Deck 14: Managing Human Resources in an International Context

Question 1

The loss by a country of its most intelligent and best-educated people,a phenomenon known as reverse brain drain,is usually due to the desire to seek improved economic circumstances and pursue better professional opportunities.

Answer 1

False
Explanation: The loss by a country of its most intelligent and best-educated people, a phenomenon known as brain drain, is usually due to the desire to seek improved economic circumstances and pursue better professional opportunities. Reverse brain drain refers to the return home of highly skilled immigrants who have made a contribution in their adopted country.

Question 2

Companies with a regional strategic approach can use a polycentric staffing policy,employing a variety of host-country nations (HCNs)and third-country nationals (TCNs).

Answer 2

False
Explanation: Companies with a regional strategic approach can use a regiocentric staffing policy, employing a variety of HCNs and TCNs.

Question 3

Many economic migrants are involved in what are sometimes referred to as "3-D" jobs-digital,developmental,and demanding-which are well paid but which have inadequate numbers of qualified host-country workers to satisfy demand.

Answer 3

False
Explanation: Migrant labor ranges from highly skilled jobs such as in information technology and medicine to lower-skilled jobs in agriculture, cleaning, and domestic service. Many migrants are involved in what are sometimes referred to as "3-D" jobs-dirty, dangerous, and degrading-that a nation's own workers reject or for which there are not enough available workers. Many of these 3-D jobs employ vulnerable workers, that is, workers who do not have a contract, work without benefits, are paid "under the table," and whose employment often violates local laws.

Question 4

Parent company nationals (PCNs)commonly encounter difficulty overcoming the biases of their own cultural experience and being able to understand and perform effectively within a new operating context.

Question 5

International companies contribute aggressively to reverse brain drain as they outsource knowledge work-engineering,software,product design,and development-to such countries as China and India.

Question 6

Companies with a primarily international strategic orientation may adopt an ethnocentric staffing policy.

Question 7

The disadvantages of using employees from the home or host countries can sometimes be avoided by sending third-country nationals to fill management posts.

Question 8

Populations in developing nations tend to be growing larger and younger at the same time.

Question 9

While the population of people aged 65 or older was 425 million in 2000,by 2050 this group will be nearly twice as large.

Question 10

Low birthrates and low levels of immigration are leading to a decline in populations in many developed countries.

Question 11

An expatriate is a person living outside his or her country of birth.

Question 12

Under a polycentric staffing orientation,ICs primarily hire host-country nations (HCNs)for subsidiaries and PCNs for headquarters' positions and movement from the local subsidiaries to headquarters' positions is common.

Question 13

Classical economists assumed that labor was a mobile production factor.

Question 14

The U.S.has 5 percent of the world's population and 20 percent of the world's migrants.

Question 15

Nearly 30 percent of the world's population lived in urban areas in 1950; in 2010,more than half of the world's population was urban,and this proportion is projected to increase to 60 percent by the year 2030.

Question 16

Because of the importance of the workforce to the effectiveness of organizational operations,a company's approach to international human resource management (HRM)should drive its competitive strategy.

Question 17

A disadvantage of hiring local managers is that they are often unfamiliar with the home country of the IC and with its policies and practices.

Question 18

Outsourcing may be a way for the firm to avoid operating with a labor union.

Question 19

The effectiveness of every organization depends,to a great extent,on how well its human resources are used.

Question 20

Sources of successful managers for international company (IC)activities include the home country,the host country,or a third country.

Question 21

Being from another country qualifies expatriates for international status.

Question 22

Countries that are projected to decline in population between now and 2050 include all of the following except

A) Japan.
B) Russia.
C) the U.S.
D) Germany.

Question 23

Failure rates for expatriate assignments have been reported to range from 25 to 45 percent.

Question 24

Relatively few expatriate failures are family-related.Most relate to the expatriate's lack of technical skills.

Question 25

A local labor market

A) comprises the entire population of people in the local operating area.
B) comprises a country's pool of people with the required skill set.
C) comprises the pool of available employees with the necessary skills and who are within commuting distance.
D) comprises the pool of employees with the necessary skills who are in the country or surrounding nations.
E) comprises the pool of unemployed people within commuting distance of the employer.

Question 26

In 2010,more than half the world's population

A) was located in urban areas.
B) was located in rural areas.
C) was located in edge cities.
D) was located in urban areas in developing countries.
E) had migrated from country of birth to another country.

Question 27

Growing labor pools are found in

A) Japan.
B) countries with low levels of immigration.
C) many developing countries.
D) developed countries such as Sweden, Russia, and Germany.

Question 28

In 2010,what percent of the population in developed countries was 65 or older?

A) 2 percent
B) 7.6 percent
C) 12 percent
D) 25 percent
E) nearly 40 percent

Question 29

Once a person has grown accustomed to a new culture,returning to one's home culture can produce an experience of reverse culture shock.

Question 30

Worldwide,nearly 50 percent of expatriate positions are held by women.

Question 31

As of 2013,the nations and regions with the largest percentage of population aged 65 and above were to be found in

A) developed nations, especially Europe, Canada, and Japan.
B) India and China.
C) southern Africa.
D) the Middle East and North Africa.
E) Central and South America.

Question 32

Planning for an expatriate's return should begin while he or she is still on his or her overseas assignment.

Question 33

In the method favored by the majority of American ICs,the salary part of an expatriate employee's compensation package will generally be governed by the employee's level in the organization and will not be higher because of the foreign assignment.

Question 34

By the year 2050,what percent of the population in developed countries is projected to be 65 or older?

A) 2 percent
B) 7.6 percent
C) 12 percent
D) 25 percent
E) nearly 50 percent

Question 35

Countries with the largest populations are

A) China and India.
B) the U.S. and Mexico.
C) European Union countries (28 member nations).
D) Southeast Asia, including Indonesia.
E) Africa.

Question 36

There is a trend toward treating third-country nationals the same as home-country expatriates in terms of their compensation plans.

Question 37

Companies with a transnational strategic orientation follow a global staffing policy,selecting the best person for each job without considering national origin and generally having consistent HRM strategy across all subsidiaries.

Question 38

A recent study reported that 77 percent of companies considered that cross-cultural training was highly valuable and required such training for their expats or their families.

Question 39

By the year 2030,what percent of the world's population is projected to be living in urban areas?

A) 20 percent
B) 30 percent
C) 50 percent
D) 60 percent
E) 75 percent

Question 40

One challenge presented to employers by the rural to urban migration is

A) keeping the rural immigrants in the cities.
B) supporting the social and psychological adjustment necessary for rural immigrants in an urban work setting.
C) maintaining the rural immigrant's interest in work.
D) finding urban recreation areas for the rural immigrants, such as football fields and baseball diamonds.
E) fully utilizing the new pool of highly skilled immigrant workers.

Question 41

In 2012,what percentage of the U.S.population was foreign-born?

A) 2 percent
B) 5 percent
C) 13 percent
D) 20 percent
E) over 25 percent

Question 42

In the U.S.,what approximate percentage of workers with doctorates in engineering is foreign-born?

A) 20 percent
B) 3 percent
C) 75 percent
D) 50 percent

Question 43

As companies have globalized,labor unions have

A) followed them, setting up international branches wherever the company has gone.
B) watched foreign outsourcing develop, as one way to escape unions.
C) established branches in major trading partner countries.
D) focused more on recruiting women and teenagers as members.

Question 44

Labor unions represent the largest percentage of workers in

A) Sweden and Denmark.
B) France and the U.S.
C) Japan and Germany.
D) Australia and Canada.
E) Canada and the U.K.

Question 45

Immigrants from developing countries

A) lead to unemployment in skilled sectors of the U.S. economy.
B) have become essential contributors to the U.S. economy's health.
C) dilute the skill levels of the U.S. workforce.
D) are primarily college educated.
E) usually take highly paid 3-D jobs.

Question 46

Nations listed in the text as losing the largest number of their people to emigration include

A) Mexico, Canada, and the U.S.
B) Russia, China, and India.
C) Germany, Russia, and Ukraine.
D) India, Russia, and the U.S.
E) Bangladesh, Turkey, and France.

Question 47

Worldwide,labor tends to be

A) immobile.
B) unreliable.
C) mobile.
D) well-trained.

Question 48

Guest workers

A) are temporary economic immigrants.
B) work on an illegal basis.
C) often immigrate during an economic downturn.
D) are only employed in the agricultural and construction sectors.
E) tend to be highly skilled workers, and thus are well-respected guests.

Question 49

All unions worldwide represent the worker in opposition to the company.

A) True, especially in former communist countries.
B) True, and this situation is emphasized as unions become global.
C) False. Unions tend to follow the values of the national culture.
D) True, in the handful of countries where unions still exist.

Question 50

Which of the following is not true about immigration and the U.S.?

A) Roughly 53 percent of foreign students remain in the United States after receiving doctorates in science.
B) More than half of U.S. workers with doctorates in engineering are foreign-born.
C) Immigrants to the United States create new businesses at a rate 30 percent higher than do native-born citizens.
D) Immigrants created 25 percent of the venture capital-backed public companies in the United States, including Google, Intel, Yahoo!, and eBay.
E) Almost 10 percent of college-educated workers in the United States are foreign-born.

Question 51

Migrant labor stretches from

A) highly skilled to 3-D jobs.
B) low-skilled to 3-D jobs.
C) high-tech to pharmaceutical jobs.
D) competitive to easy-to-fill jobs.
E) unskilled to semiskilled jobs.

Question 52

Of the total growth in the U.S.population during the first decade of the 21^st century,what percent was due to new immigration,both legal and illegal,plus births to immigrants?

A) 10 percent
B) 25 percent
C) 40 percent
D) 60 percent
E) 80 percent

Question 53

Which of the following is not accurate regarding immigration?

A) Many migrant workers are involved in highly paid 3-D jobs.
B) Immigration contributed to a 7 percent decline in real wages for highly educated workers in Canada.
C) Immigration can be a net positive for a country's inflation.
D) Wages were found to decline by 3 to 4 percent when the labor supply increased by 10 percent due to immigration.

Question 54

In some Central American and sub-Saharan countries,what percentage of the college-educated population emigrates?

A) 10 percent
B) 30 percent
C) 50 percent
D) 75 percent
E) over 90 percent

Question 55

Brain drain affects developing countries because

A) the migration is an insult to national pride.
B) tax receipts are reduced.
C) they lose talent to migration, and this impacts their development.
D) lower SAT scores lead to fewer opportunities for international study.
E) their pool of low-cost, unskilled workers is reduced, damaging potential for incoming foreign direct investment.

Question 56

As well-trained,highly skilled immigrants move to many Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)countries,

A) the home countries enhance their domestic base of talent and enhance opportunities for development.
B) citizens of the OECD countries frequently are put out of work in the highly skilled sectors.
C) OECD countries offer the immigrants challenging, stimulating career prospects.
D) the population in developing countries plummets.

Question 57

In a twist on the traditional brain drain,when skilled immigrants return to their home countries,the U.S.may lose its native talent to developing countries that offer researchers

A) excitement and freedom of self-direction.
B) support and facilities in areas such as stem cell research, which the U.S. has limited.
C) enticing expat contracts.
D) long waits for naturalization.

Question 58

Guest workers are immigrants who

A) immigrate for specified periods to perform service, factory, or construction work.
B) travel seasonally, usually without visas, in agricultural work.
C) obtain visas to work on specific projects, usually in scientific research.
D) are highly skilled and sign premium contracts.
E) work in a country illegally, usually in 3-D jobs.

Question 59

American firms contribute to reverse brain drain from the U.S.by

A) terminating foreign workers.
B) outsourcing knowledge work, which pulls talent back to the home country.
C) encouraging their best U.S. researchers to accept foreign postings.
D) hiring globally.

Question 60

As stated in the text,the major motivation for immigration is a

A) better economic situation.
B) more stimulating environment.
C) safer, more secure environment.
D) chance to leave urban areas for a rural lifestyle.

Question 61

A policy of hiring and promoting based on ability and experience without considering race or citizenship is

A) an ethnocentric policy.
B) a polycentric policy.
C) a regiocentric policy.
D) a geocentric policy.

Question 62

A drawback of ethnocentric staffing policies is that

A) it is less expensive to use employees from the home country.
B) there are no additional expenses associated with relocating these employees and their families.
C) these employees may not have experience with the language and culture of the host country.
D) they expand the experience base of home-country employees.

Question 63

Which of the following is not true?

A) A company's competitive strategy is determined by two competing forces. A company's competitive strategy should, in turn, drive the organization's approach to international human resource management.
B) Pressure to achieve global integration is a force determining a company's competitive strategy.
C) Pressure to achieve reduced costs is a force determining a company's competitive strategy.
D) Pressure to achieve local differentiation is a force determining a company's competitive strategy.
E) Pressure to achieve low prices is a force determining a company's competitive strategy.

Question 64

A regiocentric staffing policy

A) involves human resources policies that are created at the local level for the specific context in which the local operations operate.
B) may send TCNs to fill management posts, to avoid problems from using PCNs or HCNs.
C) selects the best person for each job, without considering national origin.
D) provides an opportunity to use home-country employees for positions abroad.
E) tends to be used with a transnational strategic orientation.

Question 65

An employee who is a citizen of the nation in which the parent company is headquartered is known as

A) a home-country national.
B) a host-country national.
C) an ethnocentric employee.
D) a third-world national.
E) an expatriate.

Question 66

An advantage of using home-country citizens abroad is that

A) they have expertise in the host-country culture.
B) they expand their experience, enhancing their potential for promotion at home.
C) they have lower-cost salaries and benefits than HCNs or TCNs.
D) host-country governments encourage their use.

Question 67

A drawback of polycentric staffing policies is that

A) it is less expensive to use employees from the home country.
B) there are additional expenses associated with relocating these employees and their families.
C) these employees may not have experience with the language and culture of the host country.
D) there can be a conflict of loyalty between the host country and the employer.

Question 68

A high volume of orders,commands,and advice to subsidiaries is associated with

A) ethnocentric staffing and home replication strategy.
B) regiocentric staffing and multidomestic strategy.
C) ethnocentric staffing and regiocentric strategy.
D) polycentric staffing and multidomestic strategy.
E) geocentric staffing and transnational strategy.

Question 69

A policy of hiring and promoting based on the parent company's home-country frame of reference is

A) an ethnocentric policy.
B) a polycentric policy.
C) a regiocentric policy.
D) a geocentric policy.

Question 70

Parent company nationals might be concerned with all of the following except

A) the rate at which industrial skills are learned by host-country nationals.
B) how quickly they can learn the local language in their host country.
C) the exchange rate movement of their host-country's currency.
D) whether the family of transferred home-country executives can adapt to and enjoy the experience abroad.
E) whether they can adapt to the home-country culture.

Question 71

A polycentric staffing policy is appropriate when

A) there are low levels of pressure for cost reduction and high levels for localization.
B) information technology is of increasing importance.
C) there are low levels of pressure for cost reduction and low levels for localization.
D) international companies are entering India, where there are more women in management.
E) new technology for the subsidiary is involved.

Question 72

Training and development of potential candidates for expatriate assignments

A) is unnecessary with host-country nationals.
B) is unnecessary with home-country nationals.
C) depends on whether the candidate is a home-, host-, or third-country national.
D) wastes company resources because management is an art form, not a skill.
E) is only necessary for third-country nationals.

Question 73

When an IC hires and trains local,host-country people,the IC often

A) pays them too much and creates inflation.
B) overtrains them to IC culture-based standards.
C) may lose them to local firms or other ICs once they are trained.
D) encourages their transfer, causing brain drain.

Question 74

A geocentric staffing policy

A) enables the practices used at headquarters to be transferred worldwide.
B) tends to be used with a global strategic orientation.
C) selects the best person for each job, without considering national origin.
D) involves human resources policies that are created at the local level for the specific context in which the local operations operate.

Question 75

Home-country nationals may be used in host-country management because

A) host-country managers lack the required language and culture expertise.
B) host-country nationals are less desirable from the host-country government's perspective.
C) home-country nationals are being groomed for IC headquarters.
D) IC headquarters wants a host-country national in the home country.

Question 76

A policy of hiring and promoting based on the specific local context in which the subsidiary operates is

A) an ethnocentric policy.
B) a polycentric policy.
C) a regiocentric policy.
D) a geocentric policy.

Question 77

A polycentric staffing policy

A) involves human resources policies that are created at the regional level for the specific context in which the subsidiary operations operate.
B) results in the company hiring local managers who are familiar with the home country of the IC and with its corporate culture, policies, and practices.
C) may confront the problem of having the best people pirated away by local firms or other IC subsidiaries.
D) eliminates conflicts of loyalty between the host country and the employer.

Question 78

Relatively low levels of authority and decision making in headquarters is associated with

A) ethnocentric staffing and home replication strategy.
B) regiocentric staffing and multidomestic strategy.
C) ethnocentric staffing and regiocentric strategy.
D) polycentric staffing and multidomestic strategy.
E) geocentric staffing and transnational strategy.

Question 79

When host-country nationals are employed

A) training costs are a minimum.
B) they are familiar with local customs, culture, and language.
C) they are already familiar with the home country.
D) any conflict of interest is removed.

Question 80

An ethnocentric staffing policy

A) uses host-country nationals in key foreign management and technical positions.
B) assigns expatriates who have learned the language and culture of the country of their assignment.
C) is required to prepare home-country citizens for high-level managerial positions at headquarters.
D) tends to be used by companies with an international strategic orientation.