Deck 17: Managing Human Resources in a Global Business

Question 1

Sheila is a regional HR manager for a large bank. One of her responsibilities is to hire co-op students ready to graduate. The students work on a variety of tasks ranging from marketing and finance functions mostly using their own computers linked to the bank's system. Based on each student's productivity, Sheila determines which students the bank will pursue for full time employment. What is the formal term for what Sheila is doing?

A) Student recruitment program
B) HR employment program
C) Workforce mobility program
D) Remote student evaluation program
E) Human capital fulfillment program

Answer 1

C

Question 2

What is the term for employees who are citizens of the country where the parent company is based who are sent to work in another country?

A) Deportee
B) Immigrant
C) Emigrant
D) Expatriate
E) Refugee

Answer 2

D

Question 3

In socialist countries, HR practices tend to shift toward preventing unemployment, even at the cost of which of the following?

A) Work life balance
B) Civil liberties
C) Efficiency
D) Long-range planning
E) Career development

Answer 3

C

Question 4

What is the term for a person residing in Canada who was born outside of Canada (excluding temporary foreign workers, Canadian citizens born outside of Canada, and those with student or work visas)?

A) Deportee
B) Immigrant
C) Emigrant
D) Expatriate
E) Refugee

Question 5

An employee feels her immediate family and herself are most important. A fellow worker asks for help but is denied by the employee since it would intrude on her children's schedule. What country is the employee likely from?

A) Canada or the United States
B) United States or China
C) China or Pakistan
D) Pakistan or Canada
E) Canada or China

Question 6

What is a term that describes the relationship between the worker, the employer, and the labour union called?

A) Work relations
B) Business relations
C) Human resource relations
D) Productivity relations
E) Industrial relations

Question 7

What is the term that describes the extent to which the less influential members of institutions accept and expect that power will be distributed unequally?

A) power distance
B) power difference
C) need for power
D) power suspicion
E) power distinction

Question 8

Lisa is the CEO of a company that just acquired a company in another country. While this country has health and safety laws for workers, Lisa is concerned that the laws won't be enforced and this will create problems for any Canadian employees sent there to oversee the acquisition. Which country does the acquired company likely reside?

A) United States
B) China
C) Canada
D) UK
E) Australia

Question 9

A company's profits are decreasing but the CEO refuses to layoff workers even though the economy is moving into a recession. Which country does this company likely reside?

A) United States
B) UK
C) Canada
D) Vietnam
E) Australia

Question 10

Keri is Canadian citizen working for a Canadian brewery. She has been relocated to Japan to expand the brewery's market. What is the formal term for Keri given her location of work and her citizenship?

A) Deportee
B) Immigrant
C) Emigrant
D) Expatriate
E) Refugee

Question 11

What describes the degree to which ties between persons are close or loose known as?

A) Individualism vs. collectivism
B) Group vs. team
C) Socialism vs. Marxism
D) Communalism vs. egoism
E) Communism vs. capitalism

Question 12

An employee feels her fellow workers are truly part of her family to the extent that she re-arranged her children's schedule so she could help a fellow worker in need. What country is this employee likely from?

A) Canada or the United States
B) United States or China
C) China or Pakistan
D) Pakistan or Canada
E) Canada or China

Question 13

What is the number one concern when it comes to employee relocation?

A) Cost projections
B) Candidate assessment
C) Relocation assistance
D) Family issues
E) Candidate selection

Question 14

What is the average cost of sending an employee and his or her family on an overseas assignment as it relates to the employee's pre-departure salary?

A) 1 to 3 times the pre-departure salary
B) 3 to 5 times the pre-departure salary
C) 2 to 6 times the pre-departure salary
D) 1 to 2 times the pre-departure salary
E) 3 to 4 times the pre-departure salary

Question 15

What is the term for the process whereby employees have a legal right to a voice in setting company policies?

A) Cooperative planning
B) Co-determination
C) Joint strategic setting
D) Participatory goal setting
E) Communal rule setting

Question 16

Which employees do workforce mobility programs focus on?

A) Employees outside the core or primary head office or region of the company
B) Managers working abroad and desiring to return to the company's home location
C) Management trainees learning the company's global business
D) Employees within the company that cannot be promoted but need new types of challenges
E) Potential employees actively sought by the company who live in other countries

Question 17

Guillermo is reading a communication sent to him from the Canadian company he works for about working in Saudi Arabia. For the next year, his salary will increase by 20%, he will be allowed one week every two months to return home for one week, and after the assignment he will resume his position before leaving at the pre-departure salary. What is the formal term for the communication Guillermo is reading?

A) Work contract
B) Expatriate agreement
C) Emigrant bond
D) Assignment letter
E) Project dispatch

Question 18

Brian is the director of HR for a global software development company. He is advising the director of sales about which sales manager to send to lead the sales department in India. Which of the following are key traits Brian should consider in advising on the best candidate for the expatriate assignment?

A) Agreeableness, cultural sensitivity, and interpersonal skills
B) Interpersonal skills, cultural sensitivity, and compassion
C) Compassion, agreeableness, and flexibility
D) Interpersonal skills, cultural sensitivity, and flexibility
E) Amicability, agreeableness, and interpersonal skills

Question 19

Nigel is an Australian working in Canada as a cycling coach for elite athletes competing in road races and triathlons. What is the term to describe Nigel with respect to working in Canada?

A) Deportee
B) Immigrant
C) Emigrant
D) Expatriate
E) Refugee

Question 20

Based on research conducted by Runzheimer International, what percent of profitability improvement have companies experienced from making workforce mobility management a strategic priority?

A) 2 to 5
B) 5 to 7
C) 3 to 8
D) 4 to 6
E) 1 to 4

Question 21

What is the major reason for using expatriates for staffing subsidiary operations?

A) Understanding of global laws
B) Global customer contacts
C) Managerial expertise
D) Universal experience
E) Technical competence

Question 22

Which global staffing policy would a corporation adopt if the belief was the best manager for any specific position anywhere on the globe may be found in any of the countries in which the firm operates?

A) Ethnocentric
B) Homocentric
C) Multicentric
D) Geocentric
E) Polycentric

Question 23

According to research by Cartus, what reason did 63% of respondents identify for expatriate failure?

A) Changing business conditions
B) Inability of the family to adjust
C) Unexpected high costs of expatriation
D) Difficulties with adjusting to living abroad
E) Feelings of lack of support from the home company

Question 24

What is "expatriate assignment failure"?

A) Failure to recover cost of investment on an expatriate
B) Losing an expatriate to an overseas competitor
C) Incompletion of the work once the expatriate period has ended
D) Re-assimilating the expatriate back into the company
E) Early return of the expatriate from an overseas mission

Question 25

An employee that is a noncitizen of the country in which she is working but a citizen of the country where the parent company is located, is known as which of the following?

A) Expatriate
B) Local
C) Repatriate
D) Third-country national
E) Emigrant

Question 26

Which global staffing policy would a corporation adopt if the belief was that only host country managers can ever really understand the culture and behaviour of the host country market?

A) Homocentric
B) Multicentric
C) Geocentric
D) Polycentric
E) Ethnocentric

Question 27

What is the average cost of a permanent international relocation for a Canadian employee?

A) Between $60,000 and $110,000
B) Between $40,000 and $60,000
C) Between $80,000 and $120,000
D) Between $25,000 and $70,000
E) Between $50,000 and $100,000

Question 28

The citizens of a country who have jobs in the home country are referred to as which of the following?

A) Expatriates
B) Locals
C) Repatriates
D) Third-country nationals
E) Emigrants

Question 29

What is the primary reason for expatriate failure?

A) Lack of skilled personnel
B) Inability to cope with overseas production
C) Language barriers
D) Personal or family problems
E) Difficulty of the new assignment

Question 30

Which country in particular do Canadian companies have a low failure rate in comparison?

A) Sweden
B) Germany
C) United States
D) Japan
E) Britain

Question 31

Most managerial positions are filled by which of the following?

A) Third-country nationals
B) Expatriates
C) Repatriates
D) Locals
E) Emigrants

Question 32

What rate do U.S. multinational companies experience expatriate assignment failure?

A) 40%-50%
B) 5% and under
C) 30%-40%
D) 15%-25%
E) 10%-20%

Question 33

A company is sending an employee overseas for assignment. The employee fits the traditional characteristics of expatriates from this company. How would this employee most likely be described?

A) Male with a working spouse
B) Male with a non-working spouse
C) Female with a working spouse
D) Female with a non-working spouse
E) Male or female with a working spouse

Question 34

There are steps or levels to cross-cultural training. Which level corresponds to raising the trainee's awareness of cultural differences?

A) Level 1
B) Level 2
C) Level 3
D) Level 4
E) Level 5

Question 35

A corporation where the prevailing attitude is that the home country managers are superior to the host country, and all key management positions are filled by parent-country nationals, has which global staffing policy?

A) Ethnocentric
B) Geocentric
C) Homocentric
D) Polycentric
E) Multicentric

Question 36

International managers who are citizens of a country other than the parent or the host country are known as which of the following?

A) Expatriate
B) Local
C) Repatriate
D) Third-country national
E) Emigrant

Question 37

The most likely destination for a foreign assignment today is in which country?

A) United States
B) Mexico
C) Singapore
D) Russia
E) China

Question 38

What are the three international staffing policies?

A) Geocentric, ecocentric, and homocentric
B) Homocentric, polycentric, and biocentric
C) Polycentric, biocentric, and geocentric
D) Ethnocentric, homocentric, and multicentric
E) Ethnocentric, polycentric, and geocentric

Question 39

According to research by Cartus, what reason did 76% of respondents identify for expatriate assignments being turned down by employees?

A) Changing business conditions
B) Personal or family circumstances
C) Perceived higher costs of expatriation
D) Lack of desire to living abroad
E) Fear of losing one's position after the assignment

Question 40

What reason do managers of European firms emphasize for the failure of overseas assignments?

A) Changing business conditions
B) Inability of the relocated employee's spouse to adjust
C) Perceived higher costs of expatriation
D) Lack of desire to living abroad
E) Fear of losing one's position after the assignment

Question 41

What does Level 3 of the cross-cultural training of employees for global assignments focus on?

A) The impact of cultural differences
B) Understanding how attitudes are formed
C) Factual knowledge of the target country
D) Language and adaptation skills
E) Non-verbal communication awareness

Question 42

George's Canadian company has offices in the US, France, and Japan. Each office outside of Canada is managed by a Canadian expatriate. George exhibits a geocentric staffing policy.

Question 43

A polycentric staffing policy is more expensive than sending expatriates abroad.

Question 44

What is the most common method for formulating expatriate pay, to equalize purchasing power across countries?

A) Balance sheet approach
B) Balance of payments approach
C) Equity approach
D) Income statement approach
E) Cash flow approach

Question 45

One of the reasons Canadian managers are in demand across the globe is because

A) Canada's living standards are relatively low compared to many European countries and the United States.
B) Canadians are widely perceived to be able to get along well with others.
C) Canada's business schools produce managers who are among the very best in the world.
D) Canada's diverse ethnic makeup has produced a generation of business leaders who mix easily with different cultures.
E) many managers in Canada come from an ethnic background compatible with their expatriate assignment so they already are well-adapted to it.

Question 46

Differences in culture explain why incentive plans in Pakistan tend to focus on the work group, while in the United States, the focus is usually on individual worker incentives.

Question 47

In the balance sheet approach, base salary for the relocated manager will normally be in the same range as which of the following?

A) A salary of equal position in the country of the company's head office
B) A foreign country salary of equal position
C) Manager's home-country salary
D) A percentage of the productivity created by the manager
E) The average expatriate salary for the company

Question 48

Third-country nationals are employees who have returned from multiple overseas assignments to the country in which they are citizens to work within a subsidiary of a foreign owned company.

Question 49

In the levels of cross-cultural training, which level corresponds to a focus on attitudes and aims to get participants to understand how attitudes are formed and influence behaviour?

A) Level 1
B) Level 2
C) Level 3
D) Level 4
E) Level 5

Question 50

An international compensation trend focusing on individual performance differentiation used to reward managers is called which of the following?

A) Commissions
B) Lump sum bonus
C) Incentives
D) Variable pay
E) Perquisites

Question 51

In a study of over 7700 new immigrants, what percentage of these workers with foreign credentials had received recognition for these credentials within four years of arriving in Canada?

A) 33%
B) 12%
C) 50%
D) 28%
E) 67%

Question 52

In China, unions exist but rarely play an effective role in labour disputes.

Question 53

Jean is a French citizen working for a Canadian company in France. Jean is relocated by the parent to their office in Italy. Jean is considered an expatriate.

Question 54

A payment made to compensate a manager for cultural and physical adjustments that he or she will have to make is called which of the following?

A) Relocation allowance
B) Overseas bonus
C) Out of country incentive
D) Housing allowance
E) Mobility premium

Question 55

For recent educated immigrants to Canada, their work experience outside of Canada contributes a great deal to their ability to earn an income from a job that utilizes their skills and experience.

Question 56

What term describes the process of an employee moving back to the parent company and country from the foreign assignment and returning to one's family and familiar surroundings?

A) Repatriation
B) Expatriation
C) Acclimatization
D) Emigration
E) Migration

Question 57

What is considered the first step in ensuring the foreign assignee's success?

A) Screening
B) Cultural training
C) HR planning
D) Cost allocation
E) Skills review

Question 58

Meng was born and raised in Hong Kong. His uncle lives in Toronto working in a Canadian company's warehouse. Meng's uncle was able to arrange for Meng to work with him for a summer. When Meng arrives in Toronto he will be considered an immigrant.

Question 59

Anthony's father was born in the Caribbean and his mother was born in Asia. His father worked for an airline company and the family moved to different countries before taking residence and citizenship in Canada when Anthony was four years old. Anthony completed his undergraduate studies in the US which included a work term in Australia and another in Greece. He currently works in Ottawa for a small retailer. Anthony would be considered a "global nomad."

Question 60

In cross-cultural training, which level corresponds to areas like language and adaptation skills?

A) Level 1
B) Level 2
C) Level 3
D) Level 4
E) Level 5

Question 61

Discuss steps that can be taken to assist in the repatriation process.

Question 62

Discuss the challenges of international compensation and differentiate between the balance sheet and variable pay approaches to compensation.

Question 63

Identify and describe the three barriers confronting new immigrants to Canada upon attempting to enter the labour force.

Question 64

In 2013, the top six source countries for immigrant workers to Canada include Mexico.