Local/National

Local nationals (or locals) are the citizens that reside in a multinational corporations host country. When an organization decides to venture out into global markets, it may elect to send some of its current employees to start the business with the intent of integrating local nationals into the process. However, the management team will have to address political, economic, and cultural issues that may arise in the designated country. In order to address the different types of inequities that may arise, those in the international business arena must develop policies and procedures that address these issues and create a sense of fairness for everyone involved. Many believe that that there should be standards for social responsibility and ethics in order to make sure that developing countries are not exploited. Having a formal global approach to these types of challenges can ensure a sense of fairness for everyone involved in the process.

Organizations need to decide if it is best to establish the international business function internally or externally. It is important for organizations to assess their current workforce to determine if they will need to rely on expatriates to establish a presence in the host company or whether it is more feasible to hire employees from the host country in order to minimize cultural and language barriers.

If the organization elects to start internally, it may assign a team to set the budget, ship products, and develop the international marketing plan. However, this can become expensive, so the organization may evaluate two other options. One option is to hire employees from the host countries. Many organizations elect this option in order to minimize cultural and language barriers and secure labor that is cheaper than its current workforce. If the organization elects to hire employees from the host country, it is important that it assimilates these new hires into its corporate culture so that they will have an understanding of what the organization values and how it operates.

Representational Approaches

In 2007 Farzad Khan introduced a conceptual framework that identified four representational approaches to understanding how social inequities surface in developing countries as they attempt to venture into international business. When the model was created, it was established that there are many parties involved in the process. Since representation ranged from local workers to international mass-media organizations, each party was defined in terms of geography. The two categories introduced are locals and foreigners. Locals were defined as individuals or entities that are primarily located in the developing countries. Locals are very diverse and have different perspectives and interests. Individuals falling into the “foreign” category are those that do not fit into the “local” category. Significant players in the foreign group would include international businesses that are directly involved in specific situations and their critics.

Both of these groups are considered to be “repre-senters” as they work to resolve issues that arise. Each situation is analyzed and evaluated on the representers' role in the situation and the worldview of the situation. The approaches attempt to conceptualize the representation of the ethical issues involving international business in the developing world. The four different approaches

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