IKEA Case

CASE – An expatriate for IKEA Mexico
Before reading the case, please read the following in depth:
 Dowling, P.J., Festing, M., & Engle, A.D. (2017) chapters 5, 7, 8 and 10.
 Konopaske, R., Chet, R & John,M.I. (2005) A preliminary model of spouse influence on
managerial global assignment willingness. The International Journal of Human Resource
Management 16(3), 405-426
 Black, J. S., & Mendenhall, M. (1989). A practical but theory-based framework for selecting
cross-cultural training methods. Human resource management, 28(4), 511-539.
Instructions
You are the head of Human Resources at IKEA headquarters, the Netherlands. IKEA has a subsidiary
in Mexico. However, staff turnover has been high over the past years. A month ago, the previous HR
Manager Division Flatline located in Mexico City resigned. It is now of utterly importance that a new
HR manager in Mexico will stay for at least five years. You are in charge of recruiting the successor.
After a long recruitment process with a vast number of candidates from within IKEA, you have
narrowed it down to three top candidates. Your job is to choose one of these candidates based on
the information below and take all possible means to improve the chance of expatriate success.
After reading this case you will argue for your choice of one of the candidates and discuss what steps
you have to undertake to prepare the assignment, expatriate and accompanying spouse/family.
write a paper that in detail discusses your choice of: Around 2000 words.
 Recruiting a PCN (parent-country national), an HCN (host-country national) or a TCN
(third country national). Elaborate your answer and discuss the pros and cons of
ethnocentric, polycentric, geocentric or regiocentric approaches to recruiting.
 What steps will you have to take to prepare the spouse/family for the new location to
enhance the chances of expatriate success?
Final candidates
Paloma Hernández
References
Paloma’s references emphasize her ability to manage extreme workloads in an international
setting. She is an excellent negotiator. As a manager she is known to work hard and demand of
her co-workers to do the same. Her superiors and current coworkers describe Paloma as
extremely efficient and well liked for her excellent results.
Work life experience
Three year as HR manager at IKEA New York. Four years at home with her children. Two years of
experience as an HR manager at Atlantic Express in New York, a US based logistics company. 7
years of experience as HR strategist at IKEA Mexico. Further Paloma has 4 years of experience as
HR strategist at Interjet Airlines in Mexico City.
Education> Master of business from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Private Paloma is 42 years old, born in Tulum and a Mexican citizen. Her husband Michael is also 42
years old, a U.S. citizen and works as an accountant in the public sector in Atlanta. Paloma and
Michael have two daughters, Elizabeth 5 years and Alejandra 7 years who go to school/preschool in
Atlanta. The past three years Paloma has commuted between New York and Atlanta and her family
has remained in their hometown in Atlanta, USA. If Paloma is chosen for the job in Mexico her family
will accompany her, and Michael is planning to stay at home the first years until the daughters are
settled.
Language skills Fluent in Spanish and English.
The job adverts
HR Manager Division Flatline, IKEA Industry – Mexico
Do you believe in people? Are you passionate about leading our people agenda, so we become a
great place to work in all aspects? Do you like to work on both a strategic and operational level to
secure that we keep developing the business through people? Do you want to be part of a dynamic
and changing production environment? Then this might be the right challenge for you!
About you
To be successful in this role you should be business minded with a strong people focus. It is also of
utmost importance that you share the humanistic IKEA values and act in a way, which creates an
atmosphere of trust, respect, continuous improvements and togetherness. As a person, you like to
interact with many different kinds of people in different contexts and have the capability to build
strong relationships based on trust and act as a trusted advisor. You have the ability to work with
both a long-term perspective and at the same time turn strategies into results, by breaking them
down into plans and implementing different actions. Furthermore, you have strong communications
skills with the ability to both inspire, clarify and negotiate, and you are fluent in English, both written
and spoken. We are looking for a person who has at least 10 years of experience from working in the
HR area, preferable in an international organization.
About the job
Division Flatline is one of four divisions in IKEA Industry and we produce furniture mainly based on
boards, for example Kallax, Bestå, Pax, Billy and Lack. The division consist of 12 production sites in
nine different countries with approx. 10 000 co-workers.
The Division HR Manager plays a key role in the organization as the main responsible for Human
Resources as well as for Health and Safety. As the Human Resources Manager, you will act as the HR
generalist and assist with coordination of employee policies, performance management,
compensation and benefits, and general HR services. It is crucial for the Division HR Manager to form
a strong partnership with the business managers to contribute to the performance, with focus on
leadership, competence- and organizational development.
Another important area for the Division HR Manager is, as a part of the matrix role, to actively
support, coach and develop our 12 local HR Managers and continue to build a strong team spirit in
that group.
The Division HR Manager will together with other stakeholders, continue to develop and implement
the IKEA Industry People plan in the whole division to secure long-term profitability by focusing on:
 Strengthening our value based leadership
 Developing new competencies
 Creating an innovation culture
 Developing the workplace for the future
The position gives plenty of opportunities to influence the People agenda at the IKEA Industry and
you will be part of the IKEA Industry HR Matrix team. You will report to the Division Flatline Manager
in Älmhult, Sweden, and be a part of the Division management team world-wide at the headquarter
in Leiden, the Netherlands. As you will work closely with all the Flatline production sites, and it will
require extensive travelling. You will be located in the IKEA Industry office in Mexico City. The
corporate language is English.
We are a values-driven company with a passion for life at home. Our vision is to create a better
everyday life for the many people. IKEA Industry, integrated part of Inter IKEA Group, is the world’s
largest producer of wooden furniture and every year, IKEA Industry produces more than 100 million
pieces of furniture for IKEA customers.

Background on IKEA
IKEA was founded by Ingvar Kamprad in Älmhult, Sweden, in 1943 (IKEA is actually an acronym for
Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd – the name, hometown and home region of the founder).
However, even as the Swedish roots are still very important in the company, IKEA is not really a
Swedish company anymore. Today IKEA is controlled by a company called INGKA Holding, which, in
turn, is controlled by a Dutch stitchting — a tax-exempt, nonprofit foundation — to which Ingvar
Kamprad transferred his ownership shares in 1982. Today IKEA is a multinational group of companies
that designs and sells ready-to-assemble furniture (such as beds, chairs and desks), appliances and
home accessories. As of November 2018, there are 424 IKEA stores operating in 52 different
countries. In the 2016 fiscal year, the company generated a global revenue which exceeded 35
billion Euros. The IKEA headquarters lie in Leiden, the Netherlands. The corporate language is
English.

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