'The persistent myth of high expatriate failure rates': a reappraisal

Following the global economic collapse, executives are significantly more demanding in understanding the Return on Investment of employee-related programmes including expatriate programmes. Expatriates are defined as employees who are recruited to provide a service in a country which is not the country of residence, typically for at least three years. Expatriate programmes carry high risk; even more so when the family accompanies the employee. The cost of an expatriate assignment is, on average, three times higher than that of a local; yet the failure rate is estimated to be up to 40%. Despite the cost, expatriate resources are critical to embed culture, policies and transfer of skills to a host country environment.The objective of this study was to identify the relationship between the adjustments of the expatriate's family in the host country on the performance of expatriates. The study was conducted using a quantitative research approach. A convenience sample was used and 81 expatriates completed the questionnaire. The results confirmed home to work spillover and that expatriates would value more organisational support for families in the new location. The length of stay in the host location was linked to higher levels of performance -the longer the assignment, the better the performance levels of the expatriate. Human Resources Practitioners can develop support programmes to ensure that expatriates and families are equipped to enhance their adjustment period and consequently positively impact the expatriate's performance whilst on assignment.

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“…Cross cultural training has been indicated as a critical success factor contributing to expatriate performance (Forster, 1997;Harrison, 1994).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The relationship between family adjustment and expatriate performance

Trompetter

Bussin

Nienaber

2016

SAJBM

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“…For example, the employees that are sent to overseas assignments are called expatriates and plan to return to their home country at some point (McGinley, 2008). Empirical evidence suggests that cultural adjustment is an important aspect for success in expatriate job performance (Harvey, 1996;Forster, 1997) as the lack of assignee adjustment causes inadequate performance, psychological stress, negative effects on the expatriates' families, as well as the long-term career repercussions upon repatriation of a failed expatriate assignments (Selmer, 2001).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acculturation and overseas assignments: A review and research agenda

González‐Loureiro

Kiessling

Dabić

2015

International Journal of Intercultural Relations

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Abstract:This review analyzes two streams of literature that are exploring a similar phenomenon from separate perspectives and only recently have they began to overlap; that of migrant acculturation (from the psychology, sociology and anthropology research) and international assignee adjustment (from the international business research stream). We conducted a multiple correspondence analysis on a sample of 389 articles to provide the intellectual structure of the research in these fields.Our research indicates that: 1) the standard 2x2 matrix of acculturation is insufficient;2) most past research focuses on USA to other countries and vice versa, suggesting there is much work left to explore other pairs of cultures ("there and back again" is not the same globally); 3) as global organizations are dominating the marketplace with many various staffing forms, variables such as corporate culture and management interaction will need to be incorporated; 4) research needs to include dynamics over time as many individuals who have worked outside of their home country often become multi-cultural with a global mindset and the typical acculturation framework is insufficient; 5) past acculturation research focuses on the work or the sociocultural context separately, while both need to be included; 6) and the extended family (parents, relatives, close friends, etc.) need to be considered.2

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“…It was revealed that it is an essential for sojourners to develop some portion of intercultural sensitivity when they encounter intercultural differences. Cultural misconception is foreseen through the need to develop more structured on-location intercultural training program for sojourners and their families to overcome the cultural challenges (Caligiuri, 2000;Forster, 1997). The present study found that the inconsistencies effect of cultural understanding was due to the different cultural mindset between sojourners and host nationals.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 62%