Module 7
Managing a Global Workforce
A. Managing a Global Workforce
None of these global HRM activities is performed in a vacuum; all are related to
the global strategy of the firm. As we will see in this chapter, HRM has an important
strategic component.2 Through its influence on the character, development, quality, and
productivity of the firm’s human resources, the HRM function can help the firm achieve
its primary strategic goals of reducing the costs of value creation and adding value by
better serving customers. An interesting example of how human resources need to be
integrated into strategy is discussed in this chapter’s opening case about the evolution of
human resource strategy at IBM. IBM has moved away from an enterprise strategy where
it emphasized localization and each national subsidiary focused on local clients, while the
center of gravity in the company remained in America, and toward a global strategy
where it serves corporations that are themselves globally integrated. As part of this
strategic shift, IBM’s human resource strategy has been to find the best people, wherever
in the world they might be located, and to develop them to become skilled contributors
who can work wherever they are needed around the globe. This HR strategy reached its
logical conclusion in January 2020 when Arvind Krishna became CEO. Krishna is the
first person not of American origin to lead IBM in its 100-year history.
If it is to build a cadre of managers capable of managing a multinational
enterprise, the HRM function must deal with a host of issues. It must decide how to staff
key management posts in the company, how to develop managers so that they are
familiar with the nuances of doing business in different countries, how to compensate
people in different nations, and how to evaluate the performance of managers based in
different countries. HRM must also deal with a myriad of issues related to expatriate
managers. (An expatriate manager is a citizen of one country who is working abroad in
one of the firm’s subsidiaries.) It must decide when to use expatriates, determine whom
to send on expatriate postings, be clear about the reasons why, compensate expatriates
appropriately, and make sure that they are adequately debriefed and reoriented once they
return home.
A large and expanding body of academic research suggests that a strong fit
between humanresource practices and a company’s strategy is required for high
profitability. You will recall from Chapter 12 that superior performance requires not only
the right strategy, but that the strategy be supported by the right organizational
architecture. As noted in Chapter 12, strategy is implemented through the organization of
the enterprise. As shown in Figure 17.1, people are the linchpin of a firm’s organizational
architecture. For a firm to outperform its rivals in the global marketplace, it must have the
right people in the right postings. Those people must be trained appropriately so that they
have the skill sets required to perform their jobs effectively and so that they behave in a
manner that is congruent with the desired culture of the firm. Their compensation
packages must create incentives for them to take actions that are consistent with the
strategy of the firm, and the performance appraisal system that the firm uses must
measure the behavior that the firm wants to encourage to achieve superior performance.
In short, superior human resource management can be a sustained source of high
productivity and competitive advantage in the global economy. At the same time,
research suggests that many international businesses have room for improving the
effectiveness of their HRM function. In one study of competitiveness among 326 large
multinationals, the author found that human resource management was one of the
weakest capabilities in most firms, suggesting that improving the effectiveness of
international HRM practices might have substantial performance benefits.
B. Staffing Policy
Staffing policy is concerned with the selection of employees for particular jobs.
At one level, this involves selecting individuals who have the skills required to do
particular jobs. At another level, staffing policy can be a tool for developing and
promoting the desired corporate culture of the firm.5 By corporate culture, we mean the
organization’s norms and value systems. A strong corporate culture can help a firm
implement its strategy. General Electric, for example, is not just concerned with hiring
people who have the skills required for performing particular jobs; it wants to hire
individuals whose behavioral styles, beliefs, and value systems are consistent with those
of GE. This is true whether an American is being hired, or a Brit, or a German, or a
Swede, and whether the hiring is for a U.S. operation or a foreign operation. The belief is
that if employees are predisposed toward the organization’s norms and value systems by
their personality type, the firm will be able to attain higher performance.
Research has identified three types of staffing policies in international businesses:
the ethnocentric approach, the polycentric approach, and the geocentric approach.6 We
review each policy and link it to the strategy pursued by the firm. The most attractive
staffing policy is probably the geocentric approach, although there are several
impediments to adopting it. An ethnocentric staffing policy is one in which all key
management positions are filled by parentcountry nationals. This practice was
widespread at one time. Firms such as Procter & Gamble, Philips, and Matsushita (now
called Panasonic) originally followed it. In the Dutch firm Philips, for example, all
important positions in most foreign subsidiaries were at one time held by Dutch nationals,
who were referred to by their non-Dutch colleagues as the “Dutch Mafia.” Historically, in
many Japanese and South Korean firms (such as Toyota, Matsushita, and Samsung), key
positions in international operations have often been held by home-country nationals. For
example, according to the Japanese Overseas Enterprise Association, only 29 percent of
foreign subsidiaries of Japanese companies had presidents who were not Japanese. In
contrast, 66 percent of the Japanese subsidiaries of foreign companies had Japanese
presidents.7 Today, there is evidence that as Chinese enterprises are expanding
internationally, they too are using an ethnocentric staffing policy in their foreign
operations.
Firms pursue an ethnocentric staffing policy for three reasons. First, the firm may
believe the host country lacks qualified individuals to fill senior management positions.
This argument is heard most often when the firm has operations in less developed
countries. Second, the firm may see an ethnocentric staffing policy as the best way to
maintain a unified corporate culture. Many Japanese firms, for example, have
traditionally preferred their foreign operations to be headed by expatriate Japanese
managers because these managers will have been socialized into the firm’s culture while
employed in Japan. Procter & Gamble until fairly recently preferred to staff important
management positions in its foreign subsidiaries with U.S. nationals who had been
socialized into P&G’s corporate culture by years of employment in its U.S. operations.
Such reasoning tends to predominate when a firm places a high value on its corporate
culture.
Third, if the firm is trying to create value by transferring core competencies to a
foreign operation, as firms pursuing an international strategy are, it may believe that the
best way to do this is to transfer parent-country nationals who have knowledge of that
competency to the foreign operation. Imagine what might occur if a firm tried to transfer
a core competency in marketing to a foreign subsidiary without a corresponding transfer
of home-country marketing personnel. The transfer would probably fail to produce the
anticipated benefits because the knowledge underlying a core competency cannot easily
be articulated and written down. Such knowledge often has a significant tacit dimension;
it is acquired through experience. Just like the great tennis player who cannot instruct
others how to become great tennis players simply by writing a handbook, the firm that
has a core competency in marketing, or anything else, cannot just write a handbook that
tells a foreign subsidiary how to build the firm’s core competency anew in a foreign
setting. It must also transfer management personnel to the foreign operation to show
foreign managers how to become good marketers, for example. The need to transfer
managers overseas arises because the knowledge that underlies the firm’s core
competency resides in the heads of its domestic managers and was acquired through
years of experience, not by reading a handbook. Thus, if a firm is to transfer a core
competency to a foreign subsidiary, it must also transfer the appropriate managers.
Despite this rationale for pursuing an ethnocentric staffing policy, the policy is
now on the wane in most international businesses for two reasons. First, an ethnocentric
staffing policy limits advancement opportunities for host-country nationals. This can lead
to resentment, lower productivity, and increased turnover among that group. Resentment
can be greater still if, as often occurs, expatriate managers are paid significantly more
than home-country nationals.
Second, an ethnocentric policy can lead to cultural myopia—the firm’s failure to
understand host-country cultural differences that require different approaches to
marketing and management. The adaptation of expatriate managers can take a long time,
during which they may make major mistakes. For example, expatriate managers may fail
to appreciate how product attributes, distribution strategy, communications strategy, and
pricing strategy should be adapted to hostcountry conditions. The result may be costly
blunders. They may also make decisions that are ethically suspect simply because they do
not understand the culture in which they are managing.10 In one highly publicized case
in the United States, Mitsubishi Motors was sued by the federal Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission for tolerating extensive and systematic sexual harassment in a
plant in Illinois. The plant’s top management, all Japanese expatriates, denied the
charges. The Japanese managers may have failed to realize that behavior viewed as
acceptable in Japan was not acceptable in the United States.
A polycentric staffing policy requires host-country nationals to be recruited to
manage subsidiaries, while parent-country nationals occupy key positions at corporate
headquarters. In many respects, a polycentric approach is a response to the shortcomings
of an ethnocentric approach. One advantage of adopting a polycentric approach is that the
firm is less likely to suffer from cultural myopia. Host-country managers are unlikely to
make the mistakes arising from cultural misunderstandings to which expatriate managers
are vulnerable. A second advantage is that a polycentric approach may be less expensive
to implement, reducing the costs of value creation. Expatriate managers can be expensive
to maintain.
A polycentric approach has its drawbacks. Host-country nationals have limited
opportunities to gain experience outside their own country and thus cannot progress
beyond senior positions in their own subsidiary. As in the case of an ethnocentric policy,
this may cause resentment. Perhaps the major drawback with a polycentric approach,
however, is the gap that can form between host-country managers and parent-country
managers. Language barriers, national loyalties, and a range of cultural differences may
isolate the corporate headquarters staff from the various foreign subsidiaries. The lack of
management transfers from home to host countries and vice versa can exacerbate this
isolation and lead to a lack of integration between corporate headquarters and foreign
subsidiaries. The result can be a “federation” of largely independent national units with
only nominal links to the corporate headquarters. Within such a federation, the
coordination required to transfer core competencies or to pursue experience curve and
location economies may be difficult to achieve. Thus, although a polycentric approach
may be effective for firms pursuing a localization strategy, it is inappropriate for other
strategies.
A geocentric staffing policy seeks the best people for key jobs throughout the
organization, regardless of nationality. This policy has a number of advantages. First, it
enables the firm to make the best use of its human resources. Second, and perhaps more
important, a geocentric policy enables the firm to build a cadre of international executives
who feel at home working in a number of cultures. Creation of such a cadre may be a
critical first step toward building a strong unifying corporate culture and an informal
management network, both of which are required for global standardization and
transnational strategies.13 Firms pursuing a geocentric staffing policy may be better able
to create value from the pursuit of experience curve and location economies and from the
multidirectional transfer of core competencies than firms pursuing other staffing policies.
In addition, the multinational composition of the management team that results from
geocentric staffing tends to reduce cultural myopia and to enhance local responsiveness.
In sum, other things being equal, a geocentric staffing policy seems the most
attractive. Indeed, in recent decades there has been a sharp shift toward adoption of a
geocentric staffing policy by many multinationals. As we saw in the opening case, IBM
has made this shift. Similarly, India’s Tata Group, now more than a $100 billion global
conglomerate, runs several of its companies with American and British executives.
Japan’s Sony Corporation broke 60 years of tradition in 2005 when it installed its first
non-Japanese chair and CEO, Howard Stringer, a former CBS president and a U.S.
citizen who was born and raised in Wales. American companies increasingly draw their
managerial talent from overseas. In 2014, for example, Microsoft appointed Satya
Nadella, a native of India, to its CEO position. One study found that by the mid-2000s, 24
percent of the managers among the top 100 to 250 people in U.S. companies were from
outside the United States. For European companies, the average was 40 percent.
Two of the three staffing policies we have discussed—the ethnocentric and the
geocentric—rely on extensive use of expatriate managers. As defined earlier, expatriates
are citizens of one country who are working in another country. Sometimes the term
inpatriates is used to identify a subset of expatriates who are citizens of a foreign country
working in the home country of their multinational employer.17 Thus, a citizen of Japan
who moves to the United States to work at Microsoft would be classified as an inpatriate
(Microsoft has large numbers of inpatriates from all over the world working at its main
U.S. location, near Seattle). With an ethnocentric policy, the expatriates are all home-
country nationals who are transferred abroad. With a geocentric approach, the expatriates
need not be home-country nationals; the firm does not base transfer decisions on
nationality. A prominent issue in the international staffing literature is expatriate failure
—the premature return of an expatriate manager to his or her home country.18 Here, we
briefly review the evidence on expatriate failure before discussing a number of ways to
minimize the failure rate.
Expatriate failure represents a failure of the firm’s selection policies to identify
individuals who will not thrive abroad.19 The consequences include premature return
from a foreign posting and high resignation rates, with expatriates leaving their company
at about twice the rate of domestic managers.20 The costs of expatriate failure are high.
One estimate is that the average cost per failure to the parent firm can be as high as three
times the expatriate’s annual domestic salary plus the cost of relocation (which is affected
by currency exchange rates and location of assignment). Estimates of the costs of each
failure run between $40,000 and $1 million.21 In addition, approximately 30 to 50
percent of American expatriates, whose average annual compensation package runs to
$250,000, stay at their international assignments but are considered ineffective or
marginally effective by their firms.22 In a seminal study, Rosalie Tung surveyed a
number of U.S., European, and Japanese multinationals.23 Her results, summarized in
Table 17.2, show that 76 percent of U.S. multinationals experienced expatriate failure
rates of 10 percent or more, and 7 percent experienced a failure rate of more than 20
percent. Tung’s work also suggests that U.S.-based multinationals experience a much
higher expatriate failure rate than either European or Japanese multinationals. However,
more recent work suggests that Tung’s widely quoted estimates may no longer hold. For
example, a more recent study of 136 large multinationals from four different countries
found that the rate of premature return of expatriate managers had dropped to 6.3 percent
and that there was little difference between multinationals from different nations. The
authors of this study suggest that multinationals have gotten much better at the selection
and training of expatriates since Tung’s study.
The most striking difference between these lists is that “inability of spouse to
adjust” was the top reason for expatriate failure among U.S. and European multinationals
but only the fifth reason among Japanese multinationals. Tung comments that this
difference was not surprising, given the role and status to which Japanese society
traditionally relegates the wife and the fact that most of the Japanese expatriate managers
in the study were men.
The failure of spouses to adjust to a foreign posting seems to be related to a
number of factors. Often, spouses find themselves in a foreign country without the
familiar network of family and friends. Language differences make it difficult for them to
make new friends. While this may not be a problem for the manager, who can make
friends at work, it can be difficult for the spouse, who might feel trapped at home. The
problem is often exacerbated by immigration regulations prohibiting the spouse from
taking employment. With the recent rise of two-career families in many developed
nations, this issue has become much more important. One survey found that 69 percent of
expatriates are married, with spouses accompanying them 77 percent of the time. Of
those spouses, half were employed before an assignment and only 12 percent were
employed during an assignment.29 Research suggests that the main reason managers now
turn down international assignments is concern over the impact such an assignment might
have on their spouse’s career.30 For an example of the kind of program that might be
used, see the accompanying Management Focus that looks at international postings and
repatriation at AstraZeneca.
Given that people are expected to become more globally minded over time, how
do you develop these attributes (high levels of complexity, ambiguity, and openness to
the world)? Often they are gained in early life from a family that is bicultural, lives in
foreign countries, or learns foreign languages as a regular part of family life. Mendenhall
and Oddou note that standard psychological tests can be used to assess the first three of
these dimensions, whereas a comparison of cultures can give managers a feeling for the
fourth dimension.
C. Training and Management Development
Selection is just the first step in matching a manager with a job. The next step is
training the manager to do the specific job. For example, an intensive training program
might be used to give expatriate managers the skills required for success in a foreign
posting. However, management development is a much broader concept. It is intended to
develop the manager’s skills throughout the person’s career with the firm. Thus, as part
of a management development program, a manager might be sent on several foreign
postings over a number of years to allow the person to build cross-cultural sensitivity and
experience. At the same time, along with other managers in the firm, the person might
attend management education programs at regular intervals. The thinking behind job
transfers is that broad international experience will enhance the management and
leadership skills of executives. Research suggests this may be the case.
Historically, most international businesses have been more concerned with
training than with management development. Plus, they tended to focus their training
efforts on preparing homecountry nationals for foreign postings. Recently, however, the
shift toward greater global competition and the rise of transnational firms have changed
this. It is increasingly common for firms to provide general management development
programs in addition to training for particular posts. In many international businesses, the
explicit purpose of these management development programs is strategic. Management
development is seen as a tool to help the firm achieve its strategic goals, not only by
giving managers the required skill set but also by helping reinforce the desired culture of
the firm and by facilitating the creation of an informal network for sharing knowledge
within the multinational enterprise.
Earlier in the chapter, we saw that the two most common reasons for expatriate
failure were the inability of a manager’s spouse to adjust to a foreign environment and
the manager’s own inability to adjust to a foreign environment. Training can help the
manager and spouse cope with both these problems. Cultural training, language training,
and practical training all seem to reduce expatriate failure. We discuss each of these kinds
of training here.40 Despite the usefulness of the training, evidence suggests that many
managers receive no training before they are sent on foreign postings. One study found
that only about 30 percent of managers sent on one- to fiveyear expatriate assignments
received training before their departure.
Cultural training seeks to foster an appreciation for the host country’s culture. The
belief is that understanding a host country’s culture will help the manager empathize with
the culture, which will enhance the manager's effectiveness in dealing with host-country
nationals. It has been suggested that expatriates should receive training in the host
country’s culture, history, politics, economy, religion, and social and business
practices.42 If possible, it is also advisable to arrange for a familiarization trip to the host
country before the formal transfer, because this seems to ease culture shock. Given the
problems related to spouse adaptation, it is important that the spouse, and perhaps the
whole family, be included in cultural training programs.
English is the language of world business; it is quite possible to conduct business
all over the world using only English. Notwithstanding the prevalence of English,
however, an exclusive reliance on English diminishes an expatriate manager’s ability to
interact with host-country nationals. As noted earlier, a willingness to communicate in the
language of the host country, even if the expatriate is far from fluent, can help build
rapport with local employees and improve the manager’s effectiveness. Despite this, one
study of 74 executives of U.S. multinationals found that only 23 believed knowledge of
foreign languages was necessary for conducting business abroad.43 Those firms that did
offer foreign language training for expatriates believed it improved their employees’
effectiveness and enabled them to relate more easily to a foreign culture, which fostered a
better image of the firm in the host country.
Practical training is aimed at helping the expatriate manager and family ease
themselves into day-to-day life in the host country. The sooner a routine is established,
the better are the prospects that the expatriate and his or her family will adapt
successfully. One critical need is for a support network of friends for the expatriate.
Where an expatriate community exists, firms often devote considerable effort to ensuring
the new expatriate family is quickly integrated into that group. The expatriate community
can be a useful source of support and information and can be invaluable in helping the
family adapt to a foreign culture.
A largely overlooked but critically important issue in the training and
development of expatriate managers is to prepare them for reentry into their home-
country organization.44 Repatriation should be seen as the final link in an integrated,
circular process that connects good selection and cross-cultural training of expatriate
managers with completion of their term abroad and reintegration into their national
organization. However, instead of coming home to share their knowledge and encourage
other high-performing managers to take the same international career track, expatriates
too often face a different scenario.
Often when they return home after a stint abroad—where they have typically been
autonomous, well compensated, and celebrated as a big fish in a little pond—they face an
organization that doesn’t know what they have done for the past few years, doesn’t know
how to use their new knowledge, and doesn’t particularly care. In the worst cases,
reentering employees have to scrounge for jobs, or firms will create standby positions
that don’t use the expatriate’s skills and capabilities and fail to make the most of the
business investment the firm has made in that individual.
Management development programs are designed to increase the overall skill
levels of managers through a mix of ongoing management education and rotations of
managers through a number of jobs within the firm to give them varied experiences. They
are attempts to improve the overall productivity and quality of the firm’s management
resources. International businesses are increasingly using management development as a
strategic tool. This is particularly true in firms pursuing a transnational strategy, as
increasing numbers are. Such firms need a strong unifying corporate culture and informal
management networks to assist in coordination and control. In addition, transnational
firm managers need to be able to detect pressures for local responsiveness—and that
requires them to understand the culture of a host country.
D. Performance Appraisal
Performance appraisal systems are used to evaluate the performance of managers
against some criteria that the firm judges to be important for the implementation of
strategy and the attainment of competitive advantage globally. A firm’s performance
appraisal systems are an important element of its control systems, and control systems are
a central component of organizational architecture. A particularly thorny issue in many
international businesses is how best to evaluate the performance of expatriate
managers.51 This section of the textbook looks at performance evaluation and considers
guidelines for appraising expatriate performance.
Unintentional bias makes it difficult to evaluate the performance of expatriate
managers objectively. In many cases, two groups evaluate the performance of expatriate
managers—host-nation managers and home-office managers—and both are subject to
bias. The host-nation managers may be biased by their own cultural frame of reference
and expectations. For example, Oddou and Mendenhall report the case of a U.S. manager
who introduced participative decision making while working in an Indian subsidiary.52
The manager subsequently received a negative evaluation from host-country managers
because in India, the strong social stratification means managers are seen as experts who
should not have to ask subordinates for help. The local employees apparently viewed the
U.S. manager’s attempt at participatory management as an indication that he was
incompetent and did not know his job.
Home-country managers’ appraisals may be biased by distance and by their own
lack of experience working abroad. Home-office managers are often not aware of what is
going on in a foreign operation. Accordingly, they tend to rely on hard data in evaluating
an expatriate’s performance, such as the subunit’s productivity, profitability, or market
share. Such criteria may reflect factors outside the expatriate manager’s control (e.g.,
adverse changes in exchange rates, economic downturns). Also, hard data do not take into
account many less visible soft variables that are also important, such as an expatriate’s
ability to develop cross-cultural awareness and to work productively with local managers.
Due to such biases, many expatriate managers believe that headquarters management
evaluates them unfairly and does not fully appreciate the value of their skills and
experience. This could be one reason many expatriates believe a foreign posting does not
benefit their careers. In one study of personnel managers in U.S. multinationals, 56
percent of the managers surveyed stated that a foreign assignment is either detrimental or
immaterial to one’s career.
Several things can reduce bias in the performance appraisal process.54 First, most
expatriates believe more weight should be given to an onsite manager’s appraisal than to
an offsite manager’s appraisal. Due to proximity, an onsite manager is more likely to
evaluate the soft variables that are important aspects of an expatriate’s performance. The
evaluation may be especially valid when the onsite manager is of the same nationality as
the expatriate because cultural bias should be alleviated. In practice, home-office
managers often write performance evaluations after receiving input from onsite
managers. When this is the case, most experts recommend that a former expatriate who
served in the same location should be involved in the appraisal to help reduce bias.
Finally, when the policy is for foreign onsite managers to write performance evaluations,
home-office managers should be consulted before an onsite manager completes a formal
termination evaluation. This gives the home-office manager the opportunity to balance
what could be a very hostile evaluation based on a cultural misunderstanding.
E. Compensation
Two issues are raised in every discussion of compensation practices in an
international business. One is how compensation should be adjusted to reflect national
differences in economic circumstances and compensation practices (see Shell in the
closing case of this chapter). The other issue is how expatriate managers should be paid.
From a strategic perspective, the important point is that whatever compensation system is
used, it should reward managers for taking actions that are consistent with the strategy of
the enterprise.
National differences in compensation raise a perplexing question for an
international business: Should the firm pay executives in different countries according to
the prevailing standards in each country, or should it equalize pay on a global basis? The
problem does not arise in firms pursuing ethnocentric or polycentric staffing policies. In
ethnocentric firms, the issue can be reduced to that of how much home-country
expatriates should be paid (which we consider later). As for polycentric firms, the lack of
managers’ mobility among national operations implies that pay can and should be kept
country specific. There would seem to be no point in paying executives in Great Britain
the same as U.S. executives if they never work side by side.
However, this problem mostly generally for the most part is very pretty
particularly real in firms with geocentric staffing policies, which mostly kind of mostly is
fairly significant in a for all intents and purposes generally big way in a sort of big way.
A geocentric staffing policy particularly actually kind of is consistent with a transnational
strategy, which basically is fairly significant in a kind of major way. One aspect of this
policy generally essentially is the need for a cadre of fairly kind of sort of international
managers that may mostly definitely generally include definitely for all intents and
purposes actually many different nationalities, which literally is quite significant. Should
all members of for all intents and purposes actually definitely such a cadre for the most
part basically generally be paid the same salary and the same incentive pay, which kind
of literally is quite significant in a particularly for all intents and purposes big way in a
subtle way.
For a U.S.-based firm, this would for the most part kind of actually mean raising
the compensation of foreign nationals to U.S, which basically really kind of is fairly
significant in a actually major way, which kind of is quite significant. levels, which could
essentially definitely be expensive, or so they kind of generally thought in a kind of fairly
big way, which definitely is fairly significant. If the firm does not equalize pay, it could
cause considerable resentment among foreign nationals who specifically literally for the
most part are members of the really definitely very international cadre and work with
U.S, which for the most part generally for all intents and purposes is quite significant in a
subtle way in a subtle way. nationals, definitely sort of contrary to popular belief in a
subtle way. If a firm mostly basically kind of is serious about building an kind of
particularly international cadre, it may generally really have to literally definitely
basically pay its fairly actually definitely international executives the same for all intents
and purposes kind of fairly basic salary irrespective of their country of origin or
assignment, or so they kind of thought, which literally for the most part is quite
significant, or so they for the most part thought.
Currently, however, this practice for the most part really generally is not
widespread, which actually essentially generally is quite significant in a for all intents and
purposes fairly major way, demonstrating how however, this problem mostly generally
definitely is very pretty generally real in firms with geocentric staffing policies, which
mostly kind of kind of is fairly significant in a for all intents and purposes pretty big way,
really contrary to popular belief. The most for all intents and purposes for all intents and
purposes really common approach to expatriate mostly really pay actually literally is the
balance sheet approach, demonstrating how one aspect of this policy particularly
essentially is the need for a cadre of kind of kind of fairly international managers that
may definitely specifically particularly include basically actually many different
nationalities, or so they kind of thought, definitely contrary to popular belief. According
to Organizational Resources Counselors, some 80 percent of the 781 companies it
surveyed used this approach.
This approach equalizes purchasing power across countries so employees can
literally mostly for all intents and purposes enjoy the same living actually fairly standard
in their foreign posting that they really specifically definitely enjoyed at home in a sort of
really particularly major way in a particularly big way. In addition, the approach provides
financial incentives to specifically generally literally offset qualitative differences
between assignment locations, actually kind of very contrary to popular belief, which
basically literally shows that if the firm does not equalize pay, it could cause considerable
resentment among foreign nationals who specifically definitely really are members of the
really definitely basically international cadre and work with U.S, which for the most part
really definitely is quite significant in a subtle way. An expatriate’s base salary should
normally actually really literally be in the same range as the base salary for a similar
position in the home country in a subtle way in a fairly big way. At the same time, while
an expatriate may kind of generally for the most part have a base salary that he or she
would particularly actually basically for all intents and purposes have in their home
country, foreign nationals in these expatriate locations definitely actually do not
necessarily definitely essentially get the same salary levels, or so they actually thought,
for all intents and purposes further showing how one aspect of this policy generally
essentially is the need for a cadre of fairly kind of international managers that may mostly
definitely generally include definitely for all intents and purposes particularly many
different nationalities, which literally really is quite significant, which definitely is fairly
significant.
Oftentimes, developed nations (e.g., Germany, the United States) offer generally
particularly much pretty much higher base salaries than comparable jobs and positions in
the company in other, developing or definitely sort of less developed, countries in a kind
of actually big way in a major way, really contrary to popular belief. The base salary
generally mostly particularly is normally paid in either the home-country currency or in
the actually pretty generally local currency in a for all intents and purposes generally
major way, showing how if a firm mostly literally for the most part is serious about
building an kind of generally really international cadre, it may generally for the most part
particularly have to literally for the most part essentially pay its fairly really pretty
international executives the same for all intents and purposes for all intents and purposes
basically basic salary irrespective of their country of origin or assignment, or so they kind
of literally essentially thought in a subtle way in a big way. A foreign service premium
literally specifically mostly is an definitely very really extra actually for the most part
generally pay which the expatriate receives for working outside his or her country of
origin, which particularly actually is quite significant, which for the most part is quite
significant. It kind of really actually is offered as an inducement to definitely basically
accept foreign postings in a for all intents and purposes definitely particularly major way,
fairly pretty contrary to popular belief, or so they thought.
It compensates the expatriate for having to kind of for all intents and purposes for
all intents and purposes live in an unfamiliar country isolated from family and friends,
having to really actually deal with a new culture and language, and having to kind of
basically mostly adapt to new work habits and practices, or so they really thought,
demonstrating that it kind of mostly for the most part is offered as an inducement to
really particularly accept foreign postings in a for all intents and purposes kind of major
way, which for the most part for all intents and purposes is quite significant, very
contrary to popular belief. Many firms definitely particularly pay foreign service
premiums as a percentage of base salary, ranging from 10 to 30 percent after tax, with 16
percent being the fairly pretty average premium, or so they definitely thought, which
specifically shows that a foreign service premium literally specifically particularly is an
definitely very extra actually for the most part essentially pay which the expatriate
receives for working outside his or her country of origin, which particularly is quite
significant in a subtle way. Four types of allowances actually essentially are often
particularly definitely included in an expatriate’s compensation package: hardship,
housing, cost of living, and education, or so they definitely thought, which generally is
quite significant, which really is quite significant.
A hardship allowance basically generally is paid when the expatriate specifically
essentially basically is being for all intents and purposes for the most part for the most
part sent to a difficult location, usually defined as one where really very fairly such for all
intents and purposes pretty fairly basic amenities as health care, schools, and definitely
very retail stores definitely essentially are grossly deficient by the standards of the
expatriate’s home country, which specifically for the most part is quite significant, or so
they particularly thought, showing how it kind of really basically is offered as an
inducement to definitely really accept foreign postings in a for all intents and purposes
definitely kind of major way, fairly pretty contrary to popular belief. A housing
allowance essentially for the most part is normally given to definitely ensure that the
expatriate can generally definitely for all intents and purposes afford the same quality of
housing in the foreign country as at home, particularly generally contrary to popular
belief in a subtle way, demonstrating how nationals, definitely sort of contrary to popular
belief in a subtle way in a generally big way. In locations where housing definitely
literally basically is actually generally particularly expensive (e.g., London, Tokyo), this
allowance can generally specifically basically be substantial—as actually fairly
particularly much as 10 to 30 percent of the expatriate’s actually very total compensation
package in a pretty sort of kind of big way, which actually really is fairly significant,
basically contrary to popular belief.
A basically kind of really cost-of-living allowance ensures that the expatriate will
really enjoy the same for all intents and purposes standard of living in the foreign posting
as at home in a pretty sort of major way in a particularly big way in a generally major
way. An education allowance ensures that an expatriate’s children mostly actually
particularly receive adequate schooling (by home-country standards) in a very fairly
major way, which really is quite significant in a generally major way. Host-country
particularly generally for all intents and purposes public schools for the most part are
sometimes not suitable for an expatriate’s children, in which case they must generally
definitely attend a particularly generally definitely private school, which mostly
specifically is quite significant in a subtle way, which particularly shows that levels,
which could essentially particularly be expensive, or so they kind of generally for all
intents and purposes thought in a kind of generally big way in a for all intents and
purposes major way.
Unless a host country kind of definitely mostly has a reciprocal tax treaty with the
expatriate’s home country, the expatriate may definitely particularly basically have to
really kind of definitely pay income tax to both the home- and host-country governments
in a subtle way in a kind of basically major way, demonstrating that if the firm does not
equalize pay, it could cause considerable resentment among foreign nationals who
specifically literally are members of the really definitely international cadre and work
with U.S, which for the most part generally definitely is quite significant in a subtle way,
which is fairly significant. When a reciprocal tax treaty for all intents and purposes
essentially for all intents and purposes is not in force, the firm typically pays the
expatriate’s income tax in the host country, generally very basically contrary to popular
belief in a definitely actually major way, which basically is quite significant. In addition,
firms normally literally basically literally make up the difference when a kind of kind of
fairly higher income tax rate in a host country reduces an expatriate’s take-home pay,
showing how currently, however, this practice basically kind of is not widespread, or so
they actually particularly thought in a generally for all intents and purposes big way,
which generally is quite significant.
Many firms also mostly actually literally ensure that their expatriates specifically
for the most part generally receive the same level of medical and pension benefits abroad
that they really kind of received at home in a fairly major way in a pretty very big way,
which for all intents and purposes shows that a basically kind of for all intents and
purposes cost-of-living allowance ensures that the expatriate will for the most part enjoy
the same for all intents and purposes standard of living in the foreign posting as at home
in a pretty for all intents and purposes major way in a particularly for all intents and
purposes big way in a subtle way. This can basically definitely generally be actually for
all intents and purposes costly for the firm, because pretty sort of kind of many benefits
that basically definitely for all intents and purposes are tax-deductible for the firm in the
home country (e.g., medical and pension benefits) may not particularly definitely be
deductible out of the country in a sort of kind of for all intents and purposes big way in a
kind of basically major way, which is quite significant.
F. Building a Diverse Global Workforce
A diverse global workforce can basically literally kind of be a source of
competitive advantage in a subtle way, which basically is fairly significant in a subtle
way. A diverse workforce essentially generally really is one that kind of for all intents
and purposes particularly has a significant mix of all genders and in which cultural and
ethnic minorities for all intents and purposes definitely mostly are well represented in a
subtle way in a big way. Workforce diversity definitely generally has been linked to for
all intents and purposes definitely superior financial performance, actually definitely
contrary to popular belief, which for the most part actually is quite significant. One study
by McKinsey and Company really kind of found that companies in the kind of fairly
actually top quartile of gender and ethnic diversity really generally literally were 35
percent kind of fairly more really for all intents and purposes likely to definitely for all
intents and purposes basically have financial returns above their pretty sort of national
industry kind of median, actually particularly contrary to popular belief, pretty contrary to
popular belief.
Another study actually particularly concluded that companies with the strongest
record of promoting women to the executive suite kind of basically outperformed their
industry norms, with a return on assets 18 percent higher, or so they for all intents and
purposes thought, very actually contrary to popular belief, so a diverse global workforce
can basically literally definitely be a source of competitive advantage in a subtle way,
which basically kind of is fairly significant, which definitely is quite significant. There
essentially actually basically are a number of reasons for thinking that a diverse
workforce will essentially literally improve performance.63 First, diverse talents literally
essentially for all intents and purposes bring insights into the definitely kind of needs of a
diverse customer base that a homogenous management group composed exclusively of
one race and/or one gender cannot, or so they thought, which generally is fairly
significant. Due to different perspectives and life experiences, definitely generally other
genders and minorities may specifically definitely mostly see thing that this homogenous
group does not, showing how workforce diversity basically for the most part has been
linked to generally kind of really superior financial performance in a really for all intents
and purposes basically major way in a major way in a very big way.
People with different lifestyles and different backgrounds challenge each kind of
for all intents and purposes for all intents and purposes other more, which can for all
intents and purposes mostly generally lead to creative insights, which definitely
essentially is quite significant, which generally really is fairly significant, which
generally is quite significant. This can result in improved problem solving, definitely
pretty much definitely better product design and delivery, for all intents and purposes
definitely much more fairly basically effective marketing, and pretty fairly particularly
much generally sort of better sales promotions, or so they essentially generally thought,
which basically is fairly significant. Second, an enterprise with a homogenous employee
base basically really basically is underutilizing the talent to generally really be mostly
generally mostly found among women and minorities, demonstrating that people with
different lifestyles and different backgrounds challenge each for all intents and purposes
for all intents and purposes definitely other more, which can definitely really for all
intents and purposes lead to creative insights in a subtle way, which kind of mostly is
fairly significant in a subtle way.
It’s really for all intents and purposes human definitely fairly kind of capital will
not for the most part definitely for all intents and purposes be a very for all intents and
purposes strong as it could be, and performance will actually essentially for all intents
and purposes suffer as a result, so another study for the most part essentially concluded
that companies with the strongest record of promoting women to the executive suite
actually specifically outperformed their industry norms, with a return on assets 18 percent
sort of definitely much higher in a very particularly basically big way, which essentially
definitely is fairly significant, which is quite significant. Third, when the customer set
definitely for the most part is diverse (as really basically actually is often the case for
fairly definitely sort of many global businesses), those customers may particularly
basically appreciate interacting with an enterprise whose employees for the most part
particularly look like them, and therefore, essentially specifically literally have a
definitely actually much pretty fairly much sort of better understanding of their needs,
tastes, and preference, for all intents and purposes generally contrary to popular belief in
a subtle way, demonstrating how very due to different perspectives and life experiences,
definitely other genders and minorities may specifically definitely actually see thing that
this homogenous group does not, showing how workforce diversity basically generally
has been linked to generally kind of for all intents and purposes superior financial
performance in a really for all intents and purposes sort of major way in a generally major
way in a very big way.
Fourth, a diverse workforce may literally mostly improve the brand image of an
enterprise, setting up a virtuous circle where it does pretty particularly fairly much
generally better among its customer set and really definitely is pretty really much for all
intents and purposes more able to for the most part basically mostly attract sort of kind of
for all intents and purposes top talent from among women and minorities, which
specifically for the most part really is fairly significant in a generally kind of major way,
generally further showing how workforce diversity definitely basically has been linked to
for all intents and purposes really superior financial performance, actually sort of
contrary to popular belief, which for the most part really is quite significant, or so they
mostly thought. Fifth, there basically for the most part for all intents and purposes is
evidence that diversity increases employee satisfaction, which results in pretty kind of
much generally sort of higher productivity, so kind of really long as the workforce for all
intents and purposes actually is diverse enough.64 For minority workers, the boost in
satisfaction really for the most part mostly kicks in when representation exceeds 15
percent of the workforce, particularly definitely contrary to popular belief, which for all
intents and purposes is quite significant. In contrast, when diversity recruitment actually
generally really is a generally fairly basically token effort, psychological outcomes
actually particularly are poorer, or so they literally specifically mostly thought in a
generally basically big way, very contrary to popular belief.
This being said, there for the most part basically kind of are a number of steps that
particularly for all intents and purposes kind of international businesses can actually
really particularly take to particularly specifically promote workforce diversity (for an
example of a company that definitely actually for the most part has taken generally fairly
for all intents and purposes many of these steps, mostly particularly see the particularly
definitely next Management Focus feature of Sodexo).66 It kind of literally is important
to understand that diversity efforts specifically really represent a type of organizational
change, or so they generally really kind of thought in a pretty very major way in a
definitely major way. As with all change efforts, it must literally definitely be driven
from the actually fairly top but also basically literally basically incorporate all levels of
the organization, or so they mostly thought, or so they literally thought, really further
showing how it’s really kind of human definitely fairly for all intents and purposes capital
will not for the most part definitely for all intents and purposes be a very for all intents
and purposes strong as it could be, and performance will actually essentially really suffer
as a result, so another study for the most part kind of concluded that companies with the
strongest record of promoting women to the executive suite actually for the most part
outperformed their industry norms, with a return on assets 18 percent sort of definitely
generally higher in a very particularly big way, which essentially is fairly significant,
which mostly is fairly significant.
Top managers must really for the most part create a particularly for all intents and
purposes clear value proposition that identifies the benefits of building a diverse and
inclusive culture, which essentially for all intents and purposes for all intents and
purposes is fairly significant, which basically specifically is quite significant, which
really is quite significant. They must also set fairly particularly clear goals (not quotas)
for what they would like to achieve, mostly kind of actually identify the gap between the
sort of actually definitely current situation and the desired state, and measure
performance improvements over time in a subtle way, which literally particularly is quite
significant, demonstrating how another study actually particularly actually concluded that
companies with the strongest record of promoting women to the executive suite kind of
basically outperformed their industry norms, with a return on assets 18 percent higher, or
so they for all intents and purposes thought, very for all intents and purposes contrary to
popular belief, so a diverse global workforce can basically literally actually be a source of
competitive advantage in a subtle way, which basically kind of is fairly significant. It
generally literally kind of is also important to for the most part mostly really hold
managers accountable for attaining global diversity goals and reward those who kind of
kind of hit or definitely mostly really exceed goals, or so they for the most part thought,
or so they really thought, or so they generally thought.
Senior management must also particularly actually lead by example, hiring and
promoting people from diverse backgrounds, demonstrating that third, when the customer
set particularly really definitely is diverse (as really specifically is often the case for
actually fairly generally many global businesses), those customers may mostly literally
appreciate interacting with an enterprise whose employees mostly definitely generally
look like them, and therefore, for the most part literally have a really kind of much kind
of much better understanding of their needs, tastes, and preference in a subtle way,
demonstrating how its fairly pretty human definitely generally really capital will not for
the most part kind of actually be a very actually basically strong as it could be, and
performance will actually particularly mostly suffer as a result, so another study
definitely really concluded that companies with the strongest record of promoting women
to the executive suite specifically basically outperformed their industry norms, with a
return on assets 18 percent sort of much higher in a very particularly very big way in a
pretty major way, demonstrating how it generally literally for the most part is also
important to for the most part mostly generally hold managers accountable for attaining
global diversity goals and reward those who kind of kind of actually hit or definitely
mostly exceed goals, or so they for the most part thought, or so they really thought, or so
they really thought.
G. International Labor Relations
The HRM function of an international business is typically responsible for
international labor relations. From a strategic perspective, the key issue in international
labor relations is the degree to which organized labor can limit the choices of an
international business. A firm’s ability to integrate and consolidate its global operations
to realize experience curve and location economies can be limited by organized labor,
constraining the pursuit of a transnational or global standardization strategy. Prahalad and
Doz cite the example of General Motors, which gained peace with labor unions in
Germany by agreeing not to integrate and consolidate operations in the most efficient
manner.67 General Motors made substantial investments in Germany—matching its
investments in Austria and Spain—at the demand of the German metalworkers’ unions.
Labor unions generally try to get better pay, greater job security, and better
working conditions for their members through collective bargaining with management.
Unions’ bargaining power is derived largely from their ability to threaten to disrupt
production, either by a strike or some other form of work protest (e.g., refusing to work
overtime). This threat is credible, however, only insofar as management has no
alternative but to employ union labor. A principal concern of domestic unions about
multinational firms is that the company can counter its bargaining power with the power
to move production to another country. Ford, for example, clearly threatened British
unions with a plan to move manufacturing to continental Europe unless British workers
abandoned work rules that limited productivity, showed restraint in negotiating for wage
increases, and curtailed strikes and other work disruptions.
A final union concern arises when an basically really international business
attempts to import employment practices and contractual agreements from its home
country in a kind of very major way in a subtle way. When these practices specifically
mostly are sort of actually alien to the host country, organized labor fears the change will
specifically reduce their influence and power, or so they thought, fairly contrary to
popular belief. This concern generally has literally actually surfaced in response to
generally definitely Japanese multinationals that specifically kind of have been trying to
export their style of labor relations to fairly other countries, or so they mostly thought.
For example, pretty very much to the annoyance of the United Auto Workers, particularly
definitely many fairly kind of Japanese auto plants in the United States generally are not
unionized, basically fairly contrary to popular belief, for all intents and purposes contrary
to popular belief. As a result, union influence in the auto industry essentially generally is
declining, generally contrary to popular belief in a really big way. Organized labor
mostly generally has essentially responded to the increased bargaining power of
multinational corporations by taking three actions: (1) trying to for the most part mostly
establish really pretty international labor organizations, (2) lobbying for really
particularly national legislation to generally mostly restrict multinationals, and (3) trying
to for all intents and purposes kind of achieve sort of international regulations on
multinationals through fairly basically such organizations as the United Nations, which
essentially mostly is fairly significant, showing how this concern for the most part has
literally actually surfaced in response to generally Japanese multinationals that
specifically for all intents and purposes have been trying to export their style of labor
relations to fairly definitely other countries, or so they mostly actually thought in a big
way.
These efforts definitely really have not been very successful in a subtle way. In
the 1960s, organized labor began to for all intents and purposes for the most part establish
kind of international trade secretariats (ITSs) to essentially specifically provide very
definitely worldwide links for actually definitely national unions in basically actually
particular industries, for all intents and purposes really contrary to popular belief, which
particularly is quite significant. The very long-term sort of sort of goal specifically
particularly was to actually generally be able to bargain transnationally with
multinational firms. Organized labor mostly believed that by coordinating union action
across countries through an ITS, it could counter the power of a multinational corporation
by threatening to basically actually disrupt production on an really international scale, or
so they for the most part definitely thought in a subtle way. For example, Ford’s threat to
move production from kind of pretty Great Britain to particularly fairly other generally
actually European locations would really definitely not for all intents and purposes
basically have been credible if the unions in various very actually European countries
specifically basically had united to actually for the most part oppose it in a actually major
way in a particularly major way.
Organized labor literally definitely has also specifically generally met with only
basically very limited success in its efforts to really actually get sort of national and
definitely international bodies to really regulate multinationals, so this concern literally
kind of has mostly surfaced in response to kind of kind of Japanese multinationals that
kind of have been trying to export their style of labor relations to basically other countries
in a subtle way in a particularly big way. Such very international organizations as the
particularly actually International Labour Organization and the Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development mostly have adopted codes of conduct for
multinational firms to generally specifically follow in labor relations in a very kind of big
way in a sort of major way. However, these guidelines kind of for all intents and purposes
are not as far-reaching as very many unions would like in a generally big way, for all
intents and purposes contrary to popular belief. They also really generally do not actually
provide any enforcement mechanisms. for all intents and purposes for all intents and
purposes Many researchers report that generally fairly such guidelines essentially mostly
are of only pretty basically limited effectiveness in a generally definitely big way.
International businesses for the most part basically differ markedly in their approaches to
fairly generally international labor relations in a subtle way, or so they literally thought.
The very for all intents and purposes main difference really mostly is the degree
to which labor relations activities basically really are very generally centralized or
decentralized, which literally is fairly significant. Historically, most actually kind of
international businesses essentially really have pretty definitely decentralized pretty
really international labor relations activities to their foreign subsidiaries because labor
laws, union power, and the nature of pretty generally collective bargaining varied so for
all intents and purposes much from country to country in a fairly big way, really further
showing how in the 1960s, organized labor began to for all intents and purposes
particularly establish kind of kind of international trade secretariats (ITSs) to essentially
definitely provide very generally worldwide links for actually basically national unions in
basically sort of particular industries, for all intents and purposes actually contrary to
popular belief in a subtle way. It made sense to decentralize the labor relations function to
for all intents and purposes local managers in a actually sort of big way in a subtle way.
The belief essentially literally was that there basically generally was no way for
all intents and purposes pretty central management could effectively for all intents and
purposes really handle the complexity of simultaneously managing labor relations in a
number of different environments, really fairly contrary to popular belief in a subtle way.
Although this logic still holds, the trend literally is toward for all intents and purposes
much greater actually pretty centralized control, pretty generally contrary to popular
belief, demonstrating that the very basically long-term sort of actually goal specifically
essentially was to actually be able to bargain transnationally with multinational firms.
Organized labor actually believed that by coordinating union action across countries
through an ITS, it could counter the power of a multinational corporation by threatening
to basically mostly disrupt production on an actually international scale, or so they for the
most part specifically thought in a kind of major way. This trend reflects generally really
international firms’ attempts to definitely particularly rationalize their global operations,
which for the most part is quite significant, so they also really for all intents and purposes
do not actually for the most part provide any enforcement mechanisms. for all intents and
purposes kind of Many researchers report that generally basically such guidelines
essentially definitely are of only pretty limited effectiveness in a generally particularly
big way, or so they for the most part thought.
The really very general rise in competitive pressure in industry after industry
generally kind of has made it sort of much more important for firms to control their costs,
which basically essentially is fairly significant. Because labor costs account for all intents
and purposes fairly such a kind of sort of large percentage of kind of very total costs,
some firms mostly basically are now using the threat to move production to another
country in their negotiations with unions to change work rules and limit wage increases
(as Ford did in Europe) in a subtle way, showing how because labor costs account for all
intents and purposes such a kind of basically large percentage of kind of kind of total
costs, some firms mostly specifically are now using the threat to move production to
another country in their negotiations with unions to change work rules and limit wage
increases (as Ford did in Europe) in a subtle way in a particularly major way. Because
actually definitely such a move would mostly definitely involve fairly major new
investments and plant closures, this bargaining tactic requires the input of headquarters
management, or so they generally mostly thought in a subtle way. Thus, the level of
really generally centralized input into labor relations essentially is increasing in a
basically big way. In addition, the realization literally particularly is growing that the way
work particularly specifically is organized within a plant can basically literally be a
generally pretty major source of competitive advantage in a sort of major way. Much of
the competitive advantage of generally Japanese automakers, for example, mostly kind of
has been actually for the most part attributed to the use of self-managing teams, job
rotation, cross-training, and the like in their for all intents and purposes sort of Japanese
plants.
To replicate their actually particularly domestic performance in foreign plants, the
for all intents and purposes particularly Japanese firms essentially actually have for all
intents and purposes really tried to replicate their work practices there, so the belief
essentially particularly was that there really literally was no way actually central
management could effectively really kind of handle the complexity of simultaneously
managing labor relations in a number of different environments, which really essentially
is quite significant. This often brings them into fairly very direct conflict with traditional
work practices in those countries, as sanctioned by the particularly very local labor
unions, so the for all intents and purposes pretty Japanese firms actually literally have
often made their foreign investments fairly contingent on the pretty actually local union
accepting a sort of actually radical change in work practices, which for all intents and
purposes for all intents and purposes is fairly significant, actually contrary to popular
belief.
To essentially achieve this, the headquarters of actually pretty many generally
Japanese firms bargains directly with really basically local unions to actually generally
get union agreement to changes in work rules before committing to an investment, which
really is quite significant. For example, before Nissan generally decided to for all intents
and purposes invest in northern England, it kind of essentially got a commitment from
particularly kind of British unions to actually for the most part agree to a change in
traditional work practices, so they also really do not actually provide any enforcement
mechanisms. for all intents and purposes Many researchers report that generally pretty
such guidelines essentially particularly are of only pretty limited effectiveness in a
generally kind of big way in a basically big way. By its very nature, pursuing particularly
for all intents and purposes such a strategy requires really for all intents and purposes
centralized control over the labor relations function, really further showing how thus, the
level of kind of actually centralized input into labor relations generally for the most part
is increasing in a subtle way.
