Manager

HealthCareLaunderCare should make immediate assessment of company policies and address the problem of these managerial resignations as objectively. The number of Managers who resigned within the year comprises 25% of the over-all figure of the position and it may rise up if the cause of these unexplained resignations will not be dealt with. It is not the only issue the company needs to address to as well. It needs to reassess the issue of non renewal of contracts with 10% of its clients.

The instantaneous reaction to the situation seems to be that the company has a problem about Smooth Interpersonal Relation (SIR) within the system arising from defective communication policies. In every structured organization communication is a very important concern to guarantee a dynamic exercise of functions from every element. Mr. Tyrone Williams, HCLC’s Vice President for Operations and overall manager impose a one-way management format that excludes to hear the sides of the unit managers reasons for deficiencies. The resulting percentage of resignation from these unit managers is a clear indication that the system does not work.

In the reassessment process, the company should gather all facts of the resignations. It should open its lines from all the remaining unit managers and allow them to give suggestions to improve their working conditions and company functions. In this manner, they would feel more in part of the company’s policy building. It should be best to include in the reassessment process the company’s hiring policy. The angry resignation letters are an indication that there exist uncomfortable relationships between the unit managers and the Vice President for Operations.

However reasonable or justifiable the basis of Mr. Williams’s tight-fisted approach, it is not working for HCLC, therefore, it needs to be reconstructed. Every situation has a negative and positive side on it. Mr. Williams’s policy gets fast results but it lacks sustainability. It does not assure also that the results are favorable to the company. It must take into consideration that this issue of employee discontent has a probability to result into a legal squabble costing the company unnecessary expenditures and other legal consequences.

The fact that these unit managers left the company with hostile attitude towards Mr. Williams are a consideration that in future similar situations there may be legal problems to be confronted. These circumstances would cost the company money, whatever the result. The point is, all possibilities of legal squabble should be kept at the minimum and if probabilities that these situations may come up it is best to address the situation before the actual problem arises. The most probable case to consider is harassment.

The best way to attack the problem is up-front. Get a meeting with the operations manager and address with him the problem of resignations. Stress on the number of angry resignations that the company received. Reassess the policy of tight-fisted approach and determine its success gauge, considering the 10% non-renewal of contracts from clients as a factor of non affectivity. Have Mr. William submit a revised blueprint of his program of management with a two-way communication system with the unit managers.

Have a joint conference with Operations Manager and the Unit Managers for an assessment of the blueprint and an open suggestions forum for a few revisions. HCLC Managerial Turn-over 3 Determine a transition period for the new program with targeted feasibility gauge and additional revisions. Draw clear boundaries with the Unit Managers functions and the extent of the company’s considerations of their participation in this issue. Get a weekly report of the new program and make an assessment. Consider a replacement for Mr. Williams.

In the modern business world, companies and other organizations entrust their international human resource managers at the hands of expatriates who are expected to be highly talented and have the potential to retain the company skills. Given such vital role, companies when choosing their expatriate managers consider different academic qualifications and also other abilities and attitudes that will enable them to choose and hire the right person for the job.

While academic qualifications are necessary for one to be hired as expatriate manager, it is widely accepted that there are other qualities that must be put into consideration when hiring an individual to fill such a position. Given that expatriate managers are charged with an important role of managing the skills in a company and in making sure that the company is able to retain its talents in all its branches, it is important that an expatriate manager possesses desirable talent and skills that will enable him or her to fulfill the requirements of the company and enable such a company to achieve its goals and objectives.

To start with, it is often challenging to work in an environment that is totally new environment. In fact, the environment in which one works in largely influences the performance and efficiency of an individual. Given this it is important for an expatriate manager to have wide knowledge of global matters. Understanding globalization will enable one to have prior knowledge of his or her expected working environment and to produce optimal results once he or she has started to work.

For example, if an expatriate manager is been sent to a country marked with political hostility, prior knowledge of the country political situation will form an important aspect of the performance of the manager once in the work station (Moshe, 2002, p. 199). Further, an expatriate manager should be flexible at all costs as the company with which he or she works with may send him or her anywhere in the world provided it has operating branches in these parts. An interest in traveling is essential as one move from his home country to other parts of the world and this may occur more than once.

Traveling from one part of the world to another may reduce an employee commitment to the company and may lead to resigning. Flexibility enables the expatriate manager to move and cope easily with his or her working environment at any given time or under any given circumstance. Flexibility in administrative policies and individual’s work is essential for the performance of the company. Still, an expatriate manager should exhibit an interest in various cultures and languages in order to enable him or her to work in a new cultural background.

Some companies require that expatriate manager candidates be affiliated with some languages. However, international languages are mostly considered in this case leaving out native languages. In essence, the company gets much of its labor in the community in which it is located. As such, the expatriate manager will usually deals with employees who are native speakers. Moreover, ethnocentrism is one of the major barriers to the performance of expatriate managers.

In this respect, a good expatriate manager should be able to respect the culture of other people and to consider them not inferior but capable of giving good performance (Kline, 1998, p. 345). Further, an expatriate manager should be able to work and compose him or herself calmly once subjected to stress and pressure. Managing oversees companies may prove to be stressing given political regulations, environment condition and the employees drawn form the country in which the company is operating from.

As such, expatriate managers are often subjected to stressful conditions which is not well handle may put a barrier to their performance. The ability to work under stress and pressure is important is good performance is to be expected. Moreover, an expatriate manager should not inhibit an attitude of blaming specific for certain mistakes. In other words, he or she should never jump at pointing fingers at some specific individuals for certain given mistakes.

On the other hand, he or she should be able to take diplomatic measures when solving problems believed to have occurred as a result of other people’s mistakes. Further, he or she should have solid ethics and values that will guide him or her while working in a new environment. Here, one should be able to respect other people and their values besides respecting their beliefs. Good communication skills and the ability to inspire a spirit of teamwork and cooperation among the workers will

Still, one should have the ability to endure tough job assignments calmly and professionally. Working in some economic, social and political conditions that are new to an individual may affect his or her performance negatively. When an individual is capable of enduring tough job environments, he or she is also capable of producing good results in his performance. In some countries, achievement of company goals and objectives can be adversely affected by existing political regulations, political instability, poor economic conditions and social factors.

Given this, a job assignment may prove tough to perform despite the fact that the expatriate manager may possess the knowledge of how to perform them (Abbas, 2000, p. 221). Strong social judgment and being sensitive to cultural nuances also forms a major requirement of a good expatriate manager. As stated earlier, ethnocentrism is one of the major hindrances to good performance. Given that an expatriate manager is in most cases assigned to duty stations with new cultural background, one may be unable to register good performance in the new environment.

Further, if one considers his or her culture as been superior to that of the people in the new working environment, such a person will not be able to establish good relationships with other workers and will tend to see them as inferior. This will affect their performance, that of the expatriate manager and the performance of the company in general. Another trait that a good expatriate manager should have is lack of self centeredness. In this respect, one should not assume the feelings and general welfare of other workmates as good performance of the company is dependent on their performance.

Listening to the needs of other people boosts their performance and that of the company in general (Moshe, 2002, p. 201). In conclusion, while good academic qualification are a prerequisite in securing a expatriate manager job, there are other important character traits, abilities, attitudes and skills required to make a good expatriate manager. These combined with academic qualifications will ensure efficiency and good performance in any company. It is therefore true to say that international human resource managers consider a range of qualifications when choosing their expatriate managers.

References:

Abbas, J. (2000). Expatriate and Indigenous Managers’ Work Loyalty and Attitude toward Risk. Journal of Psychology, Vol. 131: 221 Kline, Harrison (1998). Developing Successful Expatriate Managers: A Framework for the Structural Design and Strategic Alignment of Cross-Cultural Training Programs. Human Resource Planning, Vol. 17: 345 Moshe, B. (2002). Expatriate Managers’ Loyalty to the MNC: Myth or Reality? An Exploratory Study. Journal of International Business Studies, Vol. 24: 199, 201

This essay will argue that without good managerial skills, a business is far from becoming successful. Firstly, this essay will discuss the importance of: communicating with foreign colleagues, wielding dealt Influence and delving attention deliberately to enhance proficiency of the workers, Secondly, It will evaluate and analyses how effective the three skills are In today’s dynamic work environment. Based on some examples, the problems faced by managers will be transparent, and what precautions need to be taken should also be visible to help improve managerial skills.

Communication for managers is the most important skill managers need to adapt fore any other skill because, if a manager is not flawless in communicating with colleagues or workers, then simply a manager has failed to be a manager. Communication is essential for effective functioning in every part of an organization which will facilitate organizational success (Effective Communication in the workplace, 2012). For example, Millions, (2012), a Korean CEO running a software company In Shanghai Is facing difficulties In retailing the Chinese workers.

The mall problem faced by the CEO is language barrier so the decision- making process becomes tough for the CEO. Due to this effect, there will be an unskilled management team and this may result in boredom of the workers, delay in organizations project deadlines, reduced profits and lastly goodwill of the organization will be hampered. Without communication in today’s environment, managerial work is not tough, it’s merely impossible. Communication may be of two types, it may be verbal or non- verbal, managers need to be effective on both cases.

Managers should be able to communicate non-verbally as good as they may communicate verbally. This is because sometimes agreements between businesses are sometimes done non- urbanely, In this case managers should be able to set out clearly his requirements and the terms and conditions of the agreement and also understand clearly the opposing terms and conditions, otherwise the manager will cause a great mishap for the business and this will result in an adverse effect on reputation for the manager.

A When all members of a team, department, or organization are able to communicate effectively with each other and with people outside their group, they are much more likely to perform well. The successful manager, therefore, needs effective communication skills in order to have a good workplace, become successful and attain the goals of the organization. Even though communication is the most important factor for a success seeking manager, nowadays digital influence is also one of the main factors which need to be taken into consideration by the managers.

Technology in the workplace allows businesses to expand quickly and efficiently. Business technology such as video conferencing, social networks and virtual office technology has removed workplace boundaries that previously limited business expansion. With business technology, companies can target a wider customer base and grow to higher levels. A manager deeds to be flexible/adaptable to change in different environments (Required skills of a manager, 2012). A manager who is not familiar with latest technology, there will be less room for improvement for the organization.

Most work nowadays is being done electronically, data analysis is done electronically and because of technology, information has become readily available to make better decisions and improvements. Digital influence has actually reduced the per head workforce needed at an organization, this means, a work that used to take two to three people to get done now can be done by one person using a computer. Office technology saves time by speeding up the work flow process. Technology systems save space, paper and printing costs. The use of computer systems allow corrections to be made instantly.

Resources like electronic files and access to information technology are available with the click of a button. By reducing the number of workers and using more technology, expenses for the organizations will fall resulting in increased profits. Technology in the workplace practically eliminates space and time. Video conferencing technology lets businesses on any part of the globe interact with one another. Technology reduces travel costs because businesses can set up virtual meetings and distribute data without the need to be in the same room. Technology allows businesses to establish a global presence at a fraction of the cost.

Cromwell, (2009), sates a very important fact, ‘The role that technology plays for the business sector cannot be taken for granted. If we were to take away that technology trade and commerce, the world will come to a standstill and the global economy would collapse’. It is almost impossible to conduct a business without the use of technology. A simple example an be used, Dreamers, the founder and chief technology officer of Hubbubs (web marketing company) has 216,000 Linked group for entrepreneurs and 98,000 twitter followers. How is this relevant to digital influence?

Well, Dreamers uses his Linked members to get multi-rater feedback from other entrepreneurs for Stack overflow and also hosts Q community through where he gets valuable information for improvements. By doing this, Dreamers has managed to build his reputation, specialization and network position to one of the world’s best marketing company (3 Management Skills every 21st century manager needs, 2012). This is why digital influence is necessary for every manager to become successful and achieve the Lastly, dividing attention deliberately, in other words attention to detail is also important for managers.

At work places, people’s minds normally drift away, this is normal as our minds are meant to multi task. Research has shown that internal factors (business related stress) rather than external factors (social stress) cause distractions. How can this be resolved? Managers need to focus on detail and make a job as less stressful as possible for employers, like when an employee takes a break o use social networks like Backbone or Twitter at a workplace, normally managers don’t accept this type of behaviors, they consider it distracting. Actually, a study at the University of Melbourne of 300 students resulted in a really fascinating outcome.

It showed that even though people use internet at workplace for socializing, their productivity increases by 10% (3 Management Skills every 21st century manager needs, 2012). There are other ways managers could actually increase effectiveness to become successful. Managers could have regular meetings with staff members, insult why there is a lack of performance, create pairs of employees so they may double-check work for errors and also managers may provide incentives for toughness (How to improve attention to detail in employees, 2012).

Managers need to create a friendly environment for workers so they are not undermined by stress. Managers need to think from the organizations perspective, how the goals can be achieved and how effectively and efficiently they can be achieved. Managers to have a great skill for dividing attention deliberately, which is known as ‘Satisfying sessions’, this means choose the first satisfactory alternative that comes to their attention and allocate work accordingly (Shoehorning, p. 75).

Three major abilities managers need to consider in order to become successful: communicating effectively, technology innovation, and attention to detail. To conclude, managers who do not have the skills cited above will have a hard time in coping with the business world today, managers are responsible for making sure that this happens. If a team is working really hard but not delivering what is needed, then they are not effective. Effectiveness is measured by setting out clear objectives before work starts and then evaluating whether the objectives have been met or not.

Managers not only need to be good at what they do, but their level of communication should be high in order to be an effective manager and by acquiring the three key skills, managers are well set off to becoming prosperous. In management, operating in efficient and in effective ways is a key to good performance and to successfully reaching the goals set for the business. Looking at the interplay of the two characteristics can give a clear insight into the ideal behavior for a successful anger when faced with tasks which must be completed quickly, but also completed in such a way that the key goals are attained.

Clayton Industries Inc. was founded in 1938 in Milwaukee and became very successful in the United States manufacturing room air conditioners. The company built a strong position in Europe by acquiring four different companies in that continent. The operations between the US and Europe had been separated to better manage its expansion. Since 2001, Simone Buis is the President of Clayton Europe and she made increasing operational efficiency her priority. During the next seven years, Europe became the major growth engine for Clayton and increased the company’s global revenue from 33% to 45%.

As a result of the economic crisis, the CEO stepped aside in favor of Dan Briggs in 2009. Dan Briggs’s priorities were reducing capital use and controlling costs. The 2009 crisis triggered strategic adjustments and management changes in the US and European operations. The CEO wants the company to be positioning for a post-recession expansion. So, Peter Arnell, promoted from the British subsidiary, Clayton Ltd, was declared country manager of Clayton SpA, the Italian subsidiary of US-based Clayton Industries. D. Briggs and S. Buis expected Arnell to position Clayton SpA for future growth. European countries have different needs and national brand preferences and Clayton’s slow market penetration reflects it. P. Arnell took the position knowing that the operation in Italy was in a hard situation and he was immediately confronted with opposition from union officials. The union suggested shortened shifts for the company’s members.

Arnell took the initiative to meet with the bank to postpone large payments due on the company’s credit line to buy Clayton SpA some time while he continued to assess the situation. As a result, chillers accounted for 55% of Italy’s revenues, but it lagged behind commercial customers who favored Asian products. Clayton SpA had failed to develop a broader marketing capability to sell other products. Brescia’s chiller penetration outside Italy was poor, because for the customers, the product was too expensive and did not have the same innovative features as competitors. The company was loosing more than $1 million a month due to the large increase in steel prices. Arnell had to face 3 options:

1) Create programs to boost plant efficiency, to product development initiatives to revitalize the compression chiller line, and a sales and marketing plan to expand market share outside Italy. The estimated cost will be $5 million. 2) Phase out the compression chiller line and convert capacity to absorption chillers to meet the growing market. The estimated cost will be $15 million. 3) Focus on efficiency measures to restore profitability while studying the various strategic options for at least another 6 months.

According to me, it is too early to make major strategic commitments in an economy unstable and P.Arnell needs to continue to assess the situation for a little longer while increasing the profitability and efficiency. The two other options are very costly in the early phases. The company is already loosing money very fast and spending more money at this time would not be cost effective. Clayton SpA needs a strong competitive advantage on its market and need to adapt to the major changes in the external economic environment. Peter Arnell has to be a strategic manager by getting his subordinates’ support and finding new external inputs.

Long before the globalisation, the internet and advanced telecommunications many companies with an international orientation have applied expatriate managers – some even since the early days of international trade. The theme for this essay is critically to evaluate the reasons why international companies continue to use expatriate managers even though it is a very expensive option. The term expatriate originates from the Latin words ex patria (out of fatherland) and refers to an employee from one country that temporarily works and resides in another.

Expatriates may either be send out for assignments from the parent company as parent-country nationals (PCNs), send in as an ‘inpatriate’ to the parent company from the host country subsidiary as host-country nationals (HCNs) or send from one to another third country subsidiary as third-country nationals (TCNs). Referring to the resource-based school, emphasizing the importance of organization-specific resources, the HRM strategy of using expatriate managers is an ‘inside out’ strategy based on the human capital and capabilities of expatriate managers in acquiring a competitive edge by levering company core competences in new markets.

An expatriate is typically an employee with a management and/or a technical key competence, or a younger employee with a high potential. In 2005, 54 percent of US-expatriates were between the age of 20 and 39 (HR Magazine, 2006). The 11. annual GMAC Global Relocation Survey in 2005 found that women accounted for 23 percent of international assignees, up 5 percent from the 2004 survey. Referring to Janssens et al. (2006), “all foreigners are foreigners regardless of their sex, meaning that female expatriates are not associated with local women but rather with male expatriates.

The usual length of long-term assignments is up to 3 years for 57% of companies and up to 1 year for 55% of companies by short-term assignments (Knapp, 2010). However, short-term ‘commute’ assignments, where a spouse and any children remain at home, are gradually increasing. Besides good health, important personal characteristics for a successful expatriate are soft skills (Barham & Antal, 1994) like the understanding and the ability to adapt into a foreign culture, demonstrating good emotional intelligence for building relationships and for working in international teams.

Professionally an expatriate manager must process strategic awareness, a contextual intelligence (Mayo & Nohria, 2005) and the ability to think ‘outside the box’. As well, the necessary leadership, management, entrepreneur and language skills are required for acting as a change agent. From an HRM point of view, further prerequisites for a successful expatriation are clear defined success criteria, clear reporting lines and a close contact and back-up from parent company, including a plan for repatriation.

Last but not least, a successful adjustment of any family into the foreign country is crucial for a successful expatriation. Although the theme of the essay basically is a postulate, the validity is supported by a recent report from the Economist Intelligence Unit[1] concluding that four out of ten international companies actually plan to increase their expatriate staff over the next five years.

An earlier study from 2006 also showed that ‘47 percent of US-companies reported an increase in the size of their expatriate population from the last year and 54 percent expect additional growth this year’ (HR Magazine, 2006). Even stronger support is referred by Knapp (2010) with an increase over 2 years of 63 percent in companies using long-term assignments and 67 percent increase in companies using short-term assignments. However, studies also show high expatriate failure rates.

From 20-40 percent (Mendenhall, Dunbar & Oddou, 1987; Dowling, et. l. , 1999; Forster, 1997) to 40-55 percent (Johnson et. al. , 2006) and the reasons are many! From inadequate selection criteria, lack of training and family adjustment issues (Harvey, 1985; De Cieri, Dowling & Taylor, 1991; Dowling, et. al, 1999) to difficulties in adjusting and managing across cultural settings (Birdseye & Hill, 1995, Black, Mendenhall, & Oddou, 1991) , unclear success criteria, unclear reporting lines, inadequate contact and back-up from parent company and a inadequate work/life balance.

The aforementioned increase in expatriations is remarkably in itself, but also as there are reasons advocating a decrease in expatriations besides the aforementioned risks of expatriation failure: High levels of heterogeneity in different markets compared to home market, where differences in culture and high complexity in foreign legislative and other institutional conditions, as well as potential political risk, lead to greater utilization of local management rather than expatriates managers.

Subsidiaries also tend to operate on a wide extend of local autonomy in polycentric (Perlmutter, 1966) multinationals structured with a loose coordination and a disperse configuration (Porter, 1986). The fact that career opportunities for locals are reduced if expatriate managers are used, that mobility barriers in dual (two) career families are increasing, that there is an overall unwillingness to go to unattractive locations, coupled with uncertainty about the repatriation and the further career possibilities, may likewise limit expatriations. In some cases there may be work permits / visa constraints too.

However, despite the above mentioned and despite the high direct cost of expatriation and the high indirect cost by failed expatriations, international companies apparently, as aforementioned studies show, continue to use expatriate managers increasingly for reasons the essay seek to evaluate below. Introductory, setting the context from a human resource management (HRM) perspective, the need for a sufficient supply of qualified managers who are capable of managing in foreign markets increases as the importance of overseas operations expands within the organization (Stroh & Caligiuri, 1998).

This is related to the international company’s degree of internationalisation[2]. The market servicing strategy of an international company may initially evolve from conducting direct export, to setting up sales subsidiaries abroad, followed by overseas production in form of either licensing, joint ventures, acquisitions and eventually in form of greenfield investments. Besides a growing wish for exploiting global opportunities, the domestic sales of home-oriented companies may also be threatened by competitors, thereby confronting the home-oriented companies with a ‘eat or be eaten’ scenario.

As a strategic response and as a strategic development path, companies therefore often choose to proactively merge with and/or acquire other businesses, thereby speeding up or increasing a vertical / horizontal integration into exclusive global value chains for serving global markets – and thus the internationalisation degree is increased. Additional globalization factors like deregulation of trade, free flow of capital and improvements in cost and speed of transportation have further supported and accelerated the transformation of many (especially upstream) markets into global markets with increased homogeneity.

The realization of the above strategic development opportunities are fundamental for creating a future unique and competitive mission of an international company, who often turns to the use of expatriate managers for many reasons.

First, international companies want to optimize their chances of success! It is evaluated that expatriate managers often are the preferred choice because they can be trusted and therefore they are more likely to act in the best interest of the organization, they have the same mindset as HQ and communication is therefore easy, they know the business and they are sought to be competent.

Expatriate managers are therefore, all other things being equal, capable of moving the business into the agreed direction by creating the necessary organizational energy and organizing and completing the necessary projects. In that way expatriate managers ‘are becoming chief catalysts for the implementation of a multinational’s strategic decisions’ (Kim &Mauborgne, 1993). To evaluate further why international companies use expatriate managers, a typology of international companies are needed to understand their differences in relation to the reasons for the possible use of expatriate managers.

Based upon the four stages and main structural forms of international firms (Bartlett and Ghoshal,1989,1995) and partly the integration-responsiveness grid (Prahalad and Doz, 1987), international companies can be categorised into the multinational (‘multi-domestic’), the global form, the international form and the transnational form. Although in reality other specific organizational hybrid forms do exist, emerging under the influence of exogenous and endogenous factors (Schuler et al. 1993), the aforementioned models are useful for understanding the different contexts of international companies in relation to the reasons why they continue to use expatriate managers.

The multinational company form is often reflecting back to the international companies in the first half of the twentieth century. These were often organised with a kind of mother-daughter structure, but the form also exits today in national markets with regulatory differences (e. g. utilities) and in national markets where consumer tastes vary greatly from one national market to another.

The multinational company form is polycentric (Perlmutter, 1969) in outlook with a host country centred culture applying an adaptive (Taylor et al. , 1996) HRM approach. It is characterised by a dispersed structure and a loose coordination (Porter, 1985), typical using series of different domestic strategies (hence the term multi-domestic) in countries determined by different competitive conditions shaped by differences in consumer / buyer behaviour and (past) national barriers.

The national subsidiary, operating with a high degree of autonomy in a bottom up governance structure with decentralised HRM, hereto offers a high degree of local responsiveness, which is one of the generic building blocks (Hill and Jones, 1995) for a multinational company. However, referring to the stage model by Adler and Ghadar (1990)[3], the (becoming) multinational company may use expatriate managers in the organizational transitional lifecycle phase coming from the international phase.

To secure success, the multinational company must provide the necessary management attention, and it is evaluated that qualified expatriate managers in particular will be able to secure the ‘country of origin’ effect when setting up subsidiaries abroad, where after they pull out and let local management take over when the necessary knowledge has been transferred by the expatriate manager. In recent times, ABB from 1987-1996 is an example of a multinational company, split into 1300 smaller companies and around 5000 profit centres, and functioning as far as possible as independent operations including decentralization of R&D.

For the international company the global form may be a respond to the globalisation as described in the second paragraph on page 3. The global company has an ethnocentric (Perlmutter, 1969) outlook with a home country centred culture applying an exportive (Taylor et al. , 1996) HRM approach. It is characterised by a global integration by means of a concentrated configuration and a tight coordination (Porter, 1985), (e. g. ABB since 1997) with top down governance typically replicating the same business model in markets characterised by worldwide convergence in consumer tastes (e. g. MacDonalds).

In addition to the reasons and the evaluation mentioned in the second and third paragraph on page 3, it is essential for the global company to secure scale economies, thereby strengthen competitiveness and keeping EBIT margins, as well as securing one global company culture. It is evaluated that global companies therefore continue to use expatriate managers (often in low cost countries with limited knowledge) to secure a strict control of overseas operations, to leverage a global company culture, and to assure scale economies in order to achieve superior global efficiency.

Referring to Adler and Ghadar (1996) the global phase (and the international phase) are also the phases where expatriates are used the most. The international form resembles the global form, however overseas operations are allowed to adapt parent company products and services in order to suit local needs, and although there is a formal centralised control is it not that tight as for the global form. Besides the rationale as mentioned above for the global company, it is evaluated that expatriate managers may facilitate overseas operations in adapting and levering parent products and services successfully.

An example of the international form was my company[4], however Trelleborg is today more in a hybrid form between the international and the transnational form. The structure applied at Trelleborg with the same business model adapted in three regions (Europe, Americas and Asia) reflects a regiocentric (Perlmutter, 1969) mindset, but global core values and a universal code of conduct are also applied which reflects a geocentric mindset (Perlmutter, 1969). The international company may ultimately evolve into a transnational company (TNC) with an integrative (Taylor et al. , 1996) orientation and regiocentric (Perlmutter, 1969) mindset.

The TNC is ideally (but not always ideal! ) a network form of organisation with dispersed management control as a ‘heterarchy’ (Nohria and Ghoshal, 1997). The TNC on one hand integrates, configurates and coordinates activities globally mainly to achieve low cost products, and at the same time the TNC responds to local (national / regional) variations in buyer / consumer preferences by offering customized products, hence the oxymoron ‘mass customization’.

As a dispersed network it is evaluated that the TNC needs mechanisms that can bind it together, enable organisational change, diffuse social capital (Leana and Van Buren, 1999,p. 39), Kostova and Roth, 2003) and transfer learning and knowledge across various international operations (tacit knowledge in particular). And in all forms, (PCNs, HCNs, and TCNs), short and long-term, expatriate managers in particular may be the effective tool to accomplish precisely that. The role of the expatriate manager in knowledge diffusion in transnational organizations has also been recognized by Bartlett and Ghoshal (1995). Likewise, Beardwell and Claydon (2011, p. 665) states ‘another significant mechanism for the generation and transfer of international HR knowledge is the expatriate manager’.

It is further evaluated that TNCs will continue to use expatriate managers as TNCs within their network will need to globally trace and globally leverage possible synergies and competitive advantages, as well as conducting internal benchmarking for the implementation of best practice throughout their network. As a real-world example I commuted myself as a TCN from Trelleborg Denmark to Trelleborg China in 2006 participating in setting up a greenfield investment in Shanghai and having the responsibility for hiring, training and rolling out best Trelleborg practice to new customer service colleagues.

As cost of intercontinental travel has become lower, the way of commuting is yet another reason why international companies continue to use expatriates managers. Nestle, Philips, Vodafone and Unilever are examples of the transnational form, but also in the automobile, the computer and the pharmaceutical industry the TNC structure is widely applied. Besides the introductory evaluation of reasons and independent the above structural forms of international companies and the evaluation of their aforementioned specific reasons, international companies may share further some common reasons for their continuing use of expatriate managers.

First, international companies need to develop global competences, hence global competent managers are needed. For that reason it is necessary to create international management development opportunities for high potential junior employees by being send out as expatriate managers from the parent company (PCNs), as well as for inpatriate managers (HCNs) from overseas domestic subsidiaries. In that way internal development of global talent is fostered, and global experience gained, which plays a central role in building global ompetence. Secondly, international companies may need to fill in vacant positions with expatriate managers as there are not enough domestic managers who can do the job – for example in China, where there is today a dearth of appropriate management skills (Beardwell and Claydon, 2011,p. 621).

On a negative note it could be argued that international companies continue to use expatriate managers because the first one send was a failure! 5] Last, local managers may also fail, and if the international company evaluates that the risk of failure is higher by local management or not that successful compared to sending out an expatriate manager, then the expatriate solution may turn out as the most cost effective solution anyway. Although the expatriate solution in itself is a very expensive option, it is for the international company only a small investment, seen in the broader context of successfully implementing important international business development strategies.

The essay has shown and evaluated that the reasons for using expatriate managers outweigh the reasons against. The use of expatriate managers ‘is where the rubber meets the road’ as expatriate managers play a very important role in executing international business development strategies for achieving sustainable competitive advantages and for actually materializing the vision of what shall be the company’s future competitive mission.

However, given the fact that the use of expatriate managers has increased and the high risk of failure, HRM-managers should increase their concern of ensuring clear defined success criteria, clear reporting lines, close contact and back-up from parent company and successful adjustment of any family. Besides this, HRM-managers should ask themselves what they could do better! The international company could attract, place, retain and develop global managers by establishing candidate pools (Harvey et al. 2001) of potential expatriate managers by pooling together talented global manager candidates within the company from everywhere in the world.

This would require HRM-managers to develop and propose human resource development strategies defining how candidate pools may best support business strategies – e. g. strategies defining global management excellence and expatriation excellence – and it would require corresponding practices integrated into bundles (Huselid, 1995) of existing HR practices within the company to make t work globally. The benefits however, are the development of global management competences, tailored to the context of the specific international company, which are capable of developing and implementing sustainable competitive advantages globally. Moreover, the creation of a global manager culture in a ‘multiethnic’ candidate pool may contribute bridging diverse cultures across different countries and leverage a desired company culture globally. As we say at Trelleborg: ‘Working together to be different’.

Oversee all aspects of Program Management for DARPA IT and IA security services oversight and IV&V contract, Department of the Army GFEBS contract for the PEO/EIS effort and 2 MDA Contracts including JNIC/JRDC. Support contract and MDA QA efforts. Direct projects from initial concept through development. Spearhead all contract aspects including personnel management, supervising personnel, life cycle support, budget analysis, business development, contract growth and contract negotiation.

– Recognized for success in the delivery of direct training and policy development; write policies and procedures for life cycle of project. Senior Scientist, Chantilly, VA Program Manager Conducted validation and evaluation of the 2018 NRO future imagery intelligence design. Supported implementation of all development projects for technical feasibility and technical readiness for implementation into the 2018 baseline. Researched new applicable technologies for consideration, and created resource allocation plans potential future threats and projected intelligence needs.

Conducted independent validation of technology readiness levels for new technology incorporation. – Led team responsible for technical and non-technical systems documentation on impact of technologies on the 2018 baseline. Booz Allen Hamilton, Mclean, VA 5/2003 – 10/2003 Lead System Engineering Led legacy and heritage integration (LHI) as lead systems engineer on the GeoScout transition. Conducted through transition planning development for all LHI Systems, and provided software and/or hardware systems life cycle engineering.

Oversaw the incorporation of results of needs assessment and analysis for follow on components. Expertly applied advance skills in all required technology and capabilities. Recognized for success in thee quality control/quality assurance of NGA systems, including independent testing and validation of system components; ensured NGA stands of compliance. Effectively resolved user problems in a timely and cost efficient manner. – Advanced the development and implementation of a transition plan to migrate multiple unique data networking systems into a consolidated, NGA-compliant system.

– Facilitated Business Process Engineers to system operational effectiveness. Electronic Warfare Associates, Reston, VA 3/2002 – 5/2003 System Engineering and Technical Advisor Geospatial Staff Officer and system engineer and technical advisor for the MASINT, IMINT, and Geospatial staff elements of the Army Intelligence and Security Command Headquarters (INSCOM). Implemented resource allocation studies for future needs, IV&V of intelligence exploitation systems and provided written and oral presentations to INSCOM, Pentagon, Joint Chiefs and Congressional committees.

Thoroughly conducted functionality of all technical reviews and ORD development of current and future intelligence systems including DCGS and FIA. NIMA and NRO policy and technical reviews. Implemented and analyzed cost studies; assisted in proposal reviews and contract awards. – Expert consultant to operational units; provided technical engineering expertise to the training of deficient organizations. System Engineering, China Lake CA 7/2001 – 3/2002 Technical Advisor Supported Shore Station and sensitive range operations training activities including GIS concepts and Global Hawk exploitation uses.

Reengineered systems development of GIS Network. – Led development and wrote and coordinated training resources for on-line help; provided Computer Based Training (CBT), and formal classroom environments. Scott E. MacCannell ~ page 3 Veridian Systems, Washington DC Area 9/2000 – 7/2001 Research Engineer/Scientist Oversaw data reviews, technical analysis review, IV&V, quality assurance, requirements for testing, product evaluation, software and hardware requirements, and initial evaluations for future National Technical Means (NTM) system.

Key Scientist exploring the development of exploitation workstations including software and training development. Implemented enhanced testing, and implementing SAR and hyper spectral MASINT custom product software tool applications. Added, color multi-view, digital elevation modeling enhancements, and detailed 3D mapping enhancements. – Established strategic alliance with government agencies including the CIA, NIMA, DIA, MCIA, USGS, NOAA and NRO on enhancing their MASINT and IMINT exploitation and GIS abilities.

Lockheed Martin Corporation, White Sands, NM 5/1999 – 9/2000 System Engineer Managed all aspects of software and hardware performance and reliability, hardware troubleshooting and maintenance, script writing and editing, network performance and maintenance, and system administration duties on a NTM processing center. Oversaw management of personnel, developed budget analysis, and negotiated cost-effective contracts. – Led all aspects of developing, integrating, testing, and promoting of all software and hardware updates for the system.

As consultants analyzing the economic stability of Skeer Manufacturing, it is important in the early stages of implementation that the company follow the recommendations set forth by our team of consultants, of how expenses and revenues are to be calculated to maximize profit. In general, accounting posses a wide ranging set of methodologies that can steer a company in different directions if the correct recommendations are not readily recognized.

Basic revenue recognition is the process of recording revenue under one of the various methods in an accounting period. In the period of revenue recognition, related expenses should be matched to revenue. The most often used method of recognizing revenue is at the time of sale or rendering of service. In addition, when analyzing a service based company like Skeer Manufacturing, the cash basis of revenue recognition is the preferred method industry wide.

Other methods of revenue recognition include during production and the completion of production. Revenue recognition is one of the most difficult problems facing the accounting profession; this problem arises from the difficulty in developing guidelines applicable to all situations. Recognition principle of revenue is recognized when it is realized at the time of sale of merchandise in the retail business or at the time of rendering the service if it’s a service business. During realization the earnings process is complete because the transactions is consummated, and selling price is determinable, cost of sale is known.

You can also determine revenue recognition during sales transactions at the point of sales; an example is cash sales versus credit sales. There’s also a revenue recognition method, which is the percentage of completion. This method recognizes profit on a long-term construction contract as it is earned gradually during the construction period. Under this method, the measure of revenue to be recognized each year is equal to percentage completed times the contract price. Any revenue that had been recognized in a prior period is subtracted from the cumulative total in arriving at the current periods income.

Expense Recognition There are many methods for recognizing expenses. Expenses such as cost of goods are recognized concurrently with the revenues to which they relate within your Manufacturing Company. Expenses such as salaries are recognized in the period in which they are incurred because the benefit is soon after the occurrence. Expenses such as depreciation result from an allocation of the cost of an asset to the periods that are expected to benefit from its use. Each expense is incurred to support the revenue-generating process.

Learn under what circumstances should a company’s management team give serious consideration

Expenses are recognized in the profit and loss account on the basis of a direct association between the costs incurred and the earning of specific items of revenue within Skeer Manufacturing. This is a process known as revenue/cost matching. Matching would be the allocation of expense to the period expected to benefit from the expenditure. Revenue/cost matching has an indirect association with specific revenues. The Statement of Principles rejects revenue/cost matching. Under the Statement of Principles, expenditure must meet the criteria for recognition of an asset before it can be carried forward to set against future revenues, otherwise it must be recognized as an expense immediately. As noted from www.wku.edu, the recognition of expense typically follows one of the three principles:

Immediate recognition: Some costs are associated with the current accounting period as expenses because (1) costs incurred during the period provide no discernible future benefits, (2) cost recorded as assets in prior periods no longer provide discernible benefits, or (3) allocated costs either on the basis of association with revenue or among several accounting periods is considered to serve no useful purpose.

Expense recognition must be accompanied by a decrease in the net assets of Skeer Manufacturing. The assets must decrease or liabilities must increase as a result of revenues being realized. Expenses are the cost associated with the revenue of the period to which the revenue has been assigned. They represent the gross outflow of (net) assets resulting from profit directed activities of the company.

Expensing of Stock Options There is a considerable amount of debate around whether or not expensing stock options is of great benefit to organizations. Companies are required to estimate the value of there stock options in documentation that is filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) is working on a proposed rule that would mandate the expensing of options.

Opponents believe that expensing options would lower earnings per share. Most complain that this would put an undue burden on over exhausted financial and accounting departments. (Roberts, 2004) There are others that feel that companies that are facing cuts in profits or sharp losses will be most affected if forced to report options as expenses in the reporting statements. The theory is that it will directly impact the cost per share of stock. (Burkholder, 2004) However, they have been told that expensing will not affect cash flow but only the amount of profit the companies report.

As a result of corporate scandals that were ever present in major newspapers, many investors believe that it is a good business move to publicly record the value of company issued stock as a compensation expense. (Johnson, 2004) Many of the large companies have used the option to own sizable portions of stock as methods to lure new employees. Therefore, stock ownership is presented in compensation material that is supplied to their most valuable asset, human capital (employees).

There are some schools of thought that suggest that some companies would stop offering stock options as a recruitment/retaining tool offered to employees. Therefore, completely eliminating this option all together as a form of compensation. This has become quite a political issue. There are elected officials that have joined the discussions around expensing stock options. Many members of the Senate Banking Committee have expressed the thought that Congress should not interfere with company wide accounting departments.

There are benefits and possible barriers to expensing stock options. However, the benefits are much greater. It is recommended that Skeer Manufacturing voluntarily report their stock options as expenses. This will be favorable in the eyes of their investors as well as the employees of the company. Justification of Recommendations: Recognizing revenue as the time of sale or rendering of service is the most effective way to ensure an “arms-length” deal has been reached. Since Skeer Manufacturing makes significant use of inventory, using this method puts the company in a more stabilized financial environment.

Contractual pre-orders where funds are collected later do exactly the opposite. It fails to capture revenue for a specific period, leaving Skeer Manufacturing susceptible to applying different accounting methods to account for revenue coming in the future; all the while raising the cost of the goods sold. The alternative method that was given careful thought is to use the percentage of completion method, which often times results in the overstatement of revenue in the income statement. Most major manufactures (i.e. homebuilders) that preside over labor intensive and time consuming projects prefer this method. However, Skeer Manufacturing has an average turnaround of 30 days from implementation, affording it the luxury to have an inventory where it can sell directly under no long-term contracts.

The endorsement of the cost matching principle of expensing costs for Skeer Manufacturing can be attributed to the measure it takes to ensure that expenses are recognized concurrently with the revenues to which they directly relate. The revenue generating stream within Skeer Manufacturing is directly measured in cash or other assets; and therefore subjected to a recognition based principle that matches the current value of all future cash flow as the amount of the expense (Cron & Hayes, 2004)

. This straightforward approach benefits the company in many ways. First, this method eliminates the need to make forecasts on expenditures from revenue for future periods. And finally, aids in the inventory control analysis of determining cost of goods sold by firmly accounting for net gains and losses in a specific period. Alternative expense recognitions like the inventory cost-flow assumption bases its expenses primarily on weighted averages. Although the cost of goods sold needs a recognition method that appropriately measures inventory, averages do not do a good job of capturing real expense.

The justification of using the intrinsic value method for measuring stock option expense is that the calculation is also straightforward for Skeer manufacturing. This method is measured by the difference between the market price and the measurement date. The logic here is since there is no reliable way of measuring the value of the option at the date of grant there is no reliable way of measuring expense associated with the issue of an option (Cron & Hayes, 2004).

Historically, this is the template used by many companies for years when reporting stock options as an expense. It would be in the best interest of Skeer Manufacturing to implore the same method. An alternative method that does not work particularly well is the Grant-Date method. Although this method allows for companies to report some value for their options they provide to employees, its central problem is that options are dynamic in nature (Cron & Hayes, 2004). An option’s value, and hence the cost of the option to the grantor, changes each period. This one time date of grant aims to put a value, but fails to change as the options change (Cron & Hayes, 2004). In summary, we ask that you give careful consideration to the recommendations we proposed for Skeer Manufacturing. We are confident that the accounting methods for revenue and expense are time tested methods that fit the overall size of your organization. We are confident that the recommendations set forth will maximize overall profit and ensure stability for your company.