EXPATRIATE MANAGERS

The Management of “Expatriate Managers”



Table of Content

Introduction2

Debate2

The best approach:4

Conclusion6

The Management of “Expatriate Managers”

Introduction

With emerging markets opening at an unprecedented rate, organizations around the world are rushing to offer their products and services to billions of new consumers in a multitude of countries. Global organizations are increasingly finding the need to develop more sophisticated sales management staffs to successfully compete in multiple foreign markets. The need to cultivate multicultural, multinational organizations is critical for overall firm competitiveness (Price, Speier, & Novicevic, 1999, Pp. 36-80). Over the past several decades, corporations have depended heavily on expatriation as the primary managerial means of achieving global competitiveness (Mayerhofer, Hartmann, & Herbert, 2004, Pp. 647-667). This paper defines the 'best practice' in the management of expatriate managers undertaking overseas assignments for a period of two to five years.

Debate

With the fast paced chages in the world, companies are becoming globalised, and the need to utilize expartriates on foreign tasks; in order to fulfill tasts that are strategically critical; is increasing day by day. According to the GMAC Global Relocation Service Survey Report (2008), there are now 30 to 40 million expatriates living and working globally, which represents a historical high. . In 2006 and 2007, over 67 percent of companies surveyed reported an increase in the number of expatriates they deployed. Another study by the Office of National Statistics in the United Kingdom shows that the number of British expatriates has “shot through the roof in the past ten years” at a rate of almost 1,000 people every single day (“British Expatriate Numbers Increase” 2006, Pp. 1). Expatriation is not without its significant challenges. A prominent issue in the international staffing literature is expatriate failure. Expatriate failure or turnover has been defined as all individuals who either quit or transfer back to the home country prior to the completion of their expected foreign assignments (Andreason, 2008, Pp. 382-395).

Expartriates are used by companies that are operating at a global level for not only expertise reasons within imperative international markets and dealing with the corporate issues, but foe developing global management competencies or for the facilitation of enterance in new markets. A great deal of consideration has focused on repatriation along with work modification resulting in changing jobs, cultures and countries, and the following requiremen to then re-adjust back into the parent compnay on return (Black, 1988, Pp. 277-294). A noteworthy concern adjoining this is the expansion of repatriation prospects and issues regarding future work and post-assignment jobs. A number of these comprise of norms in an organizational as they are supposedly set by the skills of other expatriates that return. An expatriate manager can help the organization in global learning and in creating a global mindset. As expatriates are more able to communicate and coordinate organizational matters between the distant regional facilities and home office. This universal state of mind and amplified facts turns into a plus point to the transnational businesses as they appear to optimize their operations ...