International Business Case Study Essay

In the case study internationalization and cross-cultural expansion of a local manufacturer: Barden (US) and FAG (Germany), Barden had a need to increase its labor force during a time of low unemployment. Barden had to become creative in their ability to locate candidates, one way was to increase their candidates was by recruiting recent immigrants, Barden hired many immigrants during this time but found many spoke little or no English. In order to get them prepared to successfully contribute to the company Barden hired a language training firm to train these new employees. The training had many benefits for Barden and the newly hired employees. Hiring immigrants can be beneficial to companies to fill vacant positions especially in in multinational

As companies expand into international business I feel foreign immigrants should be considered as part of a firm’s workforce strategy. Hiring immigrants can help reduce the culture gap when conducting international business and increase companies knowledge of other countries cultures. Often times the lack of knowledge or sensitivity to culture differences can result in mistakes in both business practices and policies and personal interactions (Tarique, Briscoe, and Schuler 121). As with immigrants, host-country hires (employees who work in the foreign subsidiary and are citizens of the country where the foreign subsidiary is located) and third-country hires (citizens of a country other than the parent country or the country of the subsidiary to work in one of its foreign subsidiaries) are all employees that face culture issues to some degree, such as, lack of knowledge of parent company polices and practices, language barriers, lack of skills or knowledge, low loyalty, may not be accepted by locals (Tarique, Briscoe, and Schuler

Barden faced the barrier head on and worked with a language company creating language training for the immigrants which helped the immigrants build confidence through their newly learned skill. Barden also benefited from this barrier, they gained cross-cultural awareness and competence which likely reduced the potential culture issues faced as they later became affiliated with FAG of Schweinfurt, Germany, and Stratford,