Staffing top management positions in multinational subsidiaries – a local perspective on expatriate management

Abstract

International staffing decisions, their determinants
and effectiveness in the context of multinational corporations
(MNCs) are among the core inquiries in research on MNCs,
particularly International Human Resource Management
(IHRM) studies. Therefore, there is ample literature on
expatriate management that covers a very broad range of topics.
However, much of the research effort so far has been made to
explain expatriation mainly from the headquarters’ perspective.
What is missing in such studies is multinational subsidiaries
personnel’s view on this issue. This article attempts to fill this
gap by answering a general question concerning international
staffing decisions: Who should run a foreign subsidiary – an
expatriate or a local manager? Moreover, the additional aim of
this article is to indicate what should be done to improve
expatriate management. The empirical findings can also
contribute to understanding of the general perception of an
expatriate’s role by subsidiaries’ employees. The emphasis is
mainly put on staffing decisions with regards to the Chief
Executive Officer’s (CEO) position in a multinational
subsidiary. Yet, some empirical findings contribute to the
general literature on expatriate management. The author study
resulted in the following major findings: 1) Regardless of who
occupies a CEO’s position in a multinational subsidiary, i.e. an
expatriate or a host country manager (HCN), he/she must be
aware of his/her role as a liaison between the cultures (namely,
the national cultures and the corporate culture, and the
subsidiary culture); 2) To be effective as the liaison, the
manager needs to develop his/her cultural competence and the
local cadre’s skills; 3) He/she should also actively strengthen the
subsidiaries’ position within the MNC’s structure.