Field Validation of the Host Country National Liaison Role

Recent conceptual work by Vance et al. (2014) has explored various aspects of the important liaison role of HCN managers and other HCN support staff between the assigned expatriate and local employees as well as the surrounding host country work environment. They identified five different components for this important HCNL role, including cultural interpreter, communication manager, information resource broker, talent manager, and internal change agent. They further identified specific behavioral functions for each role component. This behavior-based model provides a potentially valuable resource for guiding the selection, training, and management of HCNL performance to ultimately benefit the local subsidiary. However, although the development of this local HCNL role model was based both on theoretical constructs and the authors’ international experience, it remains to be validated by further field testing to assess its accuracy, comprehensiveness, and generalizability. This developmental research proposal examines our recent work in preparing to field test and validate the HCNL role model.