Final Flashcards
1
Q
5 Steps for Training
A
- Assess Needs for Training
- Ensure Readiness for Training
- Plan Training Program (the objectives, trainers and methods)
- Implement the Training Program
- Evaluation the Training Program (has 5 steps)
2
Q
Training: (1) Assess Needs for Training -> 3 Pillars of Needs Assessment
A
- Organization (organizational analysis): Evaluating an organization’s need for training by looking at its strategy, the resources available for training (resources and limitations), and management’s support for training activities.
- Employees (person analysis): A process of determining an employees’ needs and readiness for training, and any area to improve.
Questions: Is it KSAs lacking? Can training resolve the competency gap? Who needs training? - Tasks: The process of identifying the tasks and competencies that the training should emphasize.
3
Q
Training: (1) Assess Needs for Training: Needs Assessment
A
Process of evaluating the organization, individual employees, and employees’ tasks to determine what kinds of training, if any, are necessary.
4
Q
Training: (2) Readiness for Training
A
To know if an employee is reading for training they must have:
* Cognitive ability (reading, writting, etc)
* Motivation
* A supportive environment
* Lack of situational constraints (money, time, tools)
Combination of employee characteristics and a positive work environment (which encourages training and avoids interfering) permits training.
5
Q
Training: (3) Plan the Training Program
A
- Establish the objectives of the training (what you be taught).
- Determine what training methods are available.
- Establish what methods to use.
- Establish how to evaluate the training.
6
Q
Training: (4) Implement the Training Program
A
7
Q
Training: (3) Plan the Training Program: Measuring the Effectiveness of Training
A
- Reaction: Measuring the participants’ initial reaction to gain understanding of the training program (its material quality, educator etc).
- Learning: Measure the amount of information effectively absorbed during training.
- Behaviour: Measure how much training has affected behaviour (how much they applied the information towards the job).
- Results: Measure the impact training had at the business level and tying it to the individual or program.
8
Q
Training: (5) Evaluate the Training Program: Kirkpatrick/ Phillips 5-Level Evaluation
A
Framework for evaluating the effectiveness of a training program and ensuring that its aligned with organizational objectives.
- Reaction: Measure participants’ overall satisfaction with the training program.
- Learning: Measure the extend that participants have gained the knowledge, skills, and abilities from the training.
- Application/ Behaviour: Measures the extend that participants apply what they have learned on the job.
- Results: Measures the impact of the training on the organization’s performance. Ex: Productivity, quality, customer satisfaction.
- Return: Calculates the financial benefits of the training problem after the cost of developing and delivering the program. Positive ROI?
9
Q
Onboarding/ Orientation
A
A type of training to integrate new employees in into an organization to help them learn about the organization, to prepare them to do their roles effectively, and to establish work relationships.
The socialization process (where employees learn the culture, values and practices of the organization) takes 3 months -> high voluntary turnover cause of the realistic job preview.
10
Q
Training:
A
Providing employees with specific KSAOs needed for the job.
- Required preparation for the current job, low use of previous work experience (compared to development)
11
Q
Development:
A
Supporting employees’ development in skills, abilities and behaviours for new or existing jobs.
- Preparation for future changes, voluntary, high use of previous work experience.
12
Q
Development: 4 Approaches to Development: 1
A
- Formal education
- Workshops & short courses
- University/ College Programs
- At workplace or elsewhere.
13
Q
Development: 4 Approaches to Development: 2
A
- Assessment
- Assessment: Collecting information and providing feedback to employees about their behaviour, communication style, or skills.
- Assessment centre: During an assessment centre, candidates may participate in a range of activities designed to simulate various aspects of the (such as group exercises, role-plays, case studies, presentations, and psychometric tests) -> the activities are typically observed and evaluated by trained assessors, who use a set of pre-determined criteria to assess candidates’ performance.
- 360-degree feedback: Performance evaluation done by the supervisors, peers, direct reports and customers for an employee.
14
Q
Development: 4 Approaches to Development: 3
A
- Job experiences
- Job enlargement & rotation
- Transfers, promotions & downward moves.
- Externships & sabbaticals
-> Externships: You work at different department or company
-> Sabbatical is a rest or break from work
15
Q
Development: Coach
A
Provides motivation, helps with the development of skills and provides reinforcement and feedback to an employee.
“Coaching is developing a specific skill set.”
16
Q
Development: Mentor
A
A reciprocal relationship between a more experienced (senior) employee and a junior employee (protégé) to promote career development.
-> Develops over a long period of time and can expand from organization boundaries.
Someone in your field/ area of work, and this person is usually really good and provides support in various ways.
“Mentoring is developping the “whole person.”
17
Q
Development: Mentor: 2 Dimensions
A
Career instrumental:
- Protection
- Assignment of challenging tasks
- Exposure and visibility
Socioemotional
- Acceptance and confirmation
- Role modeling
- Helps put something in perspective.
18
Q
Development: Mentor: Mentorship Outcomes
A
- Career success
- Monetary compensation:
-> Mentors can help with compensation negotiations. -> Mentors can help improve performance -> high compensation. - Number of promotions:
-> Mentees with mentors have a higher chance of promotion -> they can move faster up an organization. - Career satisfaction:
-> Mentors have industry-specific human-capital - mentors can help mentees make better choices (asymmetric information) -> career success and career satisfaction. - Expectations for advancement:
-> Mentors help mentees plan their career -> mentees have realistic expectations about advancement -> helps mentees know that they are ready. - Access to stronger network:
-> Mentors can help mentees connect with other professionals in the industry. - Mentor career success
-> As a result organizations are investing more in formal mentoring programs - Advice:
-> Mentors help mentees learn the mistakes they made or mistakes that other people made, so that the mentee can avoid that hurdle. - Benefits for the mentor:
->Teaching their mentees help them learn a topic better.
-> Mentors have an easier time deciding who to be in their teams -> their mentees.
-> It is fulfilling for the mentor.
-> Mentees can positively impact their performance evaluations if the mentee does really well.
-> Mentees can teach mentors too.
19
Q
Performance Management:
A
Process through which managers ensure that employees’ activities and outputs contribute to the
organization’s goals.
- Establishing what activities and outputs are desired.
- Observing whether the activities and outputs occur.
- Providing feedback so that employees can meet expectations.
Includes ongoing coaching, feedback, and support for employees from the supervisor.
20
Q
Performance management: Behavioural performance
A
Behaviour performance: Evaluating the observable actions (communication skills, team work, time management), attitudes, and interpersonal skills that employees demonstrate.
-> Important for building positive relationships with colleagues and stakeholders, creating a productive work environment.
21
Q
Performance management: Outcome performance
A
Outcome performance: Evaluating the outcomes/ results that individuals achieve in their work (meeting sales targets, completing projects on time, improving quality metrics).
-> Critical to achieve organizational goals.
-> Measures the effectiveness and efficiency of organizational processes.
22
Q
Performance management: Important fact
A
“81% of Canadian organizations report changing or planning to change their performance management process/ system.”
23
Q
Performance Management: Purposes:
A
- Help org achieve strategic objectives
-> Keep org’s competitive advantages - Link employees’ behaviour with the org goals
-> Motivates employees to do exactly what the company wants -> helps align their behaviour to the achievement of the firm’s goals. - Provide info for day-to-day decisions
-> Salary & Recognition - Support hiring decisions
-> Verifying the selection process -> if the hired employee seems to be a potential higher performer in the selection process and the employee hits all the performance goals in one year -> the hiring process is effective, which is proved by the performance management process. - Basis for developing employees
-> By finding areas of improvement - Build awareness of strengths and areas for improvement
24
Q
Performance management: Steps in the performance management process (5/6 steps)
A
- Step 1: Define the performance expectations (outcomes) for the company/ division/ department
- Step 2: Define the goals, behaviours and actions needed to achieve the outcomes.
- Step 3: Provide support and ongoing feedback to employees (performance discussions).
- Step 4: Evaluate employees’ performance.
~ Step 5: Identify the improvements needed.
OR
~ Step 6: Provide consequences for performance results
25
Performance management: Steps in the performance management process: Step 1 & Step 2
- Step 1: Define the performance outcomes for the company/ division/ department
- Step 2: Develop goals, behaviours and actions needed to achieve the outcomes.
-> Based on job analysis and job description
-> Specific
-> With a fair criteria/ controllable by the employee
-> Quantifiable and measurable standards
-> Performance expectations must be communicated.
26
Performance management: Steps in the performance management process: Step 3
- Step 3: Provide support and ongoing performance discussions.
-> Feedback should be frequent -> have ongoing collaborative discusssions
-> Ask employee to rate their performance first (so e's are aware of their strenghts and weaknesses)
-> Create the right context for the discussion (a safe psychological space)
-> Provide balanced, accurate feedback that emphasizes behaviour and goal setting
27
Performance management: Steps in the performance management process: Step 4
- Step 4: Evaluate employees' performance.
-> Evaluating e's attributes, behaviours and results.
-> Attributes: The degree to which e's have certain characterisitics (ex: cognitive abilities, conscientiousness, being proactive).
-> Behaviours: Actions
-> Results
28
Performance management: Steps in the performance management process: Step 4: Measurement errors
- Construct: The characteristic/ behaviour being measured.
-> Deficiency error: Not collecting relevant information (unrelated factors are being measured).
- Relevance: Extent to which the performance measure is measuring the construct. "Measuring the construct as much as possible."
- Measure: The measure refers to the method used to assess the construct.
~ Important to ensure that the measure is reliable, valid, and free from bias. If the measure is not reliable, valid, or free from bias, it may lead to inaccurate or misleading performance data.
-> Contamination error (pollution): When other factors unrelated to what is being assessed affects the performance score. Ex: Unconscious bias of the supervisor.
29
Performance management: Steps in the performance management process: Step 4: Rating Errors: Similar-to-me:
Similar-to-me: Giving a higher evaluation to people who seem similar to oneself.
30
Performance management: Steps in the performance management process: Step 4: Rating Errors: Contrast error:
Contrast error: Comparing employee’s performance to co-workers rather than to the objective at hand.
31
Performance management: Steps in the performance management process: Step 4: Rating Errors: Distributional errors (3):
- Leniency error: When a rater inaccurately assigns high ratings to all employees.
- Strictness error: When a rater incorrectly gives low ratings to all employees -> unreasonably high
standards.
- Central tendency: Rating all employees as somehow average or in the middle of the scale.
-> Difficult to distinguish among employees rated by the same person.
-> Errors in comparing individuals performance that are rated by different rater.
32
Performance management: Steps in the performance management process: Step 4: Rating Errors: Halo error:
Halo error: One positive performance aspect -> rating the employee positively in all areas of performance.
33
Performance management: Steps in the performance management process: Step 4: Rating Errors: Horns error:
One negative aspect -> rating an employee low in other aspects.
34
Performance management: Steps in the performance management process: Step 4: Rating Errors: Recency emphasis:
Recency emphasis: Performance rating is based only on the most recent work done.
-> Supervisor rushing due to heavy workload or lack of time.
35
Performance management: Steps in the performance management process: Step 4: Measurement Errors: Unconscious bias:
Judgements outside our conscious awareness that influence of decisions without us realizing it.
Example: Being unknowingly biased towards a candidate based on gender, race, etc -> affecting their performance evaluation (positively or negatively)
36
Performance management: Step 4: Evaluate Employees' Performance: How Performance is Measured: Making comparisons:
A performance appraisal where individual's performance are compared to those of others.
- Ranking of employees.
-> Performance appraisal: Assessing and evaluating an employee's job performance and providing feedback on their strength and weakness (areas of improvement).
37
Performance management: Step 4: Evaluate Employees' Performance: How Performance is Measured: Making comparisons: Simple Ranking
Simple ranking: Managers rank employees in their group from highest performer to the lowest performer.
38
Performance management: Step 4: Evaluate Employees' Performance: How Performance is Measured: Making comparisons: Forced Distribution Model
Forced Distribution Model: Ranking employees against each others based on their performance where certain employees fall within each category.
For example, they are in the 20% of high performers, or in the 70% of average performers, or the 10% of low performers.
Negatives
-> Certain % of employees fall within each category regardless of the actual performance levels -> unfair.
-> May create a competitive and hostile work environment.
39
Performance management: Step 4: Evaluate Employees' Performance: How Performance is Measured: Making comparisons: Rating Individuals:
Rating individuals: Rating employees based on a set of standards/ in terms of elements needed for success (attributes, behaviours, results).
40
Performance management: Step 4: Evaluate Employees' Performance: How Performance is Measured: Making comparisons: Measuring Results:
41
Performance management: Step 4: Evaluate Employees' Performance: How Performance is Measured: Making comparisons: Balanced Scoreboard
Balanced scoreboard: A way of evaluating performance based on financial objectives, along with customer, internal business processes, and learning and growth objectives.
42
Performance management: Step 4: Evaluate Employees' Performance: How Performance is Measured: Making comparisons: Rating Individuals: Attributes: Graphic Rating Scale
Graphic Rating Scale: Giving a rating from 1 to 5 on specific performance dimensions (leadership, problem solving, client service...)
43
Performance management: Step 4: Evaluate Employees' Performance: How Performance is Measured: Making comparisons: Rating Individuals: Behaviours: Behaviourally Anchored Rating Scale (BARS):
Behaviourally Anchored Rating Scale (BARS): Employees are rated on a scale that represents different levels of performance (effective/ positive behaviours to ineffective/ negative behaviours).
Benefits:
- More objective.
- High validity because it uses job related behaviour.
- Reduces bias.
- Higher reliability (consistency).
Cons:
- Difficult to develop and maintain.
-> Needs to be tailored for each job.
44
Performance management: Step 4: Evaluate Employees' Performance: How Performance is Measured: Making comparisons: Rating Individuals: Behaviours: Critical Incident Method:
Critical Incident Method: Assessing employees behaviours by keeping track of desirable and undesirable behaviours on the job.
Benefits:
- Helps be clear on areas of improvements
- Focuses on important aspects of the job.
Cons:
- Difficult to rank employees
- May not have enough sampling to do it correctly & deficiency.
45
Performance management: Step 4: Evaluate Employees' Performance: How Performance is Measured: Sources for Performance Information:
- Managers and supervisors
- Peers
- Direct reports
- Self
- Customer and clients
- Crowdsourcing (360)
46
Compensation & Benefits: Total compensation:
All financial rewards, benefits and services employees receive as part of their employment.
47
Compensation & Benefits: Direct compensation:
Direct compensation: Financial rewards in exchange for work.
48
Compensation & Benefits: Indirect compensation:
Indirect compensation: Benefits and services received in exchange for work.
49
Compensation & Benefits: Contract theory:
Contract theory: Idea that compensation arrangements employer and employees can be viewed as a contractural relationship.
But there can be assymetrical information which negatively effect the effectiveness of the compensation contract -> adverse selection & moral hazard.
50
Compensation & Benefits: Contract theory: Adverse selection:
Adverse selection:
- Before the contract.
- Person with the most information -> benefit them the most at the expense of the other party.
Example: Companies paying women less although they know the average salary amount while the employee does not.
Example: Employee makes themselves “look better”, or know more information -> does something to hurt the company, or make the company change their compensation to benefit the employee (employee lie on their resume -> hurting the company)
Example: The employee has an offer from another company with a higher pay -> employee has more information -> their KSAOs are more valuable elsewhere -> company needs to change their compensation (or let them go).
51
Compensation & Benefits: Contract theory: Moral hazard
Moral hazard:
- After the contract is finalized.
- An individual takes greater risk than they would before because they are insured against the negative consequences of those risks.
Example: Shirking their duties (performing duties at a lower level than expected).
Example: Insurance - The employee has the insurance covered -> less likely be careful when doing certain works.
Example: Fixed pay -> employees have no motivation to do more than stated.
Example: Commission -> employees may take on unethical actions to receive higher commission. Actions that are seen as bad -> for example, taking another employee’s that you work with’s customer. Or hiding information from other employees so that one can benefit from them not having it.
52
Compensation & Benefits: Principal-Agent Problem
a situation where one person (the principal) hires another person (the agent) to do something for them, but the agent may not always act in the best interests of the principal.
- The interests of the principal (employer) and the agent (employee) do not align.
- Using compensation types to align the interests.
-> Agent has their own interests that are different from the principal's interests
-> Or agent has more information than the principal.
53
Compensation types: Time rate:
Time rate: Paid based on time worked
- Fixed pay for the employee as they are always receiving this pay.
- Buying your time.
54
Compensation types: Pay for performance
- Variable pay: Pay that varies with some measure of individual, team, or organizational performance
- Incentives
- Paying for employees KSAOs/ performance.
55
Compensation types: Optimizing
Organizations need to compensate on time and performance since employees do not like only one.
-> Right balance to address the consequences of asymmetric info (moral hazard) -> Mitigates moral hazard.
- Companies are not allowed to pay solely on performance, since minimum wage per hour is required.
56
Compensation & Benefits: 5 Step process of determining the fixed wage/ salary levels:
Step 1: Conduct a pay survey
- Do outside research.
Step 2: Determine the internal relative worth of the job.
- Point system -> Job evaluation points based on Skill, Effort, Responsibility and Working Conditions.
- Compensating differentials theory: Unpleasant working conditions = given advantages to offset it (to attract employees).
Step 3: Group similar jobs into pay grades
- Pay grades: Jobs of approximately equal value.
Step 4: Set a pay range for each pay grade.
- Pay range for jobs of approximately equal value. based on the job evaluations points.
- Finding this by plotting a pay policy line to establish pay ranges (for non-key jobs?)
Step 5: Fine tune specific pay rates for a job based on the employee's value.
57
Compensation & Benefits: 5 Step process of determining the fixed wage/ salary levels: Step 1:
Step 1: Conduct a pay survey
- Do outside research.
- To?
58
Compensation & Benefits: 5 Step process of determining the fixed wage/ salary levels: Step 2:
Step 2: Determine the internal relative worth of the job.
- Point system -> Job evaluation points based on Skill, Effort, Responsibility and Working Conditions.
- Compensating differentials theory: Unpleasant working conditions = given advantages to offset it (to attract employees).
59
Compensation & Benefits: 5 Step process of determining the fixed wage/ salary levels: Step 3:
Step 3: Group similar jobs into pay grades
- Pay grades: Jobs of approximately equal job evaluation points value.
60
Compensation & Benefits: 5 Step process of determining the fixed wage/ salary levels: Step 4:
Step 4: Set a pay range for each pay grade.
- Pay range for jobs of approximately equal value. based on the job evaluations points.
- Finding this by plotting a pay policy line to establish pay ranges (for non-key jobs?)
-> Vertical axis - Job Evaluation Points
-> Horizontal axis: Salary (ex: monthly salary)
61
Compensation & Benefits: 5 Step process of determining the fixed wage/ salary levels: Step 5:
Step 5: Fine tune specific pay rates for a job based on the employee's value.
62
Compensation & Benefits: Merit Pay
Merit pay: Pay increases are based on ratings of performance evaluations. In an employee does a really good performance, their salary goes up by a %, and it stays fixed like that.
- Requires really good performance appraisal system.
Cons:
- Permanent increase in base pay.
63
Compensation & Benefits: Piece Rate
Piece rate: Rewards individual performance (through commission or piecework, for example).
64
Compensation & Benefits: Profit sharing
Profit sharing: Employees receive a share of the profits generated by the company, usually on an annual or quarterly basis.
Advantages
- Encourages employees to think like owners (aligning employee interests with the company's interest) since they have direct financial stake in the success of the company.
- Labour costs automatically reduced during difficult economic times -> less layoffs.
Disadvantages
- Link between individual effort & organizational performance can be unclear.
- Free-riding
65
Compensation & Benefits: Gainsharing
Payments based on group or plant performance - typically based on productivity gains.
-> Employees receive a share of the financial benefits resulting for their efforts (to improve productivity, reduce costs or increase workplace efficiency) -> typically productivity gains.
Difference from profit sharing:
Links payments with group or plant performance, payment distributed more frequently, performance measures seem more in employees control compared to company profits.
66
Compensation & Benefits: Ownership/ Stock options
A long-term incentive plan, giving e's option to buy stocks at a fixed price, but there's a vesting time (time an employee must work for the company before being able to get stocks)
Benefits:
-> Helps with employee retention.
-> Helps with attraction of applicants.
-> E's think like business owners.
Cons:
-> No strong link between individual effort and organization's stock performance -> not very motivating.
67
Compensation & Benefits: Legally required
- CPP/QPP: Canada Pension Plan -> provides basic level of retirement, disability, and survivor benefits.
- Employment Insurance (EI): Provides temporary financial assistance to eligible individuals who have lost their jobs at no fault of their own.
- Workers' compensation: Provides benefits (insurance) to employees who got injured or sick due to their job (lost wages, medical expenses etc).
68
Compensation & Benefits: Optional
- Paid leave
- Group insurance & benefits
-> Medical, life & disability
-> Health spending accounts
- Employee wellness programs
- Retirement plans
- Family-friendly (daycare?)
69
Compensation & Benefits: Unintended consequences of incentive plans
Incentive plans are a type of compensation system designed to motivate employees to work harder, more efficiently, or more effectively by providing them with rewards for meeting or exceeding performance goals or targets.
-> Bonuses, profit-sharing, commissions, stock options etc.
1. Overemphasize incentivized part of the job.
2. Greedy -> undermine incentive plan.
3. Freeriding in team initiatives.
4. Coworkers -> competitors -> non-productive activities.
5. One time reward, one attained -> e stops efforts.
70
Compensation & Benefits: Positives of Offering Benefits:
- Cost
-> Group discounts/ bulk rates.
- Attracting job applicants
- Organizational commitment
-> Ex: Retirement account.
- Pay satisfaction
-> Benefit satisfaction -> pay satisfaction : )
- Reduce turnover
71
Unions:
Organizations that represent their members' interests and resolves conflicts with employers.
72
Labour relations:
Canadian labour relations system tries to balance the objectives of employees, employers, and society.
- Aims to cultivate effective labour-management cooperation, minimize costly conflicts, and seek win-win solutions.
- Labour relations in Canada refers to the interactions and negotiations between employers and employees, as well as their representatives, such as labour unions or employee associations.
-> Negotiations about wages, benefits, workplace conditions etc.
- The goal of labour relations is to ensure that both employers and employees are treated fairly and that there is a balance of power between them.
- Governed by federal and provincial laws and regulations
73
Labour Relations: Objectives of Labour Relations
- Efficiency: For labour to be productive & profit-maximizing to promote economic prosperity.
- Voice: Ability of employees to have meaningful input in workplace decisions.
- Equity: Fairness in the distribution of money (economic rewards), administration of employment policies, and the supplying of employee security.
74
Research: The current state of efficiency & equity
Works getting a smaller and smaller share of profits (losing power) -> shareholders keeping bigger and bigger shares (gaining power)
75
Research: What economists see in data
- Public feels towards unions is becoming more positive, while public feelings towards big businesses are becoming more negative.
- There are more workers who want to have a union: gap between those who want a union & those who have one is growing.
76
Unions & Universal Declaration of Human Rights
"Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests."
77
Collective bargaining:
Collective bargaining: Process of determining the terms and conditions of employment through negotiations between employers and employee representatives (union)
Goal: Acceptable terms & conditions for employees (represented by unions) and employers.
The final terms & conditions -> collective agreement.
To bring an impasse to an end:
-> Employees/ union can strike (to not work or slow down)
-> Employer may lock out employees (closure or refusal to provide work)
-> Parties can bring a third party to solve their differences.
78
Collective agreement:
Collective agreement: Terms and conditions of employment that applies equally to all employees (in unit).
Regulations many elements of day-to-day relationships between workers, unions and employers.
79
Unions: Purpose of unions
- Represent the voice of employees in HR matters
-> Pay & benefits
-> Job security
-> Working conditions
-It's a legally recognized entity
-> Agreements between unions and employers are legally binding (collective bargaining agreements).
80
International HR: Home country
Where a company's headquarter is located.
81
International HR: Host country
Where a company operates a facility outside of its home country.
82
International HR: Third country (?)
Neither a home or a host country.
Ex: Hiring a manager from another company (manager not from the host country not the home country)
Ex: A Canadian company (home country) hired an American employee to work in France -> a third country employee (neither in the home or host country)
83
International HR: Expatriate
A person who temporarily or permanently works outside of their home country.
-> Employees sending them to work abroad.
Employees who take assignments in other countries.
84
HR International: Home country nationals
Employees are citizens of the country where the organization is headquartered.
Employees are from (are natives of) the home country of the company.
85
HR International: Host country nationals
Employees are citizens of the country where an organizations has their "international" facilities.
Employees are citizens of the company's host country.
Ex: A Japanese employee working for the Japanese facility in Japan of an American company.
86
HR International: Third country nationals
Employees who are citizens of a country that is different from the home country of the organization and the country where they are currently working.
Employees that are not citizens of the company's home nor host country.
Ex: An American company hired a Canadian to work in a facility in Japan.
87
HR International: Selection for International Assignment
- Candidates already have a baseline level of technical skills.
Predictors of success:
- Ability to communicate
- Flexibility and tolerance for ambiguity (uncertainty)
- Sensitivity to culture differences
- Motivation to succeed
- Enjoyment of challenges
- Willingess to learn
- Support from family members
- Competency in the area of expertise.
88
International HR: Expat Compensation
- Base pay: Usually in line with the home country standard.
- Differentials: Offer high cost of goods overseas, services, housing & taxes.
- Benefits & services: Covers added costs (moving & storage costs, car, housing & education expenses)
- Incentives: To compensate the person from separation from family, friends, and domestic support systems.
89
HR International: Culture
Community's set of shared assumptions about how the world works, predictable disagreements, and what ideals are worth striving for.
-> Glue that keeps people together.
90
HR International: Cross-culture training
Reduces cultural shock
91
HR International: Cultural shock
A state of disorientation and anxiety for not knowing how to behave in an unfamiliar culture.
92
HR International: 4 Stages of Culture Adjustment
- Honeymoon: Excitement and curiosity about the new culture.
- Culture shock: Disorientation and anxiety due to cultural differences (languages, customs, values, and social norms)
- Recovery: Adapting to the new country and developing strategies to cope with the differences.
- Adjustment: Fully adapted to the new country and they feel comfort.
-> Able to function effectively in their work and personal life (may have a deep appreciation for the new culture).
93
International HR: Repatriation & Cons:
An employee returning to their home country after a period of time working abroad.
-"Reverse culture shock"
Job-related:
- Employee kinda forgotten - "out of sight, out of mind."
- Internal experience is devalued.
- Loss of relative status or pay.
- Changes within HQ.
Social factors:
- Social interactions are different (from having a close expat community abroad to ppl busy with their own lives)
- Hard to adjust back to the lifestyle and culture of the home country again.
- Problems for the spouse in returning to the workforce.
- Lack of peer support for teenagers in the family.
94
The Culture Map: Communication
Implicit (high context): Lots of meaning between the lines
-> China, Japan, Indonesia, India, Singapore
Explicit (low context): Communicates literally and explicitly
-> US, Canada, Australia, Netherlands, UK, Denmark, Finland
95
The Culture Map: Evaluation
"How direct negative criticism is given in different cultures."
Direct negative feedback
-> Russia, France, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Australia, Spain, Germany, Netherlands, Israel
Indirect negative feedback
-> Japan, Korea, China, Mexico, Brazil, UK
- In the middle: US, Canada
96
The Culture Map: Persuasion
Principles-first: Start with a fact, statement or opinion and later add concepts to back it up or explain the conclusion.
-> France, Italy, Spain
Applications-first: Start with the concept or theory than supporting it with facts, statement or opinions.
-> US, Canada, Australia
97
The Cultural Map: Leadership
Egalitarian: Distance between boss and subordinates is ideal low. Flat organizational structures.
-> Denmark, Netherlands, Sweden, Australia, Canada, US, UK
Hierarchical: Organizational structures are multilayered and fixed.
-> Korea, Japan, India, China, Russia
98
The Cultural Map: Deciding
How organizations make decisions in different cultures, tied to how they view leadership.
Consensual: Consensus at a lower level than bringing the proposal to a higher level (broad corporate consensus).
-> Japan, Sweden, Germany
Top-down:
-> Nigeria, China, India, Brazil, Italy
99
The Cultural Map: Trusting - Task vs. Relationship
Task-based: I trust you because you do your tasks well.
-> US, Denmark, Australia, UK
Relationship-based: I trust you because I know you.
-> Nigeria, China, Japan, Brazil
100
The Cultural Map: Disagreeing: Confrontational vs. Avoid Confrontation
Confrontational: Disagreement and debate is good for a team/ organization. Doesn't negatively impact relationships.
-> France, Israel, Denmark, Australia
Avoids: Disagreement and debate is negative -> breaks group harmony, does negatively impact relationships.
-> Japan, Thailand, China, Kenya
101
The Cultural Map: Structured vs. Fixed
Linear time: Projects steps are done in an ordered fashion, deadlines and sticking to the schedule, promptness & good organization. Interruptions not accepted.
-> Germany, Switzerland, Japan, US, UK, Denmark
Flexible time: Projects steps are done in a fluid manner, changing tasks as opportunities arise, adaptability and flexibility are valued. Interruptions are accepted as things are dealt with at once.
-> Brazil, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, Italy
