Recruiting and selecting staff for international assignments Essays

Recruiting and selecting staff for international assignments Essays 109 Introduction Hiring and then deploying people to positions where they can perform effectively is a goal of most organizations, whether domestic or international. Recruitment is defined as searching for and obtaining potential job candidates in sufficient numbers and quality so that the organization can select the most appropriate people to fill its job needs. Selection is the process of gathering information for the purposes of evaluating and deciding who should be employed in particular jobs. It is important to note that recruitment and selection are discrete processes and both processes need to operate effectively if the firm is effectively to manage its staffing process. For example, a firm may have an excellent selection system for evaluating candidates but if there are insufficient candidates to evaluate then this selection system is less than effective. Both processes must operate effectively for optimal staffing decisions to be made. We shall return to this point later in the chapter. Some of the major differences between domestic and international staffing are first that many firms have predispositions with regard to who should hold key positions in headquarters and subsidiaries (i.e. ethnocentric, polycentric, regiocentric and geocentric staffing orientations) and second, the constraints imposed by host governments (e.g. immigration rules with regard to work visas and the common Chapter Objectives The focus of this chapter is on recruitment and selection activities in an international context. We will address the following issues: The myth of the global manager. The debate surrounding expatriate failure. Factors moderating intent to stay or leave the international assignment. Selection criteria for international assignments. Dual career couples. Are female expatriates different? Recruiting and selecting staff for international assignments 5 CHAPTER 31017_05_Ch05_p109-136.qxd 9/7/07 12:15 PM Page 109 requirement in most countries to require evidence as to why local nationals should not be employed rather than hiring foreigners) which can severely limit the firms ability to hire the right candidate. In addition, as Scullion and Collings1 note, most expatriates are recruited internally rather than externally, so the task of persuading managers (particularly if they are primarily working in a domestic environment) to recommend and/or agree to release their best employees for international assignments remains a key issue for international HR managers. In this chapter, we will explore the key issues surrounding international recruitment and selection, with a focus on selection criteria. Implicit in much of the discussion and research about selecting staff for international assignments is that there are common attributes shared by persons who have succeeded in operating in other cultural work environments that is, the so-called global manager. Our discussion on this topic centers around four myths: that there is a universal approach to management; that all people can acquire appropriate behaviors; there are common characteristics shared by global managers; and there are no impediments to global staff mobility. We then consider various factors such as expatriate failure, selection criteria, dual career couples and gender that impact on the multinationals ability to recruit and select high calibre staff for deployment internationally. For convenience, we will use the term multinational throughout this chapter, but it is important to remember that the issues pertain variously to all internationalizing companies regardless of size, industry, stage in internationalization, nationality of origin and geographical diversity. We continue to use the term expatriate to include all three categories: PCNs (parent-country nationals), TCNs (third country nationals) and HCNs (host-country nationals) transferred into headquarters operations, although much of the literature on expatriate selection is focused only on PCNs. Issues in staff selection The myth of the global manager Multinationals depend on being able to develop a pool of international operators from which they can draw as required. Such individuals have been variously labeled international managers or global managers. The concept of a global manager appears to be based on the following myths or assumptions. Myth 1: there is a universal approach to management. The view that there is a universal approach to management persists, despite evidence from research to the contrary, and many multinationals continue to transfer home-based work practices into their foreign operations without adequate consideration as to whether this is an appropriate action. The persistence of a belief in universal management may be evidence of a lingering ethnocentric attitude or perhaps an indicator of inexperience in international operations. However, as we discussed in Chapter 1 in relation to the convergencedivergence debate, work practices have, to a certain extent, converged through the transfer of technology and best practice and this process is supported by the global spread of management education programs that reflect the dominant Western approach to management. Linked to this process is the belief in the power of organizational culture as