IHRM – Assignment no.

3
SUBMITTED TO: MAM ZEHRA AFREEN

Irfan Ur Rehman
FA17 – BBA – 069 | APRIL 17, 2021
Q no. 1: How will this staffing strategy affect the needed skills of IHR
managers?

According to this scenario, the organizations are moving towards a significant increase in
hiring third country nationals (TCNs) for the jobs. There were number of reasons for
increasing TCNs such as high costs of traditional international assignment, increase in
operations in emerging markets, and the shortages of needed skills in many markets. Due to
all these reasons, it has led the organizations to the search for employees from countries other
than the parent country of headquarters or the host country of subsidiaries. The organizations
that hire those TCNs are because they know that specific industry very well and secondly,
they speak more than one language which is counted as their skill.

If we look at the main reasons of hiring TCNs, it mostly constitutes position filling in terms
of skills gap and technology transfer. So, this staffing strategy of hiring required TCNs will
affect and influence the needed skills of HR managers with respect to their roles in following
ways:

 The hiring of required third country nationals will assist organizations in knowledge
sharing and transferring of competencies.
 It will affect the needed skills of various organizational units by encountering a
range of different viewpoints and perspectives that will shape their behavior and thus
provides a set of diverse skills to the organization.
 The TCN’s staffing strategy will also encourage the firm’s adoption of common
work practices that strengthen the elements of corporate culture.
 It will create a link between the duration of the assignment and the effective transfer
of knowledge by TCNs. Some of that knowledge and skills are transferred quickly
and some skills may take longer depending on the situation.

However, when these TCNs are assigned due to a lack of needed skill in an organization, they
are often forced to take over some of the responsibilities of their colleagues. In this way, their
lot of time gets spend on less-challenging tasks i.e., in helping their co-workers. With respect
to this situation, those TCNs assist the organization in skills transfer but over time their own
level of competence may erode as they are not developing their own expertise.
Q no. 2: Are there some countries that are most likely to provide qualified
TCN managers? Which ones? Why?

Yes, there are some countries that are most likely to provide qualified TCN managers. This
mostly depends on the technical and managerial competencies in which that country is best
known. There is a relatively high share of qualified third country nationals amongst all the
TCN employees in following countries: -

1. Belgium: This country often provides qualified TCN managers because Belgium is
best known for having a skilled group of individuals in the field of executive staff and
managerial employees.
2. Spain: Spain is also best known in providing qualified TCN managers for the purpose
of executive staff and managerial employees who want to be hired by an organisation
with specific requirements related to the size, number of workers. It is also considered
as highly qualified workers (graduates and postgraduates individuals) who have
studied at universally recognized Universities and Business Schools.
3. France: France also deals in providing qualified and highly qualified TCNs. These
nationals are often part of broader provisions aimed at all third-country national
economic migrants. France is providing those TCNs in terms of different specialized
skill sets such as researchers and scientists, students and individuals employed by an
international corporation or group that are involved in a personal exchange.
4. Germany: It is also aiding in supporting qualified executive staff and managerial
employees just like Belgium and Spain.
5. Some other countries that are providing qualified TCN managers include: Italy,
Greece, Estonia, and Lithuania (a country in Europe).

Q no. 3: How does an MNE IHR manager recruit TCN managers? How
would you do it?

Recruiting and deploying TCN managers at the positions where they can perform effectively
is one of the important goals of most organizations. For this purpose, IHR mangers search for
potential job candidates in sufficient numbers and quality After this, the organizations selects
the most appropriate people to fill their job needs i.e., selecting right people at the place.
There is an enough difference in the recruitment processes of domestic managers and the
TCN managers. Following are the main points that IHR managers pursue in recruiting TCNs:
-

 While recruiting TCN managers, IHR recruiters must decide that which TCN can hold
key positions in headquarters and subsidiaries. This decision is made based on skills
or competency that TCN has. Moreover, it is also based upon adopting different
approaches to staffing of third country nationals such as Ethnocentric, Regio centric,
Polycentric and Geocentric staffing orientations.
 An important aspect in recruiting TCN managers is to strictly observe the constraints
imposed by host governments. If the firms neglect those constraints during the hiring
of TCN managers, it can severely limit the MNE’s ability to hire the right candidate.
An example of such constraint imposed by host governments in hiring TCN mangers
can be immigration rules regarding work visas and the common requirement in most
countries to provide evidence as to why local nationals should not be employed rather
than hiring foreigners.
 While hiring TCN managers, internal recruitment for international assignment is used
by IHR managers. This is because it reduces the risk of a poor selection decision. In
an overall internal recruitment process, performance appraisals, personal reports,
interviews with colleagues and firm-internal career plans can be used as information
sources to reduce uncertainty.

Moreover, while selecting staff for TCN, the IHR managers should kept in mind an
appropriate and efficient selection criterion. This will help the managers to select a right
candidate for the required TCN post. So, following are those factors that play a key role in
selection of third country nationals: -

 Technical Ability: The ability of a third-country national to perform the required task
of a particular job is an important selection factor. Majority of multi nationals’ firms
place a very heavy reliance on relevant technical skills during TCN selection process.
 Cross-Cultural suitability: The cultural suitability of TCNs is also kept under
observation by managers. It is mostly associated with the capability to adjust to a
foreign culture. One of the preconditions of cross-cultural suitability are soft skills
that are also important in other positions as well.
 MNE Requirements: Selection decisions of TCNs are also influenced by the specific
situation of MNE. Operations in particular countries may require the use of more
TCNs than would normally be the case.
 Checking Family Requirements of TCNs before selection: The family is especially
important influence factor upon the success of international assignment. The TCN’s
family member’s various adjustment experience is well documented by IHRM
manager.