Introduction
Inarguably, existing multinationals aim at expanding their growths by identifying and reaching new unexploited markets. Multinational companies aim at setting their physical presence, ventures, and franchises in foreign unexploited markets targeting at tapping the benefits associated with the concept of brand equity. In the logistics sector, logistics-oriented multinational companies tap the benefits accrued in unexploited markets, which usually functions to help multinational companies to survive and manoeuvre in the highly competitive logistics industry. By targeting global rather than regional markets, multinationals aim at increasing their customer bases, which precedes increased sales, revenues, and profits. Moreover, globalised multinational companies diversify their risks and can achieve new opportunities from the new markets. However, before expanding their wings to global markets, multinationals’ human resource teams are faced with the problem of hiring new managers that would be responsible for their firms in the foreign markets. This business report delves into the task of how LogiCo, an Australian multinational company dealing with logistics, can smoothly transition into a global company. The report serves to discuss how the company’s human resource management team can achieve a global outlook in its hiring of a foreign manager. Moreover, the report aims at discussing methods to maximize expatriates’ effectiveness and minimize expatriates’ failure.
Developing a Global Outlook on Recruitment
Schuler, et al., (2016, pp. 506) assert that over the past twenty years, the need for multinational companies to hire and manage competitive and talented workforces has greatly increased. According to the scholar, MNEs need to employ strategic hiring practices to capture and retain qualified and talented staff members. The scholars assert that international human resource teams need to have a global outlook to ensure that they hire the best managers, employees, and staff in their foreign subsidiaries. A global outlook enables the human resource team to hire potential employees, managers, and executives based on merit and qualification and rather not based on their race, tribes, and gender. According to Meyer (2017, pp. 70), having a global outlook when hiring employees ascertains future development for firms that have out shore subsidiaries. Global outlook enables human resource teams to eliminate immaterial inequalities between their aspirants and thus, can employ the best-qualified employee that is fit for the job (Al Dabbagh, et al., 2016, pp. 1455). This is important in ensuring that MNEs employ managers that are not only productive but also compatible with the enterprise’s goals towards growth.
LogiCo can develop a global outlook in its hiring process by identifying the situational needs of its foreign markets and then matching needs with the abilities of their prospective aspirants. According to Hanges, et al., (2016, pp. 66), successful companies are those that typically match their market’s situational needs with their managers’ abilities, skills, and abilities. In this process, the human resource team in LogiCo will eliminate any preconceptions, bias, and prejudice when interviewing aspirants and objectively hire aspirants that match their target market’s needs. This will need the human resource team in LogiCo to research on the situational needs of their target markets in different parts of the globe. By this, the multinational company would interview its aspirants based on what the target markets need. For instance, the human resource team can gauge and measure the communication skills of the aspirant that may enable the aspirant to perform well in the foreign market.
Moreover, the human resource team in LogiCo can be trained on the need to embrace geographical and cross-cultural diversity during their hiring process. The success of many multinational companies and corporations can be attributed to their open-mindedness and respect for other cultures during their operations and practices (Javidan, et al., 2006, pp. 67). According to the authors, most successful multinational companies have a global outlook when hiring and enrolling their employees. Brett, et al., (2009, pp. 89) assert that multinational companies that do not adhere to the concept of diversity in its hiring process are usually in a stalemate. Moreover, human resource management teams for MNEs should consider opening their minds towards other ethical considerations, cultures, beliefs, and perceptions held by aspirants from different parts of the world (Donaldson, 1996, pp. nd). The scholar asserts that MNEs should appreciate that there are ethics that are practised away from home. By having a global outlook, Logico can successfully hire its foreign managers and executives without necessarily discriminating against them based on their traditions, beliefs, and ethical values.
Maximizing Effectiveness of Expatriates Assignments and Minimizing Expatriate Failure
According to Vo and Stanton (2011, pp. 3513), the human resource teams that serve at the headquarters of multinational companies are tasked to ensure that their companies’ traditions and cultures are localised even in outside and foreign markets. When transitioning in the global markets, the human resource teams of multinational enterprises (MNEs) aim at employing executives, managers, and suppliers that would translate the shared beliefs, cultures, and practices of their companies to distant foreign markets. This ensures that the multinational companies’ brand image remains the same even in foreign countries. Multinational companies, thus, achieve a single unique brand image in the global market. Therefore, LogiCo should ensure that it hires executives and managers that are willing and able to share and transmit LogiCo’s core principle and fundamental values in the global market. This could mean that the company should look forward to hiring expatriates that have experience in brand marking. According to Silvanto, et al., (2016, pp. 238), multinationals that hire skilled branding strategists and managers are associated with gaining success in their operations in international and global markets. LogiCo’s human resource team should thus ensure that it employs skillful brand ambassadors as expatriates to serve in the foreign markets.
The effectiveness of expatriate assignments can be improved through training and team development programs before expats leave for their assignments. According to Earley and Peterson, (2004, pp. 100), intercultural training primarily functions to improve the effectiveness of expatriate assignments. Multinational companies that engage their employees in intercultural training and team development help expatriates both psychologically and professionally on how to deal with new environments in overseas’ markets. Expatriates become more poised and determined to perform their assignments through training and development programs. Moreover, intercultural training enables expatriates to learn speech patterns, traditions, beliefs, gestures, and human actions common in foreign countries and thus, prepare psychologically of the incoming change (Earley and Mosakowski, 2004, pp. 139). Expatriates are thus more ready to conduct their assignments in foreign markets than they were before training and development. The human resource management team in LogiCo thus can improve its expatriates’ assignments by ensuring that their expatriates’ engage in intercultural training before their departure. Inter-cultural training of expatriates not only helps expatriates gain the needed skills in their assignments but also reduces multinational companies’ risks of failed expatriates’ programs.
Globally, 50% of the world’s expatriates are ineffective and end up leading multinational companies to suffer costly business failures (Lovvorn and Chen, 2017, pp. 275). The failure of expatriates is usually manifested in their failure to achieve the multinational companies’ objectives as well as decreasing turnovers. According to scholars, expatriate failure is mainly attributed to the failure of human resource management multinationals to consider global outlooks when employing and enrolling executives and managers to lead and manage their businesses in foreign environments. Therefore, human resource directors and managers that serve in multinational companies’ headquarters are instrumental in minimizing expatriate failures in companies. Human resource teams can minimize these failures by employing a global outlook when interviewing and hiring executives and managers that would be employed to serve the multinational company in overseas business ventures. Therefore, Mitch Daley and his fellow human resource team can reduce expatriate failures in overseas environments by ensuring that during the process of recruitment, they consider using a global outlook to hire expatriates that would work in overseas markets.
Recommendations
Considering that LogiCo receives thousands of applications from potential managers and executives, it is prudent for the company to consider embracing technology and introduce the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in its hiring processes. AI-driven bots and machines would ensure that the aspirants employed by the multinational company are the best among the available aspirants. The use of AI machines eliminates the common inherent human errors, prejudice, and misconceptions held by human resource managers. By using AI, moreover, the time and resources used when conducting hiring meetings would be greatly reduced. Moreover, AI-bots may help in identifying and quantifying the intellectual and professional skills of aspirants. The use of AI, therefore, could function to increase LogiCo’s efficiency during the company’s hiring processes.
Conclusion
To conclude, LogiCo needs to develop a global outlook in its hiring process. In its transition to become a global company, the company’s human resource team needs to embrace other traditions, cultures, and beliefs held by different societies. A global outlook will help the company to minimize incidences of expatriate failure. Moreover, the company needs to sensitize maximize the effectiveness of its expatriates’ assignments by ensuring that its expatriates function by sharing and transmitting the company’s brands in different parts of the globe. Expatriates should also be engaged in inter-cultural training and development programs to help them prepare before conducting their expatriate assignments. It is recommended that the company should embrace using AI technologies in its hiring processes to increase efficiency and reduce errors caused by human hiring teams.
References List
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