Yanghua Zhou

By Yanghua Zhou

Employee satisfaction and motivation have an important influence on individual employees and the performance of companies. In international business and marketing, where expatriates play important roles, regional cultures and institutional factors impact their satisfaction and motivation. This chapter aims to find out what kind of regional cultures and institutions have an impact on employee satisfaction and motivation in multinational corporations (MNCs), using theoretical analysis and the results from around 100 Japanese expatriates’ questionnaires. It was possible to find the satisfaction and motivation-related characteristics of expatriates in MNCs from the results of their interviews and the questionnaire survey, which indicated that Japanese expatriates working in the USA, Singapore, and Indonesia had a higher job satisfaction degree than those working in cultural regions, such as China, Taiwan, and Australia. Moreover, the results showed that compared with other industries, in the sales and marketing industry, the Japanese expatriates had the lowest satisfaction degree after repatriation, although their satisfaction degree was higher during expatriation and after a career change. The reasons relating to regional cultures and institutions, and some methods and human resource management practices in international marketing and trading that were analyzed are expected to raise expatriates’ satisfaction and motivation.

Part of the book: Global Trade in the Emerging Business Environment

By Yanghua Zhou

This chapter explores effective human resource development strategies during and post-crisis. Particularly, during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, the remote and hybrid measures taken by multinational corporations (MNCs) play a significant role in the development of people. According to previous literature, the internal enterprise social network (ESN) of MNCs, localization of human resources in overseas subsidiaries, and flexibility and resilience of human resource systems have a positive impact on people’s development during this crisis. Leadership has a moderating effect on using the internal ESN for remote learning, people development performance, and organizational resilience building via crises. Based on a literature review and theoretical analysis, this chapter puts forward several propositions to clarify the kind of leadership and leadership competencies that positively influence knowledge sharing through ESNs and organizational resilience innovation. Suggestions for leadership development. This chapter serves as a good reference for both business professionals and academic researchers. It provides original suggestions for both MNCs and small and medium-sized enterprises.

Part of the book: People Management