Development of a Multinational Personnel Selection System

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Although the training cost is high, in long term, this cost will pay off in the future. Cross cultural training helps employee learn more about themselves as well as others who have different cultural background. It helps breaking down the barriers that hidden individuals from understanding of others such as assumptions and stereotypes. As a result, rapport can be easier to be maintained in a workplace.

For long term consequences, difficulty of setting up polices that valid for all employees from multiple countries might result in disruption of fairness. Setting rules in workplace help employer to maintain a high quality of work life for employee. It enables employee understand the expectations not only for the work, but also behaviors and relationships among workers. Yet, the working environment might become chaotic if there is no standard regulation to follow and obey. It damages the workplace harmony and increases the possibility of unnecessary conflicts among employees.

Question 3: If you were asked to consult with the project team, what would you recommend to them?

Globalization is an irresistible trend in the entire world. More and more companies are entering international markets as well as integrating workers from different countries in their companies. I would recommend some ways to solve the problem due to multinational personnel selection system.

Firstly, I suggest panel interview to assess each applicant. Panel interview refers to a selection interview in which several members of the organization meet to interview each candidate. It provides the company more than one judgment so as to reduce personal bias during the process of making selection decision. Panel interview not only allows the panelists to see and interact with the candidates in person in order to evaluate their communication and language skills, but also allows panelists to ask more about candidates’ past experience and details to see if the candidate fit into the multinational personnel culture in the company.

Secondly, training is essential to maintain a balanced company. Training program should be focus on encouraging employee to communicate with others and be open-minded to accept alternatives from others who are culturally different. Furthermore, when the ComInTec is planning to put an employee to work in a foreign location, the company should provide cross-cultural preparation. Cross-cultural preparation refers to a training program prepares employees to work across national and cultural boundaries, and it often includes family members who will accompany the employee on the assignment. It includes language instruction and introduction of foreign country’s culture which are important preparation for working overseas. This helps avoiding employees from culture shock, the dissatisfaction and discomfort due to an unfamiliar way of life, social environment and culture.

As the employees in Melbourne might be reluctant to move to Asia-Pacific Region, ComInTec may employ rewarding policy such as bonuses each year and stock options which refers to the right to buy a certain amount of share at a specified price and increase employees’ benefits which refers to compensation in forms other than cash in order to motivate them. Flexible benefits plans, a benefits plan that offers employees a set of alternatives from which they can choose the types and amounts of benefits they want is the best practice in terms of benefit. The process of selecting a particular benefit allows the employees be more aware of the value of benefits, especially when a sum of money is given to the employees to allocate the benefit plan. Also, the personal choice in a flexible benefit plan allows each employee to choose something that matches his or her own needs.

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Earley, P.C., Mosakowski, E., 2000. Creating hybrid team cultures: An empirical test of transnational team functioning. Academy of Management Journal, 43, pp. 26–49.