Expatriates and the problems associated with international diemensions - Essay Example

The interpersonal relationships with the host country staff and cultural differences in the working environment in the foreign location also pose a problem for the expatriates to function at their best. Thus the consideration of several critical contextual, situational, cultural and economic factors relating to expatriation both from the perspective of the host country as well as the parent country is of vital importance to ensure an efficient expatriate performance. On the basis of the feedbacks for the Emaill Survey received from the current and previous expatriate employees of Officecomm, this paper presents a detailed report on the HR problems and issues concerning the expatriate employees.

The paper also makes certain recommendations for the improvement of the expatriate employee performance based by reducing the impact of these issues on the analysis of the feedbacks. Black (1988) opines that "International assignments create significant demands that often exceed the knowledge, skills, and abilities of the expatriate" The expatriate's assumptions regarding the social interactions both in the workplace as well as with outsiders do not hold any real ground as he/she is completely alien in the host country.

This gives rise to specific challenges in fulfilling his/her assignment successfully. Such challenges may relate to discharging the functions of leading, communicating and imparting technical knowledge to the host country employees.(Tsang, 2001; Wang, Tong, & Koh, 2004). Apart from the social issues there are other contextual and cultural issues the host country may pose to the expatriates. Differences in Languages, communication and feedback methods, other behavioural issues and differences in the management styles as compared to those in the parent country may hinder the performance of the expatriate in the host country.3.0 Issues Concerning the Expatriate Employees of Officecomm:Apart from the above general issues which affect the expatriate executive performance in Officecomm there are other firm-specific issues which are detailed below:3.

1 Gloomy Future on Repatriation:One of the important but unexpected issues in the global business environment is the repatriation. Repatriation is the reverse process of expatriation. It may be noted that the same characteristic features that made an employee becomes an expatriate make the returning back for them complicated due to the cultural shock they face on the reverse direction (Frazee, 1997; Allard, 1996). Harris et al. (2004) note that despite the importance of international assignments, organisations are not yet able to fully evaluate the benefits associated with their use.

Clague and Krupp (1978) suggested that international assignments should be perceived not just as a means to solve specific job crises overseas, but as an integrated part of the employees' careers. Quite naturally the employee before becoming an expatriat