International Human Resource Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

International Human Resource Management - Essay Example Such differences mainly include labor cost factors, cultural factors, industrial relations norms, and economic factors. Key Issues in Selection of Expatriates Expatriate assignments fail quite often. The stress process of expatriates is shown in Fig. 1. Careful selection of international assignee can help improve the results. Most of the managerial positions are held by locals instead of expatriates, though it does not always happen so. The attitude that prevails in the ethnocentric corporations is that local managers are superior whereas host-country managers are considered superior in the polycentric corporations. In contrast to them, the most suitable manager for a certain position in the geocentric firms is selected from the global workforce of the firm. Fig. 1: Stages of Expatriates’ Stress Process (Koteswari and Bhattacharya, 2007, p. 91). The training of expatriates before assignment typically revolves around cultural differences, factual knowledge about the country of assignment, and the way behavior is influenced by attitude. The approach that is most commonly used in the formulation of expatriate pay is equalization of the power of purchasing across the countries. This term used for this is the â€Å"balance sheet approach†. ... Culture of China and India is significantly different from that of England. Everything ranging from dress code to work ethics, norms, values, trends, and traditions are different among the three countries. This induces perceived inability of adjustment in the expatriates. â€Å"Perceived inability to adjust may indicate a lack of cross-cultural skills such as cultural empathy, intercultural Selmer† (Selmer, 2004, p. 805-806). Apart from the issues of expatriation, employees also become hesitant to become expatriates if they think that their organization does not support the repatriates (Black, 1991). Fig. 2: Problems Experienced by Different Age-Groups of Expatriates (Just Landed, 2012). Recommendations The need of having both home-office and local supervisors as reviewers of the expatriates’ performance complicates the process of expatriate appraisal. The process of expatriate appraisal can be improved by stipulating the level of assignment difficulty, weighing the app raisal of on-site managers more heavily, and getting background advice from the managers that have been to the foreign country before. These managers should also assist the expatriates in developing connections in the host country. Research by Wang and Kanungo (2004, p. 775) has shown that the network characteristics of expatriates have a significant and direct impact on their psychological well-being. Fig. 3 shows the factors influencing expatriates’ participation in social networks. This would create awareness in the selected expatriates regarding the culture of the host country and the impact of culture shock on them would be reduced. Fig. 3: Factors Influencing Expatriates’ Participation in Social Networks (Harvey, 2008). The problems of repatriation are commonly