Development of multiple IQ maps for use in the selection of inpatriate managers: a practical theory

Abstract

The rate of expansion into the global marketplace by multinational corporations has begun to accelerate at a pace where international human resource managers are unable to meet the demand for managers to serve in global assignments. This shortage of qualified managers is exacerbated by a number of societal trends, such as, dual-career professional couples, increased number of high qualified female executives who have not been used extensively in international assignments in the past, and the changing format and sequencing of the overseas assignments beyond the traditional single 3–5 year assignment term. The complexity of global management tasks is increasing requiring multi-talented managers capable of acting as knowledge-integrating boundary-spanners in global network organizations. Inpatriate managers (i.e., host-/third-country nationals relocated to the home organization on a semi-permanent to permanent basis) have been identified as a potential pool of global managers to complement the supply of expatriates for emerging markets. This paper develops a means for selecting inpatriate managers based on a multiple IQ approach that attempts to match the inpatriate managers’ portfolio of abilities with the type of assignments that they might have in global organizations.