Over the past 10 years, East Computer Company has grown from a domestic producer ofIBM clones in Boston to a multinational company with assembly plants in four foreign locations. The company’s personnel policies were developed five years ago, before East Computer’sinternational expansion, by a task force headed by the vice president for HRM in Boston. Thecompany’s CEO has just appointed a new task force to examine the extent to which currentdomestic personnel policies can be “exported” to East’s new international locations. The essentialelements of these policies are the following:1. All job openings are posted to allow any employee to apply for a position.2. Selection is based on merit. Appropriate selection devices(for example, tests, structuredinterviews, and the like) are used to ensure proper implementation of this policy.3. Nepotism is expressly forbidden.4. Promotion from within is the norm whenever feasible.5. Equal employment opportunities are available to all, regardless of sex, race, national origin, orreligion.6. Pay for various positions is established through a rational process that includes both jobevaluation and market survey data.7. There is equal pay for equal work, regardless of sex, race, national origin, or religion.8. Goals are jointly set by supervisor and subordinate, with an annual formal appraisal session atwhich both parties have the chance to discuss progress toward goal achievement. The appraisalis used both to provide performance feedback to the employee and as a basis for merit paydecisions.As a first step in evaluating these policies, the vice president for HRM classified thecountries where East’s facilities are located according to Hofstede’s dimensions. She came up withthe matrix shown below.
You have been hired by East Computers Company to help management develop personnel policiesfor each of the four international facilities. Ideally, management would prefer to use the samepolicies that it uses in the United States to maintain consistency and reduce administrativeproblems. However, the vice president for HRM has made a strong case for “tailor-made” personnelpolicies that are suitable to each facility’s cultural environment.Critical Thinking Questions:1. Given East Computer Company’s present personnel policies, what problems is the companylikely to face in each facility if it transports its domestic policies abroad?2. How would you change or adapt each of the company’s current personnel policies to better fitthe cultural environment of each international facility?