LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
As capital and technology continually become more mobile, from
one country to another and from one firm to another, human re-| source development should account increasingly for competitive differences. | Consequently, the access to and retention of ever more qualified personnel
should gain in importance. This does not imply a lack of employee mobility. In fact, the high-skill, high-value worker will likely be more difficult to retain in the future.71
From a managerial standpoint, a challenge will be to break down nationalistic barriers that impair the achievement of global corporate cultures and integrated global strategies. To accomplish these ends, more cross-national interchange will be necessary. The traditional problems of cost and governmental regulations will likely continue to impede these interchanges; however, those causes are not likely to become more acute in the future. Personal adaptation will, however, likely be an even greater problem. The head of international human resources at Campbell Soup Company said on this subject, "There is too much emphasis on executives' technical abilities and too little on their cultural skills and family situation."72 This does not mean that technical skills will be less important for success in foreign assignments, but rather that this dimension is already well understood and taken into account. But we still know far too little about the identification and training for success in overseas assignments. Furthermore, such factors as two-career families and international terrorism may make managers even more reluctant to accept foreign assignments.
Demographers are nearly unanimous in projecting that populations will grow much faster in developing countries (China being an exception) than in industrial countries, at least up to the year 2030.73 At the same time, in industrial countries there will be a growth of elderly people as a percentage of the population, a necessity to be educated for more years to get the so-called "better jobs," and some attempts to retire at earlier ages. Overall, these industrial-country trends indicate that there will be a smaller portion of people left to do the productive work within society and an acute shortage of personnel. Adjustments may come about in any of several ways or combinations thereof, and each way has a number of social and economic consequences. International companies must adapt their production to these changing conditions.
One reaction might be the encouragement of immigration to industrial countries from LDCs, which do not now have nor are expected to generate enough jobs for their potential workers. In the United States, Canada, and parts of Western Europe there has been a fairly long-term entry of foreign workers, both legally and illegally. During the late 1980s, both Italy and Japan had to seek foreign workers, perhaps for the first time ever. Such movements bring assimilation costs within receiving nations and, if they involve highly qualified personnel, charges of a "brain drain" from LDCs. If such movements develop, companies will have to spend more efforts on paperwork required for work permits and develop means of incorporating different groups into the work force.
Another potential reaction is a continued push toward adoption of robotics and development of further labor-saving equipment. Although this
■ Firms frequently acquire personnel abroad by buying existing companies. They also may go into business with local firms, which take on the major staffing responsibilities.
■ Two of the major international training functions are (1) to build a global awareness among managers in general and (2) to equip managers to handle the specific situations entailed in an expatriate assignment.
■ When setting up a new operation in a foreign country, firms may use existing facilities as guides for determining labor needs. They should adjust, however, to compensate for different labor skills, costs, and availabilities.
■ For some areas of the world a substantial portion of the labor supply is imported, which creates special stability, supervision, and training problems for the companies employing them.
■ Owing to the enormous variance in fringe benefits, direct-compensation figures do not accurately reflect the amount a company must pay for a given job. In addition, job-security benefits (no layoffs, severance pay, etc.) add substantially to compensation costs.
■ Although per-worker comparisons are useful indicators of cost differences, what is relevant for international competitiveness is the output associated with total costs. The costs may shift in time, thus changing relative international competitive positions.
■ The sociopolitical environment will determine to a great extent the type of relationships between labor and management and affect the number, representation, and organization of unions among countries.
■ Codetermination and quality control circles are two types of labor participation in the management of firms. The purpose is usually to cultivate a cooperative rather than an adversarial environment.
■ In recent years there have been efforts to get firms to follow internationally accepted labor practices regardless of where they are operating or whether the practices are contrary to the norms and laws of the countries in which they are operating.
■ MNEs are often blamed for weakening the position of labor in the collective-bargaining process because of MNEs' (1) international diversification, (2) threats to export jobs, and (3) complex structures and reporting mechanisms.
■ Cooperation between labor groups in different countries is small but has on occasion been used to combat multinational firms. Strategies include information exchanges, simultaneous negotiations or strikes, and refusals to work overtime if the intent is to compensate for a striking firm in another country.
one country to another and from one firm to another, human re-| source development should account increasingly for competitive differences. | Consequently, the access to and retention of ever more qualified personnel
should gain in importance. This does not imply a lack of employee mobility. In fact, the high-skill, high-value worker will likely be more difficult to retain in the future.71
From a managerial standpoint, a challenge will be to break down nationalistic barriers that impair the achievement of global corporate cultures and integrated global strategies. To accomplish these ends, more cross-national interchange will be necessary. The traditional problems of cost and governmental regulations will likely continue to impede these interchanges; however, those causes are not likely to become more acute in the future. Personal adaptation will, however, likely be an even greater problem. The head of international human resources at Campbell Soup Company said on this subject, "There is too much emphasis on executives' technical abilities and too little on their cultural skills and family situation."72 This does not mean that technical skills will be less important for success in foreign assignments, but rather that this dimension is already well understood and taken into account. But we still know far too little about the identification and training for success in overseas assignments. Furthermore, such factors as two-career families and international terrorism may make managers even more reluctant to accept foreign assignments.
Demographers are nearly unanimous in projecting that populations will grow much faster in developing countries (China being an exception) than in industrial countries, at least up to the year 2030.73 At the same time, in industrial countries there will be a growth of elderly people as a percentage of the population, a necessity to be educated for more years to get the so-called "better jobs," and some attempts to retire at earlier ages. Overall, these industrial-country trends indicate that there will be a smaller portion of people left to do the productive work within society and an acute shortage of personnel. Adjustments may come about in any of several ways or combinations thereof, and each way has a number of social and economic consequences. International companies must adapt their production to these changing conditions.
One reaction might be the encouragement of immigration to industrial countries from LDCs, which do not now have nor are expected to generate enough jobs for their potential workers. In the United States, Canada, and parts of Western Europe there has been a fairly long-term entry of foreign workers, both legally and illegally. During the late 1980s, both Italy and Japan had to seek foreign workers, perhaps for the first time ever. Such movements bring assimilation costs within receiving nations and, if they involve highly qualified personnel, charges of a "brain drain" from LDCs. If such movements develop, companies will have to spend more efforts on paperwork required for work permits and develop means of incorporating different groups into the work force.
Another potential reaction is a continued push toward adoption of robotics and development of further labor-saving equipment. Although this
■ Firms frequently acquire personnel abroad by buying existing companies. They also may go into business with local firms, which take on the major staffing responsibilities.
■ Two of the major international training functions are (1) to build a global awareness among managers in general and (2) to equip managers to handle the specific situations entailed in an expatriate assignment.
■ When setting up a new operation in a foreign country, firms may use existing facilities as guides for determining labor needs. They should adjust, however, to compensate for different labor skills, costs, and availabilities.
■ For some areas of the world a substantial portion of the labor supply is imported, which creates special stability, supervision, and training problems for the companies employing them.
■ Owing to the enormous variance in fringe benefits, direct-compensation figures do not accurately reflect the amount a company must pay for a given job. In addition, job-security benefits (no layoffs, severance pay, etc.) add substantially to compensation costs.
■ Although per-worker comparisons are useful indicators of cost differences, what is relevant for international competitiveness is the output associated with total costs. The costs may shift in time, thus changing relative international competitive positions.
■ The sociopolitical environment will determine to a great extent the type of relationships between labor and management and affect the number, representation, and organization of unions among countries.
■ Codetermination and quality control circles are two types of labor participation in the management of firms. The purpose is usually to cultivate a cooperative rather than an adversarial environment.
■ In recent years there have been efforts to get firms to follow internationally accepted labor practices regardless of where they are operating or whether the practices are contrary to the norms and laws of the countries in which they are operating.
■ MNEs are often blamed for weakening the position of labor in the collective-bargaining process because of MNEs' (1) international diversification, (2) threats to export jobs, and (3) complex structures and reporting mechanisms.
■ Cooperation between labor groups in different countries is small but has on occasion been used to combat multinational firms. Strategies include information exchanges, simultaneous negotiations or strikes, and refusals to work overtime if the intent is to compensate for a striking firm in another country.
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