Using an AHP Matrix to Take a Decision Regarding the Country to Choose to Work Abroad

INTRODUCTION

Due to globalization, more young graduates are looking to work abroad for multinational companies, and are ready to relocate themselves in a place which would ensure them with future financial and personal achievements.

Their research process starts during the years spent in college, when the students establish certain criteria against to which choose the most fitted country for fulfilling their professional dreams. When going to work abroad, people are challenged to adapt to a new culture. So, it is very important to acknowledge the specific of that culture and to make sure they will be able to accommodate with the new working environment. There are big differences, for example, between working in Italy where people are friendly, easy-going, talkative, and being employed in Japan where Japanese are not too much inclined to entertainment, they don’t express directly their emotions, and are much more disciplined. However, if the person is very attracted by the Asian culture, is the meditative type, Japan is a very good choice.

Working abroad means professional gains. When selecting a country people must think about the types of jobs are required in a specific country, what industries are lacking in employees, the working conditions, the financial rewards. United Kingdom for example, offers a lot of opportunities for young people holding a degree in marketing or tourism. Good IT specialists might find great opportunities in the USA, where the information technology industry is blooming.

People interested in finding a job in a foreign country must always make a thorough analysis of the labor market, and afterwards to select only the places that offer employment in the specialized area. During the selection process it is very important to gather information about personal development opportunities and to pay attention to the climate conditions from the countries selected. There are people coming from Mediterranean areas that cannot to adapt themselves to a colder weather like the one existing in Sweden or Denmark, or maybe their health condition requires a mild climate.

In order to find a solution of the problem exposed, young people interested in working abroad need to establish several alternatives to choose from.

The purpose of the present project is to go through the decision making process using the alternatives and the criteria available, having as method The Analytic Hierarchy Process.

The steps are the following:

1. State the decision problem and create the AHP framework.

2. Develop a survey to be answered by minimum 2 interested parties, based on the criteria and alternatives from the AHP structure.

3. Perform pair-wise comparisons through the scales: Linguistic model, Saaty and Ma Zheng.

4. Process data in decision matrices, establish the priority vector and aggregate the final results in Gauss 10.

5. Observations and conclusions.

THE DECISION DILEMMA

Making a good decision as far as the country to choose to work concerns, is a challenging task and assumes the idea of taking into consideration all the positive elements but in the same time certain risks which might arise in the future. People have to assess very carefully all the possible gains and to discover the possible flaws, afterwards deciding which alternative will bring the most benefit to their lives.

The problem in question is: What country to choose to work abroad?

In order to obtain a reasonable answer, it is necessary the creation of an AHP structure that conveys the criteria and alternatives in question. The best country to work in are: United Kingdom, United States of America, Germany and Japan. The criteria are represented by: career development, personal development, financial benefits, weather conditions, and culture.