Question

Distinguish the differences between parent countries, host countries, and third countries and the different types of international employees. Must be in essay format and at least 250 words long.

Cite your sources, please.

Answer 1

Answer:

In the international human resource management (IHRM) the terms host country, parent country and third country is used very often. This makes it important to understand the difference between these terms and to understand the classification of the three types of international employees based on this.

The term host country refers to the foreign country where an international business venture takes place. It is the country where the business operations are carried out by the companies from the parent countries. Or in other words it is the country that hosts the business venture. Parent country is the country from where the company undertaking the business venture originally belongs. It is the country where the business operations of the company undertaking a foreign venture were originally started. A third country can be defined as a country which is different from both parent and the host country. Based on this classification there are three types of international employees. The first types of employees are the host country nationals (HCN) or the local employees who belong to the host country. The second types of employees are the parent country nationals (PCN). These are the employees who are from the parent country and posted in another country. The third types of employees are the third country nationals (TCN). These are the employees who neither belong to host country or the parent country but are from some other country.

Thus based on the classification of parent, host and third country, the different types of international employees are also defined.

References

• Harzing, A. W., & Pinnington, A. (Eds.). (2010). International human resource management. Sage.
• Brewster, C., Houldsworth, E., Sparrow, P., & Vernon, G. (2016). International human resource management. Kogan Page Publishers.