Your international company headquartered in New Jersey is sending an expatriate to China for a three-year assignment to staff up and run a new branch of its industrial products business. The main Chinese customers are using the products in their Middle Eastern and North African petroleum operations. You are chair of the selection committee, have extensive overseas experience, and presently serve as VP, Human Resources. There were 12 internal people interested in the position, and your committee has narrowed this to three final candidates who want this assignment. Here are the candidates:
Tom is a mid-level finance manager with stellar performance reviews. He has no foreign experience and would like to develop his career in this direction. He is single, has an MBA, and has been out of school for 20 years. His background is in finance at the undergrad level, which he studied at Ohio State, only 50 miles from his hometown. He is involved in the local Council on Foreign Relations and is an accomplished athlete.
Firdaus is a deputy VP of HR at corporate. Her family emigrated from Yemen to Chicago when she was in grade school, and she speaks reads and writes Arabic, both classical and the Yemen dialect. She is married, with two children. Her husband George is a professor of history and does not speak Arabic. She has a Ph.D. in engineer- ing, joined the company on the operations side, and has made the mid-career transition to HR successfully. She finished her PhD at the University of London before she 116 Section II began with the company and is now early mid-career. Her performance reviews are stellar. She encountered an incident at the company’s headquarters several years ago when there was a discussion about her wearing a headscarf, but this was resolved without her changing her practice. She is well known and well liked throughout HQ. Her husband is ready to take a leave of absence for three years to accompany her.
Gunther is VP of the German-based EU company. His functional background is accounting, and he is credited with the success of the company in the EU. He built the business from a small operation in Frankfurt to the EU sector leader in only seven years. He speaks German and English and is known for being well-organized and “but- ton-upped.” His work is timely, accurate, and detailed. Gunther’s boss, the president of the international side, was a bit surprised that Gunter expressed interest in this position, because it is perceived as junior to the position he has now, although it would have an equivalent title on paper. Gunter has an undergraduate degree in anthropology and took graduate-level accounting courses earlier in his career.
The company would like someone who could get the operation up and running, stay for three years, and then transfer the position to a local hire they would develop for the responsibility. Drawing on the culture dimensions that we have reviewed, along with your business knowledge, whom would you recommend for the position?