Selection of expatriates: a study of decision making models

Abstract

Many organizations now find it essential to operate on a global level to maintain a competitive advantage. Expanding into international-level business presents many challenges to an organization, one of which is the difficulty of selection of expatriate employees. The purpose of this study was to explore the decision-making processes of HR professionals when selecting expatriates. Specifically, the policy capturing method and hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) were used to examine how expatriates' characteristics, including gender, domestic performance/technical competence, extraversion, stress tolerance, and previous international experience, were incorporated in decision-making. When deciding whether to send a hypothetical candidate abroad, HR professionals considered previous international experience and stress tolerance as important factors. In determining the likelihood of adjustment to a foreign culture, HR professionals considered the following factors: previous international experience, stress tolerance, and extraversion. Decisions regarding the likelihood of adequate job performance in the international assignment relied only on stress tolerance, and judgments regarding likelihood of early termination of the expatriate assignment seemed to be determined by previous international experience and stress tolerance. While comparing HR professionals' decisions to those of actual expatriates regarding whether to send a hypothetical candidate abroad, likelihood of adjustment, or likelihood of early return from the assignment, HR professionals tended to favor candidates if qualitative information about previous international experience was provided. In contrast, expatriate respondents were more optimistic about candidates for whom quantitative information was provided. It was also determined that decisions regarding likelihood of adjustment and adequate job performance were related to the overall decision of whether to send a hypothetical candidate abroad. The findings also revealed that likelihood of adequate job performance was more important to the overall decisions for HR professionals than for actual expatriates. Overall, these findings are similar to those reported in the current meta-analytic findings.