Valuing the expatriate assignment as a means to achieving global corporate culture : an organizational analysis of international human resources

This study analyzes the IHR organization of a large automobile manufacturer (Organization X) in metropolitan Detroit, Michigan to discover the extent to which it is instilling a corporate culture that truly values the international experience and builds that value into its culture. The extent to which an organization does this determines the extent to which its culture is a global corporate culture. Additional attributes that classify an organization as embracing a global corporate culture include its degree of sensitivity towards national cultures outside of its own, an understanding of its potential international clients\u27 needs, the degree of success to which it delivers products in a culturally-acceptable fashion, its ability to manage cross-cultural interaction, multi-national teams, and global alliances, and the extent to which it develops its employees and its employees\u27 support networks (their families, departments, vendors, etc.) to achieve international success (Adler, 1997, p. 6, 9). Because Organization X has recently merged with a foreign entity, this analysis comes at a time when a shift in culture may be used to leverage profitability, market share, return on investment, and innovation. This analysis provides recommendations that may help Organization X IHR in its professional development of expatriate employees and ultimately the corporate culture at large