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Seat No.: Enrolment
GUJARAT TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY
MBA SEMESTER EXAMINATION WINTER 2017
Subject Code:2830503 Date: 11/JAN/2018
Subject Name: International Human Resource Management (IHRM)
Time: 10:30 AM to 1:30 PM Total Marks: 70
Instructions:
1. Attempt all questions.
2. Make suitable assumptions wherever necessary.
3. Figures to the right indicate full marks.
Q.1 MCQ 06
1. When an international firm follows a strategy of choosing only from the nationals
of the parent country, it is called
a. polycentric approach
b. geocentric approach
c. ethnocentric approach
d. None of the above
2. Which is not the stage of Internationalization?
a. exporting c. licensing
b. foreign Production d. dumping
3. Which of the following factors is not related directly to the success of expatriate
assignments?
a. the personality of expatriate employees
b. the intentions of expatriate employees
c. the incapability of the spouse to adjust to the new situation
d. the nature of products produced by the company
4. Non-citizen employees of a country in which they are working is classified as
a. expatriates
b. subordinates
c. coordinates
d. none of above
5. Global assignments in which employees are sent to other countries for extended projects and return back after completing project are classified as
a. technical assignments
b. distant assignments
c. functional assignments
d. nonfunctional assignment
6. Dimension of culture which refers to preference of people about structured
situation is
a. certainty followers
b. uncertainty avoidance
c. certainty non-avoidance
d. uncertainty follower
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Q.1 Define following terms. 04 TCNs
Cultural Shock
Social Dumping
Tax equalization
Q.1 Explain the reasons for using international assignments in brief? 04
Q.2 What are the stages a firm typically goes through as it grows internationally and 07
how does each stage affect the HR function?
Q.2 What is standardization of work? What are the factors influencing standardization 07
of work practices?
OR
Q.2 What contributes to the poaching of subsidiary employees? What steps can be 07
taken to try and retain key employees?
Q.3 Explain the role of non expatriate. 07
Q.3 What should be the main objective and bases for a multinational firm with regard 07
to its compensation policies?
OR
Q.3 Explain International Staffing Policy and how International Manager is Selected. 07
Q.3 What is re-entry shock? Explain the factors contributing to re-entry shock. 07
Q.4 How can multinationals assist dual career couples' repatriation? 07
Q.4 Why is management succession an issue for family-owned firms? 07
OR
Q.4 Write a note on expatriate performance appraisal. 07
Q.4 Elaborate on the role and response of Unions in Multinationals. 07
Q. 5 Case Study 14
Brunt Hotels, PLC, owns more than 60 hotels throughout the United Kingdom. They recently acquired a small hotel chain headquartered in France. Brunt's chief executive decided that half of the new hotels in France would be retained and rebranded as part of the Brunt Hotels Group; the other half will be sold. This will support Brunt's strategic objective of growing the organization slowly to make sure that new ventures are well supported and opened on time and on budget.
Most guests stay for one to three nights and are a combination of business and leisure travellers. The hotels are typically situated in downtown locations that are easily accessible by mass transit. Tourists are attracted to these hotels in popular visitor destinations where the many local attractions mean that they will not be spending much time in their hotel rooms.
The organization has decided to use an ethnocentric approach and send some of their existing UK-based managers to France to lead the changeover of the new hotels and then manage them after they re-open. If this new overseas venture is successful, Brunt may decide to acquire other small hotel groups in other European countries. The organization would like to own 150 hotels in the next five years. Their 10-year plan is to own 300 hotels across Europe. This is an ambitious target, so it is important that the organization finds an effective formula to operate successfully in other countries.
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The organization has never owned hotels outside the UK before, and has hired a team of independent management consultants to advise them on how to proceed. They provided the consultants the following information during their initial meeting:
1 A majority of their existing managers said they would like a chance to work abroad.
2 None of their existing managers speak French fluently.
3 They will allow four weeks to rebrand the hotels. The new hotels must be ready to
open after that time.
4 They expect to recruit a large number of staff for the new French hotels, because
more than 70 percent of the employees from the acquired organization left.
5 They will require their managers to be flexible and move between countries if any
problems arise.
Questions
What do you think hotel should recruit internal candidates who are parent country nationals (PCNs) or host country nationals Why?
Decide the key priorities of the hotel to attain its strategic objective.
OR
Q. 5 Case Study 14
Brunt's hotels are considered budget accommodations; they are functional, clean and reasonably priced. They own more than 60 hotels throughout the United Kingdom. They recently acquired a small hotel chain headquartered in France. For this new overseas venture is successful, Brunt may decide to acquire other small hotel groups in other European countries. The organization has never owned hotels outside the UK before, and has hired a team of independent management consultants to advise them on how to proceed.
The management hires six candidates to work overseas because they did not feel that the other candidates were qualified. They feel confident that these six can successfully open the new hotels. The success of these managers is vital to the success of setting up the new business, so management wants to ensure they provide effective support for them in terms of training and development. They believe that the best option is to divide training into two parts: pre-departure training and on-the-job training in the new country. Since the organization has never sent employees abroad before, they are not sure about what should be included in these training programs. The only mandatory area that must be included is an introductory language section (including basic business French) so that the managers have a basic grasp of the French language by the time they open the new hotels. However, they hope that the managers will enjoy their introductory language course and will continue to attend more advanced language classes when the new hotels are open.
Questions
Decide what the key training areas should be.
Evaluate your suggested training areas with its feasibility (with regard to cost of training, duration of training, involvement of employees etc.)