Expatriates and overseas experiences

EXPATRIATES AND OVERSEAS EXPERIENCES.

The term expatriate refers to people who go to another country hired by companies, in order to work successfully in an international environment, there are different types of expatriate assignments; long term that refers to a period of time more than one year and involves the families, short term that is less than one year, international commuter and the frequent flyer that travel 2 times a week. The strategic reasons for international assignments are: professional development, knowledge transfer, fulfillment of scarce skills, control and coordination. This type of assignment involves for the company high costs in terms of salaries and flights, time, training, opportunities or risks, and transfer of know how. Not everybody applies for an expatriate assignment the company should select properly the person because it involves a lot of things and issues, the must study the employees, their personal development, the management need, the transfer of know how, communication skills, leadership skills, this is why choosing the wrong person will lead to failure and high costs for the company. The transition process is very important for an expatriate, they must be aware of the cultural changes and the have to be willing to adapt themselves to the new environment, is also a cultural experiences and sometimes there could be shocks, the family of the expatriate play an important role, more or less represent the 60% of the expatriates that requires their family this is why an expatriate assignment not fit for a regular employee, it requires a wise selection process. An immigrant differs from an expatriate because it involves social and economical factors. On the other hand an overseas experience is based on an own decision, this is individual, refers to traveling, backpacking and the ultimate goal is to see the world the way it is, is more a cultural experience that involves geographical mobility and the experiences its based on the personal agenda, overseas experiences gives you an open mind and a different vision of the world.

Explain one of the causes for expatriate assignment failure and provide 3 recommendations to address it.
A big issue to an expatriate to failure in the process of adjusting is family, the family play an important role for almost everybody, even more in the Latin and Asian culture that tend to be more collectivism and attach to family. As the family being the courage to work, the expatriate wants the best for them and want them to be happy, and if they are not happy the worry and the stress can be reflected at work. Family weight a lot when making a decision of going abroad, because when you are alone you just think about yourself and no one else, but when you have a family you must think also in what is best for them. The family must feel like part of the process and needs to be involve in the decision, being part of the decision makes things more easy for the expatriate and even to the whole family. They also need to be aware of the change they are going to take, it’s a risk they are taking and they need to be conscious that it could be for better or for worst, and they need to be open to the changes and the new culture they are entering to in order to adapt easily and to provide the expatriate a better work environment in order to success and not to fail. Counseling can be considered as a huge help, because some changes are not easy to over take and the whole family must need help doing it.