跨国企业成长、共享价值观与外派经理

随着跨国公司国际运作的范围和复杂性增加,协调和控制问题也随之增长。培养共享的价值观是跨国企业实现有效控制的重要途径,而确保共享价值观的简单方法就是委任外派经理。制度理论被应用到对跨国公司控制问题的研究上,用以解释人事任用方式的扩散、公司的战略行为以及分支机构当地经营战略方式的采用等。     

South African Managers' Perceptions of Prospective South African-US Joint Ventures

Abstract

This study explores South African managers' expectations of prospective South African-United States international joint ventures. One hundred and three middle level South African managers responded to a theory-based original survey questionnaire that included questions about various aspects of prospective US-South African joint ventures. US companies invest in South Africa to gain access to its market and South African companies get into joint ventures with US companies to tap into their financial resources. US government's imposed tariffs and South African government's administrative barriers seem to be the most crucial problems for the prospective joint ventures. Implications for international managers are offered.     

The relationship between expatriates' personality traits and their adjustment to international assignments

This study investigates the relationship between personality traits of expatriates and their adjustment to international assignments. We focused in particular on the Big Five personality traits: extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness to experience. We sampled eighty-three US expatriates in Taiwan and found statistically significant relationships between expatriate adjustment and three personality traits in theoretically reasonable directions. Specifically, our results showed that a US expatriate's general living adjustment in Taiwan is positively related to his or her degree of extroversion and openness to experience. We found that extroversion and agreeableness are both positively related to interaction adjustment (i.e. relationships with local people). Furthermore, a US expatriate's work adjustment is positively related to his or her openness to experience. Unlike prior research on expatriate adjustment, we have examined multiple traits rooted in personality theory, and we have derived hypotheses that are specific to a Chinese context.     

Singing the same song: translating HRM messages across management hierarchies in Australian hospitals

The management of expatriation has grown in importance as the numbers of multinational companies has grown significantly since the 1970s. However, public and non-government sector organizations have long traditions of managing expatriates. This paper presents the results of research that compared the manner in which Australian private, public and non-government sector organizations selected their expatriates. The results confirm the numerous reports in the international human resource management (IHRM) literature that, in private sector organizations, selection is carried out largely on the basis of technical competence, with minimal attention being paid to the interpersonal skills and domestic situations of potential expatriates. The limited role of HR managers in this process is also identified. The selection practices of public sector organizations reflect the merit selection policies of this sector. The non-government sector organizations' selection practices differ markedly from those of the organizations in the other two sectors, in that psychological testing is widely used and the family is treated as a unit and included in the selection process.     

Affective networks,informal ties,and the limits of expatriate effectiveness

Expatriate effectiveness research has so far rarely taken into account the influence of social networks on expatriate performance and adjustment. Likewise, antecedents of social networks remain poorly understood. We fill this research gap by exploring the situation of expatriates in South Korea. Based on expert interview data, we have discovered seven antecedents critical to expatriate effectiveness. Most antecedents hinder expatriate effectiveness due to the expatriates’ inability to become a part of so-called Yongo networks, a distinctive type of social tie in South Korea that is to a great extent determined by birth. As a consequence, it is in particular expatriates’ relational performance and interaction adjustment that is negatively influenced by Yongo. Based on the South Korean case, this study advises future research to more deeply study the nature and characteristics of the local social context, in particular affective ties, and extend research on expatriate effectiveness in this important dimension. Finally, we discuss practical implications important for multinational corporations and provide suggestions on how to better cope with exclusive informal social networks while on an assignment abroad.     

Expatriate adjustment and commitment: the role of host-unit treatment

This article tests the hypotheses that perceived host ethnocentrism will impact negatively on expatriates' work adjustment, host commitment and parent commitment as well as increase the desire to return early from overseas assignments. Hierarchical regression analyses were performed on survey data from 250 international assignees controlling for a wide range of personal, organizational and locational characteristics. As predicted, perceptions of local ethnocentrism had a negative effect on work adjustment and commitment to the host unit, particularly when cultural distance was low. We also found that European expatriates were more likely to react negatively to perceptions of host ethnocentrism than were their American counterparts. In general, there was no support of the hypothesized links between perceived host ethnocentrism and parent-firm commitment or the desire to return early.     

The impact of on-site mentoring on expatriate socialization: a structural equation modelling approach

While the literature on expatriate adjustment has focused on the importance of back-home mentors and their instrumentality for future career advancement, this research explores the importance of on-site mentors for the effective socialization of expatriates into their current overseas assignments. Using a sample of 179 expatriates located in nineteen countries, this paper presents a structural equation model illustrating the relationships among mentoring received, expatriate socialization and socialization outcomes. Amount of mentoring received positively impacts on expatriate socialization, which in turn positively influences job attitudes, intention to finish the expatriate assignment and expatriate understanding of global business issues. Using Hofstede's typology of national cultures, this research also suggests that the international context of the overseas assignment affects how much on-site mentoring expatriates receive. Specifically, expatriates are more likely to receive mentoring in small power distance, weak uncertainty avoidance and individualistic cultures.     

Self-regulation and expatriate adjustment: The role of regulatory fit

In this paper, we draw on the construct of regulatory fit in explaining how expatriates manage interactional and work-related discrepancies in diverse cultural contexts. When expatriates go overseas, they are often faced with a set of expectations that are at variance with their home country norms and these differences in expectations generate discrepancies. The emergence of discrepancies in an alien cultural context exacerbates the uncertainties facing the expatriate, though the response to uncertainty varies between expatriates. We posit that expatriates with a promotion-focused self-regulatory system are focused on maximizing gains leading them to manage uncertainty through experimentation whereas expatriates with a prevention-focused self-regulatory system are oriented to minimizing losses leading them to manage uncertainty by persisting with the status-quo. Utilizing insights from motivational science and by linking the self-regulatory processes to the cultural context, we develop a framework and propositions for expatriate adaptation in loose and tight cultures. We present managerial implications of our model and offer guidance for testing the framework.     

Unpacking the “skill – cross-cultural competence” mechanisms: Empirical evidence from Chinese expatriate managers

International management (IM) literature identifies several important skill sets (namely, self-maintenance, perceptual, interpersonal, language and communication skills) that are important for expatriates’ cross-cultural management. However, how skills influence each other and work synergistically towards expatriate competence has not been well examined. Based on the theoretical perspectives of learning, social dynamics and the IM stream, we develop an integrative model to investigate the joint effects of skills on cross-cultural competence (CCC), by surveying and interviewing Chinese expatriate managers. We find that self-maintenance skills, interpersonal skills, and language skills do not relate to CCC directly, while perceptual skills contribute to CCC mainly through communication skills. Our study demonstrates that competence goes beyond understanding local culture and lies in the ability to effectively interact and communicate within the host context. This study contributes to expatriate literature not only by revealing the skill – CCC mechanisms, but also by extending knowledge into an emerging market context which provides theoretical and practical guidance for competence-building of expatriates from China.