It was surprising to find out the evidence in current MNEs still use the traditional criteria for selection of expatriates managers. And it seems to be predicted by the company would select the managers who were most similar to themselves in the high risk area when they face the uncertain roles of expatriates (Harris and Brewster 1999, cited Antal and Lzraeli 1993).

What the difference between traditional expatriate managers and international managers? The traditional expatriate managers focus on one country or area. They adapt to living in one culture and working and training people from one country. Meanwhile, the traditional expatriate managers also develop one country perspective. In comparison, the internationals human resource managers are completely different for the traditional expatriate managers. The international managers deal with the human resource management in many countries and often in different regions. They adapt to working in several cultures business environment. They use cross cultural skills both at home and overseas, and develop a global perspective (Croft 2010, cited Hurn 2006).

Some recently studies mentioned that the personality characteristics and international skills are very important for expatriate selection (Reiche and Harzing 2009, cited Caligiuri 2000, Spreitzer, McCall, and Mahoney 1997).

The Typology of International Management Selection Systems

      Source from: Global Human Resource Management lecture slides 2010

From the figure we can clearly seen that the there are four possible variations of selection systems in the international human resource management. As Harris and Brewster (1999) mentioned that the first two variations are ‘open’ and ‘closed’ selection procedures in company. The ‘open’ system advertised the some people who have the suitable qualifications and experience can apply the job and the candidates are interviewed by the test. Selection decisions will be at the same as the selectors. The ‘closed’ system means the selectors at headquarter of the company to select the applicants. At that moment, just only one manager can been enter into the selection process. The applicants will be told only the agreement was been accepted both in line manager and controlling corporation. This process involves in a negotiation with the terms and conditions about the assignment. The second two variations are the existence of formal and informal systems used in company. These four different kinds of selection process can be developed in this way.

The closed informal system reflects to the selectors’ individual preferences determine the criteria to select the applicants. In the open informal system, the employees have been selected by the relevant managers based on their personal recommendation and the reputation. The less defined criteria and measures, and limited training for selectors appeared in this system. The closed formal system relate to the selectors evaluated the applicants against the formal criteria and lack of personal contact with the applicants. In the open formal system, the selectors evaluated the applicants against the formalized criteria and restricted using personal preferences in assessment. It will be enhanced by using the psychometric and other tests mentioned by Harris and Brewster (1999).

In conclusion, this article has been described the ways of recruitment and analyses the potential advantages and disadvantages of internal and external recruitment. It also mentioned the section criterion for international human resource management and the typology of international management selection systems. Based on the previously stated, the recruitment and selection plays a very important role in international human resource management.