Host Country Employees Research Articles

Expatriates’ boundary-spanning: double-edged effects in multinational enterprises

AbstractExpatriates typically perform boundary-spanning to address challenges related to functional, linguistic, and cultural variations within multinational enterprises (MNEs), which in turn influences their relationships with host-country employees. Integrating social capital and role theory perspectives, this study explores the relational dynamics between expatriates and host-country employees by developing a novel theoretical framework that examines the double-edged effects of expatriates’ boundary-spanning. We propose that expatriates’ boundary-spanning nurtures mutual trust between expatriates and host-country employees, further facilitating expatriates’ identification with subsidiaries and host-country employees’ identification with MNEs. On the other hand, we propose that boundary-spanning increases expatriates’ role stressors, causing expatriates’ emotional exhaustion and outgroup categorization by host-country employees. We further categorize expatriates’ boundary-spanning into three types (functional, linguistic, and cultural) and theorize about their varying effects on the cognitive and affective bases of mutual trust and on role stressors. With data from 177 expatriate–host-country coworker dyads in Chinese MNEs, our double-edged framework is generally supported. Our findings suggest that cultural boundary-spanning exhibits the strongest double-edged effect, while functional boundary-spanning shows asymmetric effects, with negative outcomes surpassing positive ones, and linguistic boundary-spanning demonstrates the weakest effect. This study offers realistic and comprehensive insights into expatriates’ boundary-spanning, particularly in expatriate–host-country employee relationships.

Differences in the organizational-commitment–rewards relationship between Chinese managers and Japanese expatriates in manufacturing companies in China

PurposeAs China attracts more and more foreign enterprises today, it is getting more important to consider how to enhance the organizational commitment (OC) of host country employees. This paper aims to examine the differences in the relationship between OC and rewards among Chinese managers and Japanese expatriates who work for Japanese manufacturing companies in China.Design/methodology/approachHierarchical regression analysis was used to analyze survey data gathered from 539 Chinese managers and 354 Japanese expatriates working for a total of 19 Japanese manufacturing companies in China.FindingsThe findings reveal that, for Chinese managers, role clarity had a stronger influence and autonomy had a weaker influence on OC than for Japanese expatriates. A possible reason is the ethnocentric culture of Japanese companies that leads to Japanese expatriates not sufficiently empowering local human resources. Moreover, there was no difference between senior- and junior-level Chinese managers in the association of any kind of reward with OC.Research limitations/implicationsThe most significant limitation concerns its generalizability. The authors recommend that future research use other nations' expatriates as reference groups to objectively clarify the characteristics of Chinese workers, thus testing the validity of this research.Practical implicationsThe results of this research may be used to reshape future human-resource-management practices in several types of the company located in China to facilitate attracting and employing the employees most able to make long-term contributions to the company.Originality/valueAlthough previous research has elucidated OC–rewards relation in particular countries, it has not met the potential requirements of the expatriates who face the difference in OC–rewards relation with host country national managers. In this sense, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research was the first attempt to tackle this theme by contributing to the literature.

Cross border HRM challenges of Chinese companies: An exploratory study

With the growing footmark of Chinese MNCs around the globe, the management of the host country employees has been a new challenge on the horizon. The study aims to understand the human resource management and cross-cultural practices and challenges faced by Chinese companies across the border. This cross-sectional and exploratory study used semi-structured interviews and focus groups for the data collection. The respondents were Chinese managers from Chinese companies and Chinese cultural centres working in Pakistan. This study used thematic analysis with triangulation of sources and methods. This study found culture as a key theme affecting all the emerging human resource management themes. Chinese companies working in Pakistan use informal social networks in addition to traditional applicant recruitment methods. Cultural training is common along with technical training in particularly state-owned Chinese enterprises. Although in many Chinese companies, the parent country nationals fill top positions, local employees could be seen working in the top tier management of some Chinese companies. The Chinese companies’ management practices have not been paid much attention to in this region. This study enables us to develop deep insights into Chinese companies’ human resource management practices and challenges. This research also contributes to the literature on international human resource management and cross-cultural management.

How I Speak Defines What I Do: Effects of the Functional Language Proficiency of Host Country Employees on Their Unethical Pro-organizational Behavior.

Functional language has been used in many multinational corporations (MNCs) as a way to overcome the problems caused by the coexistence of multiple languages in the workplace. The existing literature has explored the importance, adoption, and effectiveness of functional language. Yet, how functional language shapes host country employees’ moral cognition and behavior is insufficiently researched. Guided by the Social Identity Theory, this manuscript shows that host country employees’ functional language proficiency (i.e., English) enhances their unethical pro-organizational behavior through their linguistic group identification and moral disengagement. We tested our predictions using the data collected from 309 full-time host country employees through an online survey, and the results generally supported our hypotheses. The findings make contributions to both international management and language literature and organizational moral behavior literature.

Host country employees’ negative perceptions of successive expatriate leadership: the role of leadership transference and implicit leadership theories

PurposeDrawing on socio-cognitively orientated leadership studies, this paper aims to contribute to our understanding of host country employees’ (HCEs) negative perceptions of successive expatriate leadership by exploring how their memories of shared past experiences affect these perceptions. Contrary to previous work which tends to focus on HCEs’ attitudes towards individual expatriates, the authors shift attention to successive executive expatriate assignments within a single subsidiary.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is based on an intrinsic case study carried out in a Polish subsidiary of an American multinational pharmaceutical company which had been managed by four successive expatriate General Managers and one local executive. The authors draw on interview data with 40 HCEs. Twenty-one semi-structured interviews were conducted with staff who had been managed by at least three of the subsidiary’s expatriate leaders.FindingsThe authors demonstrate how transference triggered by past experiences with expatriate leaders as well as HCEs’ implicit leadership theories affect HCEs’ negative perceptions of expatriate leadership and lead to the emergence of expatriate leadership schema.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that explores the role of transference and implicit leadership theories in HCEs’ perceptions of successive executive expatriate assignments. By focussing on retrospective accounts of HCEs who had been managed by a series of successive expatriate leaders, our study has generated a more nuanced and contextualised understanding of the role of HCEs’ shared past experiences in shaping their perceptions of expatriate leadership. The authors propose a new concept – expatriate leadership schema – which describes HCEs’ cognitive structures, developed during past experiences with successive expatriate leaders, which specify what HCEs believe expatriate leadership to look like and what they expect from it.

The double-edged sword of ethnic similarity for expatriates

Identifying employees to represent headquarters (HQ) effectively in overseas units is a management challenge faced by all multinational corporations (MNCs). To date, management of this type of expatriate employees has accorded a central role to culture, such as understanding cultural differences, facilitating cultural adaptation and adjustment, and cultivating cultural intelligence. Although culture is a critical factor in ex-plaining expatriates’ experiences, identity offers an alternative angle to reveal the challenges that occur when expatriates interact with host country employees. In this article, we introduce ethnically similar expatriates – a sub-category of expatriates who share an ethnicity with host country employees – to showcase the role of identity, especially the interpersonal dynamics associated with ethnic similarity.

How you see me, how you don’t: ethnic identity self-verification in interactions between local subsidiary employees and ethnically similar expatriates

Multinational corporations often assign expatriates who share an ethnicity with host country employees (termed ethnically similar expatriates) to work on international assignments. Although sharing an ethnicity with local employees can be an advantage, it also creates a unique identity challenge. In this article, we develop the argument that ethnic similarity might in fact threaten expatriate-local employee interactions if the two parties hold divergent views towards the importance of expatriates’ ethnic identity in their interactions. Drawing on self-verification theory, we explain why people desire to achieve congruence between how they view their own identity and how others view this identity. Subsequently, we identify key cultural and personal constraints affecting expatriates’ efforts to achieve ethnic identity self-verification. We also illustrate how unfulfilled ethnic identity self-verification affects ethnically similar expatriates, local employees and their interactions. Our study, thus, introduces a new angle to understand expatriate-local employee interactions and advances self-verification research by demonstrating the challenges in achieving ethnic identity self-verification when two social parties share an ethnicity.

Host country employees’ ethnic identity confirmation: Evidence from interactions with ethnically similar expatriates

Employing expatriates who share an ethnicity with host country employees (HCEs) is a widespread expatriate selection strategy. However, little research has compared how expatriates and HCEs perceive this shared ethnicity. Drawing upon an identity perspective, we propose HCEs’ ethnic identity confirmation, the level of agreement between how an HCE views the importance of his/her own ethnic identity and how expatriates view the importance of the HCE’s ethnic identity, affects HCEs’ attitudes towards ethnically similar expatriates. Results of two experiments show that HCEs’ ethnic identity confirmation is related to HCEs’ perception of expatriates’ trustworthiness and knowledge-sharing intention.

Knowledge Assimilation at Foreign Subsidiaries of Japanese MNCs through Political Sensegiving and Sensemaking

We analyse political sensegiving and sensemaking by expatriates and host country employees through exportive, contestative and integrative stages of knowledge assimilation at two China-based subsidiaries of different Japanese MNCs. Comparative case study analysis indicated that efforts by expatriates and HQ-based experts to convey, routinize and standardize home country practices during the exportive and contestative stages, while involving traditional ‘one way’ knowledge transfer, can provide a foundation for a subsequent integrative stage, during which host country employees’ locally embedded knowledge is assimilated despite geopolitical asymmetry between home and host countries. Without this foundation, knowledge assimilation can remain ‘frozen’ at the contestative stage, with host country employees resisting importation of good practices from the HQ, and expatriates marginalizing host country employees’ contributions unless these are exceptionally compelling.

From dilemmatic struggle to legitimized indifference: Expatriates’ host country language learning and its impact on the expatriate-HCE relationship

We address the lack of knowledge concerning the role of host country languages in multinational corporations based on an inductive qualitative study involving 70 interviews with Nordic expatriates and host country employees (HCE) in China. Building on the strongly discrepant views of expatriates and HCEs, we demonstrate how expatriates’ willingness to learn and use the host country language lead to different types of expatriate-HCE relationships, ranging from harmonious to distant or segregated. In doing so, we emphasize the subtle and fragile connection between expatriates’ attitude towards HCEs’ mother tongue and trust formation in addition to the construction of superiority-inferiority relationships.

The Role of Ethnic Identity Confirmation in Expatriate-local Employee Interactions

Multinational companies often assign expatriates who share an ethnicity with host country employees to work in their subsidiaries, and expect them to work effectively with local employees. Nonethel...

Boundary-crossing and the localization of capabilities in a Japanese multinational firm

We conducted a case study to explore the challenges encountered by a foreign subsidiary of a Japanese multinational firm when localizing its organizational capabilities in China. Drawing on the concepts of boundaries and boundary-crossing, we identify pragmatic and cultural knowledge boundaries, which denied opportunities for the host-country employees to contribute their local expertise to augment the firm's core capabilities within the domains of research and development and operational protocols. However, within those domains that were regarded as complementary to or peripheral to the firm's core capabilities, host-country employees were granted more scope to cross the associated pragmatic boundaries.

Employees’ willingness to adopt a foreign functional language in multilingual organizations: The role of linguistic identity

Language holds a central role in sustainable international expansion for multinationals. The choice of the functional language can facilitate or hinder communication between headquarters and subsidiary locations. In order to communicate effectively with the parent organization, host country employees often have to adopt a language that is not native to the subsidiary region. We take a subsidiary employee perspective in presenting an interdisciplinary theoretical model of host country employees’ willingness to adopt a foreign language in multinational organizations. The construct of linguistic identity, shaped by the linguistic landscape of the host location, is introduced as an important determinant in this process. Specifically, the foreign functional language may pose a threat to the employees’ existing linguistic identity; willingness to adopt the foreign functional language may depend upon the extent of this perceived threat. We incorporate the effects of foreign language proficiency and individuals’ motivation for enhancement in the theoretical model. Both high proficiency in a foreign language and need for social, economic, and career enhancements can increase individuals’ willingness to adopt the foreign functional language. Finally, we develop and present implications of the linguistic identity processes for entry mode, location, and language strategies.

A review of international cross-cultural mixed messages and their implications for human resource development

This paper presents a literature review on the concept of international cross-cultural mixed messages. Although there is limited literature on this topic, the review suggests that messages from one's home culture and a second culture can result in conflicting expectations for one's own behavior and for the behavior of others. Double bind theory is utilized as a theoretical framework. Application of double bind theory to the issue of international cross-cultural mixed messages suggests potential strategies for addressing such situations. Areas for further research on international cross-cultural mixed messages are presented, including qualitative examination of the experience of such mixed messages and quantitative research into the prevalence and significance of these situations. Implications for human resource development practice are suggested in the areas of informal conversations and formal training with future expatriates, host country employees who will work with expatriates, and employees who work in culturally diverse organizations and business environments.

Ethnic Identity Confirmation in Knowledge Transfer between Expatriates and Host Country Employees

Effective knowledge transfer between headquarters and overseas units has been a challenge for MNCs. Expatriates are often expected to facilitate this task. Since there are many challenges in workin...

Do Non-work Practices in MNCs Operating in India Impact Organizational Commitment?

The present paper establishes the concept of Non-work Practices and explores its impact on organizational commitment. Drawing upon research conducted in four multinational corporations operating in India, the paper examines the degree to which non-work practices are accepted by Indian employees and their relationship with organizational commitment. Concurrent mixed methodology was adopted in which both qualitative and quantitative data were collected. Template analysis was carried out to interpret employees’ feelings and experiences, and to identify the emerging trends. Factor analysis was carried out to find factors of non-work practices, and regression analysis was carried out to study relationship between organizational commitment and non-work practices. The article discusses the findings related to non-work practices: how these practices are experienced and perceived by Indian employees and what is their impact on the commitment of employees, which would in turn affect the effectiveness of the organization.
 It was found that since most of the non-work practices were transplanted from the parent company, they were perceived as alien (except in the Anglo-American MNC). Host country employees showed little enthusiasm in carrying out those practices and hence these had no positive impact on their organizational commitment.

The problem of control and the role of home–host ties in explaining multinationals' foreign operations, competitiveness, and performance

AbstractThe existing multinational enterprise (MNE) literature has focused on capabilities and value creation challenges, including related to cultural and other distance. To better understand heterogeneity in the foreign country performance of MNEs, however, we need to go beyond the global strategy challenges of capabilities and coordination. Specifically, we need to explore MNEs' value capture challenges abroad and attend to control as a chronic dilemma that is inadequately addressed by internalization. In operating in foreign host countries, MNEs are chronically exposed to two types of largely uninsurable discretion: sovereign discretion of host governments and delegated discretion of host country employees, partners, suppliers, and such. The problem in the first case relates to power; and in the second it relates to information. Power and information are the sine qua non of effective control. Control is a prerequisite for anticipated value capture, which influences the extent of MNEs' capability transfer, input localization, and output adaptation in a given host country. Transfer, localization, and adpatation are the essence of host country value creation, which influences competitiveness and performance there. Accordingly, beyond differences in MNE capabilities, heterogeneity in access to credible power and reliable information in a focal host country predicts heterogeneity in MNEs' competitiveness and relative performance there. This is why and how heterogeneity in macro‐level home–host ties (HHTs) explains durable performance differences among foreign MNEs operating in a focal host country. In terms of global strategy research and practice, this turns the spotlight on macro‐level HHTs, nonmarket strategy, and, eventually, focused internationalization. It also argues for more microfoundations research on the limits and actual control benefits of internalization.

Introducing Western-style HRM practices to China: Shopfloor perceptions in a British multinational

The management of host country employees is often portrayed as a particularly fraught dimension for multinational firms. The problems involved are considered exponentially greater when there are substantial institutional differences and “cultural distance” between the host country and a multinational firm's parent country, as is assumed to be the case for Western firms operating in mainland China. Based upon detailed case study research conducted at a UK-invested firm in China between 1999 and 2003 and a comparative study of a Chinese state-owned firm, this paper explores the veracity of such assumptions. The findings indicate that Western human resource management (HRM) practices can be transplanted successfully and questions the degree to which foreign-invested enterprises (FIE) need to adopt “the Chinese way of doing things”. Indeed, such practices can be innovative in the Chinese context and provide a competitive source of differentiation for multinationals as employees.

Parent cultural control of foreign subsidiaries through organizational acculturation: a longitudinal study

Organizational acculturation refers to changes in the work values of host-country employees in foreign subsidiaries. Although many multinational corporations practise cultural control of global operations, organizational acculturation has attracted very little academic research. In the present study, the subjects are Hong Kong Chinese managers employed in subsidiaries of multinational corporations from a European country. Longitudinal research was conducted over three years among an 'acculturation' panel, a control panel and a benchmark panel. The findings showed that organizational acculturation may have occurred in some of the work values measured. Implications of these findings for international firms are discussed in detail.

Performance Management in MNC Subsidiaries in China: A Study of Host-country Managers and Professionals

Employees’ attitudes towards the organization's performance management (PM) system are crucial for its effectiveness. However, little research has been conducted on (western) PM in multinational companies’ (MNCs) subsidiaries operating in foreign cultures. This study examines host-country employees’ attitudes towards several elements of PM in a European MNC's subsidiaries in China. A survey approach yielded 604 host-country employee responses from geographically dispersed subsidiaries in China. The results demonstrate that Chinese managerial and professional employees are satisfied with (western) PM. Moreover, the results reveal that Chinese employees are especially satisfied with PM oriented towards their short- and long-term development. In addition, Chinese employees prefer to participate in setting their performance objectives and to receive formal performance feedback. This article proposes that current characteristics of the labour market available to MNCs in China and a general converging trend towards more career-oriented individualistic values may explain Chinese employees’ attitudes towards PM.