CaseWhen an international business opens a new facility in a foreign country, one of itsmost important tasks is staffing that new facility with managers and operatingemployees. To do this, the firm must decide how many employees it needs for the newfacility, what skills they must have, where they will be hired, how much they will bepaid, and many other issues. When it comes to staffing a foreign operation, Japanesecompanies are among the most careful and thorough in the world.Consider how Toyota approaches the staffing of its automobile assembly plants in theUnited States. In Japan automakers and other manufacturers have set up specialtraining programs in high schools. Students who are not likely to go to college canenter training and apprenticeship programs financed by these businesses. Toyotamanagers believe it takes a special kind of employee to succeed in their firm. The firmwants to hire only people who will conform to its emphasis on teamwork, corporateloyalty, and versatility along the production line. In Japan prospective employees havebeen trained and screened along these dimensions while in high school. In the UnitedStates, though, such programs are rare, so Toyota goes to what some observers see asextraordinary lengths to select its U.S. employees.To appreciate the magnitude of its efforts, consider how Toyota staffed its first whollyowned plant in Kentucky. When the firm began to recruit employees for the plant, itreceived more than 100,000 applications for 2,700 production jobs and 300 officejobs. Over half of these applicants were rejected immediately because they lacked theminimum education or experience Toyota deemed necessary. Other applicants wereeliminated early in the screening process because they lacked one or more otheressential qualifications.The thousands of applicants still under consideration were invited to participate in anexhaustive battery of tests. Applicants for even the lowest-level jobs in the plant weretested for over 14 hours. The initial tests covered such areas as manual dexterity, jobskills, and technical knowledge. Those applicants who passed the first level of testswere invited back to participate in an organizational simulation exercise. Althoughmany firms use an organizational simulation when hiring managers, Toyota uses it forall prospective employees. Results from the simulation eliminated still otherapplicants from the pool, while those who remained were invited back for still moretesting. This third wave of testing involved performing mock production line jobs on asimulated conveyor belt under the observation of trained supervisors. Only one ofevery 20 applicants made it through this test and was invited back yet again, this timefor an interview.The interview was conducted by a panel of officials and representatives from eachdepartment in the plant. These interviewers were trained to determine how well theapplicant would fit into both the overall Toyota culture and the interviewersâ specificdepartments. Finally, applicants who were favorably evaluated by the interviewerswere asked to take a physical exam and a drug test. If they passed both, thenâ andonly thenâwere they deemed to have met Toyotaâs standards.By the time the selection process was completed and Toyota actually hired a person, ithad spent over $13,000 on testing and evaluating that individual. Moreover, it hadspent thousands of additional dollars eliminating others at earlier stages. (While thefirm does not release its current hiring costs, they are almost certainly higher thanthese initial figures.) Even though Toyotaâs original U.S. plant has been open for overtwo decades, the firm is just as selective now as in earlier times. The firm allows 24people a day to sign up for its assessment center evaluation (many more apply eachday). About one in a hundred eventually gets a job, although the entire evaluation process and time spent on the waiting list can stretch to two years before theindividual actually starts working. Toyota has extended and refined its thoroughselection approach into its newest U.S. plants as well. Applicants for jobs at the firmâsIndiana truck plant and West Virginia engine plant undergo the same rigorousassessment as applicants at the Kentucky factory, as did workers in San Antonio whenToyota opened its newest truck factory there.But Toyota also faces some new challenges. As detailed more fully in Chapter 15,Toyota has made subtle changes to its corporate culture that places a greater premiumon growth than in the past and, at the same time, may place less value on productquality. To the extent this is, in fact, a real and intended action, its selection and otherHR procedures may also have to change so as to hire and incentivize people who willfollow the new reward structure. On the other hand, if the culture change wasunintended and Toyota wants to reverse it, then its triedand-true methods will likelystill be appropriate.Questions:(give your opinion 400-450 words)1. How does HRM in the United States differ from HRM in Japan?2. Why donât all multinational firms use the same approach as Toyota for hiringworkers?