The coffee-machine system: how international selection really works

Harris, Hilary; Brewster, Chris

doi:10.1080/095851999340440

Cited by 161 publications

(119 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…This resonates with earlier research which highlighted the importance of personal recommendations and informal methods for selecting expatriates (Brewster, 1991). Recent research on the selection of traditional expatriate assignees further reinforced the importance of informality in expatriate selection systems and argued that organizational processes are often used only to legitimate selection decisions made around 'the coffee machine' (Harris and Brewster, 1999). It has been argued that if MNCs do not improve their recruitment and selection practices, critical shortages of international managers may become even more significant .…”

Section: Recruitment and Selectionsupporting

confidence: 51%

Changing patterns of global staffing in the multinational enterprise: Challenges to the conventional expatriate assignment and emerging alternatives

Collings

Scullion

Morley

2007

Journal of World Business

589

456

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We argue that many MNCs continue to underestimate the complexities involved in global staffing and that organisations and academics must take a more strategic view of staffing arrangements in an international context. We suggest that the context for the management and handling of the international assignment has altered significantly, leading in some quarters to a fundamental reassessment of the contribution of, and prospects for, the international assignment as conventionally understood. We explore a variety of supply side issues, cost issues, demand side issues and career issues as triggers to this reassessment. Alongside the conventional expatriate assignment, we point to the emergence of a portfolio of alternatives to the traditional international assignment including short-term assignments, commuter assignments, international business travel and virtual assignments. In the context of these developments, we argue that a standardised approach to international assignments is untenable and that it is essential to develop HR policies and procedures that reflect differences in the various forms of emerging alternative international assignment and their associated complexities. Here recruitment and selection, training, reward, and occupational health and safety issues and implications are all explored.

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Section: Recruitment and Selectionsupporting

confidence: 51%

Changing patterns of global staffing in the multinational enterprise: Challenges to the conventional expatriate assignment and emerging alternatives

Collings

Scullion

Morley

2007

Journal of World Business

589

456

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…While acknowledging that some of the variation might be explained by variables not included in her analysis, the possibility also exists that staffing decisions may be premised on short term reactivity or restricted on the best decision based on a limited pool of candidates. Much of this research finds that international assignees are often selected and deployed quickly in reaction to a crisis in some foreign operation and hence may not be strategically planned (see Anderson, 2005;Harris & Brewster, 1999). This appears to be particularly relevant with regard to TCN assignments.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Swimming against the tide: Outward staffing flows from multinational subsidiaries

Collings

McDonnell

Gunnigle

et al. 2010

Human Resource Management

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Studying the flows of parent country nationals in multinational enterprises (MNEs) to subsidiary operations has a relatively long tradition. Studying flows of subsidiary employees to other subsidiaries, as third country nationals, and to the corporate headquarters, as inpatriates, however, has empirically, much less pedigree. Drawing on a large-scale empirical study of MNEs in Ireland, this paper provides a benchmark of outward flows of international assignees from the Irish subsidiaries of foreign owned MNEs to both corporate headquarters and other worldwide operations. Building on insights from the resource-based view and neoinstitutional theory, we develop and test a theoretical model to explain outward staffing flows. The results show that almost half of all MNEs use some form of outward staffing flows from their Irish operations. Although the impact of specific variables in explaining interorganization variation differs between the utilization of inpatriate and third country national assignments, overall we find that a number of headquarters, subsidiary, structural, and human resource systems factors emerge as strong predictors of outward staffing flows.

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“…Research suggests that newcomers with a higher level of organization fit in terms of shared values and goals at the time of entry will more quickly adjust to their new environment (Chatman, 1991). For MNCs to benefit from their international staff in the long run, the selection of candidates for international transfers thus needs to move beyond the focus on technical skills that still dominates corporate practice (Harris & Brewster, 1999).…”

Section: Managerial Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why do international assignees stay? An organizational embeddedness perspective

2011

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We apply an organizational embeddedness perspective to examine international assignees' retention with the organization. Specifically, we hypothesize that assignees' social ties within and their perceived fit with the host unit positively relate to two sacrifices with leaving the organization: their firmspecific learning during the assignment and their perceived career prospects in the organization. Perceived career prospects is expected to predict subsequent retention, moderated by firm-specific learning. These hypotheses are tested using a sample of 143 inpatriates in ten German multinationals with retention measured two and four years later. We show that inpatriates' trusting ties with HQ staff and their fit with the HQ positively relates to their firm-specific learning and their perceived career prospects, and that the latter predicts their retention two and four years later. Perceived career prospects mediates the direct relationship between inpatriates' fit with the HQ and inpatriate retention, and the indirect relationship between inpatriates' trusting ties with HQ staff and their retention. Furthermore, inpatriates' firm-specific learning mitigates the effect of perceived career prospects on retention decisions two years later. We contribute to the organizational embeddedness, careers, and international business literatures by explaining when and how facets of organizational embeddedness relate to assignee retention.

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The coffee-machine system: how international selection really works

Cited by 161 publications

References 15 publications

Changing patterns of global staffing in the multinational enterprise: Challenges to the conventional expatriate assignment and emerging alternatives

Changing patterns of global staffing in the multinational enterprise: Challenges to the conventional expatriate assignment and emerging alternatives

Swimming against the tide: Outward staffing flows from multinational subsidiaries

Why do international assignees stay? An organizational embeddedness perspective

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