Evaluating managers’ performance in companies in transition

Perlmutter’s typology distinguishing between ethnocentric, polycentric, and geocentric management is considered classic. It recommends that multinational firms practise a form of globally conceived administration, regardless of the country of origin of its managers. However, an analysis of the phase of economic transition that Central and Eastern European countries have known since the end of the 1980s, demonstrates that the work market is a dual structure (dividing expatriate and local managers). This is largely due to the difficulty companies have in evaluating the capacity of their managers to work alongside the company objectives. Thus, even the structuring of the work market weakens the relevance of an approach of voluntary human resources. It also softens differences between ethnocentric, polycentric, and geocentric management.