Developing a Global Management Cadre

1
Developing a Global Management Cadre
Chapter 10
2
Developing a Global Management Cadre

• Preparation, adaptation, and repatriation
• Global management teams
• The role of women in international management
• Global multiculturalism Managing diversity
• Working within local labor relations systems

3
Maximizing Global Human Resources

• Important areas of attention
• To maximize long term retention and use of
  international cadre through career management so
  that the company can develop a top management
  team with global experience
• To develop effective global management teams
• To understand, value, and promote the role of
  women and minorities in international management
  in order to maximize those underutilized
  resources
• To maximize the benefits of an increasingly
  diverse workforce in various locations around the
  world
• To work with the host country labor relations
  system to effect strategic implementation and
  employee productivity.

4
Support Systems for a Successful Repatriation
Program(as recommended by Tung)

• A mentor program to monitor the expatriates
  career path while abroad and upon repatriation
• As an alternative to the mentor program, the
  establishment of a special organizational unit
  for the purposes of career planning and
  continuing guidance for the expatriate
• A system of supplying information and maintaining
  contacts with the expatriate so that he or she
  may continue to feel a part of the home
  organization.

5
The Role of the Expatriate Spouse

• Effective cross-cultural adjustment by spouses
  is more likely
• when firms seek the spouses opinion about the
  international assignment and the expected
  standard of living, and
• when the spouse initiates his or her own
  predeparture training (thereby supplementing the
  minimum training given by most firms).

6
Phases in the Expatriate Transition Process

• The exit transition from the home country, the
  success of which will be determined largely by
  the quality of preparation the expatriate has
  received
• the entry transition to the host country, in
  which successful acculturation (or early exit)
  will depend largely on monitoring and support
  and
• the entry transition back to the home country or
  to a new host country, in which the level of
  reverse culture shock and the ease of
  re-acculturation will depend on previous stages
  of preparation and support.

7
The Expatriate Transition Process(Exhibit 10-1)
Entry transition (initial confrontation) Adjustme
nt (adaptation) Exit transition Host Country
Exit transition (anticipatory socialization)
Home Country

• Exit
• Considered for expatriation
• Sensitivity to other cultures
• General training, intl business expertise
• Considered for assignment
• Sensitivity to the host culture
• Predeparture training
• Selection

Entry 8. Departure and travel 9. Arrival and
initial confrontation 10. On-site orientation and
briefing 11. Culture shock Adjustment 12.
Monitoring and support 13. Acculturation,
adaptation 14. Failure or success
8
The Expatriate Transition Process(contd.)
Entry transition Adjustment Home country or
new host country
Exit 15. Considered for transfer or
repatriation 16. Withdrawal 17. Orientation,
career counseling
Entry 18. Departure and travel 19. Arrival and
initial confrontation 20. Orientation and
briefing 21. Reverse culture shock or new
culture shock Adjustment 22. Monitoring and
support 23. Acculturation, adaptation
Success Failure
9
Good Practices Used by Companies in Making
International Assignments

• They focus on knowledge creation and global
  leadership development
• They assign overseas posts to people whose
  technical skills are matched or exceeded by their
  cross-cultural abilities
• They end expatriate assignments with a deliberate
  repatriation process.
• Black and Gregersen

10
Global Management Teams

• The term global management teams describes
  collections of managers from several countries
  who must rely on group collaboration if each
  member is to experience the optimum of success
  and goal achievement.

11
Global Teams in the Modern Global
Enterprise(Exhibit 10-3)
Global Global Networked International Environmen
t Strategy Global Teams Organization
Global competition Technological developments Ma
rkets Government policies
Optimizing global resources for competitive advant
age
Global coordination and integration local
responsiveness organizational structure,
systems personnel policies and reward
systems that support cooperation
Cosmopolitan HQs teams strategic development
teams HQs subsidiary teams technology
transfer teams coalition (joint venture) teams
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Criteria for Evaluating the Success of
International Teams

• Do members work together with a common purpose?
  Is this purpose something that is spelled out and
  felt by all to be worth fighting for?
• Has the team developed a common language or
  procedure? Does it have a common way of doing
  things, a process for holding meetings?
• Does the team build on what works, learning to
  identify the positive actions before being
  overwhelmed by the negatives?
• Does the team attempt to spell out things within
  the limits of the cultural differences involved,
  delimiting the mystery level by directness and
  openness regardless of the cultural origins of
  participants?

13
Criteria for Evaluating the Success of
International Teams(contd.)

• Do the members recognize the impact of their own
  cultural programming on individual and group
  behavior? Do they deal with, not avoid, their
  differences in order to create synergy?
• Does the team have fun? (Within successful
  multicultural groups, the cultural differences
  become a source of continuing surprise,
  discovery, and amusement rather than irritation
  or frustration.)
• Indrei Ratiu

14
The Role of Women in International
Management(Adlers recommendations)

• Avoid assuming that a female executive will fail
  because of the way she will be received or
  because of problems experienced by female spouses
• Avoid assuming that a woman will not want to go
  overseas
• Give female managers every chance to succeed by
  giving them the titles, status, and recognition
  appropriate to the position as well as
  sufficient time to be effective.

15
Global Multiculturalism Managing Diversity

• Benefits of managing diversity
• Reducing costs of high levels of turnover and
  absenteeism
• Facilitating recruitment of scarce labor
• Increasing sales to members of minority culture
  groups
• Promoting team creativity and innovation
• Improving problem solving
• Enhancing organizational flexibility

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Dimensions of Workforce Diversity(Exhibit 10-5)
National origin
Language
Gender
Religion
Workforce Diversity
Family situation
Culture
Age
Race
Sexual orientation
Physical ability
Marital status
Socioeconomic status
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Diversity Program Guidelines

• Develop and communicate a broad definition of
  workplace diversity, including all kinds of
  differences, such as race, gender, age, work, and
  family issues.
• Attain visible commitment from top managers to
  support programs, and communicate to employees
  the importance of diversity to the firms
  competitive stance that it is not just a matter
  of sensitivity training. Hold managers
  accountable for meeting diversity goals.
• Avoid stereotyping groups of employees by using
  titles for them focus instead on what all
  employees have in common, and on each
  individuals value to the firm.

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Diversity Program Guidelines(contd.)

• Set up a broad, diverse pool of talented people
  to be trained and eligible for job promotion or
  selection but let it be known that the best
  person will get the job and stick by that.
• Set up regular training programs with the goal to
  gradually change the corporate culture by
  educating workers about employee similarities as
  well as differences and the value those
  differences bring to the firm.

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GE Diversity Practices

• Top management commitment and involvement
• Integrated diversity strategy
• Campus recruiting
• Hires expanded at top level to signal commitment
  and provide role models
• Career management
• Management of work/family issues (e.g., child
  care and flextime)
• Diversity education and training
• Communications
• Community outreach

20
Labor Relations

• The term labor relations refers to the process
  through which managers and workers determine
  their workplace relationship. This process may
  be through verbal agreement and job descriptions,
  or through a union written labor contract which
  has been reached through negotiation in
  collective bargaining between workers and
  managers.

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Dimensions of the Labor-Management Relationship

• The participation of labor in the affairs of the
  firm, especially as this affects performance and
  well-being
• The role and impact of unions in the relationship
• Specific human resource policies in terms of
  recruitment, training, and compensation.

22
Constraints in the Labor-Management Relationship

• Wage levels which are set by union contracts and
  leave the foreign firm little flexibility to be
  globally competitive
• Limits on the ability of the foreign firm to vary
  employment levels when necessary
• Limitations on the global integration of
  operations of the foreign firm because of
  incompatibility and the potential for industrial
  conflict.

23
Trade Union Decline in Industrialized
Countries(Exhibit 10-6)
of workforce in trade unions
24
Convergence in Labor Systems

• Convergence in labor systems occurs as the
  migration of management and workplace practices
  around the world results in the reduction of
  workplace disparities from one country to
  another. This occurs primarily as MNCs seek
  consistency and coordination among their foreign
  subsidiaries, and as they act as catalysts for
  change by exporting new forms of work
  organization and industrial relations practices.

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Trends in Global Labor Relations Systems(Exhibit
10-7)
Forces for Global Current System Forces to
Maintain or Convergence Establish Divergent
Systems
National labor relations systems and
traditions Social systems Local regulations and
practices Political ideology Cultural norms
Global competitiveness MNC presence or
consolidation initiatives Political change New
market economies Free-trade zones
harmonization (EU), competitive forces
(NAFTA) Technological standardization,
IT Declining role of unions Agencies monitoring
world labor practices