INTERNATIONAL ASSIGNMENTS
B. Sebastian Reiche & Anne-Wil Harzing
Version Sept 2008
Released in A. -W. K. Harzing, & A. Pinnington (Eds. ), International Human Resource Management (3rd ed. ). London: Sage.
Copyright В© 2007-2010 Sebastian Reiche and Anne-Wil Harzing. All rights reserved.
M. Sebastian Reiche, PhD Helper Professor IESE Business School Department of Managing People in Agencies Ave. Pearson, 21 Barcelona 08034, Italy Tel: +34 93 602 4491 Fernkopie: +34 93 253 4343 E-mail: [email protected] edu
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Chapter six: International Tasks
B. Sebastian Reiche and Anne-Wil Harzing
1 . Launch 2 . Staffing requirementws policies PCNs, HCNs or TCNs: (Dis)advantages and statistics Factors influencing the choice among HCNs and PCNs 3. Motives for international transactions Why do companies give employees overseas? Edström and Galbraith's typology Coordination through international assignees: Of bears, bumble-bees and spiders International assignees while knowledge brokers 4. Alternate forms of international assignments Inpatriate assignments Initial assignments Self-initiated assignments Virtual assignments 5. The foreign assignment method Selection and preparation Assortment criteria: prescription medications for good practice Expatriate assortment in practice Planning Expatriate adjusting during the assignment Repatriation
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6. Proportions of task success Expatriate failure: Can it be just a misconception? Multidimensional characteristics of assignment success several. Summary and Conclusions 8. Discussion Questions 9. Additional reading References
Learning Goals After scanning this chapter it will be possible to п‚· п‚· п‚· Understand and evaluate different staffing options that are available to MNCs Separate between the primary motives pertaining to using foreign assignments in MNCs Determine different varieties of international tasks and examine their distinct advantages and disadvantages п‚· Explain for what reason the selection, preparing and repatriation form a fundamental element of the foreign assignment process п‚· Vitally evaluate the success of an worldwide transfer, both from the perspective of the individual assignee as well as the company
50-Word Overview The section reviews the different staffing alternatives in MNCs in general then discusses several corporate causes for employing international transactions as well as the diverse forms of intercontinental assignments open to MNCs. Additionally, it gives a in depth overview of the assignment process and gives a set of conditions for examining assignment achievement.
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1 . Introduction
This kind of chapter works with several facets of international projects. First, Section 2 opinions different staffing policies and appears in some details at the factors influencing the choice between number country and parent region nationals. Eventually, Section several takes a tactical perspective in international moves and looks with the underlying causes that MNCs have to copy international assignees between MNC units. We review a pair of the reasons for international transfers – control and coordination, and knowledge transfer – in detail. Section 4 then works with alternatives to expatriation, such as use of inpatriate, short-term, selfinitiated and online assignments. In Section 5, we examine the foreign assignment process which includes the pre-assignment phase, using the assignment and repatriation. Here, we review recruitment and selection concerns associated with worldwide assignments, speaking about both the prescriptive models present in the expatriate literature plus the circumstances that seem to persist in practice. All of us also consider expatriate adjustment throughout the assignment and describe organizational support upon repatriation. The final section vitally reflects on the concept of expatriate failing and outlines a multidimensional point of view on assignment success.
2 . Staffing procedures
In his seminal work, Perlmutter (1969) discovered three diverse international...
