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Human Resource Mangement

Notes contexts. Online learning, or e-learning, seems an obvious choice to deliver this type of learning.
However, while online learning is efficient and convenient, it does not satisfy all training needs.
It may fail to adequately develop the social learning communities that work teams need to
initiate and sustain effective learning.
Many programmes equip employees with the basics of the host country's history, politics,
business norms, education system, and demographics; the cultural values, communication, and
how to function in a foreign country. But, do these cross-cultural training programmes adequately
prepare the employees to operate in the foreign environment? The need to develop cross-
cultural skills in expatriates is even greater where the gap between cultures is very important
(Forster, 2000).
Expatriate employees that are unprepared to meet the challenges in a foreign country often fail
their mission and this is costly to any organization. Therefore, it is imperative to adequately
train expatriates to perform well in oversees assignments; not only does this draw benefits to
the company, it also helps the morale of the employees.
Some expatriates succeed in their overseas assignments, others encounter failure. Expatriate
failure results in costly consequence (Bennet et al, 2000). Research has identified that having
accurate expectations, positively affects cross-cultural adjustment (Caligiuri, et al, 2001). Adequate
training also reduces assignment failure (Marquards & Engel, 1993). According to research; only
30% of the U.S. multinational companies provided their employees with cross-cultural training
(Bhagat & Prien, 1996; Black, 1988; Deshpande & Viswesvaran, 1992). One reason is that the body
of knowledge in cross-cultural training has not been able to impact the field mainly because
researchers have not agreed yet on the implementation of their findings (Brewster, 1995; Selmer,
Torbiörn, & de Leon, 1998; Selmer, 2001). Litterell et al, (2006) unveiled a rich review of literature
over the past 25 years on expatriate preparation.

Self Assessment

Multiple Choice Questions:

11. International HRM is the process of:
(i) Procuring
(ii) allocating

(iii) effectively utilising human resources in a multinational corporation.
(iv) All of the above
12. Honda, GE, Proctor & Gamble, etc. essentially adapting existing products for:
(i) domestic market
(ii) overseas markets

(iii) overseas markets without changing much else about their normal operations.
(iv) None
13. A multinational corporation is a more complex form that usually has

(i) autonomous units operating in multiple countries
(ii) semi-autonomous units operating in multiple countries
(iii) fully autonomous units operating in multiple countries.
(iv) None

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