CASE 1 HRM - 403 CORPORATE MUSICAL CHAIRS: WHO IS GOING TO BE AN EXPATRIATE - Essay Example

Important Information Available Considering the information available in the case study, it is clear that the organization is going to adapt the ethnocentric approach. Accordingly, it is preparing itself in a manner to utilize the talent and skills of its existing managers working in UK to manage the new hotel chain in France. Apart from this, Hotel also has to employ new employees as the existing employees have either left or in the process of leaving the organization. Further, Hotel also plans to sale out half of the hotels in order to follow its overall strategy of penetrating into the European Union market.

Considering this information, following tasks seems to be of critical importance: 1. Review the home country policies and adjust them according to the prevailing laws in France so that they can be aligned with the local legal requirements in France. 2. It is also critical that the Hotel organization actually starts to prepare and train its managers who are going to perform in Paris regarding the cultural challenges to be faced in France. Since language is one of the key barriers while working in France, it is therefore important that the managers are trained at some level regarding language to be used also. 3. Develop the communication skills of the managers as they are necessary to develop the required level of cultural adaptability.

For managers to effectively work, it is important that the Hotel must be able to start a small training program to improve the overall communication skills of the managers. (Sparrow, Brewster, & Harris, 2004) 4. Overall deliverables need to be decided for the three week program i.e. rebranding of the hotels, hiring of the employees as well as training remaining employees about the overall system, procedures and corporate culture of the organization would be necessary. 5. Apart from this, there is also a need to actually decide as to how the overall performance will be measured and managed across the whole organization.

Replicating the culture of the home or parent organization is of critical importance because it’s how the overall corporate culture would be propagated across all the subsidiaries. Host Country Vs Parent Country Nationals as Employees When an organization decides to enter into new market by acquiring any subsidiary and setting up its own corporate culture, it becomes a challenge for the organizations to actually make a trade-off between employing the host country employees or the parent country employees.

Parent country employees are actually the employees where the organization is actually headquartered whereas the host country nationals are the persons who are either currently the employees of the organization in host country or would be hired. (Dowling, Festing, & Engle, 2008) Deciding between PCNs and HCNs is a challenge for the organization because each option has its own advantages as well as the disadvantages. Organizations making such decision therefore have to take into consideration different advantages as well as disadvantages.

These are: 1. One of the key benefits of having PCNs as employees in host country is that these employees are well aware of the employee culture and policies. Due to their knowledge of the organization, these employees actually understand and know organizational goals and can be self-starters in new subsidiaries. It is however, often difficult for such employees to quickly adapt to the new cultural challenges and become well-versed with the overall cultural side of the management. 2. Cost is another issue if PCNs are being sent to the subsidiaries located in other countries.

Since employees will be leaving their countries it becomes difficult for them to quickly adjust. The cost incurred on developing managers to cope with the new cultural challenges as well as the problems involved in settling the families of the managers may cause serious trouble for the organizations. (Cowling & Mailer, 1998) 3. On the other hand, however, HCN employees tend to possess local knowledge and are considered as well versed with the sociopolitical environment of the country also. Cost is also another factor which favors HCNs because organization does not have to incur costs to settle the employees. 4. Hiring or retaining HCNs can create new opportunities for them and hence can result into an increased motivation for them in the shape of new promotions.

The best approach is to have a mix of employees from both the PCNs as well as HCNs because HCNs can provide an added advantage in terms of tapping into local knowledge, talent and resources. PCNs however, can help HCNs to make a smooth transition towards new organizational culture so that synergies can easily be achieved. References Cowling, A., & Mailer, C. (1998). Managing Human Resources. London: Routledge. Dowling, P. J., Festing, M., & Engle, A. (2008). International Human Resource Management: Managing People in a Multinational Context.

London: Cengage Learning EMEA. Sparrow, P., Brewster, C., & Harris, H. (2004). Globalizing Human Resource Management. New York: Psychology Press.