Expatriate Selection Practices in Japanese MNCs: A Multiple Case Study

抄録

Careful selection of candidates for overseas assignment is the first step in enabling a successful overseas assignment and ensuring global leadership development. By employing a qualitative multiple case study design, this study explored the current situation of expatriate selection practices in nine Japanese companies in India and Thailand. Results indicated that expatriate selection practices of Japanese companies are far from the recommendations of the literature/MNCs experience. The role and the strategic importance of the assignment are not made clear to candidates sent overseas, the variety of selection criteria and tools employed by companies are very limited, and the role of the human resource (HR) department is marginalized. The examination of contingency variables to be considered when selecting expatriates opens up new directions for further empirical examination. Practical implications are also discussed.