Living and Working in Other Cultures.

Living and Working in Other Cultures.

Abstract:

This paper articulates the nature of international staffing (primarily expats). It gives a synopsis of, who Expatriates are and why are they preferred despite recent claims of failure in Expat assignments. It also emphasises on the different stress which these expats undergo in an international assignment, a new uprising which can be termed as an alternative to expats will also be discussed briefly before concluding the paper.

When international staffing is considered by an MNC, there are three alternatives which they can resort to, namely

• ·         Expatriates
• ·         Local Nationals (localisation)
• ·         Third Country Nationals.

As earlier mentioned expat success rate have been declining drastically. Despite global crises and dollar melt down in the recent past, Expat insurgence have not reduced in the recent years primary reason for this being expansion in European union, growth of Chinese economy and also the corporate regulation in the USA makes overseas business more attractive. Expats are primarily sent on assignments to fill the skill gap, building management experience and also launching new business endeavors.

A recent survey report by Global Relocation Trends, 2008 Survey Report (GMAC Global Relocation Services) suggest that only 9% of expats going on international assignment had prior international experience, this can be a prime reason for their failure. In majority of the cases companies don’t look for a prior experience in an expat while sending him/her on assignment. Companies instead tend to look at skills such as

• ·         Strategic understanding
• ·         Professional skills
• ·         Management skills
• ·         Social orientation/resilience
• ·         Communication skills (across cultures)

Now we can look into the various stress factors which usually consumes an expat in an alien land. Stress is the state of affairs when the way in which people attempt to manage problems, taxes or exceeds their coping mechanisms. Various stress factors include:

•      Hostile or unfamiliar environment (culture shock)

•      Unfamiliar language/culture

•      Separation from spouse/partner/children

•      Change in work responsibilities

•      Changing residence – finding a new home, moving and disposing of old home

•      Spouse/partner’s career

•      Children’s education

•      Other family issues – e.g. care of elderly relatives

•      Security

There are few alternatives to expat assignments which a company may decide to include, a few of the popular ones being:

•      Recruitment/promotion of local nationals

•      Short-term assignments

•      Commuter assignments

•      Mobile cadre assignments