Once the expatriate has been select

Once the expatriate has been selected, pre-departure preparation should take place. This preparation should prepare the expatriate for the assignment abroad and ensure her/his success in the
international assignment (Mendenhall et al. 1987). Some of the activities that should be considered
during this phase are career counseling, cross-cultural adjustment and languages.
Career counselling for both the expatriate and accompanied spouse is very essential to the success of
the expatriate in the international assignment (ref).
Preparing the expatriate and his family for cross-cultural adjustment is very crucial especially if the
expatriate is not familiar with the culture customs and work ethics in the host country (Weech 2001).
In addition to cross-cultural training, language training, and some short academic programs in the host
country could be very beneficial (Okpara & Kabongo, 2011). A study by Shen and Lang (2009)
examined the impacts of cross-cultural training (CCT) on expatriate performance in Australian MNEs,
concluded that short-term assignments had a stronger impact on expatriates in term of cross-cultural
adjustment.
According to the survey of GMAC, NFTC & SHRM, 2004, most companies (60%) provide formal crosscultural
training before assignments began with 73% of expatriates indicating that these trainings had
great value.