Task Cohesiveness And Organizational Support In Liam Glavey's International Hotel Business Venture

Types of International Employees

Discuss about the Task Cohesiveness and Organizational Support.

The report here gives an overview of an expert international HRM consultant that Liam Glavey has hired for his international hotel business venture in the European and Asian nations. Liam Glavey met Dirk Reynolds on a vacation where the later was an hotelier in his ill health looking for a buyer for his European and Asian Hotels that was an opportunity on part of Liam for internationalizing his own business. This not only irked Liam Glavey to take over the ten European  and Asian hotels but at the same time plan for setting a process for rebranding and renovating the hotels as a part of Strathmore Hotel Group. The report thereby discusses about the recruitment and selection process of employees for international assignments. There is also discussion about the types of international employees that Liam Glavey can opt for his global venture. The international human resource manager (HRM) consultant also draws Liam Glavey’s attention towards the role and characteristics of the expatriate manager. The report also discusses about the reason for expatriate failure and the issues related to repatriation. The international HRM consultant also talks the importance of cross-cultural training of the employees so that they are aware of the cultural aspects of the host country. The report also discusses about the international management development and international compensation management. The international HRM consultant also spoke about international performance management also finds a mention in the report.

Liam Glavey along with discussion with Dirk Reynolds took a decision of taking over the   European and Asian hotels and rebranding it under the Strathmore Hotel Group. After the management came to know about his decision, they requested to get a transfer to the new hotels. But given the fact that Liam Glavey believes in careful selection of his staffs so that they remain with the company, an expert international human resource management (HRM) consultant was appointed to provide necessary advice on the recruitment and selection of the employees(Stahl et.al 2012). Thus, the expert on the recruitment and selection procedure provided the following necessary advice:

1. Making Use of a Selection Panel: A panel selected consisting of a manager, a staff who possesses the detailed knowledge on conducting business in the assignment destination, HR staff from the host country and an HR from the international destination.
2. Choosing candidates who were successful in similar international assignments: Candidates with prior success in similar assignments will be able to cope up fast with the cultural difference and at the same time perform well.
3. Ensuring priority of the candidates who have language fluency of the assignment destination: This will enable them to earn more respect since they will have more effectiveness in dealing with suppliers, colleagues and clients.
4. Ensuring use of intercultural adaptability assessment tools: The intercultural adaptability tools allow one in accessing the potential of the candidates in innovation, leadership, management, collaboration and socialization.
5. Providing preview of a realistic job assignment: Giving a realistic picture of the job and informing the good and bad things about the assignment is important. These that includes culture, climate, safety, security and business practice
6. Allowing candidates on a reconnaissance trip: If the destination is different for the home destination of the chosen employee then offering a trip around the destination would ensure whether they can get adapted to the culture.

According to the international HRM consultant, Liam Glavey can choose the employees for newly acquired European and Asian hotels based on the following:

Employees for the international destination could be the nationals from the home country. They will not only ensure greater organization control but greater understanding on the implementation of the business strategy (Zhuang, Wu, and We 2013). Further, they will also have better cultural understanding and act as a morale builder for the employees of the host county.

Expatriate Role of Manager

Liam Glavey can also select nationals of the host country as the employees of his new hotel chain in Europe and Asia (Toh and Srinivas 2012). This will enable the employees in elimination of the language barrier and at the same time in better understanding of the laws and rules that are prevailing locally. Moreover, employing such nationals will also eliminate the cost of visas.

Liam Glavey could also hire the nationals of the third country as the employees for the foreign location. Hiring people from the third country might help Liam Glavey to put forward an international perspective to the business. However, cost associated for the visas of such nationals might be less expensive compared to the nationals of the home country (Wiesbrock 2012.). 

The role of the expatriate manager is to build presence and access of the new business venture into the international market. Therefore, it is necessary, for them to possess not only management skills but also technical expertise (Ramalu et.al 2012). They also play a role in establishing the hotel business and flourishing it as per the European and Asian standards. These managers must possess sufficient technical skill so that they can help in training the recruited people. They also look after whether the technical aspects of the business gets carried in the international location and at the same time keep a track of how the business works. They must also possess updated knowledge about the business. On the other hand, if Liam Glavey, look for recruiting someone in a similar designation from the host location then it might not be effective and would inevitably increase the cost of the business. Moreover, they must have a sound understanding of the corporate culture (Rozkwitalska 2012).

The characteristic of Expatriate Managers for taking up a role in expanding the business in the international market are as follows (Chang, Gong and Peng 2012):

The expatriate manager must possess general knowledge not only about the global economy but also about the world. They should also possess information about the European and Asian countries where the hotel business is about to flourish. Moreover, understanding of process, strategy and style of leadership is also necessary.

The expatriate manager should possess an inner drive to communicate that ensures not being afraid or embarrassed about his foreign language skills.

These managers must also possess sociability that allows them in moving out of close circles and forming ties with every kind of locals.

Characteristic of Expatriate Managers

The managers must also possess the ability to get adapted to the culture of Europe and Asia thereby reflecting their cultural flexibility.

The expatriate managers must possess an open mind since they have to experiment with the different cultures, understand and practice them.

The expatriate managers also need to be aware of the negotiation practice that exists internationally (Freeman and Lindsay 2012). This is because the people coming from lower cultural context expects clear and explicit form of communication whereas people of higher culture seems to be better informed due to the presence of informal networks.

International expansion of Strathmore Hotel Group is not only beneficial to the organization and but is also a factor of excitement amongst the current management (Gupta, R., Banerjee, P. and Gaur, J., 2012). However, there may be several reasons for the failure of the business due to failure of the expatriate. The reasons for the failure are as follows:

Choosing the ideal person for the job may become difficult sometimes since there is difficulty in isolating the qualities required for successful expats, as the person chosen might not have a record of accomplishment of successful assignments.

The host country will have a major role to play in providing support in helping the employees to get accustomed in the new business venture. Sometimes, there is a complete lack in the local support that the business is supposed to get in the host country.

While venturing into the European and Asian market it is pertinent for managers of Strathmore Hotel Group to be in touch with the colleagues back home. The isolation can lead to failure of the expatriate.

There are instances where children and spouses remain the primary factors in cases of repatriation. Most often, the employees do not share their domestic or social difficulty with the management due to lack of open and frequent communication.

The planning for an overseas assignment requires careful and strategic implementation. There is also another fear in modern business where the resource needs of a business can take a drastic change without any warning. Proper strategies and careful planning might help the business to deal with such adversities.

Expatriates expected to have a period of adjustment whenever they move to a new host country .However, most of them underestimate the challenges they face in getting back to their life in the home country once the international project gets over (Simpson 2012). Thus, repatriation considered as one of the challenges phases for an expatriate. Therefore, some of the issues related to repatriation are as follows:

1. Work related Repatriation Issue includes:
2. Loss of isolation and visibility
3. Changes in the work place ambience
4. Finding difficulty in adjusting to re-entry position
5. Devaluation of experience gained in an international platform
6. Personal Repatriation Issue includes:
7. Assuming how repatriation could easily fit them back in the home country
8. Having expectations from life that are mostly unrealistic
9. Finding difficulty in social readjustments as they assume that relationship with family and friends might have changed.
10. Facing difficulty in supporting the members of the family thereby resulting in reverse shock in culture

Expatriate Failure

Thus, for ensuring Cross Cultural Training in his new international business Liam Glavey must consider the following (Stefanenko  and Kupavskaya 2012):

1. Ensuring Proper Training for Development of Intercultural Competence: It is not possible for everyone to have intercultural consciousness. Thus, proper training helps in the development of learned skills that enables the employees to interact in a foreign land.
2. Ensuring that the Employees know the Foreign Language: Though knowing the foreign language is a key factor of cross-cultural training but at the same time, it is also important for an employee to know the values, work styles and priorities of working globally (Landis and Brislin, 2013)
3. Proper Training for Instillation of Values, Beliefs and Norms of the Country: The most important factor however remains in training the employees so that they are aware of the norms, beliefs and values of country in which the employees are traveling.
4. Ensuring Proper Communication with the Team Framework: The employees trained in a matter so that they have an understanding of the values and assumptions of the country they are working for which will enable them in understanding and managing the process of communication within the framework (Durgunoglu and Verhoeven 2013).
5. Ensuring Proper Training in the Ways that Enables Proper Dealing with People: This is necessary, as it will help in portraying the care the employees towards their customers and in valuing cultural traditions.

The primary function of International Management Development refers to the fact that the Strathmore Hotel Group that is planning to expand on an international level has an appeal in the host country despite having an international feel (Mendenhall 2012). However, the objectives that the internationals HRM consultant suggested Liam Glavey are as follows:

1. Creation of a local appeal in the European and Asian market without any kind of compromise on the global identity
2. Ensuring awareness regarding cross-cultural sensitivities amongst the global managers and the staff hired across the geographic boundaries
3. Providing enough training on the sensitivities and cultures of the host country

The primary focus of international compensation management program is to ensure that employees recruited internationally have sufficient financial compensation during the international assignments so they experience sufficient financial security and does not lose on economic grounds (Stahl, Björkman, and Morris 2012). Therefore, in addition to salary the international compensation package involves various components that are as follows: 

1. The Base Salary: For expatriate the base salary includes the primary component of allowance that includes Foreign Service premium, cost of living allowance, utility and housing allowance, pension contributions and in service benefits (Daley 2012).
2. Inducement/ Hardship Premium for Foreign Service: The nationals of the parent country receive a premium salary in the form of inducement for the acceptance of the foreign assignment (Rahim 2012.). Sometimes they might also receive a compensation for the hardship faced while transferring.
3. Expatriates paid various allowance based on the assignment that includes the allowance for cost of living, allowance for housing, house leaves and travel allowances. There may also be allowances for children and reallocation
4. Payments for Tax Equalization: International compensation plan must protect the expatriate from the negative impacts tax through plans of tax equalization (Bargain et.al 2013). In such cases, it is the duty of the company to adjust the base income of the employee so that they do not either pays more or less tax
5. Assistance of the Spouse: Companies also helps guarding the expatriate against any offset income due to the reallocation of his /her spouse.

The international performance management of the expatriates considered difficult compared to the domestic managers. This is because an expatriate performance depends on a number of issues like cultural adjustments, tasks and job roles, compensation and the support they get from the host environment (Dellinger et.al 2013). On the other hand, an expatriate will face innumerable problems whenever they opt for a job in a foreign land. The jobs and tasks defined to them are sometimes in terms of their home country therefore they might have difficulty in understanding the job role when they actually put them to practice in the foreign land. They also find difficulty in adjusting to the foreign culture (Schläfke, Silvi and Möller 2012). They also face challenges from the host ambience in terms of technological, economic, social, legal and physical complications. Thus, there should be enough means for providing support to the individuals for betterment of their performance from not only the home country but also the foreign land.

Conclusion

The report concludes by throwing a light on the international performance management. There is also discussion about the international compensation management and international management development. The international HRM consultant hired by Liam Glavey for the international expansion of his business venture in the European and Asian nations put across these views. The HRM consultant also advices Liam Glavey on the importance of cross cultural training of the employees and the repatriation issues faced by the employees. This discussion finds a vivid mention on the report. The repatriation issues are important for Liam Glavey and his team, as they believe in recruiting employees who will stay with them. The international HRM consultant also makes Liam aware of the reasons for the failure of expatriate that finds a mention in the report. Discussions about the role of the expatriate and their characteristics also is a part of the report. Further, the international HRM consultant also provides advice on the steps followed on the recruitment and selection of the employees along with a mention of the types of international employees.

Repatriation Issues

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