Repatriation of Expatriates: Challenges & Opportunities

Global citizenship is no longer just a nice phrase in the lexicon of rosy futurologists. It is every bit as real and concrete as measurable changes in GNP or trade flows. There is little debate that for executives in large multinational corporations (MNCs) today globalization is a daily reality. Yet most of those executives have not been specifically educated, trained, or groomed to deal with the complexities that are inherent in the globalization of business markets. In this destabilized and international context, multinational corporations and their executives face several significant challenges and the new skills to successfully meet these challenges. One of the first issues that an MNC faces is that because it operates in multiple countries, it must deal with multiple sources of sovereign authority. This involves working with different laws and legal systems or in some cases the lack of systematic legal structures and processes. Now a days, an increasing trend of MNCs is taking part in an International context. Many MNCs emphasize the
need for a more mobile, and interculturally literate workforce. According to a recent survey of

MNCs, there are over 850.000 subsidiaries of MNCs operating worldwide, currently managing over 150.000 expatriates. According to Harvey & Moeller (2009), MNCs must develop a pool of managers that has an increasing global mindset to cater for the increase of competition in an International context. Desired outcomes of expatriation can vary. One of the outcomes is the transfer of knowledge. It is to mention that transfer of knowledge can assist the MNC to determine how their business unit is performing in the host country and identify needs associated with increasing performance and transfer of knowledge therein. This transfer of knowledge may fail if the repatriation process is not being considered before; during and after the International assignment has taken place.

Repatriation: Before embarking on the journey of examining the repatriation process, it is important to understand what repatriation means in this context. Generally, looking at the straight opposite of expatriation, repatriation in this context would be returning to country of origin after being expatriated, or the process of returning from an international assignment.

Considering repatriation is of great importance to IHRM, as individual psychological and organizational issues must be tackled to ensure the process of transition is feasible. For many organizations, it is crucial that the process is considered, as if it would fail, it could demolish all organizational benefits associated with the process of expatriation and international staffing. As there are great costs involved with the process of expatriation, there is an increase of emphasis on the repatriation process serving as a key for retention of repatriates and their newly acquired set of skills and competencies. Commonly interpreted by many MNCs is that the repatriation process should only be considered when deciding to bring the expatriate home. This is proven to be a major delusion and has lead to that many international assignments have failed to deliver its true purpose of (Lazarova and Ibraiz, 2005). The process of repatriation is considered for many to be a course of practice that is even harder than the expatriation process. These can manifest in taking the issues of repatriation into account, such as; financial issues. Family issues, issues for the individual expatriate manager, organizational issues, future career issues and most significant in some cases the issue of reverse culture shock. These issues will be further developed in the coming sections.

Repatriation problems for expatriates and their families: The re-entry process can be seen a complex transition process, which not only affects the returnee (and family) but touches upon many the social systems (i.e. friends, family, work environment...) the returnee is part of. The challenges for each member of the social system, however, are different and specific. There are different factors that cause the expatriate being under a vast amount of stress in the repatriation process. It is also expected that this stress can be reflected upon the organization. This relates to the importance of organizations having to consider to the repatriation process before, during and after expatriation as explained in the following section when discussing a 3phase model of repatriation. To fully understand the huge amount of issues associated with the process, each of them is considered in the next section

a) Financial Issues: There are a number of finically related factors that will have an impact and create issues when for expatriates upon arriving home from their international assignment. Following are the main issues being considered in this context * Withdrawal of allowances such as; * Housing * Travel expense * Educational transportation * Hazardous duty pay * Household assistance * Personal aids Loose of these allowances will cause financial pressure for the expatriate and in turn place a burden on the family as repatriation also include starting a new life which in commonly known to be rather expensive, involving costs such as new car, housing etc. According to Maslows hierarchy of needs (?), having financial security is important as a predecessor for the expatriate to obtain esteem and a sense of belonging. b) Family Problems: Returning from to the host country, a great burden can be put on the family. The first issue is going to be with the childrens readjustment to the home culture as the majority of expatriation takes place when children are in their junior years of school. Experts also stress that the fact of children having a hard time to cope with the change, puts further stress on the family and the expatriate. Some specialists argue that another factor resulting in family problems is the relocation of the spouse. For the spouse, repatriation often involves in them again giving up a job

in order to move to the home country. These career issues can in turn put stress on the expatriate and their family as illustrated in figure 1.0 above. c) Organizational issues: An organization is being confronted with problems if not adequately considering the process of repatriation in detail. The literature discuss that the process of returning to the home country is often delayed as finding a substitute can be an issue for the parent county. On the one hand, this puts stress on the expatriate as the motivation goes down to conduct the tasks and objectives. On the other hand, the time it takes for the organization to find a replacement will increase the cost of having the expatriate and their family remains in the host country. According to many experts, an unsuccessful assignment can have a major impact on future consideration of assignments for the expatriate. This creates an issue for the organization in terms of losing the opportunity of sending a successful expatriate on future assignment. A major issue is according to some experts that of the replacement of expatriate as it on the one hand it cost money to have an expatriate remain in the country at the same time as having expense for training a new employee for expatriation. This shows that organizational issues is the most crucial to consider for future operations. d) Future Career Issues: Not having a well-expressed and articulated plan for a career path considered in the process of planning for the repatriation of employees can create major issues for both the organization and for the repatriate. A repatriation program, lacking the consideration of a future career path will diminish the applications for international assignment and in turn affect the pool of applicants which primary purpose is to select the most skilled and suitable person to perform the task or job. Some argue that HRM professionals do not recognize the critical need of constructing a welldesigned career path and repatriation program. This comes down to two arguments from the organizations point of view. One being that when budgets are tight, the first issue is to spend money on repatriating managers The other being without a fully articulated repatriation program, it will be difficult to integrate repatriated managers into the organization. To overcome

these issues, the report will know draw on a three step model for considering aspects of before, during and after the expatriation/repatriation process. Three Face Model of Repatriation Training: The following sectioin illustrates a three-step model for successfully integrating a wellarticulated repatriation-training program into the expatriation face. Pre Departure Training: Pre departure training is an important aspect to consider of the expat/repat process. The majority of MNCs that fail with their international assignees do so because they fail to consider this important step. Caliguri & Philips (2003) has developed certain points to consider in the pre; during and post process of repatriation/expatriation. During Pre departure training, they entail 5 steps or areas to consider * Determine the level of cultural differences / difficulty of task to evaluate the strategic fit between the expatriate and his/her family and host destination. * Greater cultural difference/ difficulty of task = less probability of success Pre departure training continued. * Performance Management system of expatriate must be designed prior to departure to communicate objectives and give a real job description. * Communicating objectives and giving a real job preview will assist in the expectation communicated to the expatriate and so the expatriate will not be met with any great surprise when going overseas. * A real description of what can happen when returning to the home country must also be communicated to the expatriate and his family. * Knowing the factors that will result in stress and issues upon returning to the parent country will prepare the expatriate and family to deal with these problems and constantly communicate

with the parent MNC to avoid as mentioned in previous sections; financial, family, and career issues. According to Stroh (1999), communicating constantly, both pre and during expatriate assignment about future career options will assist the MNC is diminishing the stress that the expatriate is under and so the repatriation process can be executed in a smoother manner. Expatriation Phase: Experts identified a crucial step within the expatriation phase that will ease the stress of the expatriate an in turn increase performance as focus does not lie on worrying about going home. * Create a communications link between the expatriate MNC * In order to; 1. Provides update of organizational changes 2. Repatriation tips can be communicated to a self entry strategy can be established 3. Have discussion about the repatriation process incorporated in the performance review Repatriation Phase: There is one major aspect to consider in the repatriation process; that are still relevant in todays business context. The aspect is time. By time, Harvey (1989) stresses the fact that if enough time is given to the process of repatriation, it can help facilitate the career path upon returning to the home country. At the very least, future career options should be taken into account and a well articulated program at involving the former to process should ease the process of the latter phase, that of repatriation.

Conclusion: By carefully considering all aspects of the repatriation process, managers will be more likely to respond to the potential issues that might arise. It is recommended to not always put equal weight on all issues as situation differs on every International assignment, rather, du a situational analysis and see what factors to consider in that particular case. By doing so, negative effects can be diminished and the positive effects of the transfer of knowledge can be enforced. In an increasingly global business context, there is a growing trend of international staffing and expatriation of MNCs managers to overseas assignments. It has for a long time existed a great delusion that the repatriation process has not been considered until repatriation take place. Not considering the process during the pre departure face of expatriation will only worsen the repatriation process. There are several issues that can arise from the repatriation process including; financial issues, family issues, career development issues and reverse culture shock. In utilising a three-step process that considers training and communication about objectives, hold constant discussion about the repatriation process and communicate ongoing organizational changes will help the expatriate in the process of returning to his/her home country. Managing these processes will ensure that the true purpose of expatriation will be accomplished and that future assignment can be carried out in a feasible manner focusing on the retention of acquired skills and future knowledge.