International hiring concerns and OD considerations:

Crossing Borders indicates a progression from point to point, a business opportunity defined by distance or conceptual transition.  The term also suggests an association with different cultures, communication nuances and navigating geography.  I cross borders on a daily bases, as a Management Consultant and Human Resource Management (HRM) college educator, responsible for 75 international students representing Europe, Asia, Africa and South America.  Clearly, each student is a member of a foreign culture different from my own. However, each student (my clients) and my employer expect me to provide a constructive educational experience regardless of diversity, cultural differences and national origin.  It is my professional role worthy of serious investment and stewardship.

      As global competition intensifies, competition for global leaders to manage overseas operations will steadily intensify and Multi-National Companies (MNC) must develop new ways to identify, attract and retain international executive talent integrated in global markets (Porter, 1990) (Locke, 2003; O'Neill, 2006). The challenge of finding an ongoing supply of qualified managers who can manage across cultures is a key strategic international HRM and Organization Development (OD) challenge.  However, the evidence suggests that the number of female global assignees is still disproportionately low in relation to the overall size of the qualified labor pool. The research has confirmed that organizations may promote women into the domestic management hierarchy, few women are given opportunities to expand their career horizons to international careers  (Linehan et al., 1999). The unwillingness to recruit and develop women as international managers is unsettling as recent research conducted on the outcome of women’s global assignments has indicated that female expatriates are successful in their global assignments (Caligiuri & Stroh, 1995) and that important formal and informal institutional barriers remain to increasing women’s participation in international management (Mayrhofer, Taylor, & Napier, 2002) (Coleman, 2010).

     As an African American in the global market who specks very little Spanish, French, Latin and Swahili I feel a certain inadequacy being able to speak only English proficiently.  However, this is a parallel experience expatriates and global companies consider when working across borders.   It represents contingencies and practice issues associated with OD in organizations outside the United States (Cummings & Worley, 2009; Yaeger, Head, & Sorensen, 2006).

        The application and effectiveness of Human Resource Management and OD in organizations outside the USA is the subject of considerable debate.  Because OD was developed by Americans and Western Europeans practitioners, its practice, methods and procedures are heavily influenced by values of industrialized cultures (Jackson, 2002; Jaeger, 1986). This fact alone raises serious OD questions.  Will Indian cultural values be preserved or defended as American companies locate or outsource opportunities to that market?  How to develop OD conducted in a Brazil company doing business with South African firms?