The Pros And Cons Of Expatriate Perspectives

Competing in global markets entail many factors and centralization of its human resource practices is certainly vital to improve global competitiveness and empower employees for global assignments. To achieve success in global marketplace, the challenge of all businesses regardless of their size is to understand global corporate cultural differences and invest in human resources which includes selecting and retaining talented employee, training and development whilst encouraging employees to be innovative and creative. Employees selected to work in foreign locations should be prepared beforehand with adequate cross-cultural training. For an organization to be successful in the international marketplace, it must be concerned with this fit from both an internal and

Another factor in the success of an expatriate involves the expatriates pre-existing culture intelligence quotient (CQ). It is still uncertain that an expatriate’s success working internationally is determined by their CQ but it is crucial for expatriates working on international assignments because it is a sign of cultural competency.

The aforementioned increase in expatriations is remarkably in itself, but also as there are reasons advocating a decrease in expatriations besides the aforementioned risks of expatriation failure: High levels of heterogeneity in different markets compared to home market, where differences in culture and high complexity in foreign legislative and other institutional conditions, as well as potential political risk, lead to greater utilization of local management rather than expatriates managers. Subsidiaries also tend to operate on a wide extend of local autonomy in polycentric (Perlmutter, 1966) multinationals structured with a loose coordination and a disperse configuration (Porter, 1986). The fact that career opportunities for locals are reduced if expatriate managers are used, that mobility barriers in dual (two) career families are increasing, that there is an overall unwillingness to go to unattractive locations, coupled with uncertainty about the repatriation and the further career possibilities, may likewise limit expatriations. In some cases there may be work permits / visa constraints too.

Having worked in overseas, he has seen cultural differences in terms of the methods used to manage employees in different countries, and believe that it is an important point to consider in terms of the approach used to motivate employees. Especially with regards to the hiring of foreign talents in Singapore, he believes that special care needs to be taken to ensure that any clashes in culture do not alienate these employees.

. A well-designed cultural awareness training program seeks to foster an appreciation of the host country's culture so that expatriates can behave accordingly, or at least develop appropriate coping patterns. A preliminary trip to the host country provides a preview to assess their

GE has numerous expatriate employees in overseas positions. Catalanello and Redding (1989) argued that GE’s success with their human capital is based on the training they provide to them (as cited in Jain and Agrawal, 2005, P. 83). The training provided to its expatriate employees helps to build competitive advantages at GE. Expatriates, when visiting a foreign country on business would need a basic understanding of that nation’s culture, as it relates to business. Being able to say please and thank you in the native language can go a long way to building productive relationships with foreign nationals. Although, as business has become more global, business people understand there are cultural differences and are generally tolerant of visitors that do not understand, or have a working knowledge of their

Today, as businesses hire white-collar workers abroad, similar opportunities will abound for those ready to change and grow. As in earlier eras, the capital accumulation made possible by the increased efficiency and specialization at American companies will fuel demand for employees with new skills, such as managers able to integrate a company's activities across countries and cultures.

Expatriate staffs are ignorant of the local culture. Recruiting a local staff eliminates the cost of training an expatriate on intercultural issues. Because the expatriate staff is unfamiliar with the local culture, there will often be the struggle to acclimatize and adapt to the new culture. Additionally, the expatriate staff does not know how the employment system in the host country is so to recruit local staff will pose an enormous challenge for the expatriate staff (Malamud & Rotenberg, 2010). Additionally, expatriate staffs will not efficiently and effectively network with local stakeholders because of language and cultural

Cultural differences between countries have strong effects on individual personality and behavior, as well as on organizational culture (Hofstede 2001). These differences can be a significant barrier for an international business leader. Failure to understand and adapt to these differences may

The reality for most corporations is that they cannot assume the challenges that are brought about by the increased level of globalization. Repatriates have increased the level of cross-cultural diversity among employees in organizations (Black & Gregersen, 2000). The diversity has also been increased among suppliers, customers, creditors, and competitors. Employers are therefore required to put in place different mechanisms that can make it possible for the retention of repatriates. There is need to note that culture has a great impact on the behavior that is assumed by individuals. The paper sets out to discuss the various methods that can be used by employers as the most appropriate means through which they can effectively manage

The appropriate staffing strategy is to rely on country and company characteristics, perceived needs and staffing outlook. They need to invest in training the employees or contract a company to train their employees in order to build a strong human resource department. The reason for this is because a lot of the expatriates will be working for the company and this is part of their culture and they know how to run the airlines. Human resource department and upper management need to know and understand the tradition, legal and political regulations of the organization in selecting the best employees. With this way, there will be no problems for them adapting to the new culture and the cost connected with expatriates compensations cost will not be enormous. The polycentric approach for Arik Airlines is that they will be able to better guide the company on local market conditions, politics, laws and culture at each foreign location. It also provides for sound training for host country nationals and thereby opening greater possibilities for career advancement (Steers & Nardon, 2005). It can also create major coordination problems for headquarters based on language, cultural and loyalty differences. Polycentric can reduce adjustment problems of the home country national managers that are sent from home office since there will be less managers taking jobs overseas. Like the ethnocentric, this approach may limit career advancements for host country nationals because the company may believe that they are needed in home country nationals. Third country national staffing is the ability of a candidate to represent the company’s interest and transfer corporate technology and competencies. The USA or the host country may not have the best

2. When a company grows in size and makes the decision to expand internationally, it is vital for its image among current and future customers to complete projects effectively and on time. Furthermore, it is also likely that such an expansion would entail the representation of more than one culture among the workforce. Indeed, while many employees will be relocated from the home country, a further proportion will be hired from the host country. To facilitate the relations and

In summary, the home culture of an expatriate predisposes them to certain behaviors and situations. It allows them to operate efficiently in that environment. However, moving to the host-culture changes that operating environment and makes their 'mental software ' less efficient and effective. Culture is clearly a relevant variable when expatriating employees and their families for international business assignments. Training can be applied to ameliorate these effects. Also, training provides insight into the procedural, substantive and informational aspects of their work and personal life in the host location.

The importance of expatriates being able to interact and communicate with local nationals is emphasized by the contact theory assuming that interpersonal contacts between individuals from different cultures lead to understanding and adjustment. One of the ways that expatriate newcomers become aware of appropriate behaviours in the host country is interacting with host country nationals in a social setting, as local people would be the sources of information and help to understand. The successful expatriates are socially well-integrated. Therefore, expatriates who often communicate and interact with locals will be less surprised and frustrated by differences in non-work circumstances of the host country comparing with expatriates who are socially isolated from the host culture. In the host country, inappropriate behaviours are more likely to result in negative outcomes, leading the expatriate to make the wrong attributions about the culture of the host country and consequently to further withdraw from it. Avoiding interaction with the host country nationals in daily life outside work leads expatriates to ignore local thinking and mentality, which affects their ability to assess work situations and make them develop inaccurate assumptions about the people they are managing. However, others have argued that to bring about adjustment merely interacting with host nationals is not enough, suggesting that adjustment will be facilitated if the expatriates have the cultural empathy

Abstract. As organisations become globalised, there is an increasing need to employ expatriates for global assignments. Investigate the issues in the expatriation process from different perspectives are of utmost important to enhance understanding and improve performance of the