Important Selection Criteria for International Assignments

Seminar paper from the year 2014 in the subject Business economics - Personnel and Organisation, grade: 2,3, University of Kassel (Wirtschaftwissenschaften), course: International Human Resource Management, language: English, abstract: "The performance of global firms depends on their ability to cope with heterogeneous cultural, institutional and competitive environments."
In today's world of globalization more and more people are sent abroad by their company. Most of these companies are multinational companies (MNEs) that have subsidiaries, cross-border alliances, international joint ventures or franchise partners.

There are so many reasons why companies are sending employees abroad, for example for preparing and managing a merger and acquisition or just to make experiences abroad for a better intercultural understanding between the home company and the host company. The ultimate objectives are knowledge transfer and a common corporate management. As soon as a company leave the national borders it is predicted that it needs employees who are able to manage in an international environment. The IHRM (International Human Resource Management) of a company has therefore a difficult selection process to handle.

In this term paper the targets and motivations for an international assignment will be outlined from the entrepreneurial as well as from the employee's point of view and demonstrate how these motivations play a role for a successful international assignment. In the main part it will be shown which selection criteria are important concerning the selection of global managers. Here a global manager is synonymous with an international assignee or an expatriate because most of the assignees hold a leading position.

This term paper is not concentrated on selecting for a special international assignment like for a merger and acquisition or a joint venture, but for selecting assignees for international assignments in general, trying to identify the concerning problems for a long-term assignment. It is to point out which are the criteria and requirements for global managers an international environment. Furthermore two important factors for selection will be pointed out more precisely, the cultural and the family adjustment. For the IHRM the political and juridical subject like international compensation or international contracts is an important issue but it would take us too far afield and thus unregarded here. In this text the female form is renounced for a better reading flow, but the male form always implies the female form, too.