International Human Resource

Management
Managing people in a multinational context

Overview

This case is presented to highlight the complex and dynamic relationship

between an international assignment and the selection of a qualified
expatriate manager for that assignment.
The changing nature of the job from a Plant Manager of a wholly owned
subsidiary to a Quality Compliance Officer in a ten year joint venture
combines with a cast of three interesting and yet very different potential
assignees to show how potentially complex such global selection decisions
can be.
The importance of personal and the ambiguity and unexpected timing of
these critical HR decisions are also dealt with in this case.
One of the issues in the case is the trade off between the specifics of a focal
job description and the availability of candidates for the assignment.

IHRM Case 2 Quality compliance at the Hawthorne Arms

Case 2 Activity
1.Consider the three candidates in Exhibit A. If forced
to make a decision tomorrow, which candidate
should Alistair choose for the job? What major
factors should determine his choice?

IHRM Case 2 Quality compliance at the Hawthorn Arms

Things To Consider
Write (think up) a job description for the Quality Compliance
Officer and then look at how that job description relates to
each of the three candidates there is no perfect candidate.
A more sophisticated approach might be to step back and
consider the best of the three candidates overall and then
revise the job description to that candidates strengths and
provide outside help from other managers on site in Hungary
or in the region in order to insure that critical activities
outside of the selected candidates background.
This would give one an opportunity to manipulate variations
between the nature of a job and the nature of the abilities and
experiences of closefitting candidates.

IHRM Case 2 Quality compliance at the Hawthorne Arms

Exhibit
A

Alistair Mackays short list of possible

candidates

First candidate. Marie Erten-Loiseau. Born in Prague, her family moved to Toulon
when Marie was twelve
years old. Brought up in France, she was educated as an aeronautical engineer in
France and Germany.
Marie worked for Trianon for 13 years, in two divisions within France and Germany with
increasing levels
of project responsibility. Her leadership of two projects over the last three years in Lodz,
Poland, and two
sites in the Czech Republic has been marked by remarkable success. Married, her
husband is semi-retired.
They have one child in university.
Second candidate. Janos Gabor. Born in Gyor, Hungary, Janos was educated at
University of Pecs, Hungary.
He has a good background in the production of cathode ray tube and display systems
technologies,
albeit from the Central European perspective. He has worked at Trianon for nearly four
years, and has just
been transferred into the cathode ray tube division as a Senior Engineer. His family is
reportedly very well
connected with national government officials, particularly the old, ex-party members of
multiple ministerial bureaucracies. Janos is single.
Third candidate. Sinead Marrinan-McGuire, a production engineer on loan to Trianons
5
IHRM Case 2 Quality compliance at the Hawthorne Arms
London office for

Important Factors

The three candidates represent a balance of strengths and weaknesses.

Marie represents organizational and technical process abilities.
Janos represents local cultural understanding and some local product
knowledge.
Sinead represents global product knowledge and organizational process
abilities in the area of joint ventures.
By weighting which of these abilities is most crucial to the success of this
assignment, one can determine the optimal if not perfect expatriate/local for
the job.
Your sense of Sineads ability to negotiate the problems inherent with dual
career couples is critical in your choice process. She has both the greatest
strengths and the greatest weaknesses. Selecting Sinead is a riskier choice.
Marie is less risky, but she lacks specific joint venture skills.
Janos may be the most risky choice, given his short time frame with Trianon
and a potential to side with local managers in joint venture processes. If Janos
is able to balance his perspective, his contacts could provide Trianon with
significant advantages in the long term.

IHRM Case 2 Quality compliance at the Hawthorne Arms

Marie ErtenLoiseau

Candidates

May be the best match. She ranks high on technical ability, cultural suitability, family status, a
facility with languages and, perhaps most importantly, she will be able to represent the interests
of Trianon in the inevitable day to day negotiations required when starting up a joint venture. She
has a wealth of experience with the firm in a wide range of assignments. She has never been
involved in a joint venture and her experiences in Poland and Czechoslovakia may not translate
into success in Hungary.

Janos Gabor
Has the advantages of cultural suitability, facility with languages and family status. He lacks
technical ability and, given his short tenure with the firm, may lack an indepth understanding for
and empathy for the Trianon position. His contacts with the political elite in Hungary will only be
of use if Janos is able to use these contacts for the long term good of Trianon. The potential for a
conflict of loyalties between these local contacts and Trianon is a potential source of concern.

Sinead MarrinanMcGuire
Has the impressive strengths in technical ability particularly in the complex field of joint
ventures, an understanding of the display systems technology that must be diffused to the
Hungarian operation and an in depth corporate level perspective. Her weaknesses are in the
areas of cultural suitability, having spent most of her career in Western Europe, language
concerns and family status. Her spouse has a culturallyembedded career in Ireland and she has
three young children. Dual career couples issues and potentially family friendly policies (from
chapter 4) should be considered when contemplating her candidacy.

IHRM Case 2 Quality compliance at the Hawthorne Arms