Reference no: EM133333781

Case Study: Sitting in his room at the Hawthorn Arms Hotel in Shannon, Ireland, waiting for a morning flight to London and then on to Marseilles, Alistair Mackay reflects on how uninspiring hotel rooms are. He has just completed a series of meetings with Irish officials in Limerick, concluding with a debriefing session over a Guinness with his Irish colleagues to plan their next move. Negotiations over a potential contract are proceeding well, but there will be labor implications that will require a formal response. Consequently, Alistair had missed the last evening flight out to London. "Another night away from the family. Thank goodness I am not missing our wedding anniversary tomorrow. I must remember to find something really special in the duty-free shop." Six months ago, Alistair was appointed Director of Personnel Development, European Division, for Trianon, an Anglo-French avionics firm. Trianon had begun as a subcontractor for the Concorde and had gradually gained a reputation in the 1970s and 1980s as a high-quality, if sometimes undependable subcontractor for major French and British aerospace defense contractors. Attempts to expand into civilian markets by gaining contracts for the original European Airbus were unsuccessful, though today, nearly 30 per cent of Trianon's sales are through civilian contracts. Now, under new executive management, Trianon is focused on major navigational display contracts for the next generation of Airbus production. Prior to joining Trianon, Alistair had worked in the legal department of a Scottish bank. European Union (EU) employment requirements had become his speciality and provided a springboard into his current position. His cellphone rings and he receives an unexpected call from his colleague Henri Genadry, General Director of Joint Ventures, Mergers and Acquisitions, Display Division. Henri informs him that the expected outright purchase of a scanner cathode ray tube production facility in Vecses, outside of Budapest, Hungary is not going ahead. Instead, the decision has been made at corporate headquarters in Marseilles for a ten-year joint venture with a Hungarian government-backed firm. Henri goes on to explain that the Hungarian control and equity interests in this project are expected to make ministry officials in Budapest happy. Henri is hopeful the decision will make executives and administrators at Malév, the state-supported airline, friendly to Trianon in the long term. "We will now need a 'Quality Compliance Manager' for a three-year assignment in Hungary. It is an important position as we will need to keep tight control on this joint-venture operation. There will be 3 some travel to France and Germany - at least in the first year - until we see how things are working out with these new partners." Alistair asks, "When do you expect this 'Quality Compliance' manager to be available?" There is a pause on the other end of the line, after which Henri blandly responds, "Five or six weeks if we are to meet corporate timetables. We expect the person to be in on the ground, so to speak. We will need a realistic assessment of current processes, for a start. The person will need to be familiar with the joint venture's objectives and targets. We have some details through the due diligence process, but skills audits were somewhat rushed." Alistair then asks that details, including a job description, be emailed to his intranet address. "Well," Henri admits, "this is the first joint venture our firm has been involved in outside of the UK, Germany, or France. The job description will be very precise on the technical 'quality' side but vague on the administrative 'compliance' side. You may need to fill in the missing pieces as you see fit." After a few more minutes of general chatting, Henri finishes the phone call. Alistair plugs his laptop into the telephone port on his room's desk and, after a few false starts, logs onto the secure corporate website and accesses three personnel files from a folder he prepared some weeks ago in expectation that he would be asked for a decision. Of course, he had expected the position to be that of Project Engineer in an operation of which the firm would have 100 per cent ownership. Now he is looking for a Quality Compliance Manager in a joint venture. Alistair doesn't like making these kinds of decisions when feeling so remote and 'disconnected' from the firm. He considers calling his friend and mentor, Gunther Heinrich, in Frankfurt, Germany and asking him about the Hungarian project, as the German-based divisions have more experience dealing with Hungarian issues. He looks at his watch. It is 10.30 p.m. "Not a civilized time to call anyone, let alone Gunther." Alistair knows that Gunther's wife, Britt, had presented them with a son three weeks ago, and they were having trouble getting the child to sleep through the night. "I will call him from the airport and set up a meeting. I will have the job description by then." He is also feeling uncomfortable with the process he is going through. Surely we can do better than react like this after the event, he thinks. Why were we not part of the decision-making process on the Hungarian venture? 4 Exhibit 1: Alistair Mackay's short list of possible candidates First candidate: Marie Erten-Loiseau. Born in Prague, her family moved to Toulon when Marie was 12 years old. Brought up in France, she was educated as an aeronautical engineer in France and Germany. Marie worked for Trianon for 13 years, in two divisions within France and Germany, with increasing levels of project responsibility. Her leadership of two projects over the last three years in Lodz, Poland and two sites in the Czech Republic and Slovakia has been marked by remarkable success. Married, her husband is semi-retired. They have one child in university. Second candidate: Janos Gabor. Born in Gyor, Hungary, Janos was educated at the University of Pécs, Hungary. He has a good background in the production of cathode ray tube and display system technologies, albeit from the central European perspective. He has worked at Trianon for nearly four years and has just been transferred into the cathode ray tube division as a Senior Engineer. His family is reportedly very well connected with national government officials, particularly the old, ex-party members of multiple ministerial bureaucracies. Janos is single. Third candidate: Sinead Marrinan-McGuire, a production engineer on loan to Trianon's London office for joint-venture analyses and due diligence reviews on technical and legal grounds. She has spent three years in the Research and Development (R&D) development team in Dublin and London, working on the very technologies to be applied in this Hungarian joint venture project. Alistair met and talked with her today in Limerick and was very impressed with her understanding of corporate-level concerns and strategic issues. Most of her career has been in Ireland and around London, with only short, tactical trips to France. Married, her husband is a solicitor in Dublin. They have three children aged seven, nine, and thirteen. 5

QUESTIONS:

1. Based on the above case study, summarize the important points of the case study.

2. Consider the three candidates as stated in Exhibit 1 of the case study. As an HR manager, you are required to make an appropriate decision. Which candidate should be selected for the position? Justify your selection.

3. What are the major factors that Alistair should consider in selecting the best candidate?

4. Based on the case study, propose a general recruitment and selection process for Trianon that best fits the company from the perspective of International Human Resource Management.

5. Should HR staff need to be involved in strategic decisions relating to international business operation in organisation? Justify your answer