquaint themselves with at
least four steps of Benchmarking (How it is effected or done),
appreciate at least three aspects of business entities that are
benchmarked, appreciate at least five types of Benchmarking,
appreciate the challenges of carrying out Benchmarking in
a global perspective as well as the practical remedies to the
challenges of Benchmarking as advanced in this chapter.
This presupposes that, attainment of the aforementioned

objectives of this chapter necessitates the reader to appreciate a
number of topical issues on this essential theme of Benchmarking
as a viable instrument of performance management. Some
of the topical issues just among others include; meaning of
the paradigm Benchmarking, a brief history of its evolution,
strong points behind the continued adoption and usage of
Benchmarking as a tool of performance evaluation at local and
global scenes. The steps of Benchmarking (How it is carried
out or done), the various aspects of business entities that are
benchmarked, types of Benchmarking, challenges of employing
Benchmarking as a tool for performance evaluation in a global
context and suggested practical remedies to the challenges of
Benchmarking are also critical areas of concern covered in this
chapter.

MEANING AND SCOPE OF BENCHMARKING
Benchmarking is gaining much fame and significance the

world over partly because of the many challenges and shortfalls
Human Resources Officers are encountering when employing
Staff Performance Appraisal (SPA) as an instrument of staff
evaluation. It is therefore, a new phenomenon in the life span
of organizations over space and time especially in this field of
performance management.
New as it is, Benchmarking has become a fulcrum of the

life of organizations globally because they need to guarantee
sustainable levels of growth, endurance and profitability since
competition is extremely stiff. Kermally (1997:49) contends
that firms are today benchmarking for effective performance
in the areas of manufacturing operations, marketing, customer
service, finance and personnel management.
BENCHMARKING DEFINED
One wonders what this essential tool of performance

management stands for. It should be noted that just like any
other paradigms, Benchmarking is also understood differently
by various authors, academia and institutions. For example,
according to ibid (1997), Rank Xerox views it as “a method
of improving business performance by learning from other
companies how to do things better in order to be the best in
production.” In other words, it is a continuous and systematic
process of evaluating companies recognized as industry leaders,
to determine business and work processes that present the “best
practice” and establish rational performance goals.
Other firms view it as “the on-going and objective measurement
…of relative performance…against relevant firms…in key
process areas.” Also, it is defined as “A change program that
enables firms to achieve the best practice.”
However, one should note here that despite the numerous

definitions so far advanced, all coil down to one thing; that the
benchmarking practice is a continuous and systematic process
that involves evaluation and measurement of performance to
achieve excellence in a firm’s operations!
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE EVOLUTION OF THE

PARADIGM
Ibidem (1997:50) argues that the paradigm originated in the

USA a few years ago and over 95% of American firms apply
it. Xerox hatched the paradigm when it found out that the
retail price of Canon Photocopiers was lower than Xerox’s
manufacturing cost! A benchmarking team was dispatched to
Japan to compare their performance. They took a step change
needed to catch up with the Japanese firms. Hence, ushering
in benchmarking at Xerox in 1979 and it became a Xerox
company-wide effort in 1981 to perform better.
WHY BENCHMARKING?
Benchmarking is becoming a very famous instrument of

performance management in organizations both at local and
international scenes just a few years after its inception. The
secret behind its growing fame lies in its usefulness in firms the
world over. Numerous advantages accrue from it and some of
them are examined here below:-
• Performance Improvement. This is indeed very

possible because developmental, useful and bright
ideas are shared among participating organizations
both locally and internationally. One may not know
how badly off one may be in terms of work execution
until one borrows a leaf from one’s counterparts. It is
Benchmarking that gives managers the opportunity
to take a comparative analysis of the performance
of different firms and that is why Benchmarking
is useful in the lives of different organizations and
economies.
• It enhances competitive advantage. This is essential

because production can only be realized in a
situation where an organization has all the required
factors of production which if well tapped, the cost
of production becomes lower than the one of such
organization’s counter parts. A firm may not know
such competitive advantage it may be enjoying
unless it benchmarks with other firms in the industry.
• It enhances establishment of realistic performance

goals. A firm may not be in position to explain
why it is not performing to the expectation of the
stakeholders. Poor performance may result from
stating unrealistic objectives and goals, yet, they
are supposed to be SMART; Specific, Measurable,
Achievable, Realistic and Time – Bound. So, as a
result of benchmarking, management is informed
and it is bound to adjust accordingly.
• It enables firms to reinvent and redefine themselves

(SWOT analysis). This is a scenario whereby
an organization revisits its production strategies,
methods of work and operational plans with the aim
of producing better quality goods and services than
before. Hence, leading to changes in its original
plans, strategies, mission, vision and goals. This
is so because it has to survive the test of time by
beating competition which is always still.
• It enables firms to identify key performance gaps.

This is possible because after successfully effecting
benchmarking, a firm is in position to explain how
else it should have carried out its operations. On
taking a different course of action, performance
gaps are either reduced or closed completely. Hence,
leading to better performance than the situation
before adoption of benchmarking.
• It triggers off major changes in corporate or business

vision, mission and performance. This becomes
possible because on effecting benchmarking, a leaf
is borrowed from the firm with which benchmarking
was carried out. No more defence of status quo but a
firm opens up to new methods of work and operation.
It diversifies its activities instead of sticking to the
original work plans and strategies.
114
• It enables firms to rethink status quo (non starters/
performers are ejected out of the system, lest, the firms
perish). After successful adoption of benchmarking,
new ideas are adopted, new strategies and plans
are embraced from other organisations. None
performing officers are eliminated from the system.
This may be done by either having departments
merged or new ones established to promote both
efficiency and effectiveness in the system!
• It enhances transfer of technology. This is as a

result of sharing strategies, ideas and plans among
sister institutions. New technology is embraced, new
work strategies and operations are adopted which
lead to effective and efficient work execution within
organizations that have embraced benchmarking.
• It stimulates motivation of staff in a firm for effective

performance. This is after sharing with counterparts
and tremendous improvement is registered and
noticed. So, the staff are inspired to triple their effort
and this improves production in the final analysis.
Thus, making benchmarking a real handy tool in the
life span of organizations.
STEPS OF BENCHMARKING (HOW IT IS EFFECTED)
There are quite numerous ways through which Benchmarking

can be effected in an enterprise. Kermally (1997) examines
ten steps that are applied by firms like Rank Xerox especially
in the areas of planning, analysis and integration. These are
mentioned here below:-
Planning:-
Step 1. Identify subject to benchmark

Step 2 . Identify the best practice
Step 3 . Collect data
Analysis:-
Step 4. Determine current competitive edge

Step 5. Project future performance
Integration:-
Step 6. Communicate results and analysis

Step 7. Establish goals
Step 8. Develop Action (this involves provision of answers
to issues like where are we?, where are we going?, when are
we going to reach our destination?, how are we going to reach
where we are going?)
Step 9. Implement plan and monitor results
Step 10. Implement the benchmark
It is interesting to note here that, the cycle of plan, do, act and
review is very much applicable in this scenario because if one
does not plan what one is going to do, then, one is planning to
fail. Secondly, if one does not act after the whole process of
planning, then, one will have nothing to implement and to review.
Therefore, this will translate into wasted time and resources of
the organization which is implementing benchmarking.
ASPECTS OF BUSINESS THAT ARE BENCHMARKED
It is arguably true that ideally, all aspects of a business entity

should be subjected to a comprehensive benchmarking
schedule. But, due to financial constraints organizations are
faced with especially as the result of recession and financial
meltdown the world over coupled with time constraint which is
proving to be pertinent in the process of production, a few areas
of an organization can now be benchmarked. Some examples
are provided here below:-
• Customer Value:- Customers or clients today are the

masters of any business entity. They expect instant
response to their inquiries. It is vital therefore to
ensure that one bothers so much about customer
needs, one is concerned about customer demands
and interests, one is interested in their feelings not
their money. This implies that a manager must be in
position to do things differently to satisfy and retain
customers so that they stick to that manager and not
go to his/her competitors. This will lead to increased
proportions of service and goods promotion in a firm
since customer is not only priotirized but also valued.
A firm thus needs to invest time and resources in
this area of benchmarking aimed at finding out how
others do it. This will guide the firm improve upon
its approach to customers in order to excel!
• Product development:- It is vital that before
producing what to sell, a firm is advised to know
the likes and dislikes of clients though surveys. One
should take a corrective action on getting client’s
feed back for improvement, marketing, on-time
delivery (e-commerce), customer care, quality
and quantity of goods and services because this
tremendously inspires customers. It is therefore
wise that one carries out benchmarking aimed at
finding out exactly what others do before producing
goods and services with the view of becoming a
better producer and provider of goods and services
on the market. This is governed by the marketing
principle that a firm does not produce what it wants
to produce, but, produces what the clients want and
demand for.
• Shareholder Value:- It is of paramount importance

to invest in this type of value because, today’s
array of stiff competition requires of a firm to be
accountable in terms of service production, provision
and delivery. Hence, Accounting, logistics, office
services, capital expenditure, profit levels are
considered as valuable areas to be benchmarked as
they take center stage in the process of production
and delivery of goods and services in organisations.

TYPES OF BENCHMARKING
There are numerous types of Benchmarking. The differences

among the various categories accrue from either types of
products and/or services produced by a business entity, or the
kind of processes employed to produce the said goods and
services, or the caliber of personnel involved in the production
of those goods and services, or the different functions a business
entity and its personnel engage in. Kermally (1997) highlights
some of them and these are; Competitive, strategic, process and
product benchmarking. Other areas of interest are Internal and
customer service. Details thereof are analysed in the ensuing
section:-
1. Competitive Benchmarking
This is where a team may be dispatched to another firm/country

to undertake a given research or study relating to the overall
leadership of a competitive business entity or the manufacturing
processes thereof, or the products and materials that the
business unit is using to produce the services and goods with
an aim of improving upon them as to gain a competitive edge
over other firms in the same field of production. Such kind of
benchmarking in the army is commonly referred to as spying
yet in the world of sports especially in football is referred to as
scouting.
The leadership, the management, the proceedings, the

techniques, the style of work execution, the strategies are copied
and improved upon to outplay the competitor. Sometime, with
the aim of out-competing the challenger or the opponent, some
dubious things are practiced. For example, identifying and
buying off notable and excelling personnel, match fixing is
done despite the fact that the latter is illegal.
2. Strategic Benchmarking
This is the development of measures for a firm which quantifies
its key strengths and weaknesses, to give some external reference
to the strategic planning process. It thus enables a firm to make
strategic changes and prioritize resource allocation.
That is why it is no longer surprising to find business entities
either revitalizing or altering their business plans, development
goals, vision and mission in order to counteract any threats as
to survive the stiff competition.
The business entities are opening up to new ideas and
methods of work and operation. New staff are also recruited
strategically so that they can bring wealth of their experiences
to the recruiting firm aimed at propelling its competitiveness,
effective performance and guarantee its survival.
3. Process Benchmarking
In order to gain a competitive advantage over others, firms
compare either internal or external processes with other similar
service providers. In this case therefore, the areas that may
be affected in the benchmarking process may among others
include range, source, price, distribution, display and sales of
an enterprise. A firm must accord much attention to the cost of
production, location, marketability of its products, lest, it may
stagnate and finally be out competed by the rival firms.
It is essential to note that, the supply chain management aimed
at the total satisfaction of the customer is always given first
priority during the process of benchmarking. Customers or
clients have their unique demands and expectations which must
be met by the service providers. That is why they do not tolerate
delayed goods/services as they may loose potential clients. So,
in order to excel, the process has to be benchmarked since it
may bring about a world of difference between star performing
and dull business entities or enterprises.
4. Product Benchmarking
This is where the functionality, reliability and availability of

goods and services are benchmarked for purposes of satisfying
customers and edging out competing firms. The cold wars
between Pepsi Cola and Coca Cola as well as between Japanese
and American car makers are good examples. For example,
Japanese Toyota and America’s Limousines car makers have
for quite sometime now been in a furious war over the breaking
system of the former. The world has witnessed scenarios where
finished products or vehicles have either been recalled or
removed from the market due to this problem!
Of recent, the battery system of Japanese Dream Airliner has

become another contentious issue between the United States
and Japan. The product was grounded for sometime until its
battery system was re-fixed. It had been asserted that it could
heat up so easily and therefore, could lead to overcharging and
catches fire.

In the education sector, tertiary institutions are busy diversifying
their academic programs as well as opening up branches both
in the metropolitan cities of their economies and densely
populated upcountry sides with the aim of bringing services
nearer to the clientele. Besides the aim of bringing services
nearer to people, this move is taken in order for organizations
to show their presence in such mega cities as well as exerting
their influence there. In other words, they also want to share
the national cake as metropolitan cities have the majority of the
well to do clientele.
In the Ugandan education sector, most of the Private and

Public Tertiary institutions have academic programs within and
around Kampala City. In Tanzania, the same scenario appertains
whereby the Dar es Salaam environment has attracted several
branches of Universities.
Universities in the isles are also systematic and in a coordinated

fashion opening up Campuses in remote islands of Pemba
and Comoro that are enabling civil servants to upgrade their
qualifications at home without leaving their jobs to go far for
studies.
5. Benchmarking Customer Service
This is where customer needs, priorities and demands for

their satisfaction are benchmarked in relation to the delivery
process. Customers are the very reason why enterprises actually
do exist. They are hence the bosses of the firms. This guides
firms to produce and deliver as per customer expectation! This
may explain why today, the customer’s preference and taste
are small, economical (new technology) Japanese vehicles as
opposed to the big, long, fuel consuming American Limousines.
The Republic of South Africa and Britain have many of their

car industries producing small size vehicles. The customers find
them handy in terms of fuel consumption and parking space
which is another source of headache especially within the mega
cities of these economies.
6. Internal Benchmarking
This is where a firm benchmarks internally for purposes of

improving both service provision and delivery. In this respect
therefore, focus is given to operations, sourcing, in-store
presentation, supply chain, new product introduction, order
fulfillment coupled with customer satisfaction. This may explain
why each industry today pays much attention to efficiency,
effectiveness and timely service delivery. Otherwise, they may
loose customers resulting into closure of business operations.
There are a number of variables for Internal Benchmarking.

It is arguably true that it is logical and prudent that, firms
should put things in order internally before embarking on a
benchmarking program if benchmarking is to produce good
results. In this respect, there is need to ascertain that things are
alright domestically or internally and then, turn to the outside
environment for purposes of benchmarking. A number of
arguments for internal benchmarking are advanced and some
of them are examined here under:-
• Establish an internal baseline to do things
• Identify performance gaps in various units
• Take a corrective action taking into account issues like
why were we established? Where are we now in terms of
production and service provision? How are we performing
and how do we achieve our target?
• Establish common practices and procedures
• Lay a strong foundation for acceptance of change by the
firm (no defence of status quo)
• Establish the baseline for external benchmarking
• Avoid communication blackout or miscommunication in
a firm. This implies that management should endeavour to
communicate even during very unfriendly situations!
CHALLENGES OF BENCHMARKING IN A GLOBAL

CONTEXT
It should be recalled that, benchmarking for effective

performance evaluation in any business entity is done in a
number of areas including but not limited to manufacturing
operations, marketing, customer service and finance/personnel
management. In the world of business, these areas are indeed
problematic and quite demanding so much so that it would
be erroneous to compare the performance of the developing
firms in developing economies with their counterparts in the
north north trade axis! There are numerous variables that are
advanced in this chapter that justify this argument and among
others, the following are examined:-

1. Political Immaturity
It is arguably true that poor countries are poor because they are
not poor, but because they have poor political managers who
are corrupt while those who are politically mature have term
limits while in power. It is therefore a very huge challenge to
compare the two political managers in terms of their service
delivery and overall political management. For example, in
America, even if one performs extra ordinarily well, one can
not rule for more than two terms.
This kind of political maturity enables the leaders to be focused

and accountable. Hence, registering satisfactory levels of
performance. According to the Amnesty International Report
of 2004 as also reflected in Figure 6.1, most corrupt leaders
come from the less developed economies.

World's Ten Most Corrupt Leaders1
Name Position Funds
embezzled2
1. Mohamed Suharto President of Indonesia (1967–1998) $15–35 billion
2. Ferdinand Marcos President of the Philippines (1972–1986) 5–10 billion
3. Mobutu Sese Seko President of Zaire (1965–1997) 5 billion
4. Sani Abacha President of Nigeria (1993–1998) 2–5 billion
5. Slobodan President of Serbia/Yugoslavia (1989– 1 billion
Milosevic 2000)
6. Jean-Claude President of Haiti (1971–1986) 300–800 million
Duvalier
7. Alberto Fujimori President of Peru (1990–2000) 600 million
8. Pavlo Lazarenko Prime Minister of Ukraine (1996–1997) 114–200million
9. Arnoldo Alemán President of Nicaragua (1997–2002) 100 million
10. Joseph Estrada President of the Philippines (1998–2001) 78–80 million
1. Defined as former political leaders who have been accused of embezzling the
most funds from their countries over the past two decades.
2. All sums are estimates of alleged embezzlement and appear in U.S. dollars.
Source: Transparency International Global Corruption Report 2004.
Figure 6.1 showing the world’s ten most corrupt leaders,

adopted from Amnesty International Report of 2004.
From Figure 6.1, it is crystal clear that if the billions of funds

embezzled by the aforementioned political managers were
invested in their respective economies, indeed such economies
would have been revamped and boosted to become part of the
first class economies the world over. But, the reality is that, these
political managers are so selfish that they desire everything for
themselves and not for those they lead!

The leaders in developing countries do not share leadership
vision with political challengers; these are often put under house
arrest, at times imprisoned and in most cases they are murdered
in cold blood! These political managers do not prepare and
groom others for succession. Their economies and political
structures in most cases fall a part on their demise due to lack
of competent successors already groomed by the incumbent
political managers.
Not only that, but also, such political managers do not adhere to
the rule of law, constitutionalism and Parliamentarianism. Since
the political managers in poorly administered economies have
no respect to Parliamentarianism, the Houses of Representatives
have more often than not become scenes of corruption and
fighting.
This is indeed the phenomenon in many parliaments especially

in poorly administered economies which have become scenes
of violence, riot and fighting due to the misunderstanding of the
Legislators. At times they fight resulting from a disagreement
in sharing a particular vision, or even, due to the difference
in opinion. In most cases, they do not have the patience to
agree on to how to disagree. Thus, end up fighting! The Kenya
experience on Thursday 18.12.2014 is one of the best examples
in this case. For details, see www.youtube.com/chaosinkenya
parliament. Thursday 18.12.2014; Kenya Parliament in chaos
as the New Anti Terrorism Bill was tabled. Members were
kicked out, clothes ripped, session suspended by Speaker, etc.

Further still, political managers in poorly governed economies
are well known for having no respect to human rights especially
the right to live or to life. They order their security operatives
and army generals to kill any opponents who express interest
to topple them from authority. This may explain why there
are mass craves everywhere more so in most Less Developed
Countries! Africa’s newly established 53rd nation; South Sudan
and Rwanda are serving as very good examples where recorded
history is rich with the fact that mass graves are rampant in
these economies. Figure 6.2 is emphatical on rule of law.
Figure 6.2: Depicting rule of law, adopted from www.google.

co.tz/rule+of+law.accessed on Friday 5.12.2014 at 12.09 a.m.

Election results are a night mare as pronouncement thereof is
delayed, such results are manipulated before being declared
and this explains why such pronouncements have more often
than not ended up in civil strives and wars. There are several
cases in this regard and the most peculiar is the one in the
Arab Peninsular more especially Syria and Egypt. Figure 6.3
is emphatical on Egyptian massacres in Cairo resulting from
wanting system of political management.
Figure 6.3: Depicting political turmoil in Egypt adopted from

www.democracynow.org/2013/8/15/ massacre_in _Cairo_
Egypt_on_brink.
Insecurity is the order of the day in most poorly administered

economies. Both political managers and their challengers
do not patience and tolerance for resolving their differences
harmoniously and amicably. They always resort to war which
often has far reaching negative consequences unto their people
and economies. Their reaction is reflected in Figure 6.4.

Figure 6.4: Depicting signs of insecurity. Adopted from www.
globalconflictawareness.blogspot.com/insecurity.accessed
Friday 5.12.2014 at 12.16 p.m.
Therefore under such chaotic political management scenes, it is

believed beyond any reasonable doubt that, it is extra ordinarily
difficult to compare the performance of political managers in
both democratically and peaceful economies and those led by
dictatorial regimes where blood-shed is the order of the day due
to political immaturity.
2. Inequality in the levels of Development
It is a known fact that, organizations in both the developing

and industrialised economies are not at the same level of
development. Some countries are at start – up stage, some are

limping and others are fully developed. In all these economies,
service provision and/or delivery is not at the same footing.
It is therefore erroneous to compare the performance of two
companies from such unequal levels of development.
Through Science and Technology, many industrialised countries
are sending Astronomers to the moon yet it is still a dream for
many developing economies. The performance of the economies
therefore is incomparable! Figures 6.5 and 6.6 depict a clear
distinction between the performance in industrialised and poor
economies. This is because poor countries are struggling to
survive on very shaky economic base. But, on the contrary,
their counter parts; the industrialised economies are enjoying a
busy industrial sector and are going to the moon. Therefore, the
performance of such economies in these varying extreme ends
is incomparable!
Figure 6.5: Showing the pace at which industrialized economies

are developing as Astronomers frequently go to the moon.
Figure 6.6: Showing raw Cocoa being manually processed,
adopted from www.blogspot.com/rawcocoa. accessed on
Wednesday 17.12.2014 at 12.40 p.m.
Further still, the inequality in the levels of development is

seen in the fact that many enterprises in LDCs are practising
subsistence farming (producing for consumption or hand to
mouth) yet, most firms in MDCs are producing for commercial
purposes (produce for export). Therefore, the performance of
the two economies is incomparable and it would be erroneous
to evaluate them using similar performance parameters.
Most developing countries use labour-animal intensive means of

production, yet most industrialised economies are mechanised.
This is therefore the issue of labour intensive versus capital
intensive or types of production. Performance in terms of
production therefore is quite different. In this respect therefore,
the two economies can not be evaluated using similar standard
measures as the latter are better off than the former.
3. Imbalance between Industrial and Service Sectors
There is a great degree of imbalance between the industrial

and service sectors in the economies of the south south and
the north north trade axes. These sectors are in bad shape in
the less developed countries and they are in their best shape in
the industrialised countries in terms of management and over
all service provision and delivery to the general public. Goods
and services produced in LDCs do command less value at the
international market. This is due to the fact that the process of
production including the workmanship, the physical resources
as well as the informational resources is wanting. Thus, it is
almost next to impossible to evaluate the performance of these
sectors using similar parameters.
4. Natural Resources (Raw materials)
Most LDCs are not naturally endowed in terms of mineral

resources or raw materials compared to their counterparts;
the MDCs. The economies that had been blessed with mineral
resources were either plundered during the time of imperialism
or have had everything destroyed due to internal conflicts,
disputes, strive and wars. Thus, making it either too difficult
to sustain the industrial sector or to register any tangible gains
there from. The resultant effect is for LDCs to continue being
beggars or exporting unrefined goods so cheaply but import
finished goods so dearly. Therefore, it would be sheer madness
of the highest degree to compare the performance of the
developing and developed economies using similar standard
measures! Figure 6.7 is depictive of mineral resources being
processed as opposed to Figure 6.6 which is showing raw cocoa
being manually made ready for export.
Figure 6.7: Depicting mineral resources being extracted using

machinery. Adopted from https://au.smallbusiness.yahoo.com/
minerals.
Figure 6.7 in which mineral resources are being extracted more

over by using heavy duty machinery can not be compared with
Figure 6.6 in which raw Cocoa is being processed manually.
Therefore, the two processes are at opposing ends and are
incomparable.

5. Political Stability
Both the Less Developed Countries and More Developed

Countries are not enjoying equitably stable political atmosphere
that supports sustainable development! In most LDCs, turmoil
is the order of the day compared to most MDCs that are stable
and peaceful. For example, there are many countries in Africa
that are either going to war or preparing to go to war due to
boarder disputes. Uganda – Kenya Mijingo Island on Lake
Victoria, Lake Nyasa alias Lake Malawi between Tanzania and
Malawi, the boarder dispute between Uganda and the world’s
youngest nation which is also the Africa’s 53rd nation; South
Sudan on the one hand and conflict between England as the
long dispute with Ireland that has just been resolved amicably
serve as very good examples in this aspect of political stability.
Developed economies do not waste resources fighting but, LDCs

find it so easy and “justifiable” to reflect marshals whenever
and wherever disputes occur. It is therefore very clear here
that comparing the performance of political managers of the
economies that are at war all times and those that are enjoying
peace all times is illogical! Figure 6.8 is emphatical on scenes
of political instability in Libya even after the demise of her
former President; Colonel Muammar Al Qaddafi.

Figure 6.8 depicting political instability, adopted from http://
www.theepochtimes.com/n2/world/caution-precedes-military-
force-in-libyan-crisis-52350.html&h, visited on 23rd June,
2013.
6. Existence of Regional Trade Blocks, Regional

Economic Partnerships and Free Trade Associations
Performance evaluation can not produce fair evaluation reports

as countries and organisations do not belong to the same
Economic Blocks, Partnerships and Trade Associations. There
are strong versus weak ones, there are stable versus shaky ones.
Thus, product value is different! For example; European Union
(EU) with 28 member states which are; Austria, Belgium,
Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia,
Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy,
Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Portugal,
Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, The Netherlands
and the United Kingdom versus East African Community
(EAC) made of five countries and these are Uganda, Tanzania,
Kenya, Rwanda and Burundi.
ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) of member
states including Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos,
Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam versus
SADC with the following member states; Angola, Botswana,
Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi,
Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa,
Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Others are SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional

Cooperation) with the following member states; Afghanistan,
Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri
Lanka versus GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council for the Arab
States of the Gulf) with member states of Bahrain, Kuwait,
Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates
(UAE).
Also on the list are other Associations/Partnerships like

ANDEAN (Andean Community Countries) that brings together
countries such as Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.
Associate Members are; Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and
Uruguay. Observer Countries are; Mexico and Panama versus
BSEC (Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation)
with countries such as; Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria,
Georgia, Hellenic Republic, Moldova, Romania, Russian
Federation, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine.
COMESA (Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa)

with countries such as Burundi, Comoros, Democratic Republic
of the Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Libya,
Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan,
Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe versus ECOWAS
(Economic Community of West African States) that include;
Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea,
Guinea Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria,
Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.
NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) with member

states of Canada, Mexico and the United States of America
versus EFTA (European Free Trade Association) among
Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.
Other examples may be GAFTA (Greater Arab Free Trade

Area) - Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon,
Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan,
Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Yemen
versus Eurasian Economic Union of member states of Russia,
Kazakhstan, Belarus and Armenia. For details, please, see
www.euract.com/topics
7. Differences in Terms of Trade
The North North and South South Trade axes are operating
in opposite directions and environment. Terms of trade are
favouring the former because besides dumping, they are
exporting finished goods and good quality services to poor
economies yet in this case, the developing economies are not
only exploited but are also receiving poor quality goods and
services or residues from wealthier economies. That is to say
(dumping).

There is an operating quota system which developing countries
must not surpass, yet from rich economies, there is no policy
limiting the quantity they should export to poor economies. This
difference and imbalance clearly indicates that the performance
of the economic managers of the two economies is by all means
different and it is incomparable. Figure 6.9 is emphatical on
this argument.
Figure 6.9: Depicting difference in terms of

trade,adopted from https://www.google.co.tz/
search?q=differencence+in+term+or+trade. Accessed on
23/04/2014

8. Difference in Balance of Trade
Most Least Developed Countries export unprocessed goods

to the industrialised economies and import much more from
the latter. The volume of exports and imports is therefore
unbalancing and unfavourable! For example, exporting turns
and turns of raw coffee or cloves or cocoa for a few cartons of
finished coffee/cocoa products such as Nescafe!
A lot of fuel products and minerals from developing countries

go for a few dozens of military hardware (weapons including
old fashioned or Junk Helicopters). This practically is depictive
of a very high degree of exploitation and imbalance. Initiatives
or efforts like American Growth Opportunity for Africa
(AGOA) and indeed many other schemes are failing to take
off due to such kind of imbalance in terms of trade. In this case
therefore, it is illogical to compare the performance of political
and economic managers of the north north and south south
trade axes especially by using similar performance parameters.
MDCs have Gold Reserves and always determine what to
import from LDCs but the later do have little say on this. Figure
6.10 is depictive of Gold Reserves some MDCs possess.

Figure 6.10: Depicting gold reserves some MDCs possess,
adopted from www.ask.com/unfavourablebalance of trade.
Accessed Friday 19.12.2014 at 3.30 p.m.
9. Differences in Management Style
Performance evaluation gives different reports between well

managed and poorly managed enterprises the world over.
The global perspective produces civilised managers and most
domestic markets present uncivilised managers. For example,
there are no transparent disciplinary action procedures. More
often than not, staff are reprimanded for the mistakes of their
superiors. That is to say, the political or economic managers.
In most cases, even very trivial mistakes can be used to earn a

subordinate a termination letter. Statements like “You are fired”,
ultimatum such as “show cause as to why disciplinary action
should not be taken against you within forty eight hours are the
only vocabulary they know! This is regardless of whether they
are right or not, whether they are found guilty or not. What is
important is that, the subordinate should leave as not to create
job insecurity to the supervisor.
The management style is therefore wanting and it is almost next

to impossible to compare the performance of the political and
economic managers in well managed institutions versus poorly
managed firms!
10. Non Performance
It is a very big challenge comparing the style in which work is

executed by most employees in developed economies and their
counterparts in the developing world. The former work with
enthusiasm, interest and determination but, most employees in
poor economies work for the sake. They work for formality. In
fact, Douglas McGregor’s Theory “X” befits most employees
in LDCs; people are lazy and they do not want to work.
Some of them work to get meal for the day as they believe
that tomorrow will cater for itself. Such people therefore hate
responsibility and they only work to get status, prestige and
money. This may explain why many are corrupt.
Therefore, if results are to be registered, staff are coerced to

work. They do not go to work but to walk, to sit, to gossip,
to promote or fuel disputes and conflict at the work place and
finally wait for salary! This may explain as to why absenteeism
is the order of the day in most poorly managed organisations.
Mongosi and Morris have demonstrated this in their cartoons as
also reflected in Figures 6.11 and 6.12 respectively.
Figure 6.11: Depicting lazy staff being forced to work, adopted

from Mongosi Roberto at www.OHMYGOODNESS.COM,
visited on Monday 29th September, 2014.

Figure 6.12: Depicting Absenteeism at work places. Adopted
from Morris at www.illustrationsource.com/Absenteeism.
According to Figures 6.11 and 6.12, it is clear that without

being coerced or without adopting the piece of carrot and stick
approach, many “employees” would not be bothered with work,
they would not be committed and would be reluctant to work
but go in for juicy offices, portfolios that elevate their status
and access fat allowances in organisations.
This is practical in developing economies as well as in poorly

managed organisations where even meetings convened to
discuss pertinent issues like absenteeism also flop. Members
even do not feel any remorse for either turning up late or failing
to show up for scheduled business activity. In most African
cultures, such officers have been heard say “I am late because
this is African Time.” This is indeed very absurd because in
management theory and practice, there is nothing like African
or European Time when it comes to management of serious
business matters!
Staff show resentment to the policy of clocking in and out as

their reporting time to duty and retiring for home are being
closely monitored with such a system. Performance of lazy
versus hard working individuals can not therefore be measured
using similar parameters!

BENCHMARKING
The first part of this chapter is illustrative of the fact that

desirous as it is, Benchmarking as an evaluation instrument
is facing numerous challenges that render it too weak as an
evaluation mechanism so much so that using it to compare
the performance of organisations or individual employees at
both local and international scenes may be rather erroneous or
problematic. All advantages and challenges withstanding, this
part of the chapter is advancing a number of possible remedies
to the challenges analysed in the chapter. Some of the remedies
are:-
Terms of trade ought to be the same: The terms of trade should

relate to both terms of exports and the terms of imports. This
may be possible particularly if trading activities do take place
or operate in the same environment and as much as possible
should use the same parameters. That is to say, no discrimination
among the key players in the trade transactions and activities.
There should not be any form of favouritism but all players
should be accorded equal treatment. An improvement in a
nation’s terms of trade benefits that country in the sense that,
she balances her imports and exports.
Further still, if the worst comes to the worst, then, countries in

the same economic bracket or at the same level of development
could effect trade transactions among themselves excluding
the developed economies. For example, trade activities could
be effected between Indonesia and Singapore, Uganda and
Malaysia, Tanzania and South Africa and the like. It is hoped
that with this kind of arrangement, over exploitation of one
economy by another may not occur.
There should be the same balance of trade: The trade balance

can occur between total values of exports and imports in a
given economy. When a country’s total annual exports exceed
her total annual imports, she is said to have a trade surplus.
This implies that there is no way developed countries shall be
allowed and/or expected to export poor quality and inadequate
quantity of goods and services to LDCs because they demand
very good quality goods and services.
In addition to this, developing countries may avoid the problem

of dumping from their counter parts; the developed economies.
Thus, reducing on the problem of pollution caused by old
vehicles sold to poor economies. This is just among other
effects of dumping.

There should be good and same management style. Good
management style is often double sword edged. In the first
place, it provides chance to managers to execute numerous roles
in an organization with ease and comfort because all employees
are backing the manager. Secondly, it will allow managers to
make use of the four essential qualities of good management
notably:-
o Personal Characteristics. These are desirable personal

qualities that relate to the character and personality of a
manager and enable him/her to work freely and amicably
with others. This is so because the manager commands an
exemplary character, the manager is trustworthy, honesty,
leads with integrity, the manager is confident, possesses
good analytical skills emanating from his/her strong
mental capacity, the manager is dependable and reliable,
the manager is enthusiastic about his/her personal success
as well as the success of the subordinates. The manager is
flexible and committed to excellence. Thus, many will be
able to look up to such kind of manager.
o Business Characteristics. It is arguably true that to be a

good manager, a reasonable degree of business acumen
is essential. In this case, familiarity with basic business
principles, practices and basic leadership qualities is
useful. Such a manager does not do it all by him/herself.
The manager delegates after taking through the delegatee
what is there to be done. The manager does work and others
automatically emulate. The manager is well organized and
keeps a clean track record of organizational facilities and
employees. The manager is well versed with a reasonable
degree of mastery of the legal issues with implications on
sexual harassment, proper hiring and firing practices and
confidentiality.
o Communication Characteristics. A good manager must

avoid communication blackout in the firm and must be in
position to communicate effectively to be distinguished
as a star performer. The manager must be an excellent
communicator in all its three forms notably, written, oral
and non verbal communication. The manager must be
an excellent public speaker who will articulate his/her
ideas effectively to move many after giving immediate
feedback and listening to him/her.
o Relationship Qualities. Ability to manage relationships

between manager and subordinates. Managing
relationships among one’s subordinates and the clientele
leads to effective management style as one is in position
to develop relationships with superiors, subordinates and
clients for effective task execution and implementation.
Good management style requires of one to be a team
player, an impartial arbitrator during periods of conflict
and disputes in the firm.
Performance. Good performance in a firm translates into a

common appreciation of the vision, mission and goal of the
organization among all staff who have to contribute equally
to the attainment of set organizational goals. In this regard,
the organizational set goals are tallied with the agreed upon
performance measures of the workforce, their skills and
competencies for effective work execution. Employee’s work
plans and organizational strategic development plans, business
targets and business plans are also similarly tallied for better
results.
Focus on the best prentices: Benchmarking projects should

be targeted at a process area or activity that will deliver the
best value to an organisation. Often senior managers will have
used techniques such as a business excellence-self-assessment
to determine which projects and their outcomes are likely to
deliver the greatest benefits. For example, firms should reduce
the time taken to recruit new staff as to avoid the effects of
human resources gaps as well as stagnation of organisational
activities, projects and programs.
Dire need for political stability. A stable political stability

will ensure economic and political managers as well as other
key players ample breathing space to carry out their activities
effectively and efficiently within the economy. Also, political
stability will provide a golden opportunity to the managers and
their line staff to effect benchmarking with other enterprises
and countries with the view of learning new methods of work,
new plans, new strategies that are beneficial to the staff, the
economy and the firm at large. Nsubuga (2006) argues that
nobody can carry out meaningful business activities during
times of turbulence.
Training: It is advisable that if the challenges of benchmarking

are to be averted, organizational leadership should carry out

training programs for their staff who are charged with the
noble duty of effecting benchmarking in the organization. The
benchmarking is to be effected in the areas of process, customer
care, production, financial and human resources management
and the like. Training could be on the job or off the job training
and should address specific problem areas.
Good relationship among companies: If benchmarking is

to register the results expected, it should be effected among
organizations and/or companies with very strong working
relationship. These should freely share experiences and
information without any hesitation or concealment of data
or information especially in key business entities that are
benchmarked!

CHAPTER SEVEN
WORK FORCE DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT:

BARRIERS, CHALLENEGS AND REMEDIES

151
This chapter focuses at the meaning of the paradigm diversity
management, it discusses the barriers and challenges of staff
diversity in international organizations and provides the
practical remedies to the barriers and challenges of work force
diversity management.
Some of the elements of workforce diversity focused at in

this chapter are age diversity, gender diversity, diversity of
abilities, ethnic diversity and social diversity. Also, some of the
barriers of workforce diversity management in international
organizations the chapter is analyzing are; attitude, lack of
employee involvement, language and cultural differences, lack
of funding and social status.
Some of the challenges associated with workforce diversity

management in international organizations are; lack of proper
communication, resistance to change, implementation of
diversity in the work place policies, successful management in
the work place, cost involved, corporate cultures, employee’s
expectations, weather conditions, management of disabled
employees, poor staff performance and social status.
However, some of the solutions for the challenges and barriers of

workforce diversity management in international organizations
the chapter is advancing are; warding off change resistance with
inclusion, fostering an attitude of openness in organizations,
promotion of diversity in leadership positions, successful
management in the work place, cost implications, corporate
cultures, employee’s expectations, weather conditions,
management of disabled employees, poor staff performance
and social status.
WORK FORCE DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT DEFINED
In this book, the term workforce diversity is understood as

the variety of differences among people in an organization.
Practically, diversity encompasses race, gender, ethnic group,
age, personality, cognitive style, tenure, organizational function,
education, background and many other things.
According to http://EzineArticles.com/11053, diversity

management is a strategy that is intended to foster and maintain
a positive workplace environment. This is usually initiated by
Human Resources professionals and managed by department
heads and supervisors. An effective diversity management
program will promote recognition and respect for the individual
differences found among a group of employees in any given
organization the world over.
Workforce diversity management style encourages staff to

be comfortable with diversity in the workplace and develop
an appreciation for differences in race, gender, background,
sexual orientation or any other factors that may not be shared
by everyone working in the same area of the company.
ELEMENTS OF DIVERSITY IN A WORKPLACE
There are quite a number of elements of diversity that can be

pointed out in any given workplace environment. Some of
these are:-

Gender Diversity
Of recent, gender differences do not matter a lot in modern

business environment due to the fact that the types of jobs
are shared among male and female employees as a result of
successful struggles and efforts of women emancipation the
world over. At petrol filling stations, women today take the
position of lead pump attendants. Women are also taking part
in coal mining, stone extraction and brick-laying. The female
gender in particular has been elevated from the scorching
sun to the board room. For example, Honourables Rebecca
Kadaga and Anne S. Makinda are sitting Speakers of Uganda
and Tanzania Parliaments respectively. Until recently, Joyce
Banda has been the President of Malawi, Ellen Johnson is the
President of Liberia, Christina Fernandez is the President of
Argentina, Dilma Rouseff has been re-elected President of
Brazil, Angela Merkel was re-elected Chancellor of Germany,
Samantha Power is the sitting US Ambassador to the UN.
The list is alias long. But, the most contentious issue is in

relation with the female gender. Women are perceived as
naturally being weak. However, at tertiary institutions, they
are found to be strong upstairs as they challenge their opposite
gender! This may explain why it is noted that business entities
and organizations are investing heavily training their staff on
issues of gender balance, gender mainstreaming as a way of
fostering good working relationships among all employees
regardless of sexual orientation.

Diversity of Abilities
Many people the world over believe that people with disabilities
are incapable of executing work related tasks effectively but
this is a great fallacy. There is no need to discriminate among
staff because some people with disabilities perform better than
their counterparts without any physical impairment. Nsubuga
(2013) notes the National Union of Disabled Persons of Uganda
(NUDIPU) who argue that disability is not inability. So,
disabled staff can perform tasks that other normal staff can and
hence they should be given equal opportunity.
Therefore, the most important issue in managing diversity of

abilities is to match each employee with job tasks that best
suit their interests, abilities and qualification without any due
prejudice in regard to gender.
Age Diversity

Within a single business entity anywhere in the world, employees
belonging to a variety of age groups are found. The diversity
may range from youths, middle aged to elderly employees. The
latter in most cases are normally more experienced personnel
in various departments. The middle aged are fresh staff who
have just graduated from tertiary institutions. Each of these age
groups has its own unique demands, requirements and attributes
that must be accorded serious attention by management in order
to get results from them.

Such diversified staff structure requires application of different
management skills to address the various expectations that
emanate from different perception, gender, educational
background, experience, norms and personalities.
It is therefore advisable that a manager should endeavour to

bring on board the different array of age groups because this
may lead to effective organizational performance. However,
at times, such a mix may be disastrous if management poorly
handles this mix since it is made up of independent thinking
individuals who are moreover care free. They can move on
short notice due to any disturbance if so felt!
So, a talented manager is the one who has the ability to effectively
tap the competencies and potential of all the employees
belonging to each one of the age groups under discussion here,
get results from them and this is to the advantage of the manager
him/herself, the employee and the organization in general.
Ethnic Diversity

Communities around the world put much emphasis on ethnic
diversity as being key to work execution. This explains why in
some countries, employability is paged unto ethnic background
and therefore some tribes do dominate. But, this is purely an
issue of sociopolitical misconception in such areas. There is
no scientific proof so far that is depictive of the fact that some
ethnic groups are better performers than others.

However, this does not dilute or negate the fact that some
people are naturally lazy and that they do not want to work
as Theory “X” of Douglas McGregory puts it. Lazy as
they may be, they do not represent a whole ethnic group or
community or tribe. Therefore, ethnic diversity can only impact
socialization negatively but does not affect one’s competencies
especially those which accrue from training, specialization and
qualification.
People may be many belonging to different religions, languages

and tribes. But, this is not free ticket for their disunity and
therefore failure to work together at work places. The Republic
Indonesia for example strongly promotes the issue of unity in
diversity in her national motto; Bhinneka Tunggal Ika. This
is a phrase stemming from Old Javanese translated as “Unity
in Diversity.” It is even inscribed in the Indonesian National
Symbol; Garuda Pancassila. It is mentioned specifically in
Article 36 A of the country’s constitution.
This among other things promotes tolerance and respect among

the different people of Indonesia such as the Javanese, the
Saka and Gayo tribes of Sumatra, the Sawi, the Baduy as well
as among different religions of Islam, Roman Catholicism,
Protestantism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Confucianism. At
the workplaces, all these different people are employed and
respected in the Indonesian set up and at the end of the day,
cordial working relationship is enhanced among all people and
within all organisations!

Social Diversity
It is arguably true that diversity in society may cause bad

working relationship among the workforce in organizations.
Some people who originate from noble communities regard
themselves as first class citizens and therefore are better than
others. This is particularly true with communities that still
accord much attention to kingdoms and kingship. For example in
Central Uganda, the Baganda who hail from the King’s lineage
who are traditionally referred to as “Balangila” for males and
“Bambejja” for females or the Nobles in short, in Tanzania, the
Sharifs regard themselves as the most highly elevated people
in society due to distinctly different lifestyles, political history,
position held in society and ethnic origin.
Human Resources Managers are advised to involve everybody

in work execution without necessarily encouraging social
diversity. All staff need to interact and work together as one
people who are mono-goal oriented and directed. Varying social
status therefore should not be the basis for either appointment or
promotion or even remuneration. Staff should be compensated
fairly and in accordance with their abilities, competencies and
individual contribution to the organizational cause. This will
lead to job satisfaction and effective performance of the firm.
BARRIERS TO WORKFORCE DIVERSITY

MANAGEMENT IN INTERNATIONAL FIRMS

It should be recalled that diversity includes among others the
following characteristics that differentiate one individual from
another; age, race, gender and physical qualities. Business
entities therefore are becoming more open-minded as well as
all inclusive with a view of reaching out to a richer clientele
base for their eventual success story.
By emphasizing workforce diversity management, organizations

are trying to eliminate discrimination among staff since it
suffocates organizational growth and development. They are
instead promoting equality among all their staff at domestic
and international levels.
It is absurd however to note that, despite this noble obligation

and effort, there are numerous barriers to effective workforce
diversity management and among them, some few are analysed
here below:-
Language and Cultural Differences
Business entities engage staff from diverse ethnic and

cultural backgrounds and a long the way, workforce diversity
management is proving an uphill task to many firms the world
over. For example, with different languages, traditions and
cultures, there are frequent clashes among staff. There is mistrust
among workers who do not understand other people’s dialect
and language. This does not lead to cohesion and congruence
among staff and it is to the detriment of the business entity.
Lack of funding
An ideal Human Resources Management system is the one

that recruits and maintains staff but not the one that hires and
fires. Many firms are forced to lay off staff or fire them due to
financial and budgetary constraints. Where this happens, highly
specialized and competent employees are lost. Thus, making it
so hard to maintain workforce diversity because wherever and
whenever lay off occurs, the international staff are the ones that
are most affected by the lay off strategy basically because the
firm is closing business. More often than not, it is also argued
that the international staff are very expensive to maintain!
Lack of funding also keeps the remaining diverse staff on

tension so that instead of attending to their duties, they are not
sure of their fate as there is no job security any longer. Time for
renewal of their contract is often a tormenting period as they
can be laid off on short notice! They therefore loose morale and
organizational citizenship and this is indeed detrimental to the
firm as its growth and development are curtailed due to staff
loss!
Attitude
Effective workforce diversity management is hampered by

tendencies of negative attitude among diverse staff. The negative
attitude in most cases is in relation to work and management.
The negative attitude and behaviour of the diverse staff usually
affect people’s working relationships whose consequential
results trickle down to employee morale and productivity.
Management is understood as being unrealistic, unreasonable

and anti-development. There are tendencies of withdraw
behaviour by the diverse staff especially those expecting to

loose their portfolios in the due course. Work therefore is stalled
and the firm’s success story proves far from reality.
Lack of Staff Participation
It is arguably true that employees working in unision and in

cohesion achieve a lot due to joint effort. Work environment
proves rather user friendly and success is inevitable. But,
a scenario where people look at themselves as individuals
hampers the steady progress of the firm. Work may remain either
at a stand still or unattended to because no one wants to assume
responsibility. So, if somebody does not do the work thinking
that somebody else will do it, the work ends up not being done
as nobody executes the work. This leads to disintegration of the
firm in the final analysis!
Social Status
This is a scenario whereby some people perceive themselves

as being above others in terms of race, position and social
hierarchy. As remarked already in this chapter, the Sharifs in
Tanzania are a higher social class as they believe that they are
descendants of Prophet Mohammed (SAW). Hence, they feel
that they are superior than the rest of the people in the country.
They feel they are much more respected. This curtails the
would be good working relationship with the rest of the society
members and it is detrimental to organizational and societal
prosperity.

CHALLENGES OF WORKFORCE DIVERSITY
MANAGEMENT IN INTERNATIONAL
ORGANISATIONS
Advantageous as it is, workforce diversity management has

numerous challenges and some of them are analysed here
below:-
Effective Workforce Diversity Management

Management fails to design a strategy that would make
workforce diversity management possible. Such kind
of strategy would require of management to promulgate
institutional policies that are implemented across all units and
departments in the organization. These among them would be
a training policy aiming at sensitizing the workforce on the
usefulness of diversity so that they work together despite their
differences in terms of culture, age, gender and other aspects.
This is technically referred to as unity in diversity. With such
a policy in place, all staff work as one people with one cause.
But, because most firms do not formulate such a policy, then,
diversity fails to work out and this obviously is detrimental to
the organization.
Firms do not have an effective training program in place.

Therefore, it is rather hard for staff to learn to accept one
another, to tolerate one another and to work with one another
since they are all of different background and sexual orientation.
They fail to learn to agree how to disagree. This therefore does
not keep their work environment harmonious and friendly to all
to work in as a unit!
Cost Involved
Workforce diversity practically presupposes a scenario where

staff are drawn from both the domestic and international labour
markets. To many firms and managers, hiring international staff
is rather a costly adventure. Therefore, staff may be hired and
fired other than being hired and maintained.
International staff are entitled to fat pay, some of them are

air lifted with excess baggage allowances being paid by the
recruiting firms, a number of them receive expatriate allowance
and the like. This implies that poor firms may not afford all
these expenses and thus justifying the fact that international
staff are very costly to many organizations especially the start
up organizations. Thus, making work diversity management a
challenge to organizational authorities.
Corporate Cultures
According to Nsubuga (2013), managing employees at

international level may be a challenge due to corporate
cultures. The issues like language, norms and values form part
of the corporate culture and therefore, difficulties arise when
employees from different background join the organization
which has different cultures from the local employees. Some of
the challenges in this case are:-

• Employee’s expectations
The diversity workforce in organizations may have different

expectations in terms of the remunerations, benefits and rewards
which are expected to be received from the organization.
Failure to meet their expectations may be a challenge which
may translate into poor performance. It is arguably true that
young employees usually have different expectations compared
to the elderly ones.
• Lack of proper Communication
Perceptual, cultural and language barriers need to be overcome

for diversity programs to succeed. Ineffective communication
of key objectives may result into confusion, lack of teamwork
spirit and low morale. Communication barriers lead to problems
in a company attempting to create a diverse workplace.
When a Chinese company hires employees of other cultures

whose first language is not Chinese Linga franca, employees
and managers may experience difficulties communicating with
one another. This can lead to misunderstandings and a decrease
in productivity. This may also justify organization’s decision to
hire those who know more international languages for purposes
of easing communication. Bank Ki Moon; the incumbent UN
Secretary General and many of his predecessors serve as very
good examples in this case.

• Resistance to Change
There are always employees who will refuse to accept the
fact that the social and cultural makeup of their workplace is
changing. The defence of the status quo always locks out new
ideas and therefore hampers steady and fast progress of an
enterprise.
Although workplace diversity management in most cases
benefits an organization as a whole, some employees and
managers may not react positively to changes either being
proposed or introduced. Employees who oppose workforce
diversity usually reject new ideas and make work environments
prove a living hell.
In case management fails to effectively handle opposition,
workplace diversity management efforts may not produce the
intended goals and benefits to the organisation. Therefore,
dealing with opposition may require of authorities to expressly
explain reasons for the introduction of workforce diversity in
the enterprise as well as the benefits of the changes proposed.
The vivid explanation may clear doubt among the employees
about the intended changes.
• Implementation of Workforce Diversity Policy
The proponents of workforce diversity management find
implementation of this concept an uphill task worldwide. Many
staff especially from the local or domestic labour market often
nurse fears of job insecurity caused by international labour.
Therefore, due to fear of the unknown, workforce diversity
management is stiffly opposed.
More often than not, agitators of workforce diversity
management have developed stress due to failure to implement
it. It is therefore advisable that organizations intending to
implement workforce diversity policies in their firms should
engage experienced professionals who specialize in workplace
diversity to do the needful on their behalf. These normally
do not fail because they base upon their wealth of experience
acquired over time and over space.
• Weather Conditions
This may prove a stiff challenge to the workforce who are

not familiar with any weather conditions different from their
home country weather situation. For example, those who are
coming from hot places to cold ones and those from cold places
to hot ones find it hard to adjust and others completely fail to
get acclimatized. More often than not, they resign their foreign
assignments.
• Employability of People who are Physically

Challenged
Different organizations the world over apply different policies

in the management of the day today affairs of their operations
and/or their activities. For example, some of the firms that are
profit oriented find it hard to engage people who are physically
challenged. They consider them as a burden and they may not
be in position to effectively and satisfactorily execute their
assignments.

It becomes a stiff challenge to those firms that establish
subsidiaries in countries like Uganda where firms are mandated
by law to employ people who are physically challenged because
their mother organization; NUDIPU argues that disability is
not inability to work. Therefore, organizations that may not be
ready to accommodate this policy find it hard to manage this
diversity.
• Poor Staff Performance
According to Nsubuga (2013), the performance of staff is

affected as a result of compliancy. Unlike staff selected from
the local or domestic labor market, those selected from the
external or foreign labor market may fail to execute their tasks
due to pressure from the host government that may demand that
in order to work, one must be ready to conform and or to abide
by the state rules, regulations and principles in force.
Some firms find such regulations prohibitive to engage

foreign staff. Take the example of Tanzania’s Residence and
Work Permit fees that are too high. A foreign staff pays USD
1550 for Residence Permit. This is found prohibitive to many
organizations intending to engage foreign staff. They resort to
local staff and lose out on the technocracy they would have
enjoyed with diverse staff!

WORKFORCE DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT
It is arguably true that whenever and wherever there are

difficulties, there are remedies also. The useful policy of
workforce diversity management is being made almost
impossible for human resources managers to adopt because of
the numerous challenges that stem from its adoption. However,
the following variables are advanced as possible practical
remedies to the challenges of workforce diversity management
policy in organizations at both local and international levels.
They are:-
Warding off Change Resistance with Inclusion
Successful implementation of the workforce diversity

management policy necessitates management to involve every
employee of the firm in formulating and executing diversity
initiatives in an organization. Some notable staff may be charged
with the duty of implementing the changes. This helps to calm
down the would be resistors because the policy is squarely
owned by both the management and the employees.
This presupposes that the staff with the potential to oppose the
changes and the policy in particular should not only be informed
in advance about the impending introduction of changes but
also, they should be allowed to participate in the process of the
implementation of the changes. It is hoped that at the time of
implementation, they can not turn against their own brain child
they helped to nurture. This is therefore practically warding off
resistance.
Promote an Environment of Openness in an Enterprise
If all types of staff and changes are going to be welcomed so

easily in a firm, it is advisable that the initiatives forging the way
to workforce diversity policy should be free and fair, should be
carried out with openness without any step being taken behind
people’s backs.
This is so because a situation where there is smooth exchange

of ideas enables staff to air out their ideas, suggestions and
constructive criticisms and all these show a high degree of
equality among all in the firm. Therefore, without fear or
favour, management formulates policies that are user friendly
and supported by almost all staff regardless of their respective
background and differences in terms of nationality, gender,
ethnicity, nationality and the like.
Promotion of Diversity in Leadership Positions
A skillful leader who is desirous of unity and congruence

among the diverse staff in an organization ensures that he/she
appoints staff to fill the different units of the organogram hailing
from different background in terms of culture, age, gender,
ethnicity and the like. This practically portrays visibility and
benefits of workforce diversity at a workplace. In case, the
structure is balanced as all are represented and participate in
the management of the affairs of the enterprise, then, workforce
diversity becomes successful.

Enhancement of Diversity Training
A forward looking leader who has embraced good governance
and implemented the workforce diversity policy promotes
training but for all. Since all are not discriminated even in crucial
organizational programs like training, then it leads to attitude
change among the staff. They acknowledge that management
is not biased and therefore they support the policy since they
are also a beneficiary thereof!
Language Training
Besides enhancement of diversity training, the workforce
diversity management language problems can be solved by
adopting a policy on language training especially those about to
take on foreign assignments. This will enable different people
with different cultures such as use of one language at place of
work as a means of communication to avoid miscommunication.
They will all be able to speak a common linga franca for
effective co-existence and harmonious work execution.
Creation of a Conducive Working Environment
Employees of all caliber feel honoured and privileged working
in a user friendly or in an enabling environment. Therefore,
in situations where this is upheld, staff will work with a lot
of enthusiasm, zeal and determination to the extent of even
forgetting their individual differences. Handy facilities among
others provided are lighting, ventilation, gas, refreshments,
housing allowance, transport allowance and health insurance
just among others and these support their effectiveness at the
work place.
Institutionalization of Annual Excellence award System
Institutions with global employees should adopt an

institutionalized Annual Excellency Award to be accorded to
the excelling and deserving employees. This will go along way
in enabling staff remain focused on performance other than
getting involved in issues of less importance to them especially
pertaining to fellow staff. For it to be significant, it should be
accorded without any biasness or subjectivity. It should be
commensurate with the recipient’s qualification and overall
contribution to the survival of the enterprise.
This award is agitated for because firms are increasingly

becoming global. The workforce too is increasingly becoming
diverse. Therefore, organizational success and competitiveness
is going to depend entirely on the ability of the manager to
effectively and ably handle this diversity at the workplace.
A forward looking manager should therefore revisit the
organization’s diversity management policies, plans and
strategies for the brighter future of the global business entity
under his/her control.

CHAPTER EIGHT
CHALLENGES FACING DUO CAREER

COUPLES AND INTERNATIONAL FEMALE
EMPLOYEES

This chapter focuses at meaning of key terms including but not
limited to female employee, duo career couples and international
female employees. Then, it discusses the main challenges the
international female employees are encountering categorized
under domestic challenges and organizational challenges.
Then, some remedies to the challenges are also provided.
To begin with, the paradigm Duo Career Couples in the context

of this book as well as in the perspective of International
Human Resources Management refer to a scenario whereby
someone is doubling as an employee of a given business entity
or organization and at the same time, the individual is charged
with the responsibilities of handling family responsibilities and
matters.
An employee is someone who works for a public or private

employer and receives remuneration in salary, wages,
commission, tips, piece rates, or pay in kind. In other words, an
employee is someone who is paid to work for someone or for
an organization with a view of expecting some remuneration
or reward.
According to Wehmeier (2009), female is a person bearing

two X chromosomes with specific body parts including but not
limited to cell nuclei and normally having an ovary, a uterus and
developing at puberty a relatively rounded body and enlarged
breasts and retaining a beardless face. In this case, such a person
is either a girl or a woman.

On the other hand, an International Female Employee can be
understood as female employee who works for a firm with
headquarters or subsidiaries located in a country other than
her country of origin. This organization at International level
is aiming at achieving the organizational goals and objectives
for which it was established and also to gain a competitive edge
over competitors at National and International levels.
CHALLENGES INTERNATIONAL FEMALE

EMPLOYEES ENCOUNTER
International Female Employees over space and time are

encountering numerous challenges. But, this chapter is focusing
at only two major categories of challenges notably; domestic
and organizational challenges. The focus is to find out the
extent to which the two scenarios affect their performance and
also to find out the way forward. Otherwise, they would end up
in a fiasco if their problems are not addressed.
Organizational Challenges
It is indeed absurd to note that the world over, international

female employees are encountering a sea of problems and
challenges. Among the many organizational challenges they are
encountering, the following are serving as very good samples.

Sexual Harassment
This is sexual assault and it may happen to anybody without
his/her due consent. It can occur between members of the same
or the opposite sex. At the world of work, it may occur among
organizational employees and managers or employers. It
affects the female gender in most cases. DeCenzo and Robbins
(2005:79) view sexual harassment as “any unwanted activity of
sexual nature that affects an individual.
In international organizations, sexual harassment is one of the
major and topical issues affecting women especially at their
workplace. They are always considered a sexual object and
therefore they are falling victims of sexual harassment at the
hands of their bosses. At times, employers try to take sexual
favors from women employee in return of some benefits
and/or promotion to juicy portfolios of the organization and
employment opportunities.
Women have fallen victims of circumstances at the hands of their

male supervisors and/or managers who do not expect negative
response to their selfish proposals for sexual intercourse. In
case women refuse to give in, they are reminded that it is
them (the male counterparts) who appoint them, recommend
salary increment and even recommend their promotional
opportunities. They are always reminded that it is not their
academic qualifications or certificates that they possess that
recruit and select them, but the bosses. That is why they utilize
this opportunity to force them dance to their tune. This is why
most of them have ended up giving in to secure the job and to
enjoy job security!
This may explain why many female employees who have
registered broken marriages. Many have even become single
mothers. Their homes or families have become a living hell!
A number of them have been divorced because their husbands
have failed to accommodate this type of behaviour dubbed
“cheating.” In most cases, the ladies are innocent but forced
into “love affairs” by their uncompromising, inconsiderate and
greedy bosses!
Sexual harassment may be classified into as many as five major

categories notably:-
• Physical contact and advances

• Pornography
• A demand or request for sexual favors
• Forced sexual intercourse
• Any other unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal
activities like whistling, obscene jokes, body touch
especially on the breasts or private parts or buttocks. Figure
8.1 is depictive of sexual harassment at a workplace!

Figure 8.1: Depicting sexual harassment at work stations.
Adopted from http://www.123rf.com/photo_9550722_sexual-
harassment-of-women-at-workplaces 26/04/2014
Unequal Payment
This is yet another problem that international female workers are
encountering at workplaces. In many organizations especially
in Africa, women are not paid the same rate in the organization
as male employees. Women are considered a weaker sexton do
hard jobs and to persevere. Managers therefore do not find any
justification to pay them equally.

This may explain why Nsubuga (2013) argues that the ideal
situation is one whereby both male and female employees
doing the same job with similar demands requiring similar
skills, effort, competencies and time be performed under the
same working conditions and all should be paid the same rate.
Insecurity
It is another major issue that women are facing at workplaces.

It is arguably true that women who work in the private sector
mostly fall victim of various crimes at work stations due to
insecurity. There are numerous cases that have been registered
involving women who become victims of sexual abuses and
rape. Others are robbed of their property as they are considered
to be a weak sex who can not defend themselves or fight the
aggressor. Others have had fatal accidents due to hard and
difficult job assignments allotted to them by their supervisors
regardless of their weaker sex orientation. See Figure 3.3 which
is already emphatical on this scenario.
Discriminatory Tendencies
International female employees also face other peculiar gender-

related challenges. Some of these can take the form of direct
discriminatory tendencies or practices as well as more subtle
ones. This may explain why it is almost next to impossible for
a female manager to establish her credibility and gain respect at
a work station compared to her male counterparts.

Their ideas, views, decisions and policies are negated,
undervalued and at times not implemented as people assume that
women can not determine or influence anything in society and
organizations. In the academic arena in the East African Region
for example, there are too few institutions of higher learning
that are headed by female Vice Chancellors or Rectors. Student
Unions are also dominated and headed by male students!
Maternity Leave
Whereas it is their natural and fundamental right to be accorded

at most three months of maternity leave. That is to say the month
before, the month of delivery and the month after delivery,
most of them are accorded insufficient time for their maternity
leave. Many working mothers especially in the private sector
are accorded only one month of maternity leave. They often
return for duty after a short while of maternity leave.
Such an arrangement does not only affect the performance of

female employees at work stations, but it may also have far
reaching negative consequences unto the growth and survival
of her child who does not get enough care and breast milk as
the child is left home in the care of a maid.
The situation has been worsened by unruly and uncivilized maids

who have subjected these toddlers to punitive torture and abuse.
Thus, hampering the child’s steady growth and development.
Some children are not fed as their would be portion is either
eaten by the maid or channeled to the maid’s own children.

Such a scenario therefore jeopardizes the performance of
female employees who must have divided loyalty to their office
duties and siblings at home!
REMEDIES TO THE CHALLENGES FACING

INTERNATIONAL FEMALE EMPLOYEES THAT ARE
ORGANIZATIONAL IN NATURE
Organizational authorities are expected to ensure that all staff
regardless of sexual orientation are accorded their due rights
in a firm. These among other things include the problems
and challenges female staff encounter at their work stations.
Therefore, the remedies to the challenges facing international
female employees that are organizational in nature are analysed
here below:-
Educational Campaigns on the Rights of Women Employees
With the view of helping women keep abreast of their fundamental

human rights at work stations, educational campaigns should
be initiated at their work stations geared towards making them
aware of their fundamental rights. In order for such campaigns
to be successful, management has to be at the forefront of
these campaigns. If it does not, then, these campaigns will
be suffocated. They could be initiated by associations that
bring together women such as ZAFELA (Zanzibar Female
Lawyers’ Association), Tanzania Media Women Association
(TAMWA), Tanzania Women Lawyers Association (TAWLA),
FIDA (Uganda); The Uganda Association of Women Lawyers.
This primarily addresses issues affecting women and children
and indeed many other associations the world over.
These can among other things spear head and enforce the
implementation of Conventions like The Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
(CEDAW). Reforms such as Public Service Reform Program
(PSRP) I and II of Tanzania can also be implemented.
Secondly, on a frequent basis, women employees should be taken

through short or refresher courses geared towards awakening
them in regard to their rights. This can be done when a manager
directly invokes and implements the Employees Acts of either
the International Labour Organisation (ILO) or their mother
organizations. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act,
Equal Pay Act of 1963, the Occupational Safety and Health
Act of 1970 (OSHA) and the other relevant Sexual Harassment
Acts should be adopted.
Training Policy for Women Employees
There is need to promulgate a training policy in favour of

women employees aimed at addressing their challenges since
in most cases, it proves to be an answer to many problems
and challenges in organizations. In this case, Nsubuga (2006)
argues that staff training is the best medicine to most of the
organizational pathologies. Therefore, business entities
should strive to keep in business through training of their staff
including women employees. Training will go along way in
enabling women employees to handle their problems with a lot
of ease. This is because with better training, one is practically
empowered to perform better and to handle most challenges
that may arise from the internal and external factors.
So management of organizations should keep women
employees updated on new developments in their midst and in
the environment by organizing refresher courses, workshops,
seminars and symposia aimed at keeping the women staff
posted with the current techniques and strategies of effective
work execution.
Creation of Good Work Conditions and friendly Work

Environment
It is arguably true that for effective work execution, employers

must ensure the safety and security of the workforce at their
work stations. These ought to be free of hazardous objects and
human actions that may cause death or serious physical harm to
all workers. (Nsubuga, 2013).
In this regard therefore, management should attach much value

and attention to the fact that female employees need special
care compared to their male counter parts at work stations
because they are rather a feeble sex. They should not be allotted
hard job designs as they could be over strained. Thus, a user
friendly and good working environment would befit them for
their effectiveness.
Ensuring Participation of Women at all Level of Management
It is arguably true that participation in the management of the

affairs of a project is being empowered. One who participates
contributes towards the realization and achievement of set plans
and goals. One supports the project and can neither oppose nor
can one feel comfortable seeing it collapse.
Therefore, a focused Human Resources Manager should
endeavour to absorb all the staff, women inclusive in key
positions of the firm where they are given chance to influence
policy. By so doing, one will automatically be implementing
the rights of women at the work place. There are a good many
examples of women either holding or who are having key
and sensitive posts in international organizations. Suzan Rice,
Condeleeza Rice; who served as the sixty sixth Secretary of
State of the United States of America are good examples.
The African continent has also produced strong women

occupying crucial portfolios in their countries. Former Vice
President of Uganda; Dr. Specioza Wandera Kazibwe and Dr.
Joyce Banda; former President of the Republic of Malawi are
good examples. This presupposes that given the necessary
support and opportunity, women can make a critical contribution
in the field of administration.
Provision of Maternity Leave
One of the sources of the plight of women in international

assignments stems from the fact that they conceive and
therefore qualify for maternity leave. During this period, they
ought to be accorded at least three months of maternity leave.
That is to say, the month before delivery, the month of delivery
and the month after delivery. This will give them ample time to
care for their babies and to settle. The Tanzanian Employment
Act Number 11 of 2005 is emphatical on this issue; 70 (1) A
pregnant employee shall upon delivery be entitled to a three
months’ paid maternity leave which shall be exclusive of the
annual paid leave prescribed under section 67 of this Act. …..(3)
Maternity leave shall commence at least four weeks before the
date of delivery unless a medical officer advises otherwise…..
Provision of Baby Care facilities for Working Mothers
On resumption of duty after maternity leave, the breast feeding

employees should be accorded special facilities at work place
for taking care of their babies and themselves. These could range
from provision of gazetted space for baby sitting, provision of
safe transport means to and fro work station, shorter working
hours, reduced work load and the like. Such an arrangement
practically implies that a manager will have eased the life of
the working mother. Hence, making his/her organization a safe
heaven for the workforce in general and female employees
specifically.
DOMESTIC CHALLENGES FACING INTERNATIONAL

FEMALE EMPLOYEES
Besides the challenges that are organizational in nature, there

are also domestic challenges international female employees
do face and these are analysed here below:-
Challenges of Domestic Work
By virtue of their nature, women who double as international

employees and at the same time they are house wives are
troubled both at home and at the work stations. They carry on
excess responsibilities compared to either their counterparts
or those females who do not work. In this connection, Gillian
(1982) observes that it is very complicated to the women to
shoulder the entire responsibility of running the home and
taking care of the children while at the same time working.
Lack of Supports from their Husbands
Naturally, men want to be served by their wives and many do

not participate in doing house work. Some of them feel like
loosing their manhood if they did so. So, female employees
normally endeavour to balance the demands and requirements
of their jobs on the one hand and also go ahead to care for
their families on the other hand. But, it is absurd to note that
they endeavour so much to meet multiple responsibilities with
little or even no support from either their husbands or the other
members of the family!
Life is aggravated by the fact that their ability to balance

work and family responsibilities depends heavily on employer
attitude, understanding and consideration. For example, does
the employer have flexible work policies? Does the organization
have child care facilities? Do workers have and enjoy emergency
leave? Most husbands don’t show any support to their wives
and leave all the work to them without any pity for them even
when they are too exhausted from work!
Domestic Violence
Naturally, the world over, most men (the husbands) are over
jealous toward their wives. The situation worsens in regard to
most working house wives who attend to duty during night.
These among others include nurses, medical doctors, fuel pump
attendants and shop keepers. They are suspected of falling in
love with their immediate bosses. They are coerced on returning
home very late from work and the situation becomes uglier
when they return past normal working hours as a result of over
time or delayed or prolonged office work schedules.
In scenarios where either female employees earn much more

money than their husbands or when they get an opportunity to
go a way from home per sey on official business trip such as
training or executing international assignments, their husbands
become very uncomfortable. They become abusive, they yell at
them, they quarrel and at times beat them up. The situation gets
aggravated when husbands get to know that the wives attended
such fora with their bosses!
Betrayal by their Spouses
This is one of the severest challenges encountered by married

female employees world wide. In most cases when they leave
home for either duty or abroad to work, most husbands who
are impatient feel they are loosing out on marital relationships
and as a “remedy”, they either fall in love with the house maids
or even marry other women on the justification that the wife is
busy with the office work or she is not in the country.
There are some men who argue that they can not do without
playing sex for even a day and that is why they either confuse
the house maids or marry again to satisfy their sexual desires.
This is felt as a huge betrayal that can not accommodated by
the female working employees. This may explain why many
have resigned their foreign assignments to return home or have
applied for divorce.
However, the betrayal at times extends to the husbands whose

wives are so impatient that when they go to work either within
or without the country, they are tempted and fall in love with
workmates or colleagues. Betrayal has caused constant quarrels
among married people and in most cases divorce has been
registered as the resultant effect of extra marital love affairs or
extra marital sexual relationships!
Stress
Closely related to the afore-discussed issue of betrayal is another

hot issue of stress. This is common among international female
employees. This is so because the caliber of such women is
such a way that they endeavour to balance between domestic
and work life. At times, because a combination of both work
and marriage life is hard to register as these are two extreme
and heavily demanding ends, the female employees end up
developing a stressful mind.
A number of causation factors can be advanced at this stage

pertaining to stress. First of all, financial status may cause
stress among international female employees especially after
realizing that even after that sacrifice of leaving home and
going to work abroad, the economic gain is insignificant
and therefore not worthy the decision (dead-end-job with no
financial viability and promotional opportunities). By working
abroad, one expects to have ends meet. But if they do not, then,
it is frustrating and therefore, one develops stress.
Secondly, there is also the health problem which tends to make

people live in a perpetual state of stress. This is in relation with
the high rate of spread of deadly pandemic diseases like Marburg,
Ebola and HIV/AIDS. Somebody is working during awkward
time moreover for very long hours but, the impatient spouse is
also busy womanizing. As a consequence, one contracts deadly
diseases mentioned earlier on. On receiving this “unfortunate
breaking news,” the spouse develops a stressful mind. This
may even explain the high rate of cases of suicide among
international employees resulting from depression.
Children are another source of perpetual stress in families where

there is a seemingly temporary separation between mother and
father due to engagement in international assignments. Children
are demanding for the mother or father as the case may be who
is virtually not with them. On a frequent basis, the parent is
asked numerous questions whose answers are too limited.
This leads to total confusion among the family members and
this leads to depression. Figure 8.2 is illustrative of this very
scenario where the mother and children are in total agony and
despair with stress-packed-mind!

Figure 8.2: Depicting stress-packed-mind adopted from http//
www.123rf.com/photo_11411214. Accessed on 24/04/2014
Cost sharing
There are some cultures whose practice require of a woman to

stay at home without engaging in any kind of business outside
the family. In this case, the husband is the only bread-earner.
However, there are also other cultures where if the wife is
working, then, the issue of cost sharing of the responsibilities
sets in. Family up keep and maintenance is equally shared
because both the husband and the wife are working.

In most cases, some women detest this arrangement arguing
that it is the husband’s responsibility to foot the cost for the
family as well as her maintenance. She may be expected to pay
for bills including gas, water and rent among others. She is also
expected to effect some contribution towards children’s school
dues, health care and the like. At times, some women refuse to
abide by such conditionalities as they consider this as very high
degree of exploitation.
Therefore, constant quarrels ensue and this has contributed to

breaking down of some family households. This also causes
stress especially to women who feel that it is their fundamental
right to be maintained by their spouses. Thus, adding to the
many challenges international female employees encounter on
a day today basis.
Pressure from Family Members
A number of women including those employed either

domestically or internationally are tormented by the relatives
of the husband. The mother in law specially and the in-laws
generally mount pressure either directly or indirectly to her for
either favours or financial support. They demand for shares
because they believe that that the property accumulated belongs
to the man and that she does not have any share and say at all
in the family wealth.
Constant quarrels and fights ensue and this traumatizes the

wife. There are some cultural practices which have no room for
women to advance career wise. They are regarded as second
class family members without any right or obligation to possess
property and to make any decision relating to family wealth.
Such cultural practices torment the international working
housewife and compound to her many challenges.
She is not respected at all. Her mother in law demands she
should be divorced. Their life is indeed very much completed
by pressure from family members. The Baganda from central
Uganda have a proverb which implies that it is far better for the
spouse to find the grave of the mother in law than finding her
when still alive. This is saying much about the confusion and
pressure a mother in law may cause and hence, the degree of
stress to her daughter in law.
REMEDIES TO THE CHALLENGES FACING
INTERNATIONAL FEMALE EMPLOYEES THAT ARE
DOMESTIC IN NATURE
It is arguably true that where there is difficulty, there is relief.
Therefore, the numerous challenges the international female
employees encounter have remedies. This part of the book is
analyzing some of them and these are:-
Promulgation of New Policies
Female employees are part of the workforce with tremendous
contribution to the welfare, growth and development of the
business entity. Therefore, in order to accord them chance to
realize their fullest potential, it is pertinent that comprehensive
policies detailing strategies women should utilize to
balance between work and family responsibilities should be
promulgated. These among other things should include:-
• Sponsoring her spouse to leave and stay with her when
carrying out international assignments. In this case, he
becomes her dependant according to most rules governing
international work engagements.
• Granting her spouse permission to access employment

opportunities while abroad also since he is regarded as
her dependant who must not have any access to public
funds in that foreign country. Such permission will enable
him not to develop stress also as he will be turned into a
house keeper when the wife goes to work. Above all, if he
is also working, suspicion, pressure, insecurity/instability
of the mind will reduce.
• The children of the international female employee should

also be covered in the contract in terms of residence permit,
tuition, air travel, excess baggage, health insurance so
that they can leave with their parents. This may go along
way in enabling her settle for serious business without
any undue pressure and discomfort that would make her
become susceptible to stress.
• The policies in question should also enable female

employees to balance between the office work and family
responsibilities. For example, the new polices may
provide for facilities for baby-seating, maternity leave of
three months; that is to say, the month before delivery,
the month of delivery and the month after delivery. In
addition to this, provision for a maid may also be captured
in the contract. These may enable her balance between the
office work and family responsibilities with ease.
Family Support Programs
If the international female employees are to settle and make a

meaningful contribution to the success of the organizations for
which they work, they must be strategically supported through
Family Support Programs under the auspices of their home
Governments and/or the private sector.
The support is to be in form of initiatives aimed at encouraging

and developing programs that assist women and men address
family problems and avoid misunderstanding resulting from her
working status. This can be in form of education and community
awareness programs that popularize and increase child care
programs, family security, human rights and trust among men
and women working overseas. In this case, husbands should
be targeted and taken through the advantages that may accrue
either directly or indirectly from the working house-wife to the
family specifically and to the community generally.
Role of Education and Social Media
There is much need to educate and sensitize the society

about negative beliefs and bad cultural practices towards
the international female employees. For example, it is utter
ignorance in this modern age to continue thinking and believing
that women are there specifically to woo the man, to serve their
spouse and to take care of the family responsibilities since she
is working.

Those societies that regard woman as being a third world
citizen, a sexual object and an inferior good in society need to
change their attitude through positive thinking about women.
They also need to accord her the respect she deserves as a useful
societal or family member. She needs to be considered as a life
and a family development partner. This can be taken care of
through seminars, symposia and workshops organized at local
and international scenes. This is so because they equally play
a pivotal role in the life span of families and organizations the
world over.
BOTTOM LINE
It is the humble opinion of the author that instead of making

women develop headache as well as a fully stress packed mind
as international employees, since they are making a genuine
and significant contribution to the affairs of the organization
and their families back home, they ought to be accorded the
support that befits them to continue rendering their support to
their firms and families.
Therefore, both local and international firms as well as their

home country governments ought to promote women initiatives
and efforts to remain very active and efficient international
employees. This can easily be achieved through provision of
training opportunities for potential women managers especially
in areas of Leadership, IT and Human Resources Management.
With this kind of empowerment, the world may become a better
place to live and to work in.

Therefore, more and more women should be identified and
appointed in senior management portfolios for the benefit
of more women around the globe. They should be accorded
equal opportunity to serve in international organizations, top
government portfolios to increase their chances of influencing
decisions and policies of their organizations as well as the
world at large. Time therefore is now and not tomorrow that
women should be supported to move away from the scotching
sun to the boardroom!
Society should support the girl child to realize her fullest

potential by protecting her and mentoring her to maturity.
She should be allowed to pursue education and to apply for
competitive job slots both internationally and domestically.
In any case, women should be treated as equal partners. She
should therefore be qualified for equal pay.
Husbands to the international female employees ought to spear

head the urgently needed support to their spouses by offering
them an upper hand by accepting to share family responsibilities
such as taking care of the children, monitoring the house maids
while carrying out domestic work. They should enable them
work in peace and not in pieces by remaining truthful and
patient to their wives when they are away from home for duty.

CHAPTER NINE
EXPATRIATE WORK- A BED OF ROSES AND

SWEETS?

This chapter aims at enabling the readers to appreciate the
joy and difficulties expatriates face while carrying out foreign
assignments. Secondly, it aims at guiding expatriates prepare
thoroughly for foreign engagements because it is not full of
roses and sweets. Rather, it has a dark side which they must be
prepared for.
EXPATRIATE DEFINED
An expatriate may be understood as any individual who may

be temporarily living and undertaking employment in a foreign
economy, Anderson (2003). However, according to Gomez-
Mejia et.al., (2004:617), an expatriate is a citizen of one
country living and working in another country.
MERITS OF EXPATRIATE WORK
On the one hand, expatriate work may indeed be a bed of

sweets and roses given the advantages that accrue from foreign
assignments trickling down to either the individual expatriate,
his or her family members or the mother country. The advantages
are analysed here below:-
Family Status
It is arguably true that the status of the family of a successful

expatriate who strives hard enough to develop projects back
home that end up offering employment opportunities to the
societal members specifically and to the nation generally,
is elevated. This is so because they all feel they are gaining
and reaping from the sweat of the expatriate. Therefore, the
expatriate, his or her family, the society and the nation all get a
share and become more prestigious and respected. In this case
therefore, expatriate work becomes a bed of sweets and roses.
Family Revenue
Just like the first argument, expatriates assigned to developed

and rich economies like England, USA, France, Germany,
Italy, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates and the like benefit a lot
from the assignment. Therefore, the expatriate’s family income
and revenue increase several folds than before. This is so
because of the advantage of minimum wage that the expatriate
and his or her dependants enjoy while on foreign assignment.
The professional Football and Basket Ball players in rich clubs
like Chicago Bulls, the L A Lakers, Miami Heat, Real Madrid,
Chelsea, Manchester City, Barcelona FC and the like where
some of them are known as big spenders may be fielded as
very good examples. At most of these clubs, for example, one
player may receive more than £50,000 a week. This is indeed
huge amount and it helps to sustain the argument that expatriate
work is a bed of sweets and roses.
Motivating Factor
An expatriate on a foreign engagement becoming wealthier and

more famous is self motivated to continue working hard to earn
more and to stay in that job bracket for long. He or she therefore
enjoys soft life and his or her contemporaries start admiring the
successful expatriate, work hard to be like the rich – famous
expatriate. This may have far reaching positive consequences
in that, all end up working hard for better life and the economy
is boosted. In the world of sports again, there are a number of
players that are admired and others emulate them. The Toure
brethrens (Kolo Toure and Yaya Toure) are very good examples
in this case whereby inspiration came from Yaya Toure and it
trickled down to Kolo Toure.
High Standard of Living
Many people working in foreign missions enjoy high standard

of living especially if they are in Diplomatic Mission. They
earn much and in hard currency and they live a joyours life
due to the allowances obtained from their work stations. For
instance, regarding air travel, they are entitled to Business
Class that is accompanied by fat travel allowances, fat per diem,
baggage allowances and some of them are entitled to hardship
allowances in case they are working in hostile and risky places
like southern parts of South Sudan, Northern Iraq, Syria as well
as areas that are prone to pandemics like Ebola and Marburg.
Indeed, working out side of one’s mother country is beneficial
in a way and this helps to sustain the argument that expatriate
assignments are a bed of sweets and roses.
CHALLENGES EXPATRIATES ENCOUNTER IN

FOREIGN LABOUR MARKETS
However, advantageous as it is, expatriate work is also known

for having several challenges which expatriates undertaking
some employment in most foreign labour markets the world
over more often than not do encounter. These challenges do
dent their performance. Some of the challenges that justify the
argument that foreign labour is not a bed of sweets and roses
are analysed in this section of the chapter. They are;
Social Strata
The world is made up of numerous social groupings and these

tend to conflict with one another especially if their members
are not very religious. Almost all communities the world over
have the following social strata; the Nobles, the Sheriffs, the
Bozuasies, the Peasants and the Royals. It is arguably true that
depending on an international employee’s social strata, it may
not be possible for such an employee to fit in other people’s
social groupings. This is because one may be underrated,
downgraded and therefore not accorded the due respect one
would deserve as a new member of the community. Hence,
feeling bad and this may bar one from effectively carrying out
one’s obligations as an international employee as one feels that
one is being regarded a third world citizen.
Language Problem
More often than not and in most societies, language helps a

lot in giving one a clear identity. Therefore, language barrier
denies most expatriates the chance to fit in and integrate
easily in a foreign and/or strange community. There is quite
a considerable number of languages and dialects around the
world spoken by different people and these have the potential
to puzzle a foreigner. Thus, making it so hard for the intruder
to understand the methods of work execution, let alone getting
a clear appreciation of how the society members perceive
work as well as foreign labourers. They may plan to isolate the
latter or even make the labourer’s life a living hell without him
understanding a thing.
Therefore, success in a foreign labour market requires proficiency

in the national linga franca without which, life becomes difficult
as service providers as well as clientele may exploit the foreign
staff. They may practice price discrimination, they may refuse
to promote the foreign labourer basing on the argument that
staff does not have the operational language to participate fully
in the day today management of the affairs of the organization.
Others may argue that the foreign labourer may jeopardize the
smooth flow of the public relation and image of the firm.
Qualification
More often than not, one becomes an expatriate because one

is considered to be having extra qualification, competencies,
abilities as well as skills which may be lacking in the domestic
labour market. Therefore, good as it may be, the high
qualification based upon to engage an expatriate, to his or her
dismay, it may turn out to be a prophet of doom as it may cause
discomfort, conflict, hatred among local and international staff.
The local staff nurse fears of job insecurity and therefore plan
his or her downfall. This justifies the argument that expatriate
work is not a bed of sweets and roses.

Discrimination
Most communities do discriminate expatriates due to various

factors including but not limited to differences in ethnicity,
culture, religion, or even politics. For example, if an Islamic
attire or otherwise is enforced, it may lock out many at a place
of work. And differences in language may also lock out many
and if they got chance to penetrate, they may be isolated by the
local staff in most areas and activities. In this case, the firm may
become a living hell to the expatriate staff.
Cultural Clashes
Culture is so powerful in communities that it is often considered

a powerful source of identity and strength. An intruder therefore
finds it extra ordinarily hard to fit in a community different
from his or her own. But, the degree to which the intruder
may suffer due to cultural clashes may vary from country to
country, personality to personality and from environment to
environment.
This is so because cultural clashes in most cases result into

confusion on a number of issues such as public holidays unless
they are clearly demarcated, hatred amongst people due to failure
to appreciate and accommodate people’s divergent view points,
depression, isolation as well as resignation from the workplace
if the level of hatred exceeds limits. It also sometimes results
into death because people fail to accommodate one another,
they end up conflicting and henceforth, fighting and this may
lead to loss of life.
Over Work or Over Load
More often than not, many people tend to forget that an expatriate
despite his or her strong points in terms of experience, talent,
qualification, competencies and abilities, he or she is still a
normal human being who should not be allotted too much work.
Expatriates are always seen in many organizations being selected
and thus appointed to numerous operational committees as well
as task forces with an aim of enabling the firm achieve what it
had failed to achieve before the appointment of the expatriate.
If the expatriate does not have a no and accepts whatever is
assigned to him or her to be accomplished, then, the expatriate
may become inefficient. Others may judge him or her as a non
performer despite the fact that, he or she was allotted more than
he or she could accomplish in his or her capacity as a normal
human being.
Weather Conditions
Expatriates hail from different parts of the globe to go to work
elsewhere. Working abroad is indeed not a bed of roses and
sweets because many foreign workers are tortured by varying
weather conditions. For example, extremely hot weather versus
extremely cold weather and/or extremely stormy weather.
There are several areas around the globe that are very difficult
to work and live in by foreigners. Some examples on this are
the Central area, along the Yangtze River Valley which has a
long and humid summer and therefore very well known for
very high temperatures. However, it is also widely known for
very cold winter seasons that in most cases fall below minus
five!
On the list also is Southern China that has hot summers and
short winter seasons, Russia and Finland have white snow
during winter seasons. It is therefore arguably true that under
such very unfriendly whether environments, it is life threatening
for foreigners to work and live in such areas. Hence, expatriate
work proving a stiff challenge to human life.
Oppressive, Suppressive and Prohibitive Rules and Policies
Whereas it is arguably true that tax regimes coupled with rules
and policies of a government should be user friendly to the target
tax payers and policy users so that they are affordable other
than being prohibitive, there are quite a number of such taxes
and policies that hinder labour mobility and integration as they
are unaffordable by many firms within and without the country.
These are in form of taxes, work permits, residence permits for
expatriates and their dependants. Therefore, unfriendly as they
are, justify the assertion that expatriate work is not a bed of
roses and sweets.
Loneliness
Man is believed to be a social animal who is used to stay
and interact with other people other than staying in isolation.
Therefore, scenarios where one is appointed to take up an
international assignment without any consideration for one to
go with one’s dependants is indeed a tormenting phenomenon.
One stays alone and eventually develops a stress-packed-mind
as one was not accompanied by one’s family members to that
international workplace. Development of a stressful mind
justifies the argument that, expatriate work is not a bed of roses
and sweets.
Criminal Activities
Some international assignments are carried out in places whose

criminal record is one among the most chaotic globally. Some
of these places are risky to stay and work in due to criminal
activities like murder, robbery, kidnapping, rape, defilement
and burglary. Such places are said to be risky because a great
deal of the youths there are jobless, redundant and idle. Thus,
they are substance abusers that influence their immoral and
criminal behaviour. Such areas therefore are not safe to live and
work in. This also justifies the argument that expatriate work is
never a bed of roses and sweets.
Political Instability
Expatriates may not necessarily be a hundred percent enjoying

life while on foreign mission due to the rampant scenarios of
political and constitutional turmoil governments are facing the
world over. It is severely affecting expatriate’s lives, lives of
their dependants and their property. Implying that either living
or working in such chaotic areas is risky to the workforce
especially foreigners. In this case, countries like Egypt, South
Sudan, Syria and Iraq serve as very good examples today. Thus,
working abroad is not a bed of sweets and roses.
Government Foreign Policies
Countries that are considered to be having poor political,

economic and military multilateral relationships with others
usually are hated and they are at either cold war or physical war
almost throughout the ages. This may be resulting from their
perceived poor foreign policies. Under such circumstances, it
becomes a stiff challenge for one to work and live in such an
insecure and unfriendly environment whose foreign policies
are detested by many. This may explain why life of some
representatives of some countries is at stake as the officers are
frequently attacked.
Clash among Nationals and Expatriates
Work may prove to be life threatening if one is working in

some areas of the world that may be having uncompromising
nationals. They love their country and nothing is left for
intruders. Where foreigners come in, they are considered a
source of unemployment and social anarchy. They oppose this
and it leads to political and social clashes among them and the
foreign staff. The Islam-phobia in West African Republic of
Mali and the xenophobia in the Republic of South Africa that
started on 12th May 2008 against Malawians, Zimbabweans
and Mozambicans are good examples in this case.
In the life span of organizations, clashes normally result from

differences in pay among local and foreign staff, differences
in schemes of service, perceived job insecurity resulting from
high qualification as well as international exposure and linkages
possessed by international staff on the one hand. Hard work
exhibited by foreign staff coupled with promotion accorded to
foreigners on the other hand lead to serious events of clashes
among nationals and expatriates.

Unfortunately, the bad blood against international employees
may be a silent move against them and it may manifest itself
in terms of hatred, slander and direct or indirect opposition
of whatever they do, say, propose, execute or implement.
Historical records are rich with examples of such staff either
being deported or killed in cold blood. This justifies the
perception that expatriate work is not a bed of roses and sweets.
Health Conditions
Various pandemic outbreak may also threaten the life of
expatriates in a foreign land. An expatriate may be affected
by different communicable and none-communicable diseases
in the host country and this may hinder their performance.
Examples of such diseases are cholera, typhoid, HIV/AID,
Marburg and Ebola. Recorded history has it that even health
workers have become victims of such diseases. Table 9.1 is
emphatical on the case of outbreak and transmission of Ebola
in West Africa.
Country Total Laboratory- Total Deaths

Cases confirmed Cases
Guinea 2,793 2,493 1,797
Liberia 8,263 3,123 3,515
Sierra 10,030 7,759 2,977
Leone
Total 21,086 13,376 8,289
Table 9.1 : Depicting Ebola outbreak and transmission in
West Africa, adopted from http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/
outbreaks/2014-west-africa/case-counts.html
Table 9.1 is depictive of the outbreak and transmission of Ebola
in West Africa that also affected both local and foreign health
workers. Thus, helping to sustain the argument that expatriate
work in not a bed of sweets and roses.
Dilapidated Infrastructure
Expatriates working in most developing economies do not enjoy
life a hundred percent as some people believe. Some expatriates
and their dependants especially children are accorded poor
quality facilities by some employers. These facilities are in form
of health care, educational facilities, transport, housing, water
and sanitation, gas and lighting. In fact, some of the expatriates
happen to be possessing and enjoying better quality facilities
back at home (in the parent economies) than those in the host
countries. Therefore, how can one be considered to be enjoying
life a hundred percent when exposed to such ugly living and
working conditions?
Employability of Family Members

Many expatriates around the world take up foreign assignments
but they transfer with their family members who are their
dependants. Many of such dependants apart from young
children may be professionals who are not allowed to work by
the host governments or countries. The situation worsens if the
dependants were working back at home and they start jobless
life. This may lead to stress or family separation due to lack of
employment opportunities for the dependants of international
employees. Thus, expatriate work is not a bed of sweets and
roses!
Shortages in Family Facilitation and Care
Whenever the bread-earner is a way for sometime, there is

always a gap created especially in terms of family needs, up
keep and sustenance. The living conditions may become harsh
if the expatriate does not remit family subsistence allowance
on schedule. Food, medication, tuition, bills and the like
require constant and timely provisions. Therefore, any delay or
shortage in family facilitation and care from abroad makes life
very miserable for the home people and this helps to sustain
the assertion that, expatriates and their family members do not
always lead soft life full of sweets and roses. But, at times, they
lead a miserable life style.
Loss of Family Ties
This is yet another issue that makes expatriate life so difficult

because they physically separate with their beloved family
members and in most cases for quite a long period of time.
In this case, the two parties are in a dilemma; the expatriate is
being tortured by both tasks at the work place and the weather
that may be harsh yet at home, loneliness and depression are
also torturing the rest of the family members.
This may explain why the expatriates spend a lot of money

on telephone credit cards as they constantly call home. This
approach is double edged because in the first place, the
expatriate keeps posted with the developments at home and
at the same time, manages the stress as he/she speaks to the
family members more especially the spouse and the off springs.
Development of Stress-packed-mind
Closely related to the previous argument, family members of
the expatriate staff often get psychological and physiological
dilemmas because they spend a lot of time thinking about
their relative working abroad. They ponder on how they are
to survive alone without the family head in case he is the one
abroad. At times, they fail to figure out what would happen
during catastrophic periods of sickness, robbery, death of
family members and the like. The expatriate therefore develops
an unstable and an insecure mind all the time. The expatriate
may end up loosing weight, develop headache and stomach
disorders, life becomes impossible and in most cases they
decide to return home. So, it is not true that working a broad is
a bed of sweets and roses.
Behavioral Change
Expatriate staff face serious problems when a way on foreign

assignments as they loose the grip with some of their family
members especially spouses and children. These tend to adapt
bad behaviors from the society because they are free without
any supervisor. The family members may engage in bad habits
like smoking, mismanagement of family property including
funds, drug abuse, adultery, fornication, rape, defilment, shop
lifting, fighting and homosexuality.
They may contract and spread diseases such as HIV/AIDS as

well as other sexually transmitted diseases. This scenario of
behavioural change makes the expatriate develop headache

as he/she has to spend a lot of money on medication with the
aim of rescuing such an ugly situation. This is therefore a clear
testimony that expatriate work is not all that full of joy. It has
its dark side in most cases.
WAY FORWARD
In order to reap a lot from the performance of expatriate staff, it
is advisable that a number of strategies should be employed to
address the shortfalls of their work execution abroad. This will
go along way in helping them enjoy their work and therefore
perform to the expectation of their employers. Some of the
strategies are:-
Effective Language Training Programs
Since language barrier is one of the major dilemmas denting the

effective performance of expatriate staff, host countries and/
or organizations should invest in their staff by enabling them
undertake language training programs so that they fit in the
work environment. The expatriate needs to know the language
of the indigenous people in order to reduce the barriers in the
communication process. Secondly, it would go along way in
enabling the expatriate staff learn and appreciate the culture of
the host country.
Language training program could be effected at Embassy

level both prior and after leaving the home country. On the
importance of language training, Shen (2005) argues that such
an approach would go along way in minimizing incidences of
failures of expatriate staff.
Cultural Adaptation
In addition to language training programs for expatriate staff,

they should also be helped to appreciate the different cultures
of the people with who they are going to work, for who they are
going to work and with who they are bound to interact while
on foreign mission. They should be explained thoroughly the
reasons underlying the different behaviors of the host country
nationals which may be appearing as cultural shocks with their
own.
This appertains to a number of things including does and don’ts,

behaviours like hand shaking, dress code, bank holidays and
the various cultural norms. The culture of the people of the host
country may be appreciated through a number of ways including
but not limited to the electronic and mass media, observation,
social networks, books on culture of specific countries.
It is believed that on appreciating the culture of the host country

as well as that of the intruders, both the expatriates and the host
country nationals adjust accordingly to avoid cultural clashes
that may dent effective work execution, team work and co-
existence among the different people.
Screening Spouses and Children of Expatriates
In order to be sure that the family members of the expatriate

staff will muddle through the harsh environment in terms of
the hostile nature of the people of the host country and their
cultures, weather conditions and facilities the employer has to
offer, the family members could be screened and this would
provide results on the emotional stability and readiness of these
intruders to cope up with. This is so because if they are unhappy,
the expatriate will be affected and tortured both psychologically
and mentally. Hence, failing to execute tasks effectively.
This may explain why international organizations like Ford

formally assess expatriate’s spouses on qualities such as
flexibility, patience and adaptability. At the time of selection
process, it would be pertinent to ask questions like how the
members feel about the assignment and how much time it may
take them to adjust to the new environment.
Exempt Expatriates from Jobs fit for Local People
Since expatriates are considered for international assignments

basing on their suitability in terms of experience, qualification,
abilities, specialization and extra ordinary track record of
work execution, then, to avoid clash among them and the local
people, as much as possible, the expatriates should be exempted
from taking on work that can be done by local people. With
this approach, friction and tension will be kept to the minimum
level since perception towards expatriates as grabbers of local
staff portfolios will be averted.
Secondly, as much as possible, all employees (local and

expatriates) could be paid in the same currency without any
due discrimination. This is so because staff tend to compare
their pay versus cost of living and if their salary is understood
to be too low compared to the one of their counter parts, then,
sentiments of unfairness and subjectivity set in. Hence, causing
a rift among staff.
Infrastructure and Facilities
The nature of expatriates is that they are international staff in a

host country or enterprise who should be accorded the necessary
attention and facilities their international nature deserves.
Therefore, they expect the best and decent infrastructure and
facilities for them and their family members. These execute
tasks with a settled mind. Therefore, schools for their children,
accommodation, hospitals, transport facilities should also be
first class in nature.
Turkish Light Academy, Glorious Academy, Feza Schools,
Laurent International School, Progressive Secondary School,
International Hospital facilities like Al-Rahma Hospital,
Muhimbili and Agha Khan Hospitals, Kibuli Secondary School,
Nabisunsa Girl’s School, Buddo Secondary School, Ntare
High School, Nakasero Primary School, Nkokonjeru Primary
School, Lukman Primary School.
Rubaga Hospital, Kibuli Muslim Hospital, Islamic University

in Uganda (IUIU), Makerere University Kampala (MUK),
Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST),
Zanzibar University (ZU), University of Dar es Salaam
(UDSM), Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (KIST),
would satisfy the expatriate staff in due to the good quality of
services they render to their clients.
Payment of Disposable Income to the Expatriates
By virtue of their status, expatriate staff are not allowed by law

to have more than one job in most economies. Therefore, in
order to keep them satisfied and thus carry out their work to the
expectation of the host country, government or organization,
then, the expatriates should be enabled to earn slightly more and
not equivalent or below the amount he or she was earning back
home. This can be done by according the expatriate a fat salary
that among other things would include expatriate allowance,
experience allowance and/or hardship allowance.
Provision of Support to Expatriate Staff
While carrying out foreign assignments, expatriate staff in most

cases are far a way from their families. Depending on the nature
of mission especially military where one may be on a peace
keeping mission, the staff may be cut off from the home people.
One may feel stressed and depressed due to loneliness. Such
a staff requires support from the host organization, country or
government as the case may be in order to have a settled mind.
The staff should therefore be facilitated to stay in touch with

the home people. The Foreign Affairs and/or Immigration
Department should stay in constant touch with the expatriate.
This could be done by appointing a manager at the home office
who would keep in touch with expatriate and therefore provide
necessary assistance wherever and whenever deemed fit.
A policy of going for foreign mission with one’s dependants

regardless of age, sex and number of family members
accompanying the expatriate would be very appropriate. If
family members do not accompany the staff, the staff’s mother
Department should keep monitoring the family and keep
posting the staff with the necessary update. Thus, frequently,
staff should be enabled to keep communicating with the family
members back home to suppress stress and depression.
BOTTOM LINE
This chapter is emphatical on the fact that many corporations

around the world are sending expatriates to their overseas
operations and subsidiaries almost throughout the year. This is
so because the business entities and organisations are desirous
of engaging experts and internationally renown competent
managers for excellent results. In fact, as time goes by, the need
for many of such experts and competent managers is going to
rise because there are so many firms with a global face that are
coming up and are facing global competition. Organizations
are expected to appreciate the dynamic relationships between
staffing and output as well as the way how these relationships
change over time because they are not static and this can only
be met through best practices of managing and maintaining
expatriate staff.
This is so because expatriates provide a number of benefits to

the corporations and their subsidiaries including but not limited
to greater parent company control and expertise. International
experience is also seen as a handy gesture to the selecting
corporation for its expansion, steady growth and development.
However, it is also true that expatriates are double faced. They

have strong and weak points. For example, at times, they
may seem to be costly to maintain and this makes it tricky for
many firms to engage them. Expatriates encounter numerous
challenges that render them weak and therefore fail to execute
tasks to the expectation of their employers. This may explain
why many companies have also experienced relatively high
failure rate which is attributable to the individual expatriates
themselves or their dependants who fail to adjust and adapt to
the new work and living environment.
The “new world disorder” is failing the expatriates to render

their work maximumly and their dependants back home live on
tension as foreign mission is proving very unpredictable and
hazardous to the life of the expatriate mostly due to pandemic
outbreak like HIV/AIDS, Ebola, Marburg, political instability
and increasing levels of crime rates that are claiming lives of
expatriates around the world.
Therefore, there is need for joint effort that would involve

a number of stakeholders such as the International Labour
Organisation (ILO), the United Nations Organisation (UNO),
the host countries or governments and/or corporations to forge
a more secure and improved way of protecting the lives,
property and dependants of staff on foreign mission like peace
keeping, health care, provision and delivery with a view of
reducing fears to the expatriate staff, their dependants/family
members for the betterment of the whole world.

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THE INTERNATIONAL FACE OF HUMAN

ISBN: 978 - 9987 - 9791 - 9 - 6

First Edition: 2015

First Print: 2015

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted

College of Eduacation Press

FALAH PUBLISHING HOUSE

ii The International Face of Human Resources Management

This book is dedicated to my wife; Nakyanzi Fatuma, my

The International Face of Human Resources Management iii

It is a naked fact that putting together ideas that culminate into

The administrations of the Zanzibar University for the continued

I would like to express my gratitude to a number of people

In this connection, I am very much indebted to Dr. Serwanga

Despite the fact that this book is of immense value to many

The International Face of Human Resources Management v

Above all, there are also many people today taking on

These are some of the justifications therefore that were based

This edition is indeed handy as it offers a wider array of

I am therefore optimistic that this edition is going to work as

The International Face of Human Resources Management vii

viii The International Face of Human Resources Management

Table 9.1 : Depicting Ebola outbreak and transmission in

The International Face of Human Resources Management ix

Figure 2.1: Depicting the International nature of HRM.

Figure 3.1: Depicting different languages. Adopted from

Figure 3.2: Depicting scenes of political instability on the fall

Figure 3.3: Depicting a sample of a recruiting agency.

Figure 5.1 on staff performance appraisal adopted from www.

Figure 5.2 showing close supervision and monitoring of a

Figure 6.1 showing the world’s ten most corrupt leaders,

Figure 6.3: Depicting political turmoil in Egypt adopted from

Figure 6.4: Depicting signs of insecurity. Adopted from, www.

Figure 6.5: Showing the pace at which industrialized economies

Figure 6.6: Showing raw Cocoa being manually processed,

Figure 6.7: Depicting mineral resources being extracted using

The International Face of Human Resources Management xi

Figure 6.10: Depicting gold reserves some MDCs possess,

Figure 6.11: Depicting lazy staff being forced to work,

Figure 6.12: Depicting Absenteeism at work places.

Figure 8.1: Depicting sexual harassment at work stations.

Figure 8.2: Depicting stress-packed-mind adopted from http//

xii The International Face of Human Resources Management

The International Face of Human Resources Management xiii

xiv The International Face of Human Resources Management

The International Face of Human Resources Management xv

Title page ................................................................................. i

Publisher’s notes ..................................................................... ii

Dedication ............................................................................. iii

List of Tables ......................................................................... ix

List of Figures ......................................................................... x

List of Acronyms ................................................................. xiii

Table of Contents ................................................................. xvi

Chapters .............................................................................. xvii

xvi The International Face of Human Resources Management

The International Face of Human Resources Management xvii

BIBILIOGRAPHY ............................................................. 218

xviii The International Face of Human Resources Management

INTRODUCTION, APPROACHES AND SCOPE

The International Face of Human Resources Management 1

HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT DEFINED

It ought to be recalled that Human Resources Management

Human Resources Management (HRM) may also be

It is also understood as a set of organizational activities aimed