The Performance of Expatriates in Multinational Organizations
An expatriate is defined as an individual living in a foreign nation working in a foreign nation. With the rise of global multinationals there has been a corresponding rise in the number of expatriate workers (“Expatriate,” 2018). There are many reasons that individuals might wish to work and live abroad, including the desire to experience a new culture and career advancement. Multinationals can benefit by sending trusted and experienced workers with experience in the company culture into emerging markets. If the expatriate has a personal connection to the emerging market (for example, personal knowledge of the government structure and culture), this may ease the ability of the company to effectively break into the marketplace. But integrating one’s self into the emerging market is not always easy for the expat.
Strategies to Improve Performance of Expatriates
Expatriates, regardless of their familiarity with the culture of the emerging nation, need a full orientation into the process of doing business there, including any potential red tape and bureaucracy they may encounter, in contrast to how they are familiar to doing business at home. Even a worker who comes from the culture of the emerging nature by birth may...
For example, in India, bribery is often an accepted way of life and cost of doing business, even though it is considered unethical in the United States. Even if the company is not prepared to do business in such a manner, it must prepare it workers for such offers as “…any company operating in India – domestic or foreign – is vulnerable to these often socially-acceptable practices and they have real power to facilitate or conceal serious malpractice” (Owen, 2015, par.6). This is not simply true of India, but also China and many other emerging nations.
Factors Influencing Expatriate Performance
A familiarity with the foreign nation’s culture, and preferably its language, is an undeniable asset to cultural integration for the expatriate. But this is not always possible to find in a pool of typical workers. What can be leveraged, however, is intellectual curiosity about going abroad combined with a flexible and open-minded outlook. “They assign international posts to individuals who not only have the necessary technical skills but also have indicated that they would be likely to live comfortably in different cultures” (Black & Gregersen, 1999, par.13). Companies frequently engage in extensive…
