Managing Expatriates Return

Expatriation is a big topic, and is getting bigger. Over 200 million people worldwide now live and work in a country other than their country of origin. Tens of billions of dollars are spent annually by organizations that move expatriates around the world. Yet, despite the substantial costs involved, expatriation frequently results in an unsatisfactory return on investment (ROI), with little or no knowledge as to how to improve it. Why is this so? Drawing on more than a decade of expertise, research, and publications in top journals, the authors provide you real solutions to achieve more than a satisfactory ROI from expatriates—with rule number one being: Understand expatriates themselves. This book provides a practical “insider’s” guide that reveals why expatriates seek and accept international assignments; how they feel impacted by new forms of remuneration and other working conditions; how international assignments fit in with their longer-term career aspirations; and what complications arise in terms of their families. Whether you’re a manager or consultant, inside you’ll learn what modern-day global mobility is like (based on the authors’ decade-long study with nearly four hundred expatriates and their managers, as well as over a hundred who were interviewed personally), how it is changing, and why now, more than ever, a hard-nosed ROI approach is necessary.

Multinational enterprises continue to rely heavily upon expatriates as part of their global workforce. These expatriates, whose exact employment contract may take different forms, are assigned to help them develop global skills as well as to foster knowledge transfer. But managing this expatriate workforce is extremely complex, requiring a questioning of assumptions and sensitivity to new social and cultural dynamics. This book sets out to examine the problem of expatriate management through an I/O Psychology lens. Each chapter draws upon the expertise of scholars from around the world to provide insights into the latest research findings and remaining needs, pertaining to a wide variety of issues. The contributors of this book review the current state of the research of the issue at hand and then make recommendations for where the new frontiers of the research should be in the coming decades. This volume covers four sets of issues pertaining to expatriate management and global mobility in depth. First, the different decision points organizations must make about assigning someone to an overseas location for some period of time; second the different categories of employees in the multinational corporation and their unique characteristics and challenges; third, the various issues and implications of managing a globally mobile workforce; and fourth, the unique contexts of global mobility. Overarching future research themes are identified that lay out the research agenda for the coming decades. By bringing together key research, this book aims to help I/O psychologists understand, explore, and identify new ways of contributing to the understanding of the issues involved in managing an expatriate workforce. Incorporating state-of-the art I/O psychology research in this unique context bears the promise of yielding important new paradigms and practices.

Seminar paper from the year 2014 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 1.7 (73), University of Hertfordshire, course: Leadership and Management Development, language: English, abstract: Anglo-French Wines Direct (AFW), a multinational company based in the UK, established a ‘High Flyers Programme’ four years ago to develop future leaders to enable to achieve its global growth objectives. The aim was to send them to one of the international subsidiaries for two years and bring them back for a more senior position. However, the new HR Director of AFW has discovered the following problems within this programme: 1. 25 percent of the expatriates returned home early due to dissatisfaction. 2. Over 35 percent of the expatriates were considered to be underperforming on the assignment. 3. Around 30 percent expatriates left within a year of their return to England. In order to achieve its business objectives, it is essential that AFW turns round this failing programme into a leading-edge leadership programme. Particularly since AFW is a large company and plans to expand its business further, it is according to Burgoyne (1988, cited in Gold et al., 2010) vital that the programme has a high level of maturity, i.e. complexity and structure, enabling to meet the organisational needs and objectives. Thus, AFW needs to take a strategic and integrative approach and manage each stage of the ‘International Assignment Cycle’ (See Appendix 1), i.e. recruitment and selection, hiring, preparation, expatriation and repatriation, effectively. Accordingly, this report aims to present a mix of solutions regarding each stage and provide recommendations for evaluating the new programme to ensure its effectiveness.

The selection - development - support framework described in this report not only identifies the important factors to consider when working overseas but also specifies ways to develop a talent pool of effective expatriates.

This book is designed to help practitioners and academics to assess the added value of HR practices. It provides hands-on recommendations for choosing effective means to manage HR and specific suggestions aimed at facilitating the measurement of HR practices’ impact on value creation. Evidence-based recommendations are made by drawing on thorough empirical research from various research traditions and academic disciplines. It covers a wide variety of tasks faced by the HR function and specifically addresses new challenges such as assessing the added value of work-life balance practices.

A comprehensive overview of the practical implications for organizations that manage international employees, and individuals who are currently or aspiring expatriates.

International human resource management (IHRM) is a key area of research in the sphere of international business and management. Described as a field in its infancy in the 1980s, IHRM has quickly advanced through adolescence and into maturity. Today, it is a vibrant and diverse discipline which boasts a large and active body of researchers across the globe. This volume examines cutting-edge themes, with the input of contributions from both established and emerging scholars. The Routledge Companion to International Human Resource Management gives a state-of-the-art overview of the key themes, topics and debates in the discipline, with valuable insights into directions for future research. Drawing on a large and respected international contributor base and with its focus on mature and emerging markets, this book is an essential resource for researchers, students and IHRM professionals alike.