Leong, a young local manager at a global resort and hotel chain, couldn't break into the inner circles of his Western expatriate bosses. He felt that without good personal relationships with these bosses, it would be hard for him to make much headway at the company.





Local professionals and managers working for foreign multinational companies complain about this sort of thing all the time. Each hiring and promotion decision is of course unique and involves idiosyncratic considerations.





Nevertheless, many people believe foreigners often have an edge over locals in the hiring and promotion process.





Recent observations suggest that many global companies promote through internal transfers – it is not so much that these companies prefer expatriates over locals, but that foreign firms expanding in Singapore are simply bringing in staff from elsewhere.





But why do multinational corporations do this? There are several reasons.





