DEVELOPING STAFF THROUGH INTERNATIONAL ASSIGNMENTS

DEVELOPING STAFF THROUGH INTERNATIONAL ASSIGNMENTS

Management Development: Individuals gain experience assisting career progression while MNC gains a pool of experienced IB staff

Organisational Development: Provide a way to accumulate knowledge, skills and ability for future growth.

Individual Development: provide employees with opportunities to enhance their abilities by exposing them to a range of jobs, tasks and challenges.

REPATRIATION ADJUSTMENT
Repatriation: Bringing the expatriate back to the home country

JOB RELATED FACTORS
Career anxiety (No post-assignment guarantee of employment, fear that the period overseas has caused a loss of visibility and isolation, lack of information, changes in the home workplace)

Work adjustment (Employee perceives promotion upon successful repatriation and if not may cause career anxiety)

Coping with new role demands (repatriate may be influenced by the foreign assignment, cultural norms and values when attempting tasks)

Loss of status and pay

SOCIAL FACTORS
Family adjustment (glamorize the life left in foreign country and face inflation and home country seems dull and unexciting)

Social networks (Skype, social media, newspapers to regain keeping up with events in home country)

Effect on partner’s career (Negative experience during job search affects the partner’s self worth creating tension in relationship)

KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER
→ Any transfer of knowledge and competence occurs and remains in the host location
→ Performing tasks in host location, expatriates develop skills and gain experience, knowledge and network relationships that can be used upon repatriation
→ Repatriate knowledge:
− Market specific knowledge
− Personal skills
− Job-related management skills
− Network knowledge
− General management capacity

5 COMPONENTS PRE-DEPATURE TRAINING PROGRAMS
1. Cultural awareness training
Black and Mendenhall: Three dimensions of cross – cultural training model
1. Training methods
→ Information giving approach

2. Levels of training rigor
→ Affective approach

3. Duration of the training relative to degree of interaction and culture novelty
→ Immersion approach

2. Preliminary visits
→ Send employee on a preliminary visit to host country

3. Language instruction
→ Knowledge of Host-country language allows cultural adjustment to adapt and also assist expatriates and family members gain access to new social support structures.
→ Knowledge of the corporate language

4. Practical assistance
→ Before assignment: Preparing official papers/visas
→ On-assignment: Language training

5. Security briefings
→ Relocations increases unfamiliar threats to health, safety and security
− Hostile political environments
− Natural disasters
− Exposure to disease
− Travel accidents and common problems