Expatriate Failure and Globalization in International Management

INTERNATIONAL
MANAGEMENT

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK...............................................................................................................................................3
a) Expatriate failure with regard to cultural adjustment.............................................................3
b) Globalization and international business.................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
A multinational organization deal with various kinds of transactions and trades at
international level for enhancing their opportunities of entering into new foreign market for
expansion of business (Erogul and Rahman, 2017). When a multinational organization operates
at international level or globally then roles and responsibilities of human resource department
increases and is seen as a major determinant of success or failure of an organization. This report
will lay emphasis upon evidence about expatriate failure, factors that maximise expatriate
success and factors that contribute to the notion of a globalised economy.
TASK
a) Expatriate failure with regard to cultural adjustment
Expatriate failure can be defined as different kinds of issues that results in preventing
return on investment from an expatriate like underperformance, early return and many more.
Expatriate failure rate for internal organizations might vary on the basis of destination and
industry. There are various kinds of reasons that Cleary helps in explaining reasons of expatriate
failure. There are two main reasons of expatriate failure:
 Cultural shock: the ability of an employee to adjust in new and different culture helps an
organization in achieving expatriate success. When expatriates start an international
assignment in host country, they and their families need to adjust in new culture. It is known
as culture shock (Yussuf, 2018). It is important for employees to have skills so that they can
adjust in new culture otherwise they can struggle in adjusting themselves in new and
completely different environment and culture. This cultural shock can one of the main
reasons of success or failure of an international assignment. Many times, a good start is often
misinterpreted as a sign a success. It is important to understand that cultural shock has
various phases and good experience at the starting is quite common. Facing difficulties in
cross cultural adjustments can result in premature returns of expatriates and can result in
failure.
 Family: Another factor that can result in failure of expatriates is their families. Multinational
organizations often ignore family members of expatriate as family members of expatriates
have a significant impact upon their success or failure (Guttormsen, Francesco and Chapman,
2018). If spouse or children of expatriates fail to adult in the new culture then it can have
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direct impact upon overall performance of employees as they will not be able to focus upon
their work and on completing assignment.
These two are the main reason that ca result in expatriate failure due to cultural
adjustments. It is important for multinational companies to focus upon these factors of cultural
adjustment because ignoring these factors can result in increasing changes of failure of
expatriates.
There are various kinds of factors that can be focused upon by multinational
organizations in order to enhance overall expatriate success. International human resource
management need to analyse and work upon several factors in order to ensure success of
expatriates. Focusing upon several factors can help international organizations in overcoming
culture shock of the expatriate and their family members.
 Sending right people: It is important for companies to analyse whether employee chosen for
international project is culturally flexible, enthusiastic in communication and has a
cosmopolitan outlook (DeNisi and Sonesh, 2016). HR should focus upon looking for people
who would love to interact with different culture people. Employees who are willing to adapt
local language and local norms for international clients are correct employees who ca be
selected for international projects. Such employees are right people for international project
and can easily adjust in new cultural environment.
 Expat training: Providing a holistic expat pre-assignment training to employees can help in
increasing success chances of expatriate. Or projects or assignments that have a probability
of lasting for more than a year, in such project’s employee should be provided with an
appropriate training in which training about local language, information on healthcare and
family support will be provided.
 Expat Support: HR should also focus upon providing local support to expatriate so that thy
can easily adjust in new culture and environment (Onday, 2016). Employees working on
international project should also be continuously updated about home country projects and
assignment and what’s going on currently. This helps them to remain in loop and prepare
them for their return once the assignment or project ends. HR should also focus upon
conducing survey from time to time in order to analyse satisfaction of expatriates and their
family members in adjusting new culture and environment. This helps them in analysing
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