International human resource management encompasses at least 3 types of employees depending on their country of origin such as home or parent country nationals, host country nationals, and third-country nationals. Home or parent country nationals can be defined in the following ways:
Definition (1):
Home country nationals are also known as parent country nationals. They are citizens of the country in which the multinational company has its headquarters (so an American working for OM’s subsidiary in China is a home-country national, as well as an expat).
Definition (2):
“Employees belonging to the country where a company’s headquarters are located are called parent-country nationals or home country nationals. “
Staffing an organization with home country nationals has the following advantages and disadvantages:
Advantages:
- More control of the organization
- Managers get experience in local markets
- More understanding and implementation of business strategies can be possible.
- Morale booster for employees of the host country
- Cultural understanding
Disadvantages:
- Adapting to a foreign environment can be difficult for manager and family, and can result in less productivity.
- Language barriers.
- Expatriates may not possess cultural sensitivity.
- Cost of visa and hiring factors.