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The purpose of this paper is to examine Trompenaars' cultural dimensions using reference point theory to propose the adjustment difficulties that inpatriates will experience when entering the home market/global headquarters organization culture.

Specifically, it examines means by which the organization may maintain the inpatriate's perspective while at the same time provide training/development to assist in integrating the inpatriate manager into the global management team.

The paper proposes that the inpatriate's origin plays a significant part in determining the difficulty of adjusting to the headquarter culture as well as to the general culture of the new home country. The need for reference points (internal, external and time) becomes vital in that each allows for a better understanding of the adjustment process.

With regard to the two variables (macro and organizational culture) examined, it should be noted that cultural distance is not of sole importance in the adjustment process of the inpatriate. Additional factors to consider include job type, previous experience in home country of the organization, local support groups and other socialization tactics.

To facilitate the cross‐cultural adjustment process, active attempts by human resource management staff must be undertaken to help ensure adjustment. Successful adjustment would allow inpatriates to provide valuable insight and contribute to the global organizations' success.

This paper adds value by providing a theoretically based framework for the adjustment of inpatriates that can be tested and modified by future researchers. Furthermore, it provides a guide to inpatriate adjustment so that their maximum value to the organization can be achieved.

The study explores inpatriation and the role of performance management (PM) upon knowledge transfer through the theoretical lenses of leader–member exchange (LMX) and social embeddedness theories.

The study adopts a qualitative approach and focuses on inpatriate managers at the headquarters of three large UK healthcare multinational corporations (MNC). The authors were able to collect and analyze 24 interviews, with a focus on our key variables. The authors also conducted interviews with human resource (HR) personnel responsible for global mobility.

The findings suggest that the inpatriate managers’ willingness to transfer knowledge is contingent on their LMX with their supervisor and embeddedness within the firm. The authors found that good PM is the facilitator.

The critical contribution of the paper is exposing apparent weaknesses in current inpatriate PM practices in contributing to the MNCs' global knowledge flows, and ultimately, firm performance. This study's findings add to the awareness of how MNC knowledge flows transpire and emphasize the importance of rigorous PM practices for MNC knowledge transfer.

This chapter examines major factors and processes that lead to the development of strategic global human resource management [SGHRM] capability in organizations doing business in emerging markets. The dynamism of this capability is hypothesized to increase as specific structural changes are initiated, such as an innovative practice of inpatriation. It is argued that the inpatriation provides the strategic coherence and flexibility necessary for effective organizational strategies in emerging markets. Through the examination of this innovation in strategic global human resource systems from a knowledge based-view theoretical perspective, the emergence of certain unique and valuable organizational outcomes (i.e. trust, commitment, social capital, and legitimacy) are explained. The potential problems and challenges of implementing an inpatriation program in global negotiations are also examined, with particular focus on gaining acceptance of inpatriate managers in the headquarters organization. In conclusion, specific directions for future research relative to the development of SGHRM capability based on inpatriation as core competency are outlined.

As organizations have expanded globally, control mechanisms utilized in the past may need to be supplemented with a new type of personnel, that of the inpatriate. Expatriates were the most widely used staffing for corporate control, but due to various issues, a complementary set of employees to facilitate corporate goals could be utilized. Inpatriation, as a practical and conceptual means to augment expatriation, is discussed, compared with, and contrasted to, expatriation. This research explores the use of inpatriates in facilitating global control.

The use of expatriates to transfer individual and organizational know-how and knowledge is a practice widely used by multinational enterprises (MNEs). However, for service firms, the mobility of employees across national borders depends on the commitments made by countries under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). In particular, the Mode 4 form of supply under GATS can limit the ability of professionals to enter a particular country and can restrict the intra-organizational transfer of knowledge in multinational service firms. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how MNEs attempt to overcome these barriers and transfer knowledge through their global network.

Using Nonaka and Takeuchi’s SECI model of knowledge transfer, the authors study the intra-organizational knowledge transfer practices of an Indian multinational service firm. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 key informants involved with the organization.

The company uses global teams to transfer tacit knowledge and facilitates inpatriation through an internship program that helps the firm overcome nationality requirement that restricts the movement of their managers to other countries, which in turn limits their ability to transfer knowledge in the intra-organizational setting. The company uses the services of a not-for-profit youth organization that helps recruit interns for the program and also facilitates the relationship with the Indian Government, which provides support for this initiative by reducing barriers to entry for the interns.

This study takes the unique approach of studying barriers to movement of professionals and a firm’s strategic response. It identifies the pressures and barriers that companies face in the global economy and highlights the role of government agencies and other stakeholders in facilitating or restricting the transfer of knowledge within a firm’s international network. The paper articulates the implications for policy and practice, and a future research agenda.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the effects of inpatriates’ abilities, motivation and opportunities on knowledge sharing and the moderating role of boundary spanning in this context.

By integrating the ability–motivation–opportunity framework with the concept of boundary spanning four hypotheses are developed, which are tested against the data of 187 inpatriates working in Germany.

The study reveals that inpatriates’ motivation and certain opportunities are positively related to knowledge sharing, whereas inpatriates’ abilities do not show a positive effect. Moreover, it is shown that inpatriate boundary spanning has a moderating effect on this relationship.

Based on the results, the study enhances the current literature by introducing the concept of reputation asymmetry. Moreover, requirements of how inpatriates’ assignments should be designed and implications for further research are outlined.

This study aims to examine whether and why subsidiary-unit managers’ prior international work experiences across multinational enterprises’ (MNEs) home and host countries impact their subsidiary-unit performance, considering the mediating effect of their advice networks.

A survey on 222 subsidiary-unit managers (154 parent country nationals [PCNs] and 68 host country nationals [HCNs]) of a Korean MNE operating in China, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, Hungary and Slovakia was conducted. The authors analyzed the data using partial least square structural equation modeling, multigroup analysis and bootstrapping techniques.

PCN subsidiary managers with more prior international work experience manage better-performing units due to the strength of the manager’s advice networks across local parties. However, for HCN subsidiary managers, this study did not find such mediating roles of the size and strength of their advice networks in the MNE home country.

This study provides novel insights and empirical evidence about the effect of the length of prior international work experience of subsidiary managers on their advice-seeking networks and subsidiary-unit performance. In addition, it draws on and add to social capital theory about how international work experience impacts dealing with local businesses and the relationship with corporate headquarters.

Many US firms are facing difficulty finding qualified US citizens to fill technical/scientific positions and are turning to foreign nationals to meet their needs. In some cases, the employee/company match is less than ideal. This study focuses on foreign‐born employees working in a particular industrial sector in rural Georgia, USA. Some firms in this industry feel that the problems they are experiencing with these employees are due to cultural factors. The primary purpose of this exploratory study is to identify cultural and other issues affecting the integration of foreign‐born individuals into firms in rural communities. This article stimulates thought concerning human resource issues in our increasingly interactive global environment.

The importance of language management in multinational companies has never been greater than today. Multinationals are becoming ever more conscious of the importance of global coordination as a source of competitive advantage, and language remains the ultimate barrier to aspirations of international harmonisation. The article reviews the solutions open to multinational companies in term of language management. Before that, however, it discusses the aforementioned trend to globalisation outlines the dimensions of the language barrier and illustrates its consequences.

This chapter reports the current status of management practices in the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) region as seen by international expatriates. Based on the results and expert insights, we aim at giving guidance to MNE leaders and strategy makers as well as operative HRM staff and other expatriate managers how to best exploit the value-added opportunities in the CEE region by adopting the region-specific talent management and staffing policies and practices.

This study is based on the views of 1108 managers on the local management in six CEE countries: Bulgaria, Czechia,¹

In this chapter, the term Czechia is used to refer to the Czech Republic.

MNEs have been able to successfully capitalize on the economic integration and growth of the CEE region during the past 25 years. A new generation of competitive local managers is now growing into leadership positions, but MNEs need to find a more sophisticated way to retain those in the region in order to be able to exploit growth opportunities in future too.

Because the national cultural differences between the six analyzed CEE countries remain very characteristic and divergent, talent management and staffing strategies and policies of MNEs must be adopted and fine-tuned accordingly. Language and communication difficulties, knowledge of the standards management techniques are not a challenge anymore. Instead local management’s soft skills, leadership values and attitudes need to be developed now simultaneously with increasing wages, as the most talented local staff and management is readily relocating into higher-wage countries.

The originality and scholarly interest of this study lies in its cross-cultural, comparative approach. The originality and practical interest of this study is that it gives clear recommendations to MNE and expat managers. Furthermore the presented results have been tested during critical forum discussions with more than 60 CEE-experienced managers, expatriates, and the representatives several foreign chambers of trade and commerce held at the Central European University Business School in spring 2015.