MANAGING INPATRIATES - BUILDING A GLOBAL CORE COMPETENCE

The core competency of an organization is a unique signature composed of tangible and intangible assets that are used to differentiate a com pany from its competitors. As organizations have moved into the global marketplace, many have attempted to simply extend their domestic core competency to compete with global competitors. The cultural imprint o f the core competency is a western, United States orientation. To effe ctively differentiate U.S. MNCs in the global competitive arena, these organizations must become more multicultural. One means of accomplish ing this diversity of strategic perspective is to inpatriate foreign m anagers into the domestic management ream on a permanent basis. The pu rpose of this paper is to outline the need for inpatriation while pres enting the issues which will arise in the inpatriation process. A step -by-step process to accomplish inpatriation is also presented. While t his process is not free of difficulties, it may be a cost-effective wa y of globalizing the core competency of an organization in a permanent way.