American and European expatriate managers: An empirical investigation

This article compares American and European expatriate managers' backgrounds, job satisfaction, and perception of local work and cultural environment in Turkey in reference to their adaptation to the host country and their job performance. It reports that the sample managers demonstrate differences in all these dimensions. Therefore multinational companies are recommended to develop human resources policies in choosing expatriate managers most likely to adapt to work and host country environments by paying attention to managerial qualifications and local conditions. They should also train and prepare both expatriate and local managers to ensure smooth relationships between two groups. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Organizational acculturation in foreign subsidiaries

Organizational acculturation refers to the influence of parent organizational culture resulting in change of work values of local employees in foreign subsidiaries. A study of host country national middle managers in Southeast Asia explored the impact of organizational acculturation. In the first phase, the work-related cultural values of managers employed by Swedish subsidiaries in Singapore were compared with those of a control group of managers employed by non-Swedish companies. The second phase investigated the work values of managers in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Thailand, based on Hofstede's four cultural dimensions. The findings clearly indicated that local managers in Swedish subsidiaries had experienced organizational acculturation, as distinct Swedish values had been adopted. However, cultural change did not occur to an equal extent among the three countries nor between different cultural values. Implications of the findings for international human resource management are discussed. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Age negotiation at the Asian corporate subsidiary: challenges of managerial ‘youth’ in Thai-based subsidiaries of Western multinationals

This study explores how individuals construed as ‘young’ for their managerial positions seek to mitigate their youth in order to gain and maintain legitimacy in an Asian socio-cultural context which (traditionally) privileges age seniority. Drawing on the narratives of local and expatriate managers at the Thai-based subsidiaries of Western multinational companies, we show how individuals experience ‘youth discrimination’ seeking to negotiate their age using alternative identity attributes with differing stakeholder groups. Findings expand our understanding of how and why attitudes towards managers viewed as ‘young’ affect perceptions of role legitimacy and performance. Implications for corporate HRM – specifically managerial selection – in Asia, as well as notions of discrimination ‘intersectionality’ are then progressed.     

The Impact of Communication on Conflict between Expatriate and Local Managers Working in NPD Projects of MNC Subsidiaries: A Local Perspective

This study investigates the impact of communication between expatriate and local managers on two types of conflict in subsidiaries of multinational companies (MNCs) engaged in new product development (NPD). The data was collected from 438 local NPD managers who regularly collaborate and communicate with expatriate managers. The findings suggest that the quality and bidirectionality of cross-cultural communication reduce relationship conflict but increase task-related conflict. In addition, a more formalized communication style increases both relationship conflict and task conflict. The findings hold implications for MNCs in that improvements to different communication dimensions are suggested.     

A Hierarchical Model of Values,Leadership, Job Satisfaction and Commitment

Abstract

Using a structural equation modeling technique, we empirically tested a hypothetical hierarchical model where personal values leadership styles job satisfaction organizational commitment. Survey data (N = 205) were collected from retail managers of national retail chain store companies. Our exploratory study found that personal values influenced retail managers' leadership styles, which in turn influenced their intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction. Job satisfaction ultimately influenced organizational commitment. Theoretical and managerial implications for human resources management are discussed.     

Organizational Learning in China: The Role of Returners

ABSTRACT

The Chinese authorities have launched a range of policies and incentives at the national and regional level to attract citizens who have studied and worked abroad to return in order to contribute to upgrading the competitiveness of the Chinese economy, particularly in light of China's entrance to the World Trade Organization. In other words, the returners are expected to stimulate organizational learning in existing organizations and in new companies. This article provides an overview of what has been done to date and points out that simply increasing the number of returners is not enough to achieve organizational learning. Drawing on research findings about the barriers to organizational learning from returned expatriate managers in international companies, the article develops recommendations for government policies, corporate strategies, and Chinese returners.     

The ‘disguised’ foreign investor: Brands,trademarks and the British expatriate entrepreneur in Brazil

Abstract

This article examines the impact of the British expatriate entrepreneur, and his processes of knowledge transfer, on the industrialization and economic development of Brazil between 1875 and 1914. It focuses on the textiles industry, and combines original trademark data with conventional trade and investment statistics, and also case study analysis about firms and their entrepreneurs. It argues that British investment in Brazil was higher and had a deeper impact on economic development than considered by existing research, as expatriate entrepreneurs ‘disguised’ a substantial amount of foreign investments by acting as shareholders and top managers of newly established local businesses.     

Traces of foreign retailers – local knowledge-spillovers and strategy adaption within retail internationalization

ABSTRACT

Since the 1990s certain retail companies have evolved into some of the largest and most dispersed transnational corporations worldwide. However, within the ‘new era of retail distribution’ retailers are increasingly divesting from foreign markets. This study addresses these recent and under-explored dynamics by revealing the traces transnational retail corporations leave after divesting from a country. It explores the aspect of learning of host market retailers from entering transnational corporations (TNCs) and examines how foreign knowledge is adjusted in the business strategies of these local actors. It takes a fresh empirical slant using qualitative interviews with host market retail managers including former TNCs’ subsidiaries operating under domestic ownership. The emerging economy of Turkey serves as an empirical example. The paper finds that foreign retailers transfer firm-specific resources to the local retail through (1) demonstration and imitation, (2) vertical linkages with suppliers, (3) joint ventures and acquisitions, and (4) labor turnover of TNC trained staff. Certain successful local companies adjust the foreign knowledge based on their local knowledge and strengths, their high level of flexibility and deep territorial embeddedness, and create ‘hybrid’ business strategies. These findings suggest that dynamic capabilities are crucial to successful retailing in an international competitive environment. TNC managers should work with local staff in partnerships of equals and managers of locally operating companies should incorporate new knowledge by hiring TNC trained staff.     

The effect of ethnic diversity on expatriate managers in their host country

Expatriate managers often encounter considerable obstacles in their overseas workplaces. While there is significant research on expatriate management and adjustment, relying on social identity and acculturation theories, little research addresses the expatriate experience of ethnic diversity in the host country. To address this gap, the aim of this study is to explore how Australian expatriate managers interpret their experience of working in a new and ethnically diverse workplace in Malaysia. The qualitative analysis suggests that the key to performing in such a context lies in the individual's ability to change and adapt beyond culture and language skills. The key managerial implication is that cross-cultural training can assist with the development of personal attributes by expatriate managers involved in ethnically diverse workplaces. Implications for future research are provided.     

Differences in values,practices, and systems among Hungarian managers and Western expatriates: an organizing framework and typology

For managers of international alliances, the reconciliation of conflicting values, practices, and systems (VPSs) among partners is a critical challenge, which is magnified when partners originate from diverse institutional environments, such as transition and established market economies. Given the rapidly growing prevalence of international alliances in transition economies, differences in VPSs surface when managerial methods introduced by Western companies clash with institutionalized legacies of central planning. This paper examines this process in the context of international cooperative ventures (ICVs) between Hungarian and Western partners. Using data collected from 17 ICVs, and 44 local and expatriate managers during 1997–1999, I test a series of hypotheses and inductively develop a typology that identifies a number of important and often problematic partner differences in managerial VPSs. The study uses multiple theoretical lenses to show how VPSs are variously shaped by institutional, economic, and cultural factors, and provides useful insights into typical challenges faced by ICV managers. I conclude with a discussion of the typology’s generalizability to other transition and emerging economies, its implications for theory and practice, and propose future research directions.     

Culture shock in China?: Adjustment pattern of western expatriate business managers

Currently working on the Chinese mainland, Western expatriate business managers, mainly from the USA, France, Germany, Australia and Great Britain, participated in a mail survey regarding their degree of adjustment which was then mapped over time. The results showed that while the three dimensions of sociocultural adjustment; work adjustment, interaction adjustment and general adjustment, all showed a clear U-curve pattern indicating a typical culture shock experience, no such pattern was displayed in the case of psychological adjustment as measured by their subjective well-being. Implications for Western expatriate business managers on the Chinese mainland and for companies assigning Western expatriates there are discussed.     

The expatriate myth: Cross-cultural perceptions of expatriate managers

Expatriate managers work alongside increasingly sophisticated and experienced local managers in many parts of the world, yet few researchers have examined the dynamics of the relationship between expatriates and local managers, or the attitude of local staff to their expatriate colleagues. This article seeks to redress this by reviewing existing research, and by drawing on the perceptions of Singaporean managers, highlights the tensions between local and expatriate managers and reflects some of the issues faced by multinationals who continue to employ expatriates in countries where there is sufficient indigenous management talent.     

Book Reviews

While globalization has led to a well-documented increase in expatriation among managers and corporate executives, increased internationalization and expatriation have not been confined to business organizations alone. Educational institutions are becoming increasingly international with academics also experiencing growing levels of expatriation. However, despite their increasing international mobility, expatriate academics remain a group about which very little is known. Drawing on exploratory research carried out in Singapore and New Zealand, this essay presents several propositions about the experiences of expatriate academics as a hitherto under-researched group. In addition the essay moves towards adding another dimension to the existing expatriate management literature by considering the extent to which it can be used as a framework for understanding expatriate academics. In doing so the essay proposes some of the differences between expatriate academics and expatriate managers. The areas of focus are cross-culture training, expatriate adjustment and the expatriate family.     

China Speaks Out: How and Why Chinese Employees Use Their Voice toward German Managers

Existing management literature on voice has primarily focused on examining who uses their voice and when it is used, ignoring why employees speak out and how they do so. We examine the conditions under which Chinese employees use their voice toward their German managers at German companies in Mainland China. The findings from our empirical study emphasize the importance of Chinese employees' personal identification with their German managers as a precondition for voice behaviors. Our results suggest that Chinese employees utilize indirect voice behavior in addition to direct voice behavior when interacting with their German managers. This indirect guanxi‐voice behavior has neither been recognized nor investigated in the literature. The theoretical and managerial implications of the results are discussed. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The Future of Managing Customers as Assets

SUMMARY

Most companies do a very poor job of determining the economic value of their customers. There are three primary reasons that this has been the case: (1) inadequacy of technology, (2) managements' internal focus on products (as opposed to customers), and (3) inadequacy of accounting systems. Each of these areas, however, has undergone rapid transformation in terms of their sophistication and managerial usefulness. As a result, it is manifest destiny that asset valuation and management will evolve to the evaluation of a company's most fundamental asset, its customers (i.e., customer lifetime value). Most managers have come to accept this inevitability. What managers fail to realize is just how radically an understanding of customer lifetime value will transform the business landscape. It will dramatically impact the breadth and type of data collected; the way managers view and segment customers; the types of experiences firms offer customers; the metrics executives provide to the financial markets; and the way companies structure and staff their organizations.     

Gift Giving,Guanxi and Illicit Payments in Buyer–Supplier Relations in China: Analysing the Experience of UK Companies

This paper explores the relationship between gift giving, guanxi and corruption through a study of the relationships between UK manufacturing companies in China and their local component suppliers. The analysis is based on interviews in the China-based operations of 49 UK companies. Interviews were carried out both with senior (often expatriate) staff and with local line managers who were responsible for everyday purchasing decisions and for managing relationships with suppliers. The results suggest that gift giving is perceived to be a significant problem in UK-owned companies in China. However the relationship between these payments and established understanding of gift giving within guanxi-networks appears to be weak. Gift giving appears to be associated with illicit payments, corruption and the pursuit of self-interest. Firms seek to reduce the incidence of illicit transactions by changing staff roles, instituting joint responsibilities, which include the separation of different aspects of sourcing/purchasing, ineasing the involvement of senior staff in the process and through the education of employee and suppliers.     

An Empirical Evaluation of the Corporate Strategies of Nigerian Companies

ABSTRACT

As a result of substantial and contemporary changes in the Nigerian business environment, a study was designed to evaluate the corporate strategies used by Nigerian organizations to cope with these changes. Using the survey research methodology of questionnaire on a sample of 1280 corporate executives working in quoted companies in Lagos state of Nigeria, it was found that some aspects of operationalised grand corporate strategies were highly emphasized by Nigerian organizations, while some were not highly emphasized. For example, market penetration strategy was the most emphasized grand corporate strategy, while planned liquidation strategy was the least emphasized strategy. Also, the research revealed that local competition had the highest impact on corporate strategy, while foreign competition posed the least impact on the corporate strategies of Nigerian companies. Nigerian organizations were most effective in achieving profitability objective through their grand corporate strategies, while corporate social responsibility was the least achieved corporate objective via corporate strategies. These findings and their managerial implications were discussed along the salient issues of the research with respect to the research problem, research questions, relevant literature, managerial actions, and Other cognate issues.     

The hypercompetitive global marketplace: the importance of intuition and creativity in expatriate managers

The value of expatriate managers has always been predicated to a degree on the nature of complexity of the overseas assignment and the external environment. There are two emerging and interrelated processes of environmental change occurring that could have a direct impact on the selection of expatriate managers, those being, the globalization of businesses and the resulting hypercompetitive nature of global markets. Due to the rapid rate of globalization, organizations have recognized that the global managers need different skills than their predecessors who manned multinational corporations. In addition, the hypercompetitiveness of the marketplace has placed managers under a new time perspective that tends to overshadow other managerial constraints. Therefore, two additional dimensions (i.e., intuition and creativity) are examined as being useful in the selection of expatriate managers in global organizations. This paper assesses the value of examining potential expatriate candidates on the creative and intuitional intelligences, in that it is anticipated that these two abilities will become of inordinate importance in the global hypercompetitive marketplace.     

Important Dimensions in Ocean Freight Services

Abstract

This paper examines the criteria used by organizational buyers in their choice of suppliers of shipping services for ocean freight transport so widely used in international trade. The study was conducted in Singapore which is known for its heavy reliance on international trade as well as for its high ranking container port facilities. Based on a survey of shipping managers in a cross section of business organizations in Singapore, the study identifies important factors in the choice of a shipping line selected on their heaviest used export route for their outgoing goods. It also provides buyers' evaluation of the preferred carrier on the same attributes to examine the performance gaps in the services offered by the line. The findings thus provide a bench mark for the shipping industry and points toward areas of emphasis in the service strategies of the shipping lines.     

Developing the local competence of expatriate managers for emerging markets: A knowledge-based approach

This paper proposes a theoretical framework for developing expatriate managers’ local competence in emerging markets from a knowledge-based perspective. We argue that local knowledge in emerging markets differs significantly from corporate knowledge transferred to those markets, and that its very nature determines its critical importance to expatriate managers’ business performance. We explore the processes and mechanisms through which local knowledge can be acquired and integrated into expatriate managers’ knowledge base supporting local talent development and their effective strategic decision-making. We suggest that conventional local competence development strategies may not be effective methods for developing global managers for emerging markets.