As multinational enterprises increasingly globalize their operations, managing international human resources strategically becomes a critical factor contributing to overall organizational performance. The strategic management of international human resources has received extensive attention, focusing on staf ng issues related to expatriate assignments. However, empirical ndings indicate limited success of expatriation as an effective method for managing the breadth of international human resource opportunities. As market opportunities increasingly shift to countries with high cultural distance from the parent organization and as organizations evolve their strategic orientation from multinational to global activities, it appears that an exclusive reliance on expatriation-based staf ng will impede effective management of international human resources staf ng. The objective of this article is to review and clarify a theory base that can support a range of international human resource staf ng systems that might be implemented in a global environment. This discussion uses the combined perspective of agency and expectancy theories and discusses conditions under which speci c strategic staf ng choices might be most effective.
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