Exam 15: International Human Resources Management

What is a key advantage of hiring home-country nationals for firms with international operations?

Compared to North American managers, what kind of decision-making style do South American managers tend to use in the workplace?

Scenario 15.2 Coffee Emporium has been one of Canada's premium coffee shops for decades. Recently, the company has been losing market share to giant multinational corporations such as McDonald's, which has now moved into the coffee business with its signature McCafé. Coffee Emporium recognizes that the only way to stay relevant and competitive is to expand its business across international borders and capitalize on its brand recognition and loyalty. The company wants to start off in the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK), where the cultures are somewhat similar to Canada's. Coffee Emporium will now be adapting its existing products for overseas markets without changing much else about its normal operations. -Refer to Scenario 15.2. Coffee Emporium HR managers will be responsible for staffing the international expansions. Which of the following is used for staffing by most corporations?

What is the specialized agency of the United Nations that promotes the rights of workers?

What is the name of the organization, formalized in 1995, that seeks to foster free trade globally?

Think about a spider's web with the spider in the middle. In this scenario, the spider controls the web from the centre. What type of corporation does this web resemble the most?

Cultural differences have little impact on international compensation.

Which of the following is an essential component of training and development programs for employees going on international assignments?

What are the primary differences among international, multinational, global, and transnational corporations?

In many European countries, including Germany, a very high level of worker participation can be found, where national law requires that labour be part of, for instance, the boards of directors of companies. What is this participative arrangement called?

Global managers must be capable of managing highly decentralized organizations.

Scenario 15.1 From 2008, ForEx Inc. has shifted some of its operations to China and Malaysia, where production costs are considerably lower compared to Canada. Since then, 35 managers have been sent to those countries either on short- or long-term assignments to head up operations, conduct training and development, or just to oversee specific projects. Of the 35 managers only five were women, even though women make up 40 percent of the management team. Expatriates on long-term assignments are given financial incentives to offset any qualitative differences between the costs of living in the two locations. -Refer to Scenario 15.1. Based on material in the text, which of the following would be an inaccurate assumption by ForEx for its women expatriates?

English is almost universally accepted as the language for international business.

If an organization wanted to decrease the failure rate of its expatriates, one good strategy would be to give more women international assignments.

Many farm workers come to Canada to work during the summer period. What is the name of the document issued by the government granting authority to these farm workers to seek employment in Canada?

What is another term for expatriates?

An advantage of home country nationals is that they have intimate knowledge of the environment and culture.

A work permit or work certificate allows a foreign individual to seek employment in another country.

What is repatriation?

In some countries, such as India, profit sharing is mandated by law. Thus, companies have to distribute some of their profits to the employees. What is the key reason for this requirement?