influence of the corporate HR function over the management of senior
expatriates and the development of high potential managers in the subsidiary
companies had grown considerably in these companies, reflecting the switch
towards a less decentralized approach in the mid-1990s.
In summary, this discussion suggests that the role of the corporate HR
function varies considerably in different types of international firms and needs
to be understood in relation to the integration–differentiation dilemma
(Prahalad and Doz, 1987). Many MNCs operate with a global and centralized
HRM strategy for top managers and high potential HCNs and a polycentric/
decentralized approach for other staff. In this dual system corporate HR man-
ages a core of senior staff and key personnel while the rest of lower level man-
agement and staff are managed at the subsidiary level (Scullion, 2002). Firms
which are able to achieve this balance constitute a new organizational form:
the transnational, a more refined variant of the global firm (Bartlett and
Ghoshal, 1989). This topic will be examined in Section 5. However, before
doing so we will face one of the main challenges of the corporate HR function:
how to develop global managers.
4 GLOBAL MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT
Shortages of ‘international managers’ are becoming an increasing problem for
many international firms and often constrain the implementation of global
strategies (Gregerson et al., 1998). This section will discuss some of the major
challenges and constraints faced by international firms who seek to develop an
adequate pool of global managers. It will highlight the strategic importance of
these constraints in relation to the implementation of global strategies. In this
context, we consider issues regarding the internationalization of local man-
agers, the under-representation of women in international management, and
constraints on the supply of international managers due to repatriation prob-
lems and barriers to international mobility.
Despite the shortages of international managers, failure to effectively
recruit, retain and develop HCN managers remains a major problem for many
international firms (Black and Gregerson, 1999). Many MNCs have focused
most of their management development efforts on their PCN managers and
have tended to neglect the development of their HCN managers (Scullion,
1994). However, researchers have identified a number of important lessons for
MNCs which do seek to develop HCN managers. First is the need to avoid the
mistake of simply exporting parent country training and development pro-
grammes to other countries (Dowling et al., 1999; see also Chapter 11). Second,
the management development programmes needs to be linked to the strategic sit-
uation in eachcountry as well as the overall strategy of the firm (Scullion and
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