Expatriate Skills Research Articles

Expatriate skills: cases studies of portuguese multinationals firms

The starting question of this study is what kind of skills make an employee candidate to international assignment and potentially impact on his/her success? Literature suggests that both technical skills and personality traits are critical and affect international assignments. For instance, Hammer et al., (2008) report cross-cultural skills. Black et al., (1999) in their study emphasized the cultural flexibility, the ability to develop interpersonal relationships, the skills of conflict management and leadership style. Van der Zeen and Van Oudenhoven (2000) mentioned the cultural empathy, the openness of mind, a cultural initiative, the emotional stability and flexibility. Despite the lack of consensus around the set of skills, the common perception is that an appropriate balance between soft and technical skills in addition to non-ethnocentric traits may prevent expatriation failures. The goal of this paper is to contribute to such debate by identifying expatriate critical skills and abilities. For this purpose, our research focuses on the selection practices and tries to ascertain the criteria and procedures applied for the selection of expatriates. We would therefore to answer to the following research questions: how firms select employees for expatriation? What are the core or transversal skills required to an for expatriate? That is, are some skills that are needed for any international assignment? Or otherwise, the skills are specific or functional? Empirical research is based on three Portuguese multinationals case studies operating in different countries and in different sectors. The company from food setor has about 6,600 employees and operates also inPoland. The company of computer setor has about 1200 workers and operates also inSingapore,U.S. andUK and the third company from metal construction has 3000 workers and began its internationalization process forRomania,Angola,Brazil,Mozambique. The information was collected from face-to-face interviews with human resource managers. Additionally, some general statistics on expatriate socio-demographic characteristics were gathered. Empirical evidence suggests that leadership and result orientation skills seem to be required by all firms in the sample. Furthermore, the results indicate that employers privilege industry-specific and occupational-specific skills. Regarding other individual characteristics, the expatriates from the firms in our sample are employees aged between 30 and 50 years. While organizations select younger employees to promote the development of skills, older employees are selected on the basis of their experience and ability to adapt to host country culture and people. Organizations are also aware of other factors that influence successful expatriation. For instance, the vast majority of expatriates are married. This finding suggests that firms may use criteria not related to skills and abilities but are utmost relevant. Despite the higher costs of expatriates with family responsibility, the firms have learnt that family matters may affect expatriate performance.

Expatriate skills training strategies of Chinese multinationals operating in Australia

Recent years have witnessed a phenomenal growth in outward foreign direct investment (FDI) by Chinese multinationals. In contrast to their developed country counterparts, Chinese multinationals lack experience in foreign expansion and international operation. Although there has been increasing academic attention placed on Chinese outward FDI, little research on expatriate skills training of Chinese multinational enterprises (MNEs) has been conducted. Since the mainstream research focuses on expatriate pre-departure training rather than on learning during assignment, this study aims to bridge this gap by exploring how Chinese MNEs cope with expatriate training and skill enhancement when operating in an advanced economy such as Australia. The study utilises cross-level, in-depth interviews to analyse expatriate training in seven Chinese multinationals. Drawing on social learning theory, some patterns of Chinese expatriate skills training strategies are revealed, such as internationalisation as learning, the use of subsidiaries as a training tool, and learning as belonging.

The homecoming: a review of support practices for repatriates

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the prevalence of repatriate support practices in organizations within the context of the current literature in this field of study.Design/methodology/approach – A total of 42 firms employing 3,234 expatriates were surveyed regarding human resource practices that support repatriation. Analysis focused on support practices as predictors of voluntary and involuntary turnover.Findings – Results indicate that the majority of firms surveyed used two or fewer repatriate support practices. While 60 percent of firms offered logistical assistance, such as relocation services, less than 70 percent offered career and training support for repatriates. The most common cause of involuntary turnover is the lack of job openings in the home organization upon reentry, while the most common cause of voluntary turnover is the organization's poor utilization of the expatriate's skills acquired on the overseas assignment. Organizations with more support practices reported a low...

Remuneration differences in the emerging economies of China and India

Emerging economies by definition tend to be less dependent on expatriate skills and labour than lower-income countries, yet remuneration (pay plus benefits) differences between expatriate and local workers persist in them to some degree. According to relative deprivation theory, economic development paradoxically elevates the salience of relatively small gaps in remuneration. We therefore expected workers to report injustice and demotivation regarding relative remuneration, despite the closing of remuneration gaps between expatriate and local workers due to the economic development of recent years. To explore that possibility, 482 skilled professionals from a variety of sectors and organizations in two emerging economies, India (n = 233, response rate = 54%) and China (n = 249, response rate = 58%), participated in the research. International salaries were greater than local salaries by a factor of 2.73:1 in India and 1.90:1 in China; these mean ratios bordered on intolerable in the India sample and were largely tolerable among the sample from China. In both countries, differently remunerated workers differed in their justice cognitions and their demotivation, with lowered motivation and fewer justice cognitions in the locally salaried, local workers. These differences were however more statistically significant between people working in India than in China. Insofar as the motivational and justice gaps persisted, the findings support relative deprivation theory. Insofar as the same gaps appear to be sharper in the country with the higher-not lower-mean remuneration differential, they do not. An in-country workshop with local experts who interpreted the findings (in India), and content analysis of the participants' recommendations (in China) jointly recommended linking remuneration to (i) workplace performance instead of (ii) economy-of-origin, to help promote (iii) fairness.

Expatriate Adaptation

Abstract: * This study investigates expatriate adaptation using a sample of Japanese expatriates in the US. For a comprehensive understanding, home managers in Japan and host managers in the US were also used. * This study is unique in that it examines expatriate adaptation through an analysis of the change of a fit between 12 learning skills and the skills demands. * The degree of expatriate adaptation increased in accordance with the length of the current overseas assignment tenure in the host country, along with an increase in job satisfaction. Keywords: Expatriate adaptation * Experiential learning theory * Learning skills * Skills demands * Job satisfaction * Japan-US business Introduction In the past few decades, many researchers and theorists have focused on the study of expatriate adaptation in the domain of international management. Their topics of study comprise, among others, the adjustment process (Black et al. 1991; Aycan 1997), acculturation (Mendenhall and Oddou 1985), the paradox of adjustment (Brewster 1993), expatriate well-being at work (Nicholson and Imaizumi 1993), expatriate adjustment and satisfaction (Torbiorn 1982), expatriate experience and adjustment (Thomas 1998; Selmer 2002; Takeuchi et al. 2005), and so forth. Although a wide range of views have been presented in the studies on expatriate adaptation, the prime focus of most of these studies is on sociopsychological and welfare concern or psychological well-being that reflects the concept of expatriate adjustment (Kamoche 1997; Wong 2001). More specifically, Haslberger (2005a) pointed out that much of the cross-cultural adaptation research in the management literature has been associated with the three types of expatriate adjustments initially proposed by Black (1988): General, work, and interaction adjustments. Since these types of adjustments refer to expatriates' psychological comfort in situations (Black 1988, 1990; Black and Gregersen 1991; Takeuchi et al. 2002), they appear to converge into an emotional aspect of the expatriates. Kamoche (1997) argued that this trend may result in a misleading impression because it appears as if all the functions of expatriate management control only the welfare and social needs of the expatriates for their overseas adjustment. Cross-cultural adaptation, however, is a multifaceted phenomenon (Berry 1997) and will be discussed later; it includes affective, cognitive, and behavioral components in its theoretical foundation (Kim 1988, 1995). In keeping with this perspective, Ashford and Taylor (1990) discussed from the viewpoint of adaptation to work transition that the adaptation processes are associated with these three constructs. Therefore, expatriate adaptation may be thought to constitute the following three facets: Emotion, cognition, and behavior (see Haslberger 2005a, b). In this regard, the scope of the study on expatriate adaptation needs to be developed from the perspective of cognitive and behavioral concern, rather than only stressing on the emotional aspects, as is the dominant trend in the literature on expatriate management. For this reason, the present study particularly focuses on a behavioral aspect of expatriate adaptation by examining expatriate skills in relation to the demands for these skills. In addition, the study aims to investigate expatriate adaptation through an analysis of expatriate job satisfaction as its emotional aspect. Literature Review Cross-Cultural Adaptation Cross-cultural adaptation has been studied and discussed as a multidimensional process in the field of cross-cultural study. Klein (1979) defined adaptation as a process of attitude or behavior changes in response to new stimuli. Grove and Torbiorn (1985) examined the changes observed over time in an interactive activity between cognitions and behaviors under highly unfamiliar environments. Similarly, Hannigan (1990) regarded adaptation as the change in the cognition, attitude, behavior, and psychology of people who live in a foreign culture. …

INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT: SKILL TRANSFERENCE THROUGH A REVERSAL OF ‘HUMAN CAPITAL FLIGHT’ OR TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE

Abstract. We examine the issue of technical assistance versus brain drain repatriation as alternative strategies for transferring scarce skills to a skill‐poor economy. Technical assistance relies mainly on expatriate skills and labour from the host country, while brain drain repatriation seeks to effect a return of skills that might have been lost in migration. We show that, even in the simplest setting with imperfect information, a surprisingly rich menu of responses is obtained.

Increasing the skill utilization of expatriates

This article examines the utilization, underutilization, and misutilization of expatriate skills in overseas assignments. Using quantitative data from 268 expatriates from six Fortune 500 multinational corporations, the research first examines expatriates' utilization of eight distinct skills and how patterns of skill utilization influence important job attitudes. Then, using qualitative data from the expatriates, the research examines the subsidiary-level, corporate-level, and country- level factors which facilitate (or inhibit) skill utilization. The study highlights the idea that effective skill utilization depends not only on the selection and training of expatriates themselves, but also upon the level of skill and teamwork among host country nationals and the quality of support provided by the MNC as a whole. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Economic Dependence and the Development of Industry in Zambia

This article examines aspects of Zambian industry, particularly the difficulties caused recently by its high level of dependence. Around 1975, problems of output and employment became acute, and the manifest cause was insufficient foreign exchange. Copper sales still provide almost all of Zambia's foreign exchange; the price fell dramatically in 1970, and recoveries throughout the decade were short-lived or partial.1 At the same time, Zambia's major industries – mining, manufacturing, and commercial farming – have developed with a crucial dependence on both imported inputs and expatriate skills.