 In this topic, we will be discussing the advantages and disadvantages of hiring third country nationals. Now, what are third country nationals, for example, if a company is headquartered in America and then it has got a foreign subsidiary in, let's say, Pakistan. So, American managers would be the parent country nationals. Pakistani managers would be the host country nationals. And if, for example, they hire somebody from Africa or somebody from the UK to come and manage things in Pakistan, that British or African manager that is going to be a third country national, a person who does not belong to the host country, neither belongs to the parent country, is somebody who's a third country national. So, the advantages of hiring third country nationals, well, the salary and benefit requirements may be lower than that for the parent country nationals. So, if, for example, it is an American firm and is managing a subsidiary in Pakistan, if a person from South Africa is hired, obviously their per capita income and their level of salaries is not that high as that in the Americas. So, the compensation and benefits, they may be lower than the parent country nationals and yet they may have an international exposure and the kind of skills which are required to, which are required for managing that particular host country subsidiary. Then it is possible when you are hiring a third country national, there is definitely going to be a reason why that third country national is appointed. So, the third country national may be better informed than the parent country national about the host country environment. So, it is possible that when you are hiring a third country national, that third country national would be belonging to the same region. So, if, for example, you are managing operations in Pakistan, it's possible that somebody from the same region, from let's say, Pakistan or from Afghanistan or from the same kind of region that person is going to be appointed. So, a third country national may be better informed than parent country national about the host country environment. What could be the disadvantages of this approach? Number one, the transfer must consider possible national animosities. So, when I was just giving you the example of from where people could be transferred to Pakistan, so I said Africa, I said America from Britain from, and when I was talking about the same region, I said Afghanistan or Iran, but I never took the name of India because it's totally impossible because of the national animosity. So, in international human resource management, it is very much important that when you are moving people from one place to the other, you are absolutely sure of what kind of behaviors and attitudes people have towards each other. So, if there is that kind of a national animosity, so although India and Pakistan, they have got a totally similar kind of culture, but you may not have heard that a manager from India has come to work in Pakistan or an Indian manager. It is possible that a foreign manager who is like an American or a British may be appointed to Pakistan and then after that may be appointed to India. Well, that is something else. But a Pakistani manager being appointed in a subsidiary in India or an Indian manager being appointed in a subsidiary in Pakistan, that is something which is totally unlikely because there is a high level of animosity between these nationalities. Then another disadvantage is that the host government may resent the hiring of a third country national. So, the acceptance rate of a parent country national is high because of their extensive authority. If an American manager is coming and managing you, it's okay. It's something which is acceptable. But if an American firm is there and an African manager is coming and trying to manage your operations, definitely the host country nationals, they would be thinking, what is the reason? Which is something that we cannot do ourselves. So, this could lead to a feeling of resentment in the host country nationals. And then it is also possible that third country nationals they may not want to return to their home countries after their assignments. So, sometimes it happens that you get harmonized with the new culture and then you don't want to go back to your own home country. So, these are a few disadvantages of hiring third country nationals in your foreign operations in international management.