International Human Resource Management

Running head: INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
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1INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Introduction
Globalisation is the term which has been widely used in the past few decades in order to
describe the world. It involves several aspects of developments such as structural changes
particularly in the domain of business, economics, products as well as technology along with the
emergence of international and global business enterprises. Pudelko et al. (2015) in their studies
have observed certain concerns whereby globalization will show the way to a continuous
emergence of jobs particularly in higher wage economies in which the employees in developed
nations are reserved by the ones in low income economies. In a changing international market
place, where market rivalry is relentlessly increasing in the universal sense, organisations
required to develop as well as sustain the competitive advantage by implementing varied global
strategic business mechanisms by proficiently creating a local significance in the international
markets. However, an efficient way to develop a local occurrence relies on recruiting employees
from the parent corporation in the subsidiaries overseas. This strategy is particularly the work of
the International Human Resource Management (IHRM) department, which takes care of the
operation of moving employees around two different positions in different locations at local as
well as international level. However, an important problem associated with cross-national human
resource management is the policy of employing parent company employees to a managerial
position in foreign subsidiaries. The term ‘expatriation’ is specifically applied in order to
categorise the procedure of international transfers of employees working in overseas subsidiaries
for a predefined time, usually from two to five years. According to Brewster et al. (2016), the
idea of expatriation did not develop recently. Since ancient Roman era, few trading agencies
have used the consistent representatives to oversee distant subsidiaries. In recent times, the role
of expatriates in global organisations has become immensely diverse in comparison to ancient

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times. Cerdin, Jean-Luc and Brewster (2014) have noted that expatriate management currently is
referred to one of the important business tools in global organisations to improve International
integration. In the view of Brewster et al. (2016), there can be identified three primary attitudes
purposed towards the recruitment of foreign operations such as ethnocentric that is home nation
oriented, polycentric which is host country centric along with geocentric which involves world
orientation. The following paper will analyse sustainable expatriation management in the domain
of IHRM. In addition to this, the paper will evaluate the way Multinational Enterprises (MNEs)
develop sustainable expatriation management and reasons behind the importance of sustainable
expatriation management for their internationalization.
Discussion
Expatriation is identified as a striking course for amassing overseas markets for a number
of organisations. Successful global assignments have been increasing the international reputation
and earnings of organisations in recent times. González-Loureiro et al. (2014) have noted that
while expatriation is an effective method for gathering overseas markets, it mainly involves huge
financial resources for its recruitment approach for Multinational Enterprises. The procedure
primarily comprises of several dimensions namely selection, training, cultural patterns,
adjustment and repatriation. Reports of authors have revealed that expatriation has the tendency
of facilitating the expatriates to acquire substantial skills and proficiency during their transfer
period which will be worth additional for their home country business enterprises (Cerdin, Jean-
Luc and Brewster 2014). Expatriates are mainly used in order to expand technological ideas and
knowledge along with organisational culture. According to Brewster et al. (2016) one of the most
vital factors of overseas venture achievements is the competence of an organisation to
successfully transfer its important capabilities on a global basis.

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The selection procedure of expatriates for global assignments is identified as one of the
most crucial process from a cost perspective for the organisation as well as for the emigrant.
Tatoglu et al. (2016) have mentioned about special selection and staffing procedures in different
organisations whereby a general process applied by these organisations while selecting
candidates are interview with both candidates as well as respective family members. Furthermore
another important criterion applied while selecting candidates is assessing candidates’
competencies in dealing with relationships with people belonging to other ethnic or cultural
background. This criterion according to González-Loureiro et al. (2014) is distinguished as the
most vital for situations with culturally varied countries as well as for the expatriates who has
substantial contact with foreign country residents. However, Tatoglu et al. (2016) have noted
that inaccuracies during the selection method changed to have negative impact on the
achievement of organization’s foreign operations and that is important to select the suitable
employee for the assignment. There can be identified various decision making procedures while
working on the selection method. As a result factors related to employee adjustment, skills,
performance and turnover are seen to be important determinants during this selection.
Moreover, the cultural general profile signifying the general intercultural communication
ability as well as intercultural sensitivity must be amalgamated with the culture specific profile
for each country during the selection procedure in order to evaluate if the applicant has suitable
competency for carrying out the assignment in that specific country. At this juncture, McDonnell
et al. (2014) have noted that different countries and different MNEs comprise of varied cultural
attributes. Several employees engaged in overseas business operations exhibit knowledge
deficiency and expertise and sometimes sensitivity towards cultural divergences, which typically
leads to making errors during interactions in selection procedure as well as in private