HRM textbook

CHAPTER 17 MANAGING GLOBAL HUMAN RESOURCES 599
summarize whatever you can find out about their international
employee selection and training HR policies.
3. Choose three traits useful for selecting international
assignees, and create a straightforward test to screen
candidates for these traits.
4. Use a library or Internet source to determine the relative
cost of living in five countries as of this year, and explain
the implications of such differences for drafting a pay
plan for managers being sent to each country.
5. The HRCI Test Specifications Appendix (pages
633 640) lists the knowledge someone studying for
the HRCI certification exam needs to have in each area of
human resource management (such as in Strategic
Management, Workforce Planning, and Human Resource
Development). In groups of four to five students, do four
things: (1) review that appendix now; (2) identify the
material in this chapter that relates to the required
knowledge the appendix lists; (3) write four multiplechoice
exam questions on this material that you believe
would be suitable for inclusion in the HRCI exam;
and (4) if time permits, have someone from your team
post your team s questions in front of the class, so
the students in other teams can take each others exam
questions.
6. An issue of HR Magazine contained an article titled
Aftershocks of War, which said that soldiers returning
to their jobs from Iraq would likely require HR s
assistance in coping with delayed emotional trauma.
The term delayed emotional trauma refers to the personality
changes such as anger, anxiety, or irritability and
associated problems such as tardiness or absenteeism
that exposure to the traumatic events of war sometimes
triggers in returning veterans. Assume you are the
HR manager for the employer of John Smith, who is
returning to work next week after 1 year in Iraq. Based
on what you read in this chapter, what steps would you
take to help ensure that John s reintegration into your
workforce goes as smoothly as possible?
EXPERIENTIAL EXERCISE
A Taxing Problem for Expatriate Employees
Purpose: The purpose of this exercise is to give you practice
identifying and analyzing some of the factors that influence
expatriates pay.
Required Understanding: You should be thoroughly familiar
with this chapter and with the Web site www.irs.gov.
How to Set Up the Exercise/Instructions:
Divide the class into teams of four or five students. Each team
member should read the following: One of the trickiest aspects
of calculating expatriates pay relates to the question of the
expatriate s U.S. federal income tax liabilities. Go to the Internal
Revenue Service s Web site, www.irs.gov. Scroll down to
Individuals, and go to Overseas Taxpayers. Your team is the
expatriate-employee compensation task force for your company,
and your firm is about to send several managers and
engineers to Japan, England, and Hong Kong. What information
did you find on the site that will help your team formulate
expat tax and compensation policies? Based on that, what are
the three most important things your firm should keep in
mind in formulating a compensation policy for the employees
you re about to send to Japan, England, and Hong Kong?
APPLICATION CASE
BOSS, I THINK WE HAVE A PROBLEM
Central Steel Door Corporation has been in business for
about 20 years, successfully selling a line of steel industrialgrade
doors, as well as the hardware and fittings required for
them. 129 Focusing mostly in the United States and Canada,
the company had gradually increased its presence from the
New York City area, first into New England and then down
the Atlantic Coast, then through the Midwest and West, and
finally into Canada. The company s basic expansion strategy
was always the same: Choose an area, open a distribution
center, hire a regional sales manager, and then let that
regional sales manager help staff the distribution center and
hire local sales reps.
Unfortunately, the company s traditional success in
finding sales help has not extended to its overseas operations.
With the introduction of the new euro European
currency in 2002, Mel Fisher, president of Central Steel
Door, decided to expand his company abroad, into Europe.
However, the expansion has not gone smoothly at all.
He tried for 3 weeks to find a sales manager by advertising
in the International Herald Tribune, which is read by businesspeople
in Europe and by American expatriates living and
working in Europe. Although the ads placed in the Tribune
also ran for about a month on the Tribune s Web site,
Mr. Fisher so far has received only five applications. One
came from a possibly viable candidate, whereas four came
from candidates who Mr. Fisher refers to as lost souls
people who seem to have spent most of their time traveling
aimlessly from country to country, sipping espresso in sidewalk
cafés. When asked what he had done for the last 3 years,
one told Mr. Fisher he d been on a walkabout.
Other aspects of his international HR activities have
been equally problematic. Fisher alienated two of his U.S.
sales managers by sending them to Europe to temporarily
run the European operations, but neglecting to work out a
compensation package that would cover their relatively high
living expenses in Germany and Belgium. One ended up