Many companies deal with expatriate executives/personnel in a variety of ways. In determining an expatriate there is no right or wrong way. The difference is determined by how the company is trying to meet their goals. The selection process for an expatriate varies significantly from one company to another. When a company has entered the international/global market, it is vital for that company to decide upon which method to use for determining their expatriate executive/personnel. The two methods available are outsourcing and promoting internally. This paper will focus upon promoting internally.
Both outsourcing and promoting internally have their advantages and disadvantages. When trying to decide between outsourcing or promoting internally the company should consider these questions:
1. Have you looked at the cost of administering this function in house versus outsourcing? (Cook, 1999, p.177)
2. Have you done some preliminary recruiting to see if experienced HR staff with expatriate experience are available? What are the going salaries for these professionals? (Cook, 1999, p.177)
3. Will performing the daily administrative details of the expatriate function consume an inordinate amount of time, even if you have experienced staff? (Cook, 1999, p.177)
4. Do fluctuations in the company’s expatriate population make it difficult to maintain appropriate levels of HR staff assigned to get employees overseas, maintain them, and bring them home? (Cook, 1999, p.177)
5. Have you identified the specific expatriate activities you would want to outsource and which ones you might effectively maintain in-house? (Cook, 1999, p.177)
6. Have you discussed the pros and cons of outsourcing these services with other HR professionals or COs who are doing it now in order to get a better understanding of the issues? (Cook, 1999, p.177)
7. Do you know all of the compensation and benefits issues you face in each country where you plan to do business? (Cook, 1999, p.177)
Cook (1999, p.177) said, “Large established companies that have multiple global operations; Companies that are just starting their international operations that may not have experienced staff to effectively handle international HR situations; and Companies whose business needs fluctuate as overseas projects are initiated and completed.';
If your company has decided to outsource then there are many sites on the web that are specifically geared towards outsourcing. Some of these locations are: http://www.iorworld.com http://www.eems.com http://www.expat.ca http://escapeartist.com
Many companies and organizations will decide to internally promote and produce an expatriate executive rather than outsourcing the process. When a company or corporation does decide to promote internally many factors must be considered. The company will have to decide where to build the new facility, what products to produce, what resources to use, where to get the resources, what governmental policies must the facility adhere too, the size of the facility, and so on.
Outsourcing simply means acquiring services from an external organization instead of using internal resources (Butler, 2000). By using outsourced resources, organizations can gain a competitive advantage by utilizing contingent staff to accomplish strategic goals without incurring the fixed overhead. By focusing on the leading edge and highly specialized skill sets, outsourcing providers can often offer higher quality services, or at a lower price than the client organization. Typical reasons for outsourcing go beyond simple contingent staffing. Outsourcing providers are able to maintain economies of scale with regard to specialization (...
In many cases outsourcing has proven to be beneficial for businesses. It can help a business’s management by allowing executives to focus on the core structure of the firm rather than every specific element. Production, manufacturing, or additional servic...
Q: Which of the following two concepts is more critical for international Human Resource Management: understanding the cultural environment or understanding the political and legal environment? Why? Include key terms and concepts from the textbook.
Kibbe, C. (2004, 07 09). Outsourcing: the good, the bad and the inevitable. New Hampshire Business Review, pp. 1A-21A.
In order to be successful in the unhappiest job you must be patient, a postive attitude and to remind yourself of the goals one has. People today base their career choice on the amount of money they will be making to support themselves and their family. Like Smith’s says in the her reading, “Being able to control what you do and how much money you make are key happiness factors,” More likely they will end up in a job they dislike and only stay in that job for the money. I know many of those people today that work at the Los Alamos National Laboratory as students. Many of them say they hate the job but the pay is good, which is the only reason I see for them to put themselves into misery. To learn to deal with an unhappy job to be successful in life, you are the only person that has to be motivated to get yourself in a better career.
Outsourcing has been around for many years. In this paper, I will discuss some of the history of outsourcing, the good things about outsourcing, and the bad things about outsourcing. Outsourcing is important because many companies rely on it in order to get many different products and services to their facility on time and in good shape. Outsourcing is a huge part of the business industry today. Any business can be affected by outsourcing.
International businesses are also finding new ways of increasing diversity abroad. Instead of using expatriate employees as management, they are starting to hire locals. Companies that operate abroad are realizing that using expatriate employees is not a permanent solution. They are often expensive, and are not capable of translating their skills into the new environment. In a company that operates globally, it is important that the company knows how to relate to the local markets, and a great way to do this is by hiring local talent. Hiring locally is cheaper, there is not a language barrier, and they are accustomed to the business environment in the area(5). They can also help the business by providing a new perspective into international markets, and offer ways that the company can improve their diversity abroa...
Willy McCourt & Derek Elridge (2003), Global Human Resource Management, pp 311 - 315. Edward Elgar publishing.
Labor laws, wage disparities, intense competition and fluctuating currency values are the challenges that are making organizations worldwide to compete in marketplace with products requiring a great deal of labor, and it is now getting harder for some of these organizations to maintain employees abroad. As Mello (p. 610) mentioned that a greater percentage of United States workforces are moving their operations abroad to developing nations like China and leaving an increasing number of United States domestic workers without employment. The foreign markets for the products and services are not the only things enticing these organizations to enter these global marketplaces. There are other reasons these companies are joining the global market arenas. For example, the foreign labor markets, this has attracted interest in many organizations to expand globally (Gersten, 1991). The labor force growth rates in developing nations alone will continue expanding by approximately 700 million people by the year 2010, while the United States labor force will continue to grow by only 25 million. This shows that United States’ growth rate will drop and the opportunities for productivity growth rate will increase in developing countries.
In the present day organisations are expanding their operations to different countries of the world. They therefore need people to work there “expatriates”. Once the international assignment is completed, the expatriates have got to go back home, the process of repatriation begins. Even though most expatriates and managers presuppose that the repatriation process will be easy seeing as the employee is just returning home, research has substantiated that this is a tricky process. There is indication that it could be more difficult to adjust to the home environment as opposed to adjusting to life in a foreign nation. Therefore, repatriation process ought to be considered keenly (Baruch et al 2002).
Lewis, Clive (2007) Human resource management international digest. Bradford: 2007. Vol 15, Iss.4: pg. 3.
11. Satish P. Deshpande and Chockalingam Viswesvaran, "Is Cross-cultural Training of Expatriate Managers Effective: A Meta Analysis," International Journal of Intercultural Relations 16 (1992): 296.
Convenience. Making life easy. What better way to nourish your body than to remain seated the entire time you go get your food - the magical Drive-Thru. But it’s not really nourishing for your body or the environment. With everything made “disposable” so there’s no fuss with washing dishes, you are left with the simplicity of a complex material: plastic. It is mass produced and sold cheap, yet the cost is unfathomable. Convenience has been more of a hinderance than a help for our culture - more specifically, the American culture. Americans have become an obese and lazy population, our own fault. Plastic is a convenience that has made fast food prices drop; in the interest of the economic equilibrium, with such a high demand for cheap, disposable
Daniels, J. D., Radebaugh, L. H., and Sullivan, D. P., (2011). International Business: Environments and Operations. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.
Stonehouse, G., Campbell, D., Hamill, J. & Purdie, T. (2004). Global and Transnational Business (2nd ed.). Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.