7 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
This chapter has taken a general look at composing an international staff. We
provided an analysis of the motives for international transfers, the different
transfer policies and transfer archetypes as well as the alternatives to inter-
national transfers. We also discussed international recruitment and selection
and expatriate adjustment and failure in some detail. In the following four
chapters we will look at four subjects that are related to managing an inter-
national staff. We will begin by analysing the process of cross-cultural training
and development in multinational companies. Secondly, we will deal with a
very practical problem that often puzzles personnel managers: international
compensation and performance management. A third chapter deals with the
challenges associated with repatriation and knowledge management, while the
fourth and final chapter will consider the problems women encounter in
(international) management.
8 DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1 With the growth in modern communication technologies, such as email and
video-conferencing, and the declining costs of international travel, expatriates
will become an extinct species! Comment on this statement.
2 With regard to recruitment and selection, actual practice in MNCs seems to be
quite different from recommendations for good practice. Why do you think this
is the case?
3 Section 6 discusses four transfer archetypes. Do you think any of these arche-
types would have a higher likelihood of occurring in one of the four different
organisational models discussed in Chapter 2: global, international, multido-
mestic and transnational?
9 FURTHER READING
- • Harzing, A.W.K. (2001a) ‘Who’s in Charge: an Empirical Study of Executive Staffing
Practices in Foreign Subsidiaries’, Human Resource Management, Summer,
pp. 139–158.
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