ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the strategic implications of managing a workforce that is spread across two or more countries. Globalization involves the geographic dispersion of enterprise operations across national boundaries. That is, globalization forces management to decide which work activities to keep local, which activities to distribute to which foreign locations, and how to ensure coordination among those operating at substantial distance from one another. Kumar, van Fenema, and Von Glinow suggest that alternative forms of coordination and control are often necessary because the global distribution of work introduces a new form of task interdependence, different from the more classic forms noted in the organizational literature, which they refer to as integration interdependence. Global staffing is the process of acquiring, deploying, and retaining a global workforce in organizations with operations in multiple countries. Moreover, when applying the dominant HR strategy to the newly integrated foreign unit, there is always the risk that key talent may be motivated to leave.
