Deck 13: Managing Human Resources Globally

Question 1

The HRM problems multinational companies face are completely different from those faced by international companies.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

Countries with high human capital are attractive sites for direct foreign investment that creates high-skill jobs.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

A country's economic system is completely unrelated to its level of human capital.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade is an international framework of rules for reducing trade barriers around the world.

Question 5

NAFTA,the EEC and GATT all exemplify events that are reducing competition among companies worldwide.

Question 6

All NAFTA,EEC,and GATT member countries share a common currency,the euro.

Question 7

Multinational companies are increasingly employing inpatriates,increasing the need for cross-cultural training.

Question 8

Collectivist cultures,as well as those with less of an authoritarian orientation,value group decision making and participative management practices more highly than do individualistic cultures.

Question 9

Domestic companies do not face problems with cultural diversity.

Question 10

Third-country nationals are employees born in a country other than the parent country or host country,but who work in the host country.

Question 11

Human capital refers to the productive capabilities of individuals.

Question 12

Inpatriates are employees sent by his or her company in one country to manage operations in a different country.

Question 13

The parent country is the country in which a company's corporate headquarters is located.

Question 14

Hofstede found that culture has a profound impact on a country's economic health by promoting certain values that either aid or inhibit economic growth.

Question 15

Companies become international in scope when they build facilities in a number of different countries,attempting to capitalize on lower production and distribution costs in different locations.

Question 16

Cultures with small power distance stress putting relationships before money,helping others,and preserving the environment.

Question 17

Cultures differ strongly on such things as how subordinates expect leaders to lead,how decisions are handled within the hierarchy,and what motivates individuals.

Question 18

Transnational process refers to the extent to which the firm's planning and decision-making process includes representatives and ideas from a variety of cultures.

Question 19

The culture of the country in which the facility is located most influences the company's international HRM practices.

Question 20

Power distance describes the division of roles between the sexes within a society.

Question 21

John,who works for a Canadian-based company,is on assignment for his company in Japan.He is known as

A)an expatriate.
B)a parent-country national.
C)a host-country national.
D)a third-country national.

Question 22

Among North American companies,which set of skills tends to be the most frequently used in expatriate selection?

A)Interpersonal skills
B)Foreign language skills
C)Communication skills
D)Technical skills

Question 23

Melissa Kwasam has been promoted to the Chief Financial Officer for You Got It Girl Fashion.They are opening a new office in France to be closer to the fashion industry and she has been asked to live in France for one year while the operations get up and running.Melissa has never left Dauphin,Manitoba and is likely to experience

A)culture shock.
B)culture identification problems.
C)environmental shock.
D)cultural displacement.

Question 24

The extent to which expatriates receive recognition from peers and bosses following their expatriate assignment refers to

A)validation.
B)communication.
C)adjustment.
D)expectation.

Question 25

The political activities of the European Union have expanded over time and now include all of the following EXCEPT

A)reduced taxes and tariffs
B)development aid
C)environmental advocacy
D)promotion of human rights and democracy

Question 26

Allowances are often offered to make the expatriate assignment more attractive.

Question 27

According to estimates,what percentage of employees sent on expatriate assignments overseas return early?

A)Less than 15 percent
B)15 to 40 percent
C)40 to 50 percent
D)Over 50 percent

Question 28

A country that serves as the home for a corporation's headquarters is referred to as the

A)host country.
B)parent country.
C)first country.
D)third country.

Question 29

Global participation does not necessarily ensure that each country is providing managers to the company's ranks.This problem refers to transnational process.

Question 30

One of the major problems in managing expatriate managers is determining which individuals in the organization are most capable of handling an assignment in a different culture.

Question 31

The use of ethnocentric HRM practices generally

A)increases the number of company inpatriates.
B)decreases the number of HRM-related problems and issues.
C)decreases the number of company expatriates.
D)increases the number of HRM-related problems and issues.

Question 32

Differences in international economic systems generally impact all but one of the following.Name the exception.

A)Incentives for individuals to increase human capital
B)Promotion systems,particularly among domestic companies
C)Compensation systems,particularly among global companies
D)The appropriateness of various HR practices

Question 33

One reason for North American expatriates' high failure rate is that companies place more emphasis on developing employees' technical skills than on preparing them to work in other cultures.

Question 34

A major Canadian automaker has plants all over the world.It continues to shift its production from Canada,where labour unions have gained high wages for their members,to facilities in Mexico and China,where the wages are substantially lower.The company minimizes distribution and labour costs by locating facilities in central and eastern European countries such as Poland and Hungary for manufacturing and assembling automobiles to sell in the European market.This company is an example of

A)an international company.
B)a multinational company.
C)a global company.
D)a transnational company.

Question 35

The most recent round of GATT negotiations resulted in an agreement of all of the following EXCEPT

A)establishing rules for investing and trading in services.
B)cutting tariffs by 40 percent.
C)expand protection of intellectual property.
D)increasing government subsidies to businesses.

Question 36

According to one study of international assignees,the most important selection criteria is

A)flexibility and adaptability.
B)job knowledge and motivation.
C)family situation.
D)relational skills.

Question 37

Which of the following countries has the greatest commitment to equal employment opportunities for women and minorities as characterized by their political/legal system?

A)Germany
B)Japan
C)Canada
D)China

Question 38

The process of educating employees (and their families)who are given an assignment in a foreign country is known cross-cultural familiarization.

Question 39

Approximately what percent of workers want to leave the company after returning from an overseas assignment?

A)10 percent
B)15 percent
C)18 percent
D)20 percent

Question 40

The perception dimension refers to the skills that enable a manager to maintain a positive self-image and psychological well-being.

Question 41

Values such as success,performance,assertiveness,and competition are associated with

A)short-term oriented cultures.
B)masculine cultures.
C)high power distance cultures.
D)low uncertainty avoidance.

Question 42

Which of the following country has the highest masculinity?

A)Netherlands
B)Russia
C)Japan
D)France

Question 43

Which of the following multinational corporations tends to have policies and practices that are most ethnocentric?

A)United States multinationals
B)German multinationals
C)Japanese multinationals
D)British multinationals

Question 44

________,with its population of over 1 billion and a trend toward opening its markets to foreign investors,presents a tremendous potential market for goods.

A)Russia
B)Malaysia
C)Japan
D)China

Question 45

Which of the following HR practices would least likely be found in collective cultures?

A)Employee assistance programs
B)Participative management practices
C)Job-based evaluations and incentives
D)Project-based organizational structures

Question 46

According to recent research,managers whose job expectations and non-work expectations were more closely fulfilled during their expatriate assignment generally exhibited which of the following upon their return?

A)Higher job performance and job satisfaction
B)Higher repatriate adjustment and job satisfaction
C)Higher repatriate adjustment and job performance
D)Higher job performance and turnover

Question 47

In ________ systems,there is less opportunity to develop human capital as compared to ________ systems,but there is greater incentive for such investment through higher monetary rewards.

A)socialist;capitalist
B)capitalist;socialist
C)individualistic;collectivist
D)collectivist;individualistic

Question 48

Which one of the following factors affecting HRM in global markets represents the set of important assumptions (often unstated)that members of a community share in common about the world,how it works,and what things are important?

A)Human capital
B)Culture
C)Foreign competition
D)Codetermination

Question 49

Which international organization currently consists of over 100 member nations?

A)European Economic Community
B)NAFTA
C)GATT
D)ASEAN

Question 50

Research on transnational HR systems within Canadian and American companies reveals that firms' HR systems are far

A)less transnational than their strategic planning systems.
B)more transnational than their organizational structures.
C)less transnational than their accounting systems.
D)more transnational than their accounting systems.

Question 51

The regulations imposed by a country's legal system can strongly affect HRM.The political-legal system often dictates the requirements for certain HRM practices,including all of the following EXCEPT

A)Training
B)Compensation
C)Hiring/Firing/Layoffs
D)Employment Assistance Programs

Question 52

Countries with which kind of cultural dimension tend to have the flattest salary structures?

A)Long-term oriented
B)Short-term oriented
C)Individualistic
D)Collectivist

Question 53

According to Hofstede's cultural dimensions,a culture where people are expected to look after their own interests and the interests of their immediate families is one high in

A)power distance.
B)masculinity.
C)individualism.
D)uncertainty avoidance.

Question 54

Individualistic cultures often exhibit

A)increased use of profit-sharing plans.
B)greater differences between the highest-and lowest-paid individuals in the organization.
C)flatter salary structures.
D)smaller differences between the highest-and lowest-paid individuals in the organization.

Question 55

NAFTA has increased U.S.investment in Mexico because of Mexico's

A)lower labour costs for high-skilled employees.
B)lower labour costs for low-skilled employees.
C)high power distance.
D)high collectivism.

Question 56

The Japanese criticism of management practices in the North America illustrates the differences in

A)uncertainty avoidance.
B)power distance.
C)long-/short-term orientation.
D)masculinity-femininity values.

Question 57

When communicating across language barriers,when referring to motivation all of the following tips are true EXCEPT

A)Encouragement.Verbally and nonverbally encourage and reinforce speaking by non-native language participants.
B)Drawing out.Explicitly draw out marginal and passive participants.
C)Inhibit.Discourage those who may be disrupting from partaking in the activity.
D)Reinforcement.Do not embarrass novice speakers.

Question 58

According to Hofstede's cultural dimensions,a culture that is characterized by easygoing and flexible people regarding different views and taking each day as it comes is one that is

A)low in uncertainty avoidance.
B)high in femininity.
C)low in power distance.
D)high in long-term orientation.

Question 59

Country XYZ is quite wealthy and values education and as a result provides a great deal of funding to post-secondary education.Country XYZ is likely to have very

A)low level of human capital.
B)high level of human capital.
C)low level of unemployment.
D)high level of unemployment.

Question 60

Which one of the following is NOT true of the European Economic Community?

A)Most,but not all,of the European nations have agreed to engage in free trade with one another.
B)Commerce is regulated by an overseeing body called the World Trade Organization.
C)Its overseeing body is the European Commission.
D)Members share a common currency,the euro.

Question 61

Assume that you are visiting Mexico for a business meeting and you call your host by his first name rather than his title.He seems offended.Your offense most likely stemmed from a difference between the Canadian culture and Mexico's culture on which dimension?

A)Individualism/collectivism
B)Uncertainty avoidance
C)Power distance
D)Long-term/short-term orientation

Question 62

A firm that is currently exporting goods to another country is at what level of global participation?

A)Domestic
B)International
C)Multinational
D)Global

Question 63

Which of the following is not generally emphasized in cross-cultural training programs?

A)How host country employees view their own culture
B)Relevant aspects of the host country's culture
C)Relevant aspects of the host country's human capital system
D)How to communicate accurately in the new culture

Question 64

An individual who was born in the Canada and is currently working in Spain for a company headquartered in Germany would be considered

A)parent-country national.
B)host-country national.
C)third-country national.
D)home-country national.

Question 65

Which one of the following is not true of global organizations?

A)They compete on state-of-the-art,top-quality products and services with lowest costs possible
B)They increasingly emphasize flexibility and mass customization of products to meet the needs of particular clients
C)They are usually driven to locate facilities in a country as a means of reaching that country's market or lowering production costs and must deal with the differences across the countries
D)They attempt to create synergy through cultural differences

Question 66

Which one of the following countries has the most masculine culture according to Hofstede's masculinity/femininity dimension?

A)Japan
B)Russia
C)Sweden
D)Norway

Question 67

The preparation of expatriates for return to the parent company and country from a foreign assignment is known as

A)Repatriation
B)Inpatriation
C)Re-introduction
D)Re-acclamation

Question 68

The Hofstede's dimension that deals with the degree to which a culture prefers structured over unstructured conditions is

A)power distance.
B)individualism.
C)risk aversion.
D)uncertainty avoidance.

Question 69

All of the following are trends that have led to global market expansion,EXCEPT

A)the current geo-political climate fosters tourism and foreign investment.
B)expansion opens up new markets and larger numbers of potential customers.
C)many companies are building production facilities in other countries as a means of capitalizing on lower labour costs.
D)there has been a rapid increase in telecommunications and information technology.

Question 70

The trend for North American companies to relocate their currently unionized low-skill-high-wage manufacturing and assembly jobs to Mexico is explained in part by Mexico's

A)strong political-legal system.
B)low level of human capital.
C)strong economic system.
D)low power distance culture.

Question 71

Which one of the following dimensions is not an adaptive skill for expatriate success?

A)The financial dimension
B)The self dimension
C)The relationship dimension
D)The perception dimension

Question 72

Which of the following is least likely to be a factor affecting HRM in global markets?

A)Culture
B)Technical capital
C)Political-legal system
D)Economic system

Question 73

Inpatriates are

A)managers from countries other than the parent country placed in facilities of other countries.
B)managers from different countries who become part of the corporate headquarters staff.
C)managers from one state being moved to another part of the country.
D)managers from one division of the company being moved to another division.

Question 74

A firm that is currently locating facilities in a large number of other countries in order to capitalize on lower production and distribution costs is at what level of global participation?

A)Domestic
B)International
C)Multinational
D)Global

Question 75

According to Hofstede's research,a country's economic health is most positively correlated with a high

A)masculinity.
B)uncertainty avoidance.
C)power distance.
D)individualism.

Question 76

In addition to base salary,total expatriate pay packages generally include all but one of the following components.Name the exception.

A)Competency-based pay adjustments
B)Benefits
C)Tax equalization allowances
D)Allowances

Question 77

Which one of the following countries is not a NAFTA member?

A)Canada
B)Chile
C)Mexico
D)United States

Question 78

Which of the following dimensions that have been shown to be necessary for successful expatriates is most closely related to the individual's psychological well-being?

A)The culture dimension
B)The self dimension
C)The relationship dimension
D)The perception dimension

Question 79

The total compensation plan that equalizes the purchasing power of the expatriate manager with that of employees in similar positions in the home country and provides incentives to offset the inconvenience incurred in the location is known as

A)the home-country approach.
B)the balance-sheet approach.
C)the equalization approach.
D)the host-country approach.

Question 80

Which of the following countries is not very high in individualism?

A)United States
B)Great Britain
C)The Netherlands
D)Taiwan