Managing Expatriates in International Subsidiaries

This assignment focuses on the challenges and opportunities associated with managing expatriate employees within international subsidiaries of a multinational corporation (AIS). It delves into various strategic recommendations aimed at addressing issues related to employee training, diversity management, motivation, and negotiation strategies between management and unions. The document outlines specific action plans for implementing these strategies, emphasizing roles and responsibilities, timelines, and potential challenges.

Running head: INTERNATIONAL HRM
International HRM
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Content
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
1. Discussing ASIs current international strategy............................................................................2
Proposing changes requires with justification.............................................................................3
Making the strategy locally responsive and yet global in its scope.............................................5
2. Proposing a more effective expatriation/ repatriation program underpinned by model and
theory...............................................................................................................................................5
Global expatriation strategy.........................................................................................................5
Expatriation program...................................................................................................................6
3. Appendix featuring the summary of the recommendation in the form of action points..............7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
Reference and Bibliography............................................................................................................8
Appendix........................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
The present report is based on the international human resource strategy of All Scientific
Instruments. The organization is currently facing some major HRM issues in its overseas
subsidiaries, which are probably caused by culture disagreement, increase of Union’s support for
the employee base. According to the case study provided, the major issue that ASI faces is the
diversity condition –the practices that headquarter follow, are not implemented to the host
countries properly. Moreover, there is a significant communication gap between American
expatriates and the subsidiary workforce. Likewise, there are some other significant issues in the
operation. The major purpose of the report is to critically analyze those issues and develop
appropriate HRM strategies that help the firm to resolve the problems.
1. Discussing ASIs current international strategy
ASIs developed a strong corporate culture, which mixes up the values and visions with
the workforce. To retain such culture, the organization endeavor to implement a strong control
over its subsidiaries by employing the expatriate managers in two major department of the
operation- technical and managerial. The subsidiaries are restricted to the goals, strategies set by
the parent company, and the subsidiaries have limited control over those goals and targets. As
per the company’s policies, the expatriate managers are asked to keep union out or reduce its
influence, which is certainly difficult because the political and legal framework controls the
region. The organization must comply with the political environment to keep organizational
operation in place. The case study indicates that ASIs attempt to implement an autocratic
management style throughout the organization and its subsidiaries. Moreover, performance
management strategies of the company are not effective for the company where the benefits of

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employees are very limited. Based on the issues found in company’s operation, the following the
strategies have been proposed to modify the overall operational strategy.
Proposing changes requires with justification
Negotiation- It can be mentioned that there ASIs need for a deeper understanding of the
management practice of subsidiary remains crucial for an informed conceptualization of
contemporary management practice usually. In order to implement parent company’s target and
goals, expatriate managers of the subsidiaries need to negotiate with the Union of the region. As
Union’s influence are increasing, if a negotiation can be developed between the union and the
subsidiary. Some provisions related to operation such as benefits of additional work, limited
number of holidays should be agreed between both the company and the union. Employees may
agree to the conditions, as influence of unions is high. On the other side, Head Quarter of ASIs
should also focus on the employee empowerment, which means expatriate managers should be
given more power and authority to control the overall operation.
Employee Training- In order to avoid language barriers and communication barrier
between American expatriate and the subsidiary workforce, an exclusive training program needs
to be implemented throughout the organization (Story et al. 2014). Especially, employees of
each subsidiary should be provided with English Communication training program.
Establishment of communication through training program could help to resolve the workplace
issues that usually occur during the operation.
Motivation Strategy –In order to have a strong control over the production, the
employees should be encouraged with certain benefits. Motivation strategy has been discussed
with Herzberg Two-Factor theory.

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Hygiene factor-Hygiene factor developed by Herzberg are mandatory for the existence of
motivation at workplace. These factors might not lead to positive satisfaction long-term but if
these factors are absent, employees might lack motivation (Park and Ryoo 2013).
Pay-The pay or salary structure of ASIs needs to be proper and reasonable and it should
be equal and competitive.
Fringe benefits- The employees of ASIs should be offered healthcare plans and additional
benefits for the family members. For example, the organization Unilever provides medical
coverage to its employees and their families (Elzakker et al. 2012). This strategy certainly helps
employees to keep a balance between work-life and family.
Interpersonal relationship- The relationship of the worker with the managers and peers should
be appropriate. This can be done through open communication style. Communication helps to
avoid conflict in the workplace.
Motivation factor-
Growth and promotional opportunities- There should be growth and advancement opportunities
in ASIs to encourage employees to perform well.
Responsibility- The expatriate managers should hold themselves responsible for the work. Parent
company should give ownership of the work. The parent company could minimize the control
but retain the accountability.
Diversity management- Diversity theory developed by Thomas indicates that managing
inevitable diversity of the dynamic workforce is mandatory for managers and leaders. It is
certain that employees at ASIs come from different cultural backgrounds; thereby, employee

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culture should be valued and respected. A healthy work culture should be developed in the
subsidiary branch, where the communication should be a major priority. Such practice allows
every individual to contribute to naturally to organizational goals and objectives.
Making the strategy locally responsive and yet global in its scope
The proposed strategies mentioned above is locally responsive because the strategies
such as motivation and diversity management are required in every field of organizational
operation. Especially, the diversity management is highly essential when the organization is
running the operation in global environment because the employees come from different cultural
background. Thus, to integrate people from different cultural background, the firm must need a
diverse work culture. Thereby, the above-mentioned strategies can be applied to both regional
and global environment.
2. Proposing a more effective expatriation/ repatriation program underpinned by model
and theory
Global expatriation strategy
As ASIs employs a global strategy should be concerned regarding identifying the
difference. The organization should try to integrate the best talents from the subsidiary regions
into one single corporate culture and one global strategy. Hence, the expatriates could help the
creation of a common organization culture through the establishment of informal communication
framework throughout the organization and understanding global integration throughout indirect
control mechanism. Here, as the use of global competency could be another instrument based on
which the strategy is applied, the organization could make use of developmental assignment in

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which the organization could expect to increase promising talents for the assignment in the
future.
Expatriation program
As put forward by Gröschl (2011), International operation are making an increasing
contribution to the bottom line of major US organization. As the competition is high in the
global environment, the organizations should develop a more sophisticated expatriation program
where global challenge can be tackled easily. The following program is proposed to resolve the
expatriate issues at ASIs.
Action 1: Consider –Align –Motivation
A gap between organizational and assignee motivation could exist where the global
assignments are concerned. The assignees take global assignment focusing on their overall
interest in the opportunity and for career development purpose; likewise, few individuals tend to
take global assignments for high compensation and benefits (Collings 2014). Hence, AISs needs
to expatriate desires for personal and professional development. Considering expatriates’
expectation, the organization needs to align those with organizational goals and target.
Action 2- Maximize Assign Experience
The organizations need to identify employees who have completed successful assignment
and upon their return and use their competencies sending them on another global assignment
using the experience they have gained to mentor first-time assignee (Farndale et al. 2014). This
strategy could appear to be an antidote to repatriation issues.
Action 3- Recognizing the importance of family

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While the expatriate feel the quality of life enhances for their family members, they are
also aware of the potential effects that assignments- challenge of family adjustment. ASIs need
to understand and recognize the value of educational, language and cultural support for their
families as the means to a more successful experience.
3. Appendix featuring the summary of the recommendation in the form of action points
(Refer to appendix)
Conclusion
The above-mentioned discussion helps to learn that the organization ASIs is currently
facing some HRM issues in the subsidiary plant. As the expatriate managers are having limited
control over the operation, they are not able to integrate the employees and fulfill organizational
demands. Therefore, a strategy of negotiation, employee training, motivation, and diversity
management have been proposed to ASIs. Negotiation strategy could help to resolve the issues
related to employee demand, involvement of Union and expatriate managers’ control over
subsidiary’s operation. Likewise, strategy of employee training has been proposed to resolve the
issues of communication and language barriers. Diversity management strategies could help to
integrate the employees of different cultural background. Workforce integration is required to
develop a healthy work environment, which would eventually help to maximize organizational
productivity.

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Reference and Bibliography
Almond, P., 2011. Re‐visiting ‘country of origin’effects on HRM in multinational
corporations. Human Resource Management Journal, 21(3), pp.258-271.
Almond, P., 2011. The sub-national embeddedness of international HRM. Human
relations, 64(4), pp.531-551.
Collings, D.G., 2014. Integrating global mobility and global talent management: Exploring the
challenges and strategic opportunities. Journal of World Business, 49(2), pp.253-261.
Dartey-Baah, K. and Amoako, G.K., 2011. Application of Frederick Herzberg's Two-Factor
theory in assessing and understanding employee motivation at work: a Ghanaian
Perspective. European Journal of Business and Management, 3(9), pp.1-8.
Farndale, E., Pai, A., Sparrow, P. and Scullion, H., 2014. Balancing individual and
organizational goals in global talent management: A mutual-benefits perspective. Journal of
World Business, 49(2), pp.204-214.
Gröschl, S., 2011. Diversity management strategies of global hotel groups: a corporate web site
based exploration. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 23(2),
pp.224-240.
Park, S.C. and Ryoo, S.Y., 2013. An empirical investigation of end-users’ switching toward
cloud computing: A two factor theory perspective. Computers in Human Behavior, 29(1),
pp.160-170.

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Schuler, R.S., Jackson, S.E. and Tarique, I., 2011. Global talent management and global talent
challenges: Strategic opportunities for IHRM. Journal of World Business, 46(4), pp.506-516.
Story, J.S., Barbuto, J.E., Luthans, F. and Bovaird, J.A., 2014. Meeting the challenges of
effective international HRM: Analysis of the antecedents of global mindset. Human Resource
Management, 53(1), pp.131-155.
Tan, T.H. and Waheed, A., 2011. Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory and job satisfaction in
the Malaysian retail sector: The mediating effect of love of money.
Thite, M., Wilkinson, A. and Shah, D., 2012. Internationalization and HRM strategies across
subsidiaries in multinational corporations from emerging economies—A conceptual
framework. Journal of World Business, 47(2), pp.251-258.
van Elzakker, M.A., Zondervan, E., Raikar, N.B., Grossmann, I.E. and Bongers, P.M., 2012.
Scheduling in the FMCG industry: An industrial case study. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry
Research, 51(22), pp.7800-7815.

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Appendix
Action points
Types of
recommendations
Implementation
process
Person in charge Time Frame
Negotiation In order to establish a
negotiation between
Union at the subsidiary
or the parent company
or implement this as the
strategy, the expatriate
managers should be
empowered to
communicate with the
Union leaders.
Particularly, the
management of the
subsidiary should call a
meeting where the
employees, expatriate
managers and union
representatives should
be present. In the
agenda, employees
demand should be heard
Expatriate managers,
organizational leaders ,
union representatives
and employees.
Expatriate managers and
union representatives
should communicate to
each other to collect and
share feedback of
employees.
The implementation of
this strategy could
hardly take a couple of
months.

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and it would be
conveyed to the
management through
the union
representatives.
Likewise, company’s
agreement on the
context should be
conveyed to the
employees through the
union representative.
However, organizational
purpose and objectives
should be heard; this
means whenever the
organization agrees to
employees demand , the
organizational benefits
in the agreement must
be differentiated.
Employee training Employee training
should be provided to
the employees of all
subsidiaries. Each
month, English
Communication training
Hence, the senior HR
manager, trainer, auditor
and subsidiary heads
should be engaged into
the process. The
proposed changes would
The implementation of
this strategy could take
at least half year.

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session would be held in
the subsidiary plant.
During the training
program, employees’
weakness should be
identified and based on
the type of flaws found,
appropriate initiatives
should be taken. In the
middle of the month
employee efficiency in
communication during
training period would be
measured. This could
help to learn how
employees are
progressing.
be measured by trainer
and team leads.
Diversity management In order to maintain and
manage diversity in the
workplace, the
employees of different
cultural background
should be recruited. The
management should
develop a set of policies
where the employees
Senior human resource
managers, expatriate
managers should be
supervising the culture
in the workplace.
Especially, the human
resource managers
should look after the
The implementation of
this strategy could take
six months.

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are not supposed to
disvalue the culture or
heritage of another
employee belonging to a
different culture. In
addition to this, to
respect different
cultural, cultural trends
or ritual should be
celebrated or
appreciated in the
workplace. Moreover, to
promote diversity in the
workplace, the
organization could align
the diversity policies
with the organizational
operational objectives.
The candidates at the
time of recruitment can
understand company’s
policies and work
accordingly after being
selected.
policies
Motivational actions- Certainly, in order to
increase organizational
Expatriate managers and
human resource
The implementation of
this strategy including