Re-Entry and Career Issues (unit-4)

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

• 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

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

Opening Vignette

Coming Home?

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

Expatriation Includes Repatriation

Repatriation activity of bringing the expatriate back to the home country

Re-entry Culture Shock

• unaware of adjustment difficulties upon return

• re-entry adjustment

Factors that contribute

(c) 2008 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Limited.

Expatriation Includes

Repatriation (Figure 8-1)

• 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

Can lead to

• feeling alienated and uprooted

• career, performance and commitment problems

• high percentage leaving company shortly after their return

Repatriation Activities and Practices

• 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

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

• balanced set of transitions

(c) 2008 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Limited.

Repatriation Activities and

Practices)

Repatriation Process-Phase I Pre-departure

Pre-departure training (including career and financial planning)

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

Repatriation Process-Phase II

During assignment

• “home leave”

• work related information exchanges

• mentor communications

• systematic pre-return orientation process

•

Repatriation Process-Phase III

Upon return

• new job assignment

• organizational reconnection

• assistance with non-work factors

• opportunities to recognition and sharing of experiences

Individual Reactions to Re-entry

Moderators of re-entry readjustment

• Job-Related Factors

• Social Factors

•

Factors Influencing Repatriate Adjustment

Job Related Factors

• career anxiety

• work adjustment

• coping with new role demands

(c) 2008 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Limited.

Factors Influencing Repatriate Adjustment

(Figure 8-3)

• loss of status and pay

Career Anxiety

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

• prime factor in re-entry is career anxiety

no post-assignment guarantee of employment

• fearing a loss of visibility

• changes in the home workplace

•

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

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

• Continental European firms provide guarantees to attract expatriates

Fearing a Loss of Visibility

• loss of visibility and isolation

• ‘out of sight, out of mind’

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

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

Work Adjustment

• the employment relationship

• re-entry position

• devaluing the overseas experience

•

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

Re-entry Position

Fears

• peers are promoted ahead of the repatriated manager

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

• IHRM issues

• match the repatriate’s career expectation

• ‘headhunting’ repatriates

Devaluing the Overseas Experience

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

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

Coping with New Role Demands

• mismatch of expectations

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

The Repatriate Role

Role Clarity

• role clarity, rather than role conflict affects adjustment

(c) 2008 by Nelson, a division of Thomson Canada Limited.

The Repatriate Role (Figure 8-4)

• clarify job description

•

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

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.

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

Social Factors

• family adjustment

• social networks

• effect of partners career

• socially and psychologically distanced

• social disappointment

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

Family Adjustment each family member is experiencing their own readjustment problems

• reduced family income

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

Effect on Partner’s Career

• difficulties in re-entering the workforce

• negative experience of job search

• declining MNE support

Multinational Responses

Maximize benefits of the international assignment

• staff availability

• return on investment

• knowledge transfer

Staff Availability and Career Expectations

Re-entry positions

• signal the importance given to international experience

• impacts future staff availability

Linking Repatriation Process to Outcomes

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

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

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

Itinerants

Two disadvantages

• lack of firm knowledge

• selecting and controlling