Ethnocentric Staffing Policies
Katrin Mössler The Pros and Cons of International Staffing April 2003
The ethnocentric staffing policy refers to the strategy of a multinational company to employ managers for key positions from the parent headquarters instead of employing local staff ("Global Human Resource Management"). Many organizations have traditionally relied on parent country nationals (PCNs) for staffing top management positions abroad for a number of reasons ("Global Human Resource Management"):
1. The expatriate's technical and business expertise.
2. Ability to transfer the headquarters' culture to the foreign operation (infusing central beliefs throughout the organization).
3. Political understanding of the headquarters' organization.
4. Effective communication between headquarters and the subsidiary.
5. Lack of qualified host country nationals (HCNs).
6. Greater ability of expatriates to transfer know-how from the parent to the subsidiary.
7. Measure of control over the subsidiary.
8. Career and promotion opportunities for PCNs.
9. Personnel development.
10. No need of well-developed international internal labor market.
11. Rapid substitution of expatriates possible.
CONS
However, there are a number of major problems with this approach ("Global Human Resource Management"):
1. Parent country nationals continue to experience difficulties to adjust to international assignments.
2. The adaptation of expatriates is uncertain.
3. Complicated personnel planning procedures.
4. The private life of expatriates is severely affected.
5. Difficulties in constant mentoring during the stay abroad.
6. This approach to staffing limits the promotion and career opportunities of local managers, which may lead to low moral and increased turnover.
7. Parent country nationals are not always sensitive to the needs and expectations of their host country subordinates.
8. Tensions between the expatriate executives and the HCNs (caused by philosophical issues such as the clash
The ethnocentric staffing policy refers to the strategy of a multinational company to employ managers for key positions from the parent headquarters instead of employing local staff ("Global Human Resource Management"). Many organizations have traditionally relied on parent country nationals (PCNs) for staffing top management positions abroad for a number of reasons ("Global Human Resource Management"):
1. The expatriate's technical and business expertise.
2. Ability to transfer the headquarters' culture to the foreign operation (infusing central beliefs throughout the organization).
3. Political understanding of the headquarters' organization.
4. Effective communication between headquarters and the subsidiary.
5. Lack of qualified host country nationals (HCNs).
6. Greater ability of expatriates to transfer know-how from the parent to the subsidiary.
7. Measure of control over the subsidiary.
8. Career and promotion opportunities for PCNs.
9. Personnel development.
10. No need of well-developed international internal labor market.
11. Rapid substitution of expatriates possible.
CONS
However, there are a number of major problems with this approach ("Global Human Resource Management"):
1. Parent country nationals continue to experience difficulties to adjust to international assignments.
2. The adaptation of expatriates is uncertain.
3. Complicated personnel planning procedures.
4. The private life of expatriates is severely affected.
5. Difficulties in constant mentoring during the stay abroad.
6. This approach to staffing limits the promotion and career opportunities of local managers, which may lead to low moral and increased turnover.
7. Parent country nationals are not always sensitive to the needs and expectations of their host country subordinates.
8. Tensions between the expatriate executives and the HCNs (caused by philosophical issues such as the clash