One quarter of expatriates unhappy

Citation

(1999), "One quarter of expatriates unhappy", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 20 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/lodj.1999.02220fab.004

One quarter of expatriates unhappy

Keywords Expatriates, Managers, Quality of working life

Twenty-five per cent of managers working abroad report that their pre-departure expectations are not met by their employer, according to research results presented at a recent seminar held by The Centre for International Briefing.

Expatriates who believed that important expectations and promises had not been met were also more likely to report an intention to quit the overseas assignment early, sending a clear warning message to employers and HR managers.

Diane van Ruitenbeek, who has been conducting the two-year study at the Manchester School of Management, UMIST, says:

"It is astounding that such a high per centage of organisations are not providing their expatriate managers with adequate preparation or a realistic view of the assignment before departure. The result may be assignment failure, which can be very costly to the individual and organisation both financially and psychologically."

Expatriates reported that unfulfilled promises and expectations about the job, living and working conditions also affected their levels of performance and job satisfaction. Lack of organisational support on arrival in the foreign country emerged as another important factor.

As one expatriate reports, "It would help if someone could go through the job description and expectations on arrival rather than expecting you to create your own job in a vacuum".

Job performance is also strongly influenced by other factors such as poor language skills and poor understanding of local culture and work practices.

A number of respondents described cultural difficulties during the first few months of their assignment:

There seems to be a completely different logic to doing things here.

The local culture of being polite rather than honest is very confusing.

With increasing globalisation, the performance of expatriate employees has become increasingly critical to business success. Clear and realistic job objectives, pre-departure language and cross-cultural training, effective induction on arrival and support to partners and families have all emerged from this study as important influences on effective expatriate performance.

The research, conducted by Diane van Ruitenbeek and Dr Peter Makin, is a longitudinal study following 125 expatriates and their families over an 18-month period from the pre-departure stage of the assignment to the end of their first year overseas. The participants represent 51 organisations in sectors from oil and construction to banking and retail and are assigned in countries as diverse as Ecuador and Germany.

The results presented at The Centre for International Briefing represent the findings of the initial two stages of the study. Full and final results after completion of the third stage should be available in Autumn 1999.