College Recruitment

International companies recruit through universities at home and abroad to find capable nationals of the countries where they have foreign facilities. This method has some drawbacks since the most acute personnel shortage in foreign facilities is for people who already have considerable experience. As the new hires gain experience, however, they may eventually move into higher-level management positions, thus decreasing the need for expatriates. These same firms also recruit home-country nationals, usually to work in their domestic operations until they have gained technical experience and know the corporate culture.

 

Management Inventories

Some companies have centralized personnel record systems, which include home- and foreign-country nationals. These include not only the normal technical and demographic data, but also such adaptive information as foreign-language abilities, willingness to accept foreign assignments, and results of company-administered tests to indicate adaptivity. There are some problems in bringing foreign managers into these systems because, if the firm owns less than 100 percent of the foreign facility, the other stockholders may complain.³⁴ Furthermore, restrictions on data flows among countries could inhibit future uses of centralized management inventories.