Page 210 - DMGT548_GLOBAL_HRM

Unit 11: Multinational Performance Management

Notes
Figure 11.3: Variables Affecting Expatriate Performance
Cultural Adjustment—Self
—
Family

Host Environment

Headquarter’s Support

Task

Compensation Package

Expatriate
Performance

Above Figure 11.3 depicts the variables that form the basis on which the nature of the expatriate
assignment, performance management, the criteria for assessment, and other elements that
comprise an effective performance management system can be explored.

1. Compensation Package: Perceived financial benefits, along with the career progression
potential associated with an international assignment, are important motives for
assignment. The level of motivation and commitment is likely to decrease, thus affecting
performance.
2. Task: Expatriates are assigned to foreign operations to fulfill specific tasks. Four expatriate
task roles are:
(a) The chief executive officer, or subsidiary manager, oversees and directs the entire
foreign operations.
(b) The structure reproducer carriers the assignment of building or reproducing in a
foreign subsidiary a structure similar to that which he or she knows from another
part of the company.
(c) The trouble-shooter is the individual sent to a foreign subsidiary to analyse and
solve a particular operational problem.
(d) The operative performance functional job tasks in an existing operational structure,
in generally lower-level, supervisory positions.

Example: In the study of expatriate performance management of the Finnish
multinational, Nokia Telecommunications, it project employees in five categories of personnel:
top managers, middle managers, business establishers, research and development (R&D), project
personnel and there is a clear difference in the way performance management is approached
within these groups. Middle managers play a moderate role in establishing performance goals,
whereas business establishers play a strong role in establishing their performance goals.
For the expatriate (role receipt) the parent company (role sender) predetermines his role
in the foreign assignment, and role expectations may be clearly communicated to the
expatriate before departure. It is found that American expatriates working in Hong Kong
exhibited similar managerial behaviour to those employees remaining in the United
States.

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