The Expatriate Selection in MNCs

 

The Selection Process of Expatriate in MNCs




The rapid growth in the global markets stimulate the most of business organizations to expand their activities across the borders. These expansions can increase the profitability, technical proficiency, talent differentiation of the MNC. Entering new market with different values, beliefs, social norms, business negotiation styles and government policies and regulations is a very challenging and risky process. (Lakshman,2014) After considering risks and opportunities organizations finalize the decisions on strategy of expanding and entering to the market. (Black and Mandenhall, 1991 cited in Lakshman, 2014). Based on organizational conceptualization, business strategies and nature of market has to select which staffing approach or combined approaches from ethnocentric, polycentric, geocentric and regiocentric to use recruiting for key positions in the subsidiaries.

When determine the method of staffing there are four group of factors which can systematically influences on recruiting and selection process for international assignments. (Dowling, Festing and Engle,2013)

 








        Figure 1. Determinants of staffing choices (Dowling, Festing and Engle,2013)

When deciding staffing method above approaches and determinants are considered by MNCs. To win over the foreign markets and risk barriers business organization has to hire and deploy most appropriate managerial people who can perform effectively for subsidiaries. Most of these expatriates are recruited internally to reduce the risk of poor selection and retain the talent within the company. Persuade and send their best employees for foreign assignment is a quite challenging. (Scullion and Collings,2006)

 

To avoid expatriate failures, deciding the selecting criteria is a critical decision in IHRM. The foreign assignments have great effect on both individual and organization. The success of the subsidiary in a foreign country heavily depends on the person in key position. Both Deciding the most appropriate person to send as well as leaving a best person from mother company are critical decision in the point of employer. The prospective candidate may reject the foreign assignment due to family concerns, individual concerns, situational factors, perceived toughness of cultural and social barriers. (Dowling, Festing and Engle,2013)

 Through different studies the competencies had been identified by researchers. The job ability can be identified as most important factor in foreign assignments. (Hays, 1971; Newman, et al., 1978 cited in Wang, Bullock and Oswald, 2021)  Shumsky introduced open mindedness, risk taking, patience, flexibility, respect for the beliefs of others and spousal communication as characteristics suitable for expatriate. Thompson (1992) added additional factors as emotional strength, family situation and personality. The successful expatriate should have independence, sincerity, integrity, sense of justice and technical knowledge. (Baker & Ivancevich, 1971 cited in Wang, Bullock and Oswald, 2021)

 

 Most of MNCs fill these key positions through informal selecting procedures. The ‘coffee machine system’ (Harris and Brewster,1999) is a selecting process through casual conversation about position to be filled. The volunteer nomination from colleagues or informal shortlisting suitable candidate can use as informal selection processes. Some MNCs do their selection through open selection processes or closed systems. (Dowling, Festing and Engle,2013)

 

Caligiuri, Tarique and Jacobe (2009) introduced a model with  actors effect for the selection for international assignments.

 


            

                          Figure 2 Factors in Expatriate selection (Dowling, Festing and Engle,2013)


The MNC s follow these strategies, approaches, models or combination of all these to send the most suitable persona for subsidiaries to avoid potential failures.


Reference

Dowling, P.J., Festing, M., Engle, A.D. (2013) International human resource management. Cengage learning EMEA, India

Lakshman, S. (2014) MNCs’ Executive Selection Strategies. 1st ed. Scholars’ Press. Available at: https://www.perlego.com/book/3215122/mncs-executive-selection-strategies-pdf Accessed on 17 April 2022

Scullion, H. and Collings, D.G (eds.) (2006) Global staffing. [online] New York USA: Taylor & Francis e library available at https://ereader.perlego.com accessed on 16th April 2022

Wang, J., Bullock, C. and Oswald (2021) Expatriate selection: the key to international success, International Business & Economics Research Journal,1(11),pp 1-10 [online] available on http://researchgate.net accessed on 17th April 2022

 

 

 

                                                                                   

 

 

 

                                                                       

 

 

                                                



                                                               

                                                                                                    

 

                                                                                                   

 

                                                          




 


                                                                                   

                                                                        

 

 


 

 

                                                          Transfer of competence & knowledge


 

 



Comments

  1. P.Janaka Chaminda PereraMay 2, 2022 at 9:52 AM

    According to (Magnus, 2007) there are 5 additives to powerful humans control; they are without a doubt relevant to the control of expatriates:
    (a) Pick out the proper humans
    (b) Educate humans to be successful
    (c) Appraise their overall performance in order that extra steering and suitable education can be offered
    (d) Reward desired performance
    (e) Broaden humans so they will develop alongside their favored profession path. For expatriate employees.

    Reference
    Mesmer-Magnus, J.R. and Viswesvaran, C., 2007. Expatriate management: A review and directions for research in expatriate selection, training, and repatriation. Handbook of research in international human resource management, pp.197-220.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kasun WarnapuraMay 2, 2022 at 1:19 PM

    The success of expatriate assignments unfortunately cannot be judged by successful domestic careers. Most corporations use the same employee selection measures or criteria for selecting for all job candidates with the same job title, although the performance requirements for these likely differ. Multinational companies (MNC) can maximize the likelihood of expatriates' success through appropriate selection programs that account for additional or specific performance dimensions created by the foreign environment.

    (Wang,2011)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Chathura PereraMay 6, 2022 at 11:22 PM

    The success of the foreign assignments mainly depends on the appropriate selection policies of expatriates. few types of criteria are used to evaluate individuals' success in expatriate assignments and variables, which could represent expatriates' knowledge skills, and abilities (KSAs), and the most common criteria are technical competencies, human relational skills, language skills, understanding of the culture, spouse and family adaptability, and desirability to serve overseas (Wang and Houston, 2011).

    ReplyDelete
  4. sampathJMay 7, 2022 at 5:14 AM

    The increase of multinational corporations has led to employees sent in a foreign country to undertake international assignment more than ever before, with estimation that the use of expatriate will continue to increase in the future. There are four approaches to international recruitment: ethnocentric, polycentric geocentric, geocentric. The ethnocentric approach to recruitment means that we hire people from our parent country to fill positions all over the world. The polycentric approach to recruitment means that we hire locals to fill our positions in a host country. The Regio centric approach to recruitment means that we hire or transfer people within the same region (like a group of countries) to fill our open positions. Geocentric approach to recruitment is hiring the best people to fill our positions without regard to where they come from or where they live.

    ReplyDelete

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