The place of expatriates in multinational enterprises
The deployment of expatriates is normally informed by the need of the MNE to foster a strong bond between the headquarters and subsidiaries.
This is for the transfer of the corporate culture, knowledge transfer, forming a bridge between the home state operations and the subsidiary in making the subsidiary internalise the operational and cultural values of the business.
Expatriates also execute the global strategies of the business in the host state, help the subsidiaries to navigate new markets in accordance with the marketing culture of the business and also foster development.
Expatriate appointment
Mendenhall and Oddou have proposed some criteria as benchmarks to gauge the suitability for the appointment of expatriates. The first criteria is that, the person proposed must have self-esteem, be self-confident and should possess the mental toughness requisite for posting as an expatriate.
They postulate that a person with such attributes should be able to adapt easily regarding their interest in food, sporting habits and music to the culture of the host state.
A candidate for an expatriate posting should also possess what is referred to as “others-orientation”. By this, they mean the ability of the would be expatriate to interact effectively with the host state nationals.
This would involve, among others, making friends at work, joining social and sports clubs, making friends and acquaintances with nationals of the host state beyond the immediate work environment, attending social functions involving friends and acquaintances in the host state and also mixing well with other foreign nationals.
They even suggest that an expatriate who is well positioned on “others-orientation” should even be able to communicate in the local language though he need not be fluent to gain the trust and co-operation of the host country nationals.
The next criteria recommended is the requirement of cultural toughness from the appointee. Cultural toughness, they postulate, is the ease with which the expatriate adapts to the situation of the host country.
They state that while it may be easy for an American to operate as an expatriate in Britain or even in another European country, it may be difficult for such a person to easily fit into a country like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan or India due to the wide cultural divergence between America and these countries.
W.L. Hill and Thomas Hult also postulate that ultimately, an expatriate should have a global mindset which they define as being “characteristic of cognitive complexity and cosmopolitan outlook” as prerequisites for success as an expatriate.
Preparation and orientation
Mike Peng and Klaus Meyer propose three levels of training for the expatriate depending on the length of stay. They propose training in practical areas like basic language skills like “good morning”, “how are you?”, “thank you”, “please take me to this address” etc.
At the intermediate level, they propose that training should include cultural assimilation. They further propose an advanced level training which is to be made up of an “immersion approach”, meaning an intensive exposure of the would be expatriate to the culture and language of the host state which should even include the spouse and accompanying children.
They suggest further that it should be possible for the would be expatriate to make a visit to the host state before the assumption of duty to familiarise with the culture and environment.
The “immersion approach” may even require multi-national businesses which are well endowed to engage professional relocation firms to provide a comprehensive package of assistance to help the would-be expatriate settle in comfortably.
Such services would include selecting suitable residential accommodation, appropriate furnishing to suit the tastes of the expatriate, grooming of domestic staff, including drivers, cooks, house helps, gardeners, maintenance staff etc. The professional services firm could even help the expatriate to select or recommend the most suitable schools for the expatriate’s children.
Culture shock
A recurring phenomenon among expatriates is what is referred to as “culture shock”. The degree of the experience of culture shock may vary from country to country. Culture shock has been defined as “the expatriate’s reaction to a new, unpredictable and uncertain environment”, according to Mike Peng and Klaus Meyer.
They postulate that while living in a different culture, one’s selective perceptive and interpretation systems don’t function and one may need to spend more time and effort in interpreting what local people say or do to be understood.
They also postulate that since our cognitive system of interpreting what is happening is grounded in our culture, in entering another culture, a person’s home culture perceptive system becomes ineffective.
They also reckon that the experience of culture shock is a positive sign of deep involvement with the culture of the host state, rather than an experience of the effect of withdrawal symptoms.
Klaus Meyer and Mike Peng suggest a number of coping mechanisms to deal with culture shock. Among other measures, they propose that expatriates who are exposed to such culture shock should bond together with fellow expatriates in social clubs etc. where they can share in activities which foster common bonding.
They also propose joining sports and entertainment clubs and even religious organisations which are largely patronised by expatriates, especially the ones which have expatriates from countries with the same cultural affinity.
Difficulty
A sore point which has been identified in the life of an expatriate is the welcoming environment in the home state upon return. A key matter for expatriates on return to their home countries has been identified as “career anxiety”.
It has been discovered that often the home country operations are not able to seamlessly integrate returning expatriates into suitable positions back home, which could lead to disappointment and make the returning expatriate seek other opportunities elsewhere.
There is also the loss of social contacts where returning expatriates may feel a void in re-joining or re-establishing the social networks that they cultivated before leaving on posting. Returning expatriates may discover that friends and colleagues may have moved on, thus leaving them isolated.
Other sore points of disappointment for returning expatriates could be the inability of their children to fit in appropriately at school and within their social circles, especially those who stay long at post.
The writer is a lawyer and the Principal of Akyeampong & Co, Corporate and International Business Attorneys with special focus practice in Commercial and Corporate Law, Banking and Insurance, International Business, International Trade, Intellectual Property and Mining Law.
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