1. Recruitment & Selection for
International Assignments

2. Objectives
• To identify factors predictive of success for
a global manager
• To identify barriers to effective recruitment
and selection
• To describe staffing issues in an MNE

3. Recruitment:
The process of generating a pool of
capable candidates to apply for your job
vacancy
Selection:
The process of choosing from the pool of
applicants the person most likely to
succeed in the job

4. Underlying key principles.
• Individual differences
• Prediction

5. Selection criteria
• Reliability
• Validity

6. Discrimination:
• Direct
• Indirect

7. Two approaches
• Person specification
based on asking yourself – how can I describe
the person who can fulfil this job description ie
description of duties/responsibilities
• Job competencies
identify knowledge skills and knowledge a
person needs to adequately do a job
(Rees & Porter)

8. Example of JD format
• JOB DESCRIPTION
Job title
Department
Responsible to:
Relationships
Purpose of job/overall objectives
Specific duties and responsibilities
Physical/economic conditions

9. Alec Rodger’s 7 point plan (1970)
• PERSONNEL SPECIFICATION
Physical characteristics
Attainments
General intelligence
Specific aptitudes
Interests
Disposition
Circumstances

10. Five-fold grading system (Munro
Fraser 1971)
• PERSONNEL SPECIFICATION
Impact on other people
Qualification and experience
Innate abilities
Motivation
Adjustment

11. Issues (Rees & Porter)
To identify appropriate selection criteria:
• existing good and bad employee match
• Totality of job
• Over-specification
• Over-reaction to previous failures
• Choosing in one’s own image
• Emotional intelligence
• Danger of using historic performance
• Attitude
• Working abroad

12. Information to collect
• References
• Testimonials
• CVs/application forms
• Assessment centres
• Psychometric test
• interview

13. Interviewing Methods
• To predict performance
• To provide candidate with information
• To sell the position
• Problems
– Immediate judgement, Interviewer not
listening, bias
– Lack of planning time, venue, wrong
atmosphere

14. Interviewing Methods (cont)
• Strategy – frank & friendly, problem
solving
• Individual
• Sequential
• Panel
• Other Methods – presentation, test
case, in-tray exercises, psychological
profile, aptitude tests, assessment centres

15. Variations in selection
Country I/Vs Applicatio Reference Personalit Cognitiv Handwriting
n form s y tests e tests analysis
Belgium 91 74 15 35 30 2
(F)
Belgium 100 92 12 25 32 12
(W)
France 94 89 11 17 7 17
Italy 96 45 32 8 8 0
Germany 60 83 76 2 2 0
UK 91 70 74 10 12 0

16. Culture and job ads
• 80% Swedish job ads emphasis
interpersonal skills
• Germany & UK – 65%
• France, Italy, Spain – 50% (but age often
specified)
Cranet, 2010

17. Variations in recruitment methods
Brewster et al, 2011 (Cranet, 2010)
• Recruitment agencies most popular in UK,
Australia, New Zeeland; unpopular in Germany,
Norway, Sweden, Greece
• Word of mouth common in Turkey, Greece,
France
• Internal labour market dominant in Japan, USA,
UK
• Both informal and formal methods used:
– formal- headhunting, cross-national advertising,
Internet, international graduate programmes
– Informal – family, friends

18. Selection
• Assessment centres used un UK, Germany,
Netherlands, France
• Psychometric testing popular in Spain, Italy,
Denmark and Finland, Sweden; very unpopular
in Germany, Netherlands and Norway
• Interview panels popular in UK, USA, Germany;
used somehow in France and Japan
• Cross-cultural differences in interviews,
assessment centres, psychological testing

19. Influence of culture on R&S
Brewster et al, 2011
• Anglo-Saxon tradition – individual factors used to predict
performance; competencies frameworks
• Australia – fir between the person and the organisation’s
values and ways of doing things
• France – personal values not considered appropriate;
assessment of risk rather than predicted outcomes
• Latin America, Mexico, Peru – who the person is,
relationships, connections
• Regional challenges: India – employee referrals,
succession planning and internal recruitment; ethnicity
important in Malaysia; Islamic principles – experience,
decency etc

20. Black & Stephens
• “Our research has found that the
successful completion of a global
assignment is linked more closely to the
expat’s and the spouse’s adjustment to
the new culture than to the expat’s
adjustment to the new work role.”

21. Selection Strategy
• Ethnocentric – Home Country bias
• Geocentric – Best candidate on worldwide
basis, no country bias
• Polycentric – Host country bias
• Regiocentric – Best candidate on regional
basis

22. International Transfers
• For staffing needs
• Management Development – eg foreign
management, technical skills
• Organizational Development
• Problems eg repatriation

23. Failure (in using expatriates)
• Costs – Cauldron: $250K-$1 million
depending on salary, location, dependents
• Black: 16-40% US ex-pats failed
• Tung: found European and Japanese
failures lower. Are companies judging by
the same standards? Japanese
placements longer than US

24. Reasons for failure
• Mead says less than 1/3 work related
• Tung ranks ex-pat failure in US in
descending order: managers’ inability to
adapt to different physical/cultural
environment; other family problems;
overseas work; lack of technical
competence; lack of motivation

25. Culture Shock
• “ a sense of psychological disorientation that
most people suffer when they move into a
culture that is different from their own.”
• Can’t recognise cues ; perceptions different
• Symptoms – tension & frustration,
alienation, need to be alone, depression
• Study by Black adjustment < 50 months

26. Reverse Culture Shock
• Reduced financial benefits
• Less power, status
• Change in jobs & personnel
• Poorer housing, loss of domestic help
• Solutions – mentor, training, brief
managers on changes, debrief manager

27. Selection Factors Predictive of
Expat Success
• Strategic Factors – Control of subsidiary,
stage of development for MNE, long term
strategy vs reaction
• Exchange of critical information including
technical data
• Management development

28. Selection Factors (cont.)
• Professional Skills – technical and
interpersonal
• Management Skills – able to manage conflict,
collaboration, trust
• Communication – language proficiency, 2-way
conversation, cross-cultural ability
• Individual characteristics – flexibility, open
minds, ability to cope with stress
• Spouse & Family – language skills, spouse’s
career, education facilities

29. Some Other Solutions
(based on Black, J.S. et al – “Global Assignments”)
• Involve family early in process
• Most successful ex-pats are geo-centric
• Candidate should be non-judgemental, mature,
willing to learn
• Experience in similar environment may help but
Black found little relationship between previous
ex-pat work & ability to adapt
• Ethnic affinity

30. Other Solutions (cont.)
• Professional & technical support at
subsidiary and head office
• Clarify duration to reduce uncertainty
• Guaranteed career security on repatriation
• Career planning, promotion opportunities
• Support for living eg medical, housing,
insurance, social events, job for spouse

31. Summary
• Is recruitment necessary?
• Source of best not easiest placement
• Concentrate on personal qualities
• Focus on families
• Consider cost & allow adequate time
• Communicate, clarify progress