Defining the multinational as a producing enterprise motivated by profit and owning or controlling facilities in more than one country, this paper analyzes the process employed by United States multinationals in sending parent country nationals abroad for service in a subsidiary. It first examines the process in its fullest form by citing practical and theoretical viewpoints in current literature and then explores the actual practices, according to this process, used by multinationals. Next, it defines the problem area by showing the disparity between the fullest definition of the process "at best" and the actual process as practiced "in reality." The paper concludes that the gap exposed by this contrast is antithetical to a multinational's smooth operation and interferes with necessary communication on the macrolevel between parent company and subsidiary and on the microlevel between an employee on overseas service and host national employees. The organization of a professional cross-cultural training field and the establishment of a theoretical framework are suggested as means of internationalizing the outlook of the multinationals. (FL)