Nature of the topic- Introduction

In the context of an progressively developing business world, multinational

corporations set up foreign owned branches or enter into a new market with a joint

venture, strategic alliance in order to design a presence in international

environment and also, to boost the organization’s assets. Many favorable

circumstances and challenges arise due to the globalization growth, which are

leading to a demand in expatriates, finding and establishing experienced workers in

international areas. Thus, the assignment of expatriate recruitment is made

difficult to cope with, due to certain differences among countries in terms of

culture, labor markets, juridical and financial systems (Hill, 2007). Globalization of

businesses is conducting to an increase in the number of expatriates who are

appointed to work in foreign territories to exploit the opportunities revealed by

the dynamic business environment. Hence, when it comes to this international

context, the attributes of both ,the expatriates and management team appear to

possess a greater importance than in domestic working environment. Several MNCs

who own branches in a foreign country are facing the issue of selecting, guiding,

understanding, stimulating as well as reintegrating expatriates. One of the crucial

challenge for an organisation is to be able to provide a relevant training to its

employees who will become expatriates and thus, will work in a different country.

Without this training, such employees may not be capable to cope with such an

assignment ( Jun,et al.,2001)

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Despite this challenge, expatriates are contributing notably to the accomplishment

of the organization’s objectives and as a consequence, their influence should not be

neglected (Treven, 2003).

Expatriates might be defined as citizens of one country who are working for a

MNC based in their country but also has subsidiaries in foreign countries, thus

they are working in a foreign environment. They are sent to a foreign country by

multinational companies with the intent to conduct their activities and to provide a

good cooperation among the subsidiary and the headquarter, ensuring that the

interests of the organization aren't compromised (Boyacigiller, 1990). Welch

(2003:154) was arguing in his article the idea according to which even though more

recently there was an increase in the utilization of inpatriates and flexpatriates,

the overall tendency adopted by the vast majority of international MNCs is to

continue to choose expatriates in foreign assignments.

Employees are facing several challenges when they are relocated to live and work

abroad , such as cultural sock, language barriers or instructional behavior , thus the

purpose of this paper is to highlight some of the major issues faced by CEOs in

managing expatriates. The following section, namely the literature review, will bring

into discussion the writers, journalist and managers point of view. Moreover, an

analysis and discussion will be conducted with regards of the challenges that may

appear and finally, the last section of this essay will sum up all the ideas under the

form of recommendations and conclusions.

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Literature Review

The rapid internationalisation of companies has conducted to a need in manage

international operations as well as expatriate personnel worldwide in an efficient

and productive manner. Nowadays, many companies have adopted the ethnocentric

approach, which implies that the main positions in the company’s subsidiaries to be

held by the citizens of the country of origin - which are called expatriates. The

adoption of this policy has the advantage of using the expertise of the company's

highly qualified staff, many developing countries not having the necessary

qualifications. In addition, their own staff are familiar with the company's

management techniques and methods. The companies also ensures that subsidiaries

follow the company's overall policy. Choosing this type of approach has the effect

of hiring loyal employees.

Furthermore, despite little endeavor to point out any distinction between different

types of expatriates, the most encountered studies are focusing on organisational

expatriates type , classifying them as such since they have been delegated by their

parent organisation to the foreign region. New roles and career paths in terms of

international assignments have arose for expatriates (Collings et al., 2007). We

have identified in the literature several terms for them such as “independent

internationally mobile professionals” (McKenna and Richardson, 2007),

“international itinerants” or even “migrants” as described by Al Ariss (Al Ariss and

Özbilgin, 2010).

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Richardson and McKenna (2007) highlighted four types of selecting expatriates

based on different motives. These types are as follow: “explorer” which is often

associated with the willingness to overcome new experiences, all conducted in an

easy to control environment; “the mercenary” – driven by the potential outcome in

terms of financial motives, expatriates are willing to tolerate to a certain extent

different situations by having a greater purpose ahead; “the refugee” – linked with

the willingness to avoid a situation or previous experienced situation. For example,

Fitzgerald and Howe‐Walsh (2008), found that women have self‐initiated

expatriations to the Cayman Island as an liberation from inequitable and subjective

managerial habits in the UK that limited their promotion opportunities.

Nonetheless, the last type is “the architect” – which is motivated by the career

development process and is linked mainly with career competencies.

Another manner that may influence the expatriate potential may be given by one’s

personal traits and believes, as was enlightened by Cole and McNulty (2011) in the

concept of self-transcendence, which is seen as an attribute that may be

interlinked with the expatriates success in international assignments. The

self‐transcendence value dimension is composed of universalism and compassion.

Self-transcendence "encompasses understanding, appreciation, tolerance and

protection for the welfare of all people"( Cole and McNulty,2011). It's more likely

for organisations to develop certain practices that encourage mutual support and

tolerance alongside with the concern for others when employees share an emphasis

on self-transcendence. The authors suggests that, in this case women's might be

more effective when it comes to undertake an international assignment. McNulthy

concluded that “it would be an injustice and a waste of talent to continue sending

only a small portion of female expatriates” ( McNulthy :157).

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However, it was argued by Kollinger (2010) that the number of woman expatriates

is considerably lower than the one of men, due to their scarce qualifications.

Furthermore there were identified certain industries as being mainly “men-

dominated” such as oil and gas industry where the stereotype of “women should

manage a suitable work for her” is still persisting (Shortland,2008).

Another factor that is linked with employee willingness is implying personal life of

the subject. It has been argued by Van der Zee et al. (2005) that such a decision

is often bonded with the idea of “being together” and thus, the decision will be

made accordingly, as a family one. Therefore, family discussions are crucial for

expatriates when it comes to whether accept or not an international assignment.

Analysis & Discussion – Challenges that may appear

As we have identified in the previous section, the financial incentives represent

only a slight part of what can motivate an employee to undertake an international

assignment. Thus, often managers tend to undermine other possible challenges

along the way. This section will highlight some of the most encountered challenges.

In their research, Pires et al. (2005) suggests that a company can offer support to

it’s employee by providing an accurate pre-departure training by assisting them in

the process of learning about the ethnic environment present in that business area,

whether they should approach a certain type of approach, as was pointed out in

Hofstede’s cultural dimension framework. Training of employee will improve their

sense of security and preparation and thus, they might feel more confident in

terms of understanding the host country culture, language, stereotypes (Bhatti et

al.,2013 ). For example, a UAE company, ARAMCO, used an extensive training

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program for expatriates and their families. This included basic informations about

the local environment such as transportation, day to day finances but also a

comparison among the American and Saudi people's habits. The survey conducted

after the completion of the training showed a high level of satisfaction for

employees .

Furthermore, although a pre-departure training may be given, the cultural shock of

the expatriate can represent another challenge for the managers. This concept of

cultural shock is embedded within uncertainty. Upon the arrival of expatriates in

the new environment, there is a general concern with regards of an acceptable or

unacceptable behavior. This idea was reinforced by Perkins and Shortland (2006 :

64) when they argued that: "It is expected that most people will experience

cultural surprise when interacting with other cultures, and cultural shock, to some

extent, especially when living and working in another country. Culture shock is a

normal and predictable phenomenon, although those experiencing it may feel that

they are inadequate or weak, even believing that they are suffering some form of

mental illness."

The percentage of failure for expatriate employee represents still an increased

one which is why managers have to take into considerations all the risks when

deciding to send someone for such an assignment (Webb, 1996). Another

encountered reason for failure is given by the incapacity of the employee's family

to accommodate, having the spouse or children’s exposed to a new culture where

they can not adjust too (Liu & Shaffer, 2005). Black and Stephens (1989:529)

point out the main family related reason for an employee in taking such an

assignment:"the adjustment of the spouse is highly correlated to the adjustment

of the expatriate manager and the adjustment of the spouse and the expatriate

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are positively related to the expatriate’s intention to stay in the overseas

assignment".

Moreover, the repatriation challenge is faced at the stage of whether the manager

can maintain or not the employee within the company after his returning to the

home country. Companies have to provide extensive support to its employee after

their arrival if they want to retain them by developing various support programs

catering their needs ( Lazarova and Caligiuri,2001).

As we can see from this section, these challenges are all interlinked to a certain

extent with each other and there’s no straight distinction amid them due to the

fact that one may lead to another when placed in various situations and under

different contexts.

Conclusions & Recommendations

There have been underlined several factors that may determine an employee

whether to take an international assignment and become expatriate. These one

vary slightly from one to another in terms of risk aversion, self transcendence, or

candidate's openness to new experiences and thus, it is recommended for

companies to choose such employees who are fitting with the desired

characteristic and avoid the highly competitive or risk averse ones. Furthermore

personal factors have been found to be highly important in expatriate's motivation.

Women face several barriers such as "male dominated industries" even though

they're found to have a high effectiveness in international assignments. It is also

recommended for companies to provide family support for the expatriates by

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creating a good balance overall. Support for the spouse and the children is highly

important in this particular area.

In order to sum up with a general conclusion we may say that repatriation must be

planned precisely, when expatriate selection takes place. By implementing feasible

HR policies and methods, a company can both, more easily manage human resource

worldwide and stimulate more employees to accept international assignments. This

emphasis will represent a clear evidence that the organisation supports

expatriates and attempts to subsidize to employee accomplishment in the

distributed assignment. This phase which implies a proper training and ongoing

support, will significantly boost the chances of successfully managing expatriate

challenging situations, due to the fact that responsibilities are defined before the

crisis arises.

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