| 摘要: | 海外經理人的調派與任用來源包括來自母國經理人PCN(Parent Country Nationals)、地主國員工HCN(Host Country Nationals)、第三國員工TCN(Third Country Nationals)或前三者的任用組合(Dowling, Welch & Schuler, 1999)，國際經理人的任用策略是依據企業不同的國際化階段而定(Perlmutter, 1969; Heenan & Perlmutter, 1979)。不過，也有許多研究顯示，兩者的關係是非線型演化的關係，不是只存在母國經理人或非母國經理人之單一的一種任用措施(Scullion & Collings, 2006)。
國際企業向海外據點拓展時，在外部環境方面，最直接面臨的兩個議題是母公司與子公司所在國的文化距離，以及產業環境的不確定性，造成海外任務的艱鉅；在內部環境方面，企業本身的國際化能耐與組織控制政策，則有助於母公司對海外子公司的任用資源調度與監控，而這些都與母公司海外投資的經營成效息息相關。在全球化快速發展的趨勢下，國際經理人的任用決策已是當今國際企業重要的管理議題。而過去雖已有許多學者投入這方面的研究，不過許多實證結果卻仍存在著諸多分歧(Scullion & Collings, 2006)。
過去研究已證明代理理論可用於全球任用決策(Gong, 2003; Tan & Mahoney, 2003, 2006)，並可以有效地解釋母國企業與海外子公司之間的關係(O’Donnell, 2000; Collings, Morley & Gunnigle, 2008)。母國經理人、地主國經理人和第三國經理人，這三項任用決策的來源各有其優缺點，對於子公司處於不同環境時，各具有不同的特性與互補性(Scullion & Collin, 2006)，代理理論對於資訊系統、結果不確定性、激勵與風險的組織問題，提供獨特的洞察力，且已具有實證成效的看法，特別是在處理互補性觀點(Eisenhardt, 1989)。代理觀點提供子公司經理人任用決策的事前契約問題本質的分析視角，交易成本觀點則是強調該國際經理人任用之事後契約問題的分析觀點(Tan & Mahoney, 2006)。交易成本源自契約的不完全(Williamson, 1985)，當企業在海外子公司的經營，對環境的不熟悉與當地市場狀況的變化，因資訊獲取不足，影響企業決策的判斷和子公司海外任務的達成。最後，導致企業經理人任用過程中存在著契約不完全的本質。當環境不確定性愈高，契約不完全的情形也隨之擴大。
對於國際經理人任用決策的研究對象，過去多仍以母國經理人佔子公司人數比例為主要研究對象，將母國經理人、地主國經理人、第三國經理人等三項經理人任用來源，同時納入探討與實證檢驗的研究，尚十分稀缺。本研究以台灣國際企業138家海外子公司和70家母公司為研究對象，進行海外子公司一般經理級主管和部門高階主管的任用決策影響因素研究，透過代理理論中的資訊不對稱與目標不一致的觀點，以及交易成本中的聘任契約和資訊交易等成本觀點，就子公司所面臨的外部環境和企業本身的內部情境，探究他們對各經理人任來源的影響情形。本研究發現，國際化程度、產業環境不確定性和文化距離，都確實會影響子公司非母國經理人的任用措施；子公司成立時間對母國經理人、地主國或第三國的高階經理人，也都有顯著影響；而控制機制愈大，不論是對一般經理人或高階經理人，都不利於本土化政策的落實。
;The resources of expatriates include PCN (parent country national), HCN (host country national) and TCN (third country national), or the combination of the three resources (Dowling, Welch & Schuler, 1999). The staffing strategy of corporate’s international managers is based on the different stages of internationalization (Perlmutter, 1969 & Heenan & Perlmutter, 1979). However, many previous studies have found that the relationship between the staffing strategy and internationalization is a non-linear evolutionary relationship. There could be more than one single type of staffing measures to expatriates or non-expatriates. Further, many empirical studies still reveal different results (Scullion & Collings, 2006).
When MNEs expand overseas, the two most directly facing issues in the external environment are the cultural distance and the uncertainty of the industrial environment, which makes the overseas mission difficult; in terms of internal environment, the internationalization and organization control policies of MNEs will help the parent company to arrange and monitor the staffing resources of overseas subsidiaries. Those issues are closely related to the operating efficiency of overseas investment. Under the trend of rapid globalization, the satffing decision of international managers has become an important management issue for MNEs today. In the past, although many scholars have devoted themselves to research in this area, the empirical results still reveal many divergences. (Scullion & Collings, 2006).
Previous research has proven that agency theory can be used for decisions of global staffing (Gong, 2003; Tan & Mahoney, 2003, 2006) and can effectively explain the relationship between corporate and subsidiaries (O′Donnell, 2000; Collings, Morley & Gunnigle, 2008). Parent country nationals, host country nationals, and third country nationals all have their own advantages and disadvantages. With the different characteristics and complementarities of each resource, the subsidiaries can be best supported depending on the situation. (Scullion & Collin, 2006). Agency theory provides unique insights into the organization of information systems, outcome uncertainty, incentives and risks, which has been verified in many empirical researches, especially in dealing with complementary perspectives (Eisenhardt, 1989). The agency theory analyzes the problems of contract with the ex-ante perspective. On the other hand, the transaction cost theory emphasizes on dissecting the problems of fulfilling contract with the ex-post perspective (Tan & Mahoney, 2006). Transaction costs perspective derives from incomplete contract (Williamson, 1985). When MNEs operate in oversea subsidiaries with unfamiliarity of local environments and rapid change of local markets, it is hard for companies to acquire sufficient information for decision making and impede accomplishment of oversea missions. With higher environmental uncertainty, the incomplete contract will also extend.
Previous research about staffing international managers mostly focused on parent expatriates as the main research subjects, however, studies that simultaneously discuss the three staffing resources of international managers are still lacking. Therefore, this study takes 138 overseas subsidiaries and 70 parent companies of Taiwanese multinational enterprises as the research object, and conducts research on the influenced factors of staffing decisions to general managerial level and the heads of departments. Further, this study explores the external and internal factors that impact on staffing policies of international mangers through the information asymmetry and goal inconsistency of agency perspectives and employment contracts and information transactions of transaction costs perspectives. This study finds that the degree of internationalization, industrial environmental uncertainty and cultural distance affect the staffing measures of HCN and TCN. The staffing policies of PCN, HCN and TCN are influenced by subsidiaries’ length of establishment. With greater control mechanism, it becomes more difficult to implement localization policies, for both general managers and high-level manager. |
