What Is Resource Management and Why Is it Important?

Running head: ASSIGNMENT 2: INTERNATIONAL EXPATRIATES
Assignment 2: International Expatriates
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1ASSIGNMENT 2: INTERNATIONAL EXPATRIATES
Introduction
Expatriates are workers who are considered among the most eligible and able in their
work genre and leave their home country to serve the company from some other location
(Velten 2017). Being an expatriate is prestigious and gives employees a sense of
achievement. They also enjoy benefits and other incentives for working in the foreign
location. Despite all the perquisites of working abroad, there could be certain difficulties that
the expatriated face before and after they leave the country. The problems include leaving
family and friends that creates separation anxiety, depression and tiredness as well as cultural
shock, difficulty to adjust, language barrier and differences in work environment (Elahi,
Bhatti and Nauman 2018).
In order to ensure that international expatriates are able to perform to the best of their
ability, Multinational Corporations employ several strategies and approaches to train and
prepare them for the new experience overseas. They also provide support for the difficulties
that international expatriates might face after reaching the foreign country (Jackson and
Horwitz 2018). This essay, explores the different strategies that organizations might take to
prepare the expatriates and train them to work in foreign location. Moreover, the paper also
analyzes the best approaches for international expatriates and the rationale behind them.
Finally, the essay elucidates the challenges that these international expatriates face while
working abroad and how Human Resource Management Practices can help them in
successfully managing and overcoming those challenges.
Question 1
One of the main issues that international expatriates face are the separation from their
families and the cultural shock post arrival. According to (Velten 2017), before companies
send their workforce to international locations the first approach that they should take is a

2ASSIGNMENT 2: INTERNATIONAL EXPATRIATES
detailed assessment and analysis of the situation of the employees. This is the first step that
should happen before the final confirmation of the employee. The basic approach to the
preparation of a foreign assignment. The organization preparing for sending expatriates to
abroad needs to understand that there are different motivations for travelling abroad.
According to Li (2017), teachers who applied to work for overseas campus, were motivated
by the idea of embarking on adventure or going to the wild-west and settling down with their
families was what excited them. The new ness of the project is also exciting to them. Most of
the people that go for overseas projects want break from their monotonous routine tasks and
want the taste of working on something different and more meaningful. Despite all the
adventure and expectations of newness, the expatriates also showed concern and difficulties
in coping with the new culture and language.
The training and preparation of the expatriates in a newly internationalized company
needs to keep in mind the push factors and motivations for them to design the proper training
program. As per (Cai and Hall 2016), the approaches to expatriate training could be done in
by following a particular structure, the first step is the pre-program assessment and
investigation. In this phase, the organization collects information about the employees that
they deem fit for overseas project. Their family background and adaptability, past overseas
experience, their goals and motivations, their understanding of the host country culture and
their behavior and tendencies are to be analyzed. In this regard, the use of cultural
intelligence assessment tools are available and they can be used to determine the
preparedness of the employees and their families for an international visit. This approach
helps the organizations to shortlist the best candidates by aligning the readiness of the
families and the individual goals with the company requirements. The choice made using this
strategy trains the employees for any upcoming opportunities for overseas project (Baruch,

3ASSIGNMENT 2: INTERNATIONAL EXPATRIATES
Altman and Tung 2016). The session that goes on during this stage can also be used to
generate questions in the mind of the participants.
The next stage comprises of the training program that both the expatriates and their
families need to go through. The differences in culture in the host country might bring a
cultural shock among the international expatriates and make it difficult for them to cope up
with the new environment (Tahir, Oasis and Egleston 2019). In order to mitigate the
challenges that expatriates and their families might face, the organization needs to provide
them with cross cultural training and language training. According to (Khan 2018), language
barrier is one of the main concerns for people travelling overseas for work. Language takes
longer to learn and people visiting countries where there is almost no use of English or their
official language, find it difficult to understand the language at the first go. The time they can
expend on learning language is limited as they need to prepare with their project summery
and understand the job requirements. Due to this, when they are travelling to foreign
countries they are partially trained and this is where the HR should focus on. Training should
include predominantly language as that would be needed when they are travelling to a
country where both culture and language are new (Rekha and Vasantha 2017).
Cultural shock is an important aspect that the Human resource training should also
include. According to (Kathirvel, N. and Febiula 2016), people travelling to the west from the
eastern countries or vice versa, or even personnel travelling within Asia but to a country
where culture and language is different, they might face cultural shock. This makes them
depressed and frustrated as they are unable to connect and bond with the people that they are
working with and when that problem extends to their family, it becomes a personal problem.
In this regard, cross cultural training, building cultural competence through workshops and
activities are important. These workshops and activities should be built in such a way that it
includes aspects of cultural understanding, education about the norms and rituals of the host