Managing Expatriates:
Selecting Expatriate Managers
the challenge of managing expatriate managers begins with determining which individuals in the organization are most capable of handling an assignment in an other country.
expatriate managers need technical competence in the area of operations.
In addition, many other skills are necessary to be successful in an overseas assignment such as
Ability to maintain a positive self-image and feeling of well-being
Ability to foster relationships with host-country nationals
Ability to perceive and evaluate the host country’s environment accurately
Managing Expatriates:
Preparing Expatriates
Expatriate success depends so much on the entire family’s adjustment, the employee’ s spouse should be included in the preparation activities. Employees selected for expatriate assignments already have job-related skills , so preparation for expatriate assignments often focuses on cross-cultural training—that is, training in what to expect from the host country’s culture.
Pre-assignment site visit
Job orientation
Country orientation
Culture orientation
Language training
Compensation / benefits / taxes counseling
Housing counseling
Health care / schools / shopping / recreation counseling
Compensating Expatriates
One of the greatest challenges of managing expatriates I determining the compensation package .Most organizations use a balance sheet approach to determine the total amount of the package.
Balance sheet approach – this approach adjusts the manager’s compensation so that it gives the manager the same standard of living as in the home country plus extra pay for the inconvenience of locating overseas.
This approach involves an effort by the global organization to ensure that its expatriates are “made whole.”
Compensating Expatriates
After setting the total pay, the organization divides this amount into the four components of the total pay package:
Base salary
Tax equalization allowance
Benefits
Allowances
Helping Expatriates Return Home
Expatriate’s assignment nears its end, the human resource department faces a final challenge: helping the expatriate make the transition back to his or her home country. The process of preparing expatriates to return home from a foreign assignment is called repatriation.
Helping Expatriates Return Home
Which Companies are increasingly making efforts to help expatriate through this transition. Two activities help the process along: communication and validation.
Communication: the expatriate receives information and recognizes changes at home while abroad
Validation: giving the expatriate recognition for the overseas service when this person returns home.