BUS401 International Business Research Assignment

BUS401 International Business
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BUS401 International Business
Human resource is an integral part of business assets. Therefore, an enterprise needs to manage the resource appropriately to gain a competitive edge in the market. Notwithstanding, a company should make a better decision on where to obtain its employees depending on its objectives and location. This work covers a case study of a British computer company that intends to diversify its activities to Bangladesh and China and the best place to obtain its workers depending on its goal.
The first alternative available is ethnocentric staffing. The staffing involves employing workers from the home country to the executive positions to a firm’s branches in other countries. The strategy will ensure that the interest of the home office is represented in the other nations and the offices in the foreign country are aligned with the home headquarters (MGMT5609). The majority of the expatriates will be selected from the current employees of the enterprise and transferred to the other branches. The strategy will help the company to reduce both cultural and language barriers between its workers, which ensures that there is proper communication and also maintain a clear record in terms of performance (Mayrhofer & Brewster, 1996). Despite the advantages, the technique also has disadvantages such as an increase in the cost of hiring expatriates because the transferred workers will tend to be more expensive than the local experts in the other nations. Also, the level of resentment in the foreign subsidiaries may increase if the ratio of expatriates from the headquarters increases.
The second alternative available is polycentric staffing that involves hiring host nation citizens for all the positions in the firm, including both the executive and the mail room clerk positions. The strategy is mostly used in developing nations such as Canada, Japan, and Australia, where there are highly trained and educated workers (Sebastian, 2007). Polycentric staffing is beneficial because the host nation employees are cheaper than foreign workers whose services are outsourced. To add, the local workers are much aware of the local laws, conditions, politics, and culture. Therefore, they are able to offer better services to a firm without being monitored closely. Finally, employing the local workers is a positive externality since it shows that a company is willing to create a commitment to the nation and its employees. However, the strategy also has challenges. For instance, the local employees will tend to put their interest above the firm. Moreover, the local employees lack international experience which is a liability to a firm. Lack of international experience may lead to losse...