Because of the high increment in the global business, it is very common today that employees of international companies work in a foreign country, and it is also common that expatriates work in more than two different countries while working for international companies during their career (Dowling et al., 1994). International and multinational companies start to notice the importance of internationalized managers within the company. Today one of the requirements for senior manager position is to have a vast experience in international management business. Firms usually use a selection system where the candidates are selected by level of high potential, which means that the individual has acquired enough maturity and management experience in the domestic environment. The age range for this kind of position is between the late 20s and mid 30s (Harris & Brewster, 1999). To manage an organization's operations in another country is a very difficult task or assignment that usually requires a deep understanding and sophisticated procedures. Studies of the matter have shown that the high rate of failure of expatriates on international assignments, and the financial expenses of repatriating these managers is not as efficient or effective as hiring host country managers for multinational companies (Dowling et al., 1994). Some international companies attempt to select their best employees for international positions. They even do not limit their selection to home country employees, they sort out managers from throughout their worldwide organization. This strategy is used in order to develop an integrated, global organization through the international career growth of elite managers and, by defect, the creation of a global core of executives (Adler & Gbadar, 1990). Normally, multinational enterprises used to send parent-country nationals abroad to be sure that the policies and procedures of the main office organization were being understood and followed in its totality in foreign operations. They expatriate parent-country nationals as technical troubleshooters, structure reproducers, and general management operatives. Research emphasizes that the foreign assignment selection process needs to be more systematic without consideration of the gender and more strategic by using expatriates to help transfer knowledge and learning (Schuler et al., 2002). Selecting and developing
I agree with your assessment that managing an operation in another country can be very challenging, especially when the culture is extremely different. I learned this when a manager at our operation in Nigeria joined our plant several years ago. Aside from his trouble in communicating clearly in English, he had trouble taking an authoritative stance over our employees in a Caucasian-dominated, small-town-minded population. Culturally speaking, he had lower values for safety, common in other countries, which made it difficult for him to notice and correct things that we feel are unsafe verses what his culture had felt were unsafe. One example would be the use of steel-toed boots, which are a requirement in our plant, while his employees in Nigeria normally wore sandals to work as no rule was established. He only stayed one year and moved back to Nigeria. I do not the company did a good job integrating him into the position from a cultural aspect, and his family suffered too. I had hoped that companies were considering these situations more, but from your article, it appears that this is still a current problem in international recruiting.
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