Which international market entry strategy involves a multinational organization acquiring an open
area and building subsidiary facilities from scratch?
B
Explanation:
Comprehensive and Detailed Explanatio n:
A Greenfield venture is a type of foreign direct investment where a parent company starts a new
venture in a foreign country by constructing new operational facilities from the ground up. This
includes building new factories, offices, and distribution hubs—essentially "starting from scratch." It
is commonly used when organizations want full control over their operations, infrastructure, and
processes.
GPHR Topic Reference:
Strategic Global Human Resources – International Market Entry Strategies:
“Greenfield investments involve acquiring land and constructing new facilities, offering full control
over operations, but with high risk and initial cost.”
What assignment compensation structure often makes it difficult to localize long-serving
expatriates?
A
Explanation:
Comprehensive and Detailed Explanatio n:
The home-based pay structure keeps expatriates' compensation tied to their country of origin, often
using a balance sheet approach that maintains living standards consistent with their home country.
This can make it difficult to transition these employees to local salaries, particularly if they've been
on assignment for a long time and have grown accustomed to higher compensation levels.
GPHR Topic Reference:
Global Compensation and Benefits – Expatriate Compensation Approaches:
“Home-country-based balance sheet approaches can create long-term inequities and hinder the
ability to transition expatriates into localized roles.”
An employee is being sent on a support assignment to a country affected by an ongoing local
interruption of transportation systems. Which of the following payments would most likely be
provided to the employee?
C
Explanation:
Comprehensive and Detailed Explanatio n:
A hardship allowance is provided to compensate for difficult living conditions in the host country.
Ongoing transportation interruptions are considered a form of hardship, as they can disrupt daily life
and employee productivity.
GPHR Topic Reference:
Global Talent Acquisition and Mobility – Assignment Allowances and Incentives:
“Hardship allowances are provided when the living conditions in the host country are significantly
more difficult than those in the home country.”
In selecting a global staffing vendor to meet specialized needs, HR needs to consider the;
A
Explanation:
Comprehensive and Detailed Explanatio n:
The placement success rate is a key metric when evaluating a global staffing vendor. It indicates how
effectively the vendor can meet talent acquisition needs, especially for specialized roles that are
critical to the organization’s success.
GPHR Topic Reference:
Global Talent Acquisition and Mobility – Vendor Selection Criteria:
“A high placement success rate is critical in evaluating external staffing partners, particularly for
niche or hard-to-fill global positions.”
Which factor has a direct impact on the effectiveness of the HR function?
C
Explanation:
Comprehensive and Detailed Explanatio n:
Understanding stakeholders—both internal and external—is essential for HR to align its strategies
with organizational goals. Effective stakeholder engagement allows HR to design initiatives that meet
business needs and employee expectations.
GPHR Topic Reference:
Strategic Global Human Resources – Stakeholder Analysis and Engagement:
“An understanding of the organization’s stakeholders is fundamental to shaping HR’s strategy and
ensuring its contribution to business performance.”
At which stage of an organization's global development is HR's involvement fairly limited, with the
firm relying on a few key managers to transfer knowledge to others?
C
Explanation:
Comprehensive and Detailed Explanatio n:
At the International stage, the organization has taken its first steps into foreign markets, often by
exporting goods or establishing small overseas offices. HR’s role is still minimal, primarily
administrative, and typically involves a few senior managers transferring knowledge to foreign
operations. There's little integration between the home and host operations.
GPHR Study Guide Extract – Strategic Global Human Resources / Global Development Stages:
“In the international stage of globalization, the organization centralizes major decisions at
headquarters while foreign operations function largely as extensions. Knowledge and policy transfer
is typically carried out by a few key managers, and HR involvement remains operational and limited
in scope.”
This contrasts with more advanced stages (e.g., Transnational), where HR becomes strategically
integrated across geographies.
Which of the following are strategic rationales for leveraging cultural diversity in a global
organization? (Select TWO options.)
B, D
Explanation:
Comprehensive and Detailed Explanatio n:
Competitive Advantage – Diverse teams bring broader perspectives, creativity, and innovation,
leading to enhanced problem-solving and decision-making, which gives organizations a strategic
edge in the global market.
Changing Labor Force Demographics – Global organizations must respond to increasing workforce
diversity, driven by global mobility, migration, and aging populations. Recognizing and preparing for
this shift is a strategic imperative.
GPHR Study Guide Extract – Strategic Global Human Resources / Cultural Diversity and Global
Workforce Trends:
“Cultural diversity fosters innovation and enables organizations to respond effectively to diverse
customer needs. Global demographic shifts, such as aging populations and increased migration,
necessitate inclusive strategies to remain competitive.”
Legal compliance (AAP) is more reactive and location-specific, not strategic from a global HR
perspective.
Which of the following are economic benefits that an employer can derive from having a strong
employer brand? (Select TWO options.)
A, C
Explanation:
Comprehensive and Detailed Explanatio n:
Increased Retention – A strong employer brand attracts high-quality talent and fosters pride and
loyalty, reducing turnover costs and improving organizational stability.
Customer Engagement – Employees who are proud to work for a company become brand
ambassadors, indirectly improving customer trust and brand loyalty.
GPHR Study Guide Extract – Talent Acquisition and Mobility / Employer Branding:
“Employer branding not only reduces recruitment and retention costs but also strengthens corporate
reputation. Engaged employees contribute to customer satisfaction and organizational growth,
reinforcing the employer brand in the market.”
Recognition and wellness are elements of internal programs, not direct economic drivers of
employer branding.
Which type of organization is most likely to staff a management position in another country with a
parent-country national?
A
Explanation:
Comprehensive and Detailed Explanatio n:
Parent-country nationals (PCNs) are often used in conservative or centralized cultures where control,
consistency, and alignment with HQ policies are prioritized. Large financial firms typically prefer PCNs
for trust, governance, and standardization.
GPHR Study Guide Extract – Global Talent Acquisition and Mobility / Staffing Approaches:
“An ethnocentric staffing model commonly places parent-country nationals in foreign managerial
roles to ensure alignment with the organization’s home-office practices. This is especially prevalent
in highly regulated, conservative sectors such as finance and banking.”
Other models like polycentric or geocentric are more aligned with flexible or mature international
companies.
Which term applies when there is no external frame of reference for comparing one set of rules to
another set of rules?
C
Explanation:
Comprehensive and Detailed Explanatio n:
Ethical relativism is the belief that morality is culture-specific, meaning there are no universal
standards to judge one ethical system by another. Therefore, decisions and behaviors are evaluated
based on the local context, without imposing external norms.
GPHR Study Guide Extract – Workforce Relations and Risk Management / Global Ethics and
Compliance:
“Ethical relativism suggests that ethical standards are culturally bound, and what is considered right
or wrong depends on the societal norms of the specific location. This perspective rejects universal
moral principles in favor of cultural context.”
This contrasts with ethical universalism, which applies a standard set of ethics globally.
An organization based in Germany has appointed a Turkish citizen to its Amsterdam office. While
enrolling their children into a Dutch school, personal data concerning health is given to the school
authorities. Under the European Union (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which of
the following is the primary legal concern?
B
Explanation:
Comprehensive and Detailed Explanatio n:
Under the GDPR, Purpose Limitation refers to the principle that personal data must be collected for
specified, explicit, and legitimate purposes and not further processed in a manner incompatible with
those purposes.
In this case, providing health data during school enrollment must be aligned with a clearly defined,
legitimate reason—like ensuring medical safety for the child. Any processing beyond that intent may
breach the purpose limitation.
GPHR Study Guide Extract – Workforce Relations and Risk Management / Global Compliance and
Data Protection:
“The GDPR mandates that organizations must ensure that personal data is collected for specific,
explicit, and legitimate purposes and not further processed in a manner incompatible with those
purposes (purpose limitation). This principle is central to lawful data processing under EU law.”
This is distinct from data minimization (collecting only necessary data), which may also apply but isn't
the primary concern here.
What strategy balances global efficiency and local responsiveness?
B
Explanation:
Comprehensive and Detailed Explanatio n:
The Transnational strategy is designed to combine global integration (efficiency) with local
responsiveness. Organizations using this model operate with a decentralized structure that
empowers local units while also standardizing core functions globally to maintain synergy and
competitive advantage.
GPHR Study Guide Extract – Strategic Global Human Resources / Global Organizational Structures:
“A transnational model aims to simultaneously achieve global efficiency and local responsiveness. It
incorporates elements of centralization for cost and quality consistency, while also allowing
subsidiaries the flexibility to adapt to local markets.”
This approach differs from multinational (focused more on local autonomy) and global (focused on
standardization over localization).
High-potential managers in foreign subsidiaries are linked with executives at headquarters. This style
of mentoring is called:
B
Explanation:
Comprehensive and Detailed Explanatio n:
This is an example of international mentoring, where high-potential local managers in global
locations are paired with senior leaders at headquarters. The goal is to develop leadership pipelines
and integrate global talent with the organization's strategic core.
GPHR Study Guide Extract – Talent and Organizational Development / Global Leadership
Development:
“International mentoring programs help connect high-potential talent in regional offices with
executive leadership at headquarters. This not only aids career development but also ensures the
integration of global talent into succession planning.”
Reverse mentoring is the opposite—junior or tech-savvy employees mentor senior leaders, often in
digital skills or cultural awareness.
Recommendations on employment standards from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD):
C
Explanation:
Comprehensive and Detailed Explanatio n:
The OECD does not enforce legal mandates. Instead, it issues voluntary guidelines that member
countries are encouraged to adopt. These recommendations cover corporate responsibility,
employment standards, and ethical labor practices.
GPHR Study Guide Extract – Workforce Relations and Risk Management / International Employment
Standards:
“OECD guidelines are voluntary principles and standards for responsible business conduct addressed
to multinational enterprises. They are non-binding and are designed to complement existing labor
laws and ILO conventions.”
This makes OECD guidelines advisory, unlike ILO conventions, which can be ratified and legally
binding.
Which of the following factors favor the implementation of a furlough over a layoff strategy in
addressing a financial crisis? (Select TWO options.)
A, C
Explanation:
Comprehensive and Detailed Explanatio n:
Reduction of Office Rental and Mortgage Costs – If the workforce is furloughed, operations can be
paused, reducing overhead costs, including rent and utilities, particularly in non-essential or closed
facilities.
Increased Near-Term Labor Demands Anticipated – Furloughs are temporary; they preserve the
workforce for a quick return to operations, ideal when business recovery is expected soon.
GPHR Study Guide Extract – Workforce Relations and Risk Management / Downsizing and Alternative
Workforce Strategies:
“Furloughs are temporary suspensions of employment where employees retain their jobs and
benefits but are not actively working. They are advantageous when short-term cost reduction is
needed, and the organization anticipates a rebound in labor demand.”
Layoffs, by contrast, are often permanent and lead to longer rehiring cycles and potential loss of
skilled labor.