International Staffing Policies

MNCs adopt diverse international staffing policies generally related to their international business strategy. Critically discuss their advantages and disadvantages.

Staffing policy is concerned with the selection of employees for particular jobs. This involves selecting individuals who have the skill required to do a particular job. MNCs don't usually hire the "just adequate" because being adequate is not good enough. MNC tend to do abit more, they often use staffing policies as a tool of developing and promoting corporate culture. Corporate culture means the organizations norms and value system. Individual that are selected was chosen because they have almost similar values personally.

HRM function here is crucial because they have to pay special attention to selecting individuals who not only have the skills required for a particular job but whom also "fit" the prevailing culture of the corporation. Creating a strong unifying culture within an organization is essential for corporations pursuing a transnational or global strategy.

The staffing policies of multinational companies can be divided into four categories namely: 1. ethnocentric policy

2. Polycentric policy

3. Geocentric policy

4. Regiocentric policy

The Ethnocentric Staffing Policy

The ethnocentric staffing policy refers to the strategy of a multinational company to employ managers for key positions from the parent headquarters instead of employing local staff. An ethnocentric staffing policy can help unify a company's corporate culture across all its branches. Many organizations have traditionally relied on parent country nationals (PCNs) for staffing top management positions abroad for a number of reasons.

• The expatriate's technical and business expertise.

• Ability to transfer the headquarters' culture to the foreign operation (infusing central beliefs throughout the organization)

• Lack of qualified host country nationals

• Greater ability of expatriates to transfer know-how from the parent to the subsidiary.

• Effective communication between headquarters and the subsidiary.

• No need of well-developed international internal labor market.

• Rapid substitution of expatriates possible.

However, there are a number of major problems with the ethnocentric approach this includes;

• Parent country nationals continue to experience difficulties to adjust to international assignments.

• The