This thesis examines the values and criteria American companies use in
hiring or placing expatriate employees in China. These values and criteria affect
the success or failure of expatriate employees and a company's bottom line -
profitability.
Investigating this topic required an examination of the history of the
political, economic, and social philosophies that have shaped contemporary
China. It was also necessary to examine expatriates and their role, and to
define an American company. Cultural comparisons are made between the
United States and China using Hofstede's Four Dimensions, Ronen and
Shenkar's Country Clusters, and Hsu's analysis of internal versus external
motivation.
I explored the relationship between two primary personnel parties in an
effort to define how success and failure are measured in overseas assignments.
To this end, I interviewed 42 Americans working in China categorized into two
groups - the Management Group and the Employee Group. AU participants were
located in either Shanghai or Beijing. Based on the interviews, an analytic
distinction was made between expatriates hired locally and those employees
who were transferred from the United States to China.
The results of this study found that local hires tended to be younger and
have linguistic and cultural skills, while the expatriates sent from the United
States tended to be older and have managerial and technical skills. Challenges
confronting both managers and employees will be shown to primarily stem from:
1) External motivations, such lucrative compensation packages, not
guaranteeing a successful assignment in China; 2) the focus of companies when
hiring or placing an expatriate employee being based on technical and
management expertise; 3) cultural and linguistic skills being important for
successful expatriate assignments; and, 4) cultural and linguistic training
positioning an expatriate to have a successful assignment.
These findings lead to the following recommendations: 1) Top managers
should be provided with cross-cultural training to understand the importance of
cultural and linguistic skills; 2) companies in China should hire local expatriates
who have linguistic, cultural, and adaptability skills; and, 3) an investment should
be made in technical skills training for local hires rather than linguistic and
cultural training for technical expatriate employees. / Graduation date: 2001
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/28420 |
| Date | 06 September 2000 |
| Creators | Habiger, Sheldon |
| Contributors | Young, John A. |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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