Introduction

It is evident from the preceding chapters that three have been considerable advance in our understanding and knowledge of the issues surrounding management and support of expatriate in terms of recruitment and selection pre-departure training and compensation, the expatriation process also includes repatriation the activity of bringing the expatriate back to home country.

 Expatriation process also includes repatriation: the activity of bringing the expatriate back to the home country Re-entry presents new challenges
May experience re-entry shock Some exit the company

Re-entry

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The Repatriation Process

Typically on completion of the international assignment, the multinational bring the expatriate back to the home country, all through not all international assignment ends with a transfer home. Some expatriate may agree to become part of the multinational international team of manager as indicated by the dotted arrow in Figure and thus have consecutive overseas assignment.

Expatriation includes repatriation

Individual reactions: job-related

Career anxiety
No post-assignment guarantee of employment Loss of visibility and isolation Changes in the home workplace

Work adjustment
The employment relationship and career expectation Re-entry position Devaluing of international experience

Coping with new role demands Loss of status and pay

52 per cent of sampled firms experienced repatriate re-entry problems. The 2002 GMAC-GRS global survey of 181 multinational reports that responding firms admitted a 44 per cent expatriate turnover rate, half of whom left their firms within the first year of re-entry. One respondent start employees with international experience are more likely to leave the company.

The repatriation process

Repatriation phases
Preparation - developing plans for the future; gathering information about the new position Physical relocation Transition Readjustment - coping with change

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Figure 7-3: The repatriates role

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UK repatriate study
Survey of 124 recently repatriated employees Data analysis indicated five predictors for repatriate maladjustment (in ranked order):
Length of time abroad Unrealistic expectations Downward job mobility Reduced work status Negative perceptions of employers support

N. Forster (1994) The Forgotten Employees? The Experience of Expatriate Staff Returning to the UK, International Journal of Human Resource Management, 5 (2): 408
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Figure : The readjustment challenge

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 The repatriates role:

From the home company has crossed the cultural boundary. The person has been operating for some time in the foreign behavior. For example: An American working in Indonesia may have altered his managerial style and be more authoritarian based on messages sent by the foreign an authoritarian tendency. Conflict is likely to occur if the repatriate does not resume the managerial behavior appropriate to the US context upon return.

 The readjustment challenges: The interrelationship between the variables found significant in the above studies is that the period overseas does alter the person. The degree to which in individual believes that he/she can execute a set of behavior. The expatriate position commonly involves a more demanding job position. The important aspect is the period of time spent overseas. Company changes Home country social changes Family adjustment Expatriate may lead to altered perspective -New person emerges

Effect on partners career:

Readjustment of expatriate whether male or female may be linked with concerns about the effect that the foreign assignment might have on the partners career. Dual career couples are now increasing day by day so international assignments make difficulties to choose the important decision from that career structure. So that again re-entry also makes difficulties on workforce. Negative experiences during the job search may affect partners like: Affect partners self worth. Compounding the readjustment process. Causing tension in the relationship.

Multinational responses:
The above sections have considered the re-entry and career issues from the perspective of the individual repatriate. We shall now examine the issues from the viewpoint of the multinational. Early studies into the issues of repatriation indicated that it was somewhat neglected by multinationals. For example, Mendenhall et al. concluded that US human resource professionals may be unaware of the challenges facing repatriated managers. Commenting on the results of his 1989 study Harvey noted that:

 Staff availability: The way in which the multinational handles repatriation has an impact on staff availability for current and future needs. Re-entry positions signal the importance given to international experience. If the repatriate is promoted or given a position that obviously capitalizes on international experience, other members of the multinational interpret international assignments as a positive career move. On the other hand, if the multinational does not reward expatriate performance, tolerates a high turnover among repatriates or is seen to terminate a repatriates employment upon reentry

Return on investment (ROI):

Expatriates are expensive. Where possible, multinationals try to localize positions through the employment of host country nations (HNCs) but as we have discussed elsewhere, not all positions can or should be localized. The alternative, which more companies are utilizing, or experimenting with, is a short term or non standard assignment to replace the traditional expatriate form. Cost containment is the drive here along with staff immobility. For example, 80 per cent of firms in a 2002 global survey by price water house coopers identified cost reduction as important or very important in the evaluation of international assignment practices.

 . They were then asked to rate expatriate assignments in terms of ROI: 30 per cent rated it as good or excellent, 38 percent as average and 32 per cent as fair or poor. Difficulties encountered in attempts to measure ROI were: Receiving feedback from the business unite concerned. Tracking international assignments in a systematic way. No formal planning. A lack of objective measures. Too many decisions being made without realizing the cost s relating to the international assignment.

Knowledge transfer:
A common theme in current international business that is stressed by company managers is the need for cross fertilization of ideas and practices that assist in developing and maintaining competitive advantage. International assignments are a primary method of achieving this objective. As the price water house coopers 2002 report concludes: Organization need to make sure that their business strategies are supported by sound mobility strategies. The need to move key employees around the business, regardless of national boundaries, will be increasingly vital to the success of a global organization

 Any transfer of knowledge and competence occurs there in the host location, and remain there. Expatriates return to their home base and are reassigned or resign. Consider the following comments about international assignment objectives volunteered by responding firms in the 2002 GMAC-GRS survey. The primary reasons for an expatriate assignment to go into a country and train someone who is local to do a specific job function and them return home. Work is project oriented. We send expatriates to complete project and leave. Expatriates develop local management talent. Our main reasons sending for expatriates are to supplement national staff capacity, provide training and coaching and provide professional expertise. We view these as developmental assignments to broaden employee experience.

Designing a repatriation program:

Although there is no simple, quick situation, preparing the repatriate and family for re-entry appears to have some value. The potential for mismatch of expectations regarding the future may be addressed part of pre-re-entry training before the return, and discussed during re-entry counseling sessions between the receiving organization in the home country and the repatriate. Some companies assign the expatriate a mentor (also referred to as a company contact, sponsor, or godfather). The mentor is usually in a more senior position than the expatriate, from sending work unit, and knows the expatriate personally

Topics covered by a repatriation program:

Preparation, physical relocation and transition information (what the company will help with). Financial and tax assistance (including benefit and tax changes, loss of overseas allowance). Re-entry position and career-path assistance. Reverse culture shock (including family disorientation). School system and childrens education and adaption. Workplace changes (such as corporate culture, structure, decentralization). Stress management, communication-related training. Establishing networking opportunities. Help in forming new social contracts.

 A survey of re-entry practices in 452 multinational companies from the USA, Europe and Asia found that 26 % of respondents provided mentors for their expatriates, although this related to various organizational factors: Sizes of expatriate workforce firms with more than 250 expatriates were more likely to assign mentors 43 % than those with 55-100 expatriates (15%). Which work unit was responsible for the expatriate mentors are more likely if corporate HR formulates expatriate policy (in 35% of cases) and when the expatriate is managed by a separate international assignments (41 % of cases) rather than at the divisional level (18 %). Nationality of responding company 35 % of continental European firms reported the use of mentors compared with 20 % in US firms. This result compares with finding from a study of European based multinational: over a quarter used a career mentor sponsor system, with a further 19% indicating that such a scheme would be introduced in the future.