Contingent Expatriate Training Strategies with Examples of Taiwan MNEs

[[abstract]]Expatriates play the critical role and are expected to demonstrate performances. Therefore, providing sufficient quantity and quality trainings to expatriates is critical for MNEs. With qualitative approach, this paper proposes four expatriate training strategies which consist of pre-departure training and supportive training for different internationalization situations after the literature review. We selected 4 presentative international companies from 2014 Outward Investment Directory of Taiwan as examples to explain four expatriate training strategies with different internationalization situations. We hope the contingent expatriate training strategies will facilitate MNEs to create and maintain competitive advantages.[[notice]]補正完

Wasta and Non-Arab Training, Characteristics, Task, and Culture in Arab Markets

Non-Arab global leaders face many cultural challenges when doing business in Arab markets. One such challenge is how to work with wasta, which is translated as networking and favoritism. The purpose of this study was to identify the relationships between wasta and a non-Arab managerial expatriates\u27 training, personal and professional characteristics, task complexity, and cultural differences and the effect of such relationships on wasta performance of non-Arab managerial expatriates in Arab markets. A quantitative non-experimental survey design was used to collect and statistically test data to answer the research questions. A simple random sample of 53208 non-Arab expatriates currently working in the U.A.E. were invited to participate in the study, resulting in -final sample of 175 non-Arab expatriates who are holding managerial positions (.33%). Simple and multiple regression analyses were used to test the research questions and hypotheses. Coefficient alphas and factor analyses were conducted on all scales used in the study in order to examine their reliability and validity. For the multiple regression analyses, an F Value statistical test was used to identify the model\u27s significant predictive capability. R Square (R2) identified the variances in the dependent variable explained by the independent variables. Findings of this study indicated significant influence of Expatriates\u27 Training on the Wasta Performance indicator of ability to build network with Arab managers; Expatriates\u27 Characteristics on the Wasta Performance indicators of ability to build network and relationship with Arab managers, ability to understand Arab managers\u27 decision making, and ability to integrate in the Arab business community; Task Complexity on the Wasta Performance indicators of ability to build network and relationship with Arab managers, and ability to integrate in the Arab business community; Cross-Cultural Differences on the Wasta Performance indicators of ability to build network and. strong relationship with Arab managers and understand Arab managers\u27 decision making. Future research may also include non-managerial expatriates in Arab markets, focus on the differences between wasta in the Arab culture and networking in other cultures, and assess non-expatriates in other Arab countries

Leadership in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria: A Study of the Perceptions of its Impact on the Acquired Leadership Skills of Expatriate Nigerian Postgraduates.

The primary trouble befalling Nigeria and its Niger Delta has been described as a failure of leadership. At various periods during the late 20th and early 21st centuries, Nigeria endured a bloody civil war and years of repressive military rule. Violence in the Niger Delta region, widespread brain drain, and frequent strikes that disrupted academic calendars at universities had serious ramifications for the region\u27s educational system. This study explores former students\u27 perceptions of perceived leadership qualities seen in educational leaders at universities in the Niger Delta and how those qualities impact the acquired leadership skills of expatriate Nigerian postgraduates. Participants were Nigerian postgraduates living in Africa, Europe, and North America. Twenty-three men and 4 women took part in the study. Purposeful snowballing sampling procedures was used to select the sample. A mixed method design was used to collect data through structured electronic-mail surveys, and data were analyzed using constant comparative analysis procedures. Fifteen areas of influence emerged from expatriates\u27 perceptions of these educational leaders. Areas of influence were categorized into 4 major constructs: Leading qualities, Perceived produced impacts, Perceived barriers, and Responses. Expatriates perceived few negative leading qualities but perceived too many real negative impacts that posed barriers to their acquired leadership skills. They are aware that these perceived barriers could be social, economic, environmental, and ethnic. These perceived impacts and barriers have generated fear in respondents. Anger appeared to be postgraduates\u27 most common response to negative leadership qualities of educational leaders, while restlessness, associated with desire for effective leadership in the region appeared to be a common attitude among respondents. Because educational leadership has tremendous impact on the lives of the country\u27s postgraduates, and in light of increasing reports of brain drain from the region, Nigeria\u27s educational leadership should be researched from every possible angle. A new theoretical model of perceptions of leadership qualities should be the focus of future research as Nigerian expatriates examine their own leadership qualities and, eventually, put them to use

Perceptions of leadership across cultures: a study of French and German managers and their employees in both their domestic and host environments

The phenomenon of globalisation has contributed greatly to the increasing interest in investigating cross-cultural leadership in recent years (Avolio, Walumbwa and Weber, 2009). To date cross-cultural leadership research has mainly involved comparative studies between countries at manager level (e.g. House et al., 2004) and has focused on potential cultural effects on leadership styles. The aim of this crosscultural study is to address the gap of neglecting employees’ views on leadership by investigating leadership perceptions both from the perspective of managers and employees in their domestic and host environments. This study explores leadership perceptions in the specific context of France and Germany, using a mixed methods approach. Based on implicit leadership theories and connectionist theory (Hanges et al., 2006; Lord et al., 2001), the similarities and differences that exist between the structure and the content of cognitive leadership schemas of French and German managers and employees regarding their perceptions of effective leadership are compared. This study shows that the application of connectionist theory to the field of cross-cultural leadership research provides a meaningful lens to investigate the relationship between culture and leadership. It found that despite the spread of globalisation and an often assumed concomitant convergence of cultures, differences in the approaches to leadership in a French and German business context still persist and should, therefore, be considered by companies planning foreign operations or secondments

SIDA DDG Evaluation

On 1 March 2008 Danish Demining Group (DDG) entered into a two-year agreement with the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida) to implement the project Survey, Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) and Mine Risk Education in Southern Sudan . The project aims to support the repatriation process for refugees and IDPs in South Sudan by providing a safe environment for the returnees and communities, and facilitating the work of humanitarian organisations. As the project is scheduled to end in 2010, Sida and DDG decided to commission an evaluation to inform the decision concerning a possible extension. The evaluation was conducted by a team fielded by the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) in the period February-March 2010

Trust, Organizational Controls, Knowledge Acquisition from the Foreign Parents, and Performance in Vietnamese International Joint Ventures

Successful adaptation in strategic alliances "calls for a delicate balance between the twin virtues of reliability and flexibility" [Parkhe 1998]. On one hand, the joint venture must be flexible enough to respond to the uncertainties of competitive business environments because it is not feasible to plan for every possible contingency. Yet, on the other hand, unfettered flexibility invites dysfunctional behavior, such as opportunism and complacency. This delicate balance accompanies a parallel balance between trust and control of the joint venture. The primary goal of this study is to empirically examine this relationship in the context of Vietnamese international joint ventures (IJVs) by building on the model of knowledge acquisition and performance in IJVs established by Lyles and Salk [1996]. This study makes three major contributions to the literature. First it confirms several findings of the original Lyles and Salk study [1996]. Second, we strengthen Lyles and Salk's original model by incorporating multiple measures of both interorganizational trust and control as independent variables. Finally, this study represents one of the first in-depth examinations of business in the emerging Vietnamese economy.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39713/3/wp329.pd

Culture and managers in a globalised world

The dynamic nature of the management function in global business today and the realisation that what works effectively in one country may not be as efficient in another has led management scholars and practising managers in continuous efforts to enhance their understanding of this environment and its effects to managers. This chapter explores management across cultures. The discussion starts with the origin and definition of cross cultural management; then it is focused on the study of the International Human Resources Management (IHRM). The final part discusses the profile of the international managers and the competencies needed to cope with the multiple challenges they are faced with in overseas assignments

Global Leadership Development: An Analysis of Talent Management, Company Types and Job Functions, Personality Traits and Competencies, and Learning and Development Methods

As our world shrinks and globalization increases, companies are changing strategies and operational procedures, which are dependent on leaders to deploy and implement. As companies evolve from domestic companies towards international, multinational and global companies, developing future global leaders becomes an essential component for successfully carrying out corporate global strategies. Because of this, there is an increasing need for global leaders; yet, they are not prepared, causing a significant shortage of global leaders, which is a critical issue for human resource departments. Thus, global leadership development (GLD) programs are urgently needed to address the gap between global leadership needs and the capacity shortage, and should be a major focus of HR\u27s talent management. Even though GLD significantly impacts company performance, current GLD programs offered by practitioners are deficient and there is disjointed research on the topic by scholars. However, there is a growing consensus around global leadership attributes (personality, values, cultural background and corporate work experience) used for the recruiting and succession planning talent management functions, global leadership competencies (engagement in personal transformation, knowledge, networking skills, social judgment skills, self awareness, and self regulation) used for the career development talent management function, and learning and development methods (expatriate assignment, global teams, experiential learning, coaching, intercultural training, assessment and reflection) used for the learning and development talent management function. The research findings indicate several implications for practitioners to address when building a global leadership development program. First, personality traits and global leadership competencies are primarily idiosyncratic to job function, but not to company type. Second, while leadership competencies are the same for domestic and global leaders, certain competencies are more critical for global leaders and the proficiency level typically increases. Third, the list of competencies must be manageable, clearly defined and comprehensive. And fourth, the learning and development method and corresponding budget prioritization is very dependent on the global leadership competency to be developed

Understanding Entrepreneurship Process and Growth in Emerging Business Ventures under Market Socialism in China

Objectives: This paper aims to provide an insightful view of the entrepreneurial process and growth in different types of Chinese entrepreneurial enterprises under market socialism in China. This issue is explored by examining the organisational characteristics of three emerging business ventures under market reforms and institutional changes. It addresses the interactive effect of key contingency factors in entrepreneurship process and explains its impact on growth or failure outcomes in a particular ‘China type’ of market economy. Prior work: China’s hybrid economic system represents a mixed political economy with both socialist and capitalist characteristics (Lichtenstein, 1992; Morphy et al, 1992; Opper, 2001). Despite a growing body of research on Chinese small business practices alongside the economic reforms (Shen, 1994; Child, 1994; Naughton, 1994; Schlevogt, 2001; Warner, 2004; Yang, 2007; Kshetri, 2007; Yang and Li, 2008), more empirical studies are required to provide a critical insight into the emerging business practices. This research adopts a contingency model of entrepreneurship(Wickham, 2006) to examine entrepreneurship process and growth in different types of business venture. It reveals the interactive relationships among key variables such as strategy, ownership, culture and management process. Approaches: This research is undertaken through the empirical analysis of three case study companies in the textile industry. This fieldwork was conducted in 2006 and 2009 respectively. Multiple sources of data were collected including 21 open-ended interviews of owners and key managers in three case study companies. Results: The study offers an explanation on how entrepreneurship takes different forms and features in different organisational contexts. Empirical evidence supports four hypotheses: (1) The type of ownership is a key contingent factor that moderates particular entrepreneurial outcomes. (2) Leadership and knowledge accumulation capability are critical factors in learning process, significantly affecting the strategic choices in either high value or low value added products strategy. (3) The broadening of product portfolios and increased production capacity will improve survival chances and increase the likelihood of firm growth. (4) Management capability and consistency have greater impact on the outcome of entrepreneurship process than the resource and strategy factors. Implications: The findings have significant implications for a conceptual understanding of Chinese entrepreneurship dynamics. It addresses important considerations on government policy making and promotion strategies for entrepreneurship development in different forms of business venture. Value: The textile sector has pioneered the government reforms in restructuring and creating entrepreneurial enterprises. It offers a perfect case for assessing the entrepreneurship processes in a rapidly changing market environment. It emphasizes the important ownership effect on entrepreneurial outcomes. Drawing upon Wickham’s contingency model of entrepreneurship, it provides an improved understanding of this concept under particular circumstance and different contexts

Effects of Self-Efficacy on Transfer of Cross-Cultural Training and Expatriate Performance

The presented study focused on the effect of self-efficacy, as well as other selected demographic variables, on the transfer of cross-cultural training and expatriate performance. Selected independent variables include self-efficacy, expatriate tenure, level of education, gender, age, marital status, level of foreign language competency and level of formal cross-cultural experience. Expatriates employed by multinational company that were on their current assignments were selected to be the studied sample. The design of this study employed a quantitative research method. A survey instrument crafted specifically for this study was digitized and was made accessible for participants via the Internet. After the data was automatically collected, appropriate statistical analysis tools such as descriptive statistics, correlations of means, Analysis of Variance, and a reliability test such as Cronbach’s alpha were used for data analysis purposes. Expatriate’s perceived self-efficacy was found to interactive with the transfer of cross-cultural training (CCT). While demographic variables such as expatriate tenure, level of education, gender, age, martial status, level of foreign language competency, and level of formal cross-cultural experience were found having no correlation with the transfer of CCT, the test results show self-efficacy to have strong impact on expatriate’s performance. Based on the conclusions, a set of recommendations has been made for future researchers. Implications for HRD practitioners and multinational organizations have also been explored