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Chapter Eight

Re-Entry and Career Issues

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Chapter Learning Objectives

After reading this chapter, you should be able to:

• detail the process of re-entry or repatriation

• discuss job-related issues

• outline social factors, including family factors that affect re-entry and work adjustment

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Chapter Learning Objectives

• suggest multinational responses to repatriate concerns

• discuss staff availability and career issues

• define return on investment (ROI) and knowledge transfer

• outline the process of designing a repatriation program

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Terms

• re-entry shock• repatriates• holding pattern• kingpin• ‘trailing’ partner• ROI• mentor• knowledge transfer

repatriate knowledge and

skills:market specific knowledge

personal skills

job-related management skills

network knowledge

general management capacity

boundaryless career

‘protean’ career

international itinerants

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Opening Vignette

Coming Home?

• challenges in the post-assignment phase of international assignments = CULTURE SHOCK

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Expatriation Includes Repatriation (Figure 8-1)

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Repatriation

• activity of bringing the expatriate back to the home country

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Re-entry Culture Shock

• unaware of adjustment difficulties upon return

• re-entry adjustment

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Re-entry Culture Shock

Factors that contribute

• extended assignments/unconscious internalizing of the countries customs and practices

• lack of respect and use for international experience• career uncertainties, loss of status, • poor planning for repatriate and families return

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Re-entry Culture Shock

Can lead to

• feeling alienated and uprooted

• career, performance and commitment problems

• high percentage leaving company shortly after their return

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Repatriation Activities and Practices (Figure 8-2)

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Re-entry Culture Shock

• overemphasis on a home can lead to problems with performance on assignment and premature return

• overemphasis on host activities can lead to a second culture shock upon return

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Re-entry Culture Shock

• the goal of expatriation/repatriation practices is the successful integration of home and host experiences

• balanced set of transitions

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Repatriation Process-Phase I

Pre-departure

Pre-departure training (including career and financial planning)

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Repatriation Process-Phase I

Creating a network of communication links for expatriates to be able to keep up with the changes

• assign home mentors

• provide web-based indices

• establish communication protocols

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Repatriation Process-Phase II

During assignment

• “home leave”

• work related information exchanges

• mentor communications

• systematic pre-return orientation process

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Repatriation Process-Phase III

Upon return

• new job assignment

• organizational reconnection

• assistance with non-work factors

• opportunities to recognition and sharing of experiences

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Individual Reactions to Re-entry

Moderators of re-entry readjustment

• Job‑Related Factors

• Social Factors

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Factors Influencing Repatriate Adjustment (Figure 8-3)

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Job Related Factors

• career anxiety

• work adjustment

• coping with new role demands

• loss of status and pay

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Career Anxiety

• expatriates two motivators for accepting an international assignment: career advancement and financial gain.

• prime factor in re-entry is career anxiety

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Career Anxiety

• no post-assignment guarantee of employment

• fearing a loss of visibility

• changes in the home workplace

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No Post-Assignment Guarantee of Employment

• 68 % of respondents in the 2004 GMAC USA survey did not provide post-assignment employment guarantees

• guarantee of positions decreasing; USA, UK

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No Post-Assignment Guarantee of Employment

• Europeans have a labour contract, guarantee of job upon return

• Continental European firms provide guarantees to attract expatriates

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Fearing a Loss of Visibility

• loss of visibility and isolation

• ‘out of sight, out of mind’

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Fearing a Loss of Visibility

Depends on various elements

• the amount of contact with the home organization

• the position level concerned

• aware well in advance of the type of re-entry job awaiting

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Changes in the Home Workplace

• restructuring (a merger, acquisition, sale of divisions or business units, closure of a plant)

• company undergoing turbulence, such as downsizing.

• potential or real job loss

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Work Adjustment

• the employment relationship

• re-entry position

• devaluing the overseas experience

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The Employment Relationship

Individuals perceptions regarding expected career progression influenced by top management/IHRM

• clear messages that an international assignment is a condition for career progression

• need for a global orientation or mindset; link between international experience and global managers

• recruitment and selection stage; psychological contract

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Re-entry Position

Fears

• peers are promoted ahead of the repatriated manager

• placed in a position that is a demotion/less senior level

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Re-entry Position

IHRM issues

• match the repatriate’s career expectation

• ‘headhunting’ repatriates

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Career Impacts of International Assignments

(Table 8-1)

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Devaluing the Overseas Experience

• promotion upon re-entry signifies that international experience is important and valued by the organization

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Devaluing the Overseas Experience

Re-entry positions can give impression that experience is devalued

• reduced responsibility and status

• duties not using newly gained international expertise

• work colleagues lack of interest

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Coping with New Role Demands

• mismatch of expectations

• time in the foreign location; significant changes in behaviour.

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The Repatriate Role (Figure 8-4)

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Role Clarity

• role clarity, rather than role conflict affects adjustment

• clarify job description

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Role Discretion

• refers to the freedom to adjust the work role to fit the individual, making it easier for the person to utilize past, familiar behaviour, thus reducing the level of uncertainty in the new job that assists adjustment.

• positive impact on adjustment

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Predictors for Repatriation Maladjustment

1. length of time abroad

2. unrealistic expectations of job opportunities in the home company

3. downward job mobility

4. reduced work status

5. negative perceptions of the help and support provided by employers during and after repatriation.

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The Readjustment Challenge (Figure 8-5)

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Loss of Status and Pay

• life on a scale that may be significantly less comfortable

• pay is usually lower in absolute terms

• total compensation package may allow for increased savings

• housing prices and issues

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Social Factors

• family adjustment

• social networks

• effect of partners career

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Social Factors

• socially and psychologically distanced

• social disappointment

• financial loss of the compensation premium, housing subsidy and related benefits

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Family Adjustment

• each family member is experiencing their own readjustment problems

• reduced family income

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Social Networks

• internet, wireless and mobile phone technology, digital cameras and email, significantly easier to stay in touch

• changes with family friends ( i.e. moved, new jobs)

• level of MNE support is withdrawn

• children find difficulties regaining peer acceptance

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Effect on Partner’s Career

• difficulties in re-entering the workforce

• negative experience of job search

• declining MNE support

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Multinational Responses

Maximize benefits of the international assignment

• staff availability

• return on investment

• knowledge transfer

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Staff Availability and Career Expectations

Re-entry positions

• signal the importance given to international experience

• impacts future staff availability

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Linking Repatriation Process to Outcomes (Figure 8-6)

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Boundaryless Career

• shifts occurring in the employment relationship (job for life to job mobility)

• sequence of job opportunities that go beyond the boundaries of single employment settings

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Boundaryless Careerist

• highly qualified mobile professionals, moving between organizations, transferring across boundaries to develop career competencies and labor market value.

• international assignments are boundaryless in that the person is placed in another organization

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Protean

A self-directed continuous learning career

• self –employed, contract work

• commitment to career and profession ( not organization)

• develop their own intercultural and managerial skills

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Itinerants

Two disadvantages

• lack of firm knowledge

• selecting and controlling

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Career Practices

Expatriates with traditional career expectations and long-term employment relationship aspirations; IHRM activities include

• common career paths• career planning• job posting• lateral moves• career counseling• succession planning• performance management and career planning link

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Return on Investment

• cost containment continues to drive assignment trends

• continued use of expatriates, must ensure the organization benefits

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Return on Investment

• U.S. MNEs spend one million dollars on each expatriate over the duration of a foreign assignment.

Black and Gregersen

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Return on Investment

Definition

• a cost-benefit analysis of financial and non-financial data, measured against the purpose of the assignment.

McNulty and Tharenou

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Difficulties Measuring MNEs Repatriate ROI

1. receiving feedback from the business unit

2. systematically tracking international assignments

3. no formal planning

4. lack of objective measures

5. decisions being made without realizing the costs

6. globalization is a ‘must’ so the ROI almost doesn’t matter

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Knowledge Transfer

• ensure international assignments are a two way process

• transferring knowledge and competence back to the organization

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Repatriate Knowledge Categories

1. market specific knowledge

2. personal skills

3. job-related management skills

4. network knowledge

5. general management capacity

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Knowledge Transfer

IHRM practices that combine a unified expatriation/ repatriation cycle emphasizing knowledge transference

• selection• pre-departure• in country training• mentoring• designing the international assignment• reentry training• returnee job assignment

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Knowledge Transfer

More formal activities include

• “action learning” seminars by repatriates

• knowledge disseminating teams

• databases, index the expertise of repatriates

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Topics Covered by a Repatriation Program (Table 8-2)

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Mentor

• senior position from the sending work unit and knows the expatriate personally

• must be managed

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Mentor

• alleviates the ‘out-of-sight, out-of-mind’

• provides information on a regular basis

• provides updates regarding positions and promotions

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1. maintaining contact with the expatriate throughout the assignment

2. ensuring expatriates are kept up to date with developments in the home country

3. ensuring expatriates are retained in existing management development programs

4. assisting expatriates with the repatriation process and position

Repatriate Mentor Duties

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Proactive Repatriation Strategies

• managing expectations

• career planning

• written repatriate agreements

• mentoring programs

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Proactive Repatriation Strategies

• extended home visits

• reorientation programs

• personalized reorientation to deal with the emotionally charged issues of social readjustment

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Proactive Repatriation Strategies

• personalized financial and tax advice and support

• adjustment period

• visible and concrete expressions of the repatriate’s value

to the firm

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1. What factors contribute to re-entry shock?

2. How can multinationals assist dual career couples’ repatriation?

3. Placing value on the international assignment assists repatriate retention. Discuss this statement.

Discussion Questions

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4. What are the elements of a good mentoring system for international assignees?

5. What aspects would you include in a pre-repatriation program?

Discussion Questions

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Case: Repatriation and Loss Prevention at ISCAM

1. What could ISCAM have done throughout Wayne’s assignment and upon his return to Greater Sudbury to arrange a smother repatriation for him?

2. What could or should Wayne have done to help himself and his family to prepare for their return to Greater Sudbury? To what extend is it the company’s fault that Wayne and his family find it difficult to adjust to their lives back in Greater Sudbury?

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Case: Repatriation and Loss Prevention at ISCAM

3. What could the company have done to help Wayne’s family to overcome its re-adjustment problems? Where or what are the limits for a company and its responsibilities for expatriates’ family members and their repatriation?