thus,limiting the effectiveness of the HCNs. As noted earlier in this chapter, Mercedes used German executives to shepherd the development of its U.S. operations to ensure that its new employees understood the firm's emphasis on producing quality automobiles.
Finally, an international firm may hire third-country nationals (TCNs), who are not citizens of the firm's home country or of the host country. Like PCNs, TCNs are most likely to be used in upper-level and, /or technical positions. TCNs and PCNs collectively are known as expatriates, or people working and residing in countries other than their native country. In the past TCNs were likely to be used when they had special expertise that was not available to the firm through any other channel. Today they are consciously being employed by some firms to promote a global outlook throughout their operations. Firms such as Nestle and Philips NV rely heavily on TCNs because they believe those managers bring broader perspectives and experiences to the firms' host country operations. Further, some firms are recruiting more TCNs to serve on their boards of directors to help bring a more global orientation to the boards.
Most international firms develop a systematic strategy for choosing among HCNs, PCNs, and TCNs for various positions. Some firms rely on the ethnocentric staffing model, whereby they primarily use PCN, to staff higher-level foreign position. This approach is based on the assumption that home office perspectives should take precedence over local perspectives and that expatriate PCNs will be most effective in representing the views of the home office in the foreign operation. Other international firms follow a polycentric staffing model; that is. they emphasize the use of HCNs in the belief that HCNs know the local