Expatriate Management: Reducing Turnover and Enhancing Performance
This paper examines expatriate management challenges at Oce Printing Systems, an international ICT and printing solutions company that relies heavily on European expatriate employees. The paper identifies high turnover as a central problem, exploring its causes through cultural employment differences between Europe and America, compensation gaps, hiring practices, and workplace environment. Drawing on literature about European financial participation models and employee rights, the paper proposes a range of solutions including profit sharing, managerial retraining, employee relocation programs, timely financial rewards, and the creation of a positive, non-competitive work culture. The paper argues that treating employees as assets rather than expenses is essential to sustaining productivity, loyalty, and long-term company growth.
- Background and Company Overview: Introduces Oce Printing Systems and its expatriate workforce
- Defining the Problem: Identifies turnover and employee burnout as core issues
- Literature Review: Cultural and Employment Differences: Compares European and American labor conditions and profit sharing
- Problem Analysis: Examines internal causes of turnover including pay and management
- Possible Solutions: Proposes HR interventions to improve retention and performance
- Solution Implementation and Justification: Argues employee investment drives business growth and loyalty
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper grounds its analysis in a real company context (Oce Printing Systems), which gives concrete focus to otherwise abstract HR concepts like turnover costs and cultural adaptation.
- It moves systematically from problem identification through literature review to proposed solutions and justification, following a clear consultancy-style structure that keeps the argument organized.
- The inclusion of European vs. American employment comparisons adds meaningful cross-cultural depth, demonstrating awareness of how macro-level labor policy affects firm-level HR decisions.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates applied problem-solution reasoning: it uses academic and industry sources to frame a workplace problem, builds an evidence-based diagnosis, and then derives actionable recommendations directly from that diagnosis. This mirrors the structure of a management consulting report and is a useful model for applied business writing at the undergraduate level.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a company background, then narrows to the specific problem of expatriate turnover. A literature review covers cultural employment differences and European financial participation theory. The problem analysis examines internal causes — hiring practices, pay structures, and workplace culture. The solutions section proposes specific HR interventions, and the final justification section explains the expected return on these investments. Each section builds on the previous one, maintaining a clear cause-and-effect logic throughout.
Background and Company Overview
Oce Printing Systems is an international company that specializes in original ICT applications and productive, user-friendly systems, including monofunctional and multifunctional printers, plotters, copiers, and scanners, as well as print management, document management, archiving, color management, design tools, and image manipulation. Services provided by Oce Printing Systems include consulting, implementation, education, support, and facility services (Oce Website).
In addition to providing a wide range of products and services, Oce employs many European expatriates. As Oce continues to expand and stay current with the latest technologies, the company must retain high-quality employees and maintain a mixture of different cultures on its teams. One of the company's primary goals is to decrease the high turnover rate and increase employee satisfaction. European expatriates do enjoy better work conditions in their home countries, but their unique knowledge makes a valuable contribution to the company (N.A., Management of Expatriates, June 01).
This paper discusses effective expatriate management strategies, the challenges of integrating European and American workplace cultures, cultural diversities, differences, costs, and ethical issues. It also analyzes possible solutions and the results that can be produced by taking the time to meaningfully merge the two cultures together.
Defining the Problem
Oce Printing Systems has ambitions to continue expanding, signing new agreements and subsidiaries, developing unique technologies, and strengthening its product range. Oce Printing Systems is known for its originality, and one of the key sources of that originality is the versatility brought by employees of different nations, especially European expatriates.
Being original and staying ahead of the competition unfortunately comes with high pressure and highly stressful situations. It is not easy for employees and managers to continuously deal with high-pressure circumstances throughout the workday. When companies manage to retain the same employees and managers over many years, not only does the company benefit from the efforts and expenses invested in those individuals, it also establishes customer security and credibility.
The main challenge facing Oce Printing Systems is keeping employees satisfied, preventing burnout, preventing employees from stagnating at the same level for many years, and eliminating monotonous tasks. Addressing these problems brings the company closer to its goal of reducing the expatriate turnover rate and increasing productivity.
Literature Review: Cultural and Employment Differences
American employment conditions differ significantly from those of European cultures, with European conditions generally more favorable toward the employee. European wages are considerably higher, and unemployment benefits in many European countries cover the full amount of the employee's original paycheck with no time limitations. Europeans frequently work under union protections, which give employees a further advantage. In addition, some European workers benefit from a four-day work week (Went, Summer 2002).
The American labor system, by contrast, emphasizes the rights of the employer over those of the employee. In America, the minimum wage falls far short of a livable salary, and many minimum wage positions are part-time. In the event of a layoff, unfair discharge, or involuntary job loss, unemployment benefits represent only a partial percentage of the employee's earned pay and do not always last until the employee finds new work (Went, Summer 2002).
In Europe, a high level of financial involvement and employee participation — with flexible structure — is heavily encouraged. The European government actively promotes financial participation because it improves work organization and management in companies, decreases work intensity, reduces stress, and limits self-exploitation. Financial participation also improves economic performance and production overall (Poutsma, Huijgen, May 99).
The theory of employee financial participation promotes a sense of employee ownership within Oce Printing Systems, which would encourage employees to take greater interest in developing new concepts and ideas for the company. If employees were involved in profit sharing and felt a long-term connection to the business, they would no longer view their position as just a job they leave at the end of the day. Employees would become more receptive to new and changing technologies, and would feel personally invested in the company's increased profits and expansion. Commitment and dedication are elevated when there is financial involvement, even among employees who might otherwise consider leaving (Poutsma, Huijgen, May 99).
Increased sales and improved customer service are additional benefits of employee profit sharing. If even customer service employees had a sense of ownership in the company, they would better appreciate the value of customer satisfaction and the impact of increased sales. Employees of Oce Printing Systems would make the most motivated stakeholders, precisely because they are in direct contact with customers. Changing the way employees view the company promotes the idea that they are serving their own customers rather than simply working for someone else's business. Even when employees move on to another company, having held an ownership stake encourages them to refer customers rather than speak negatively about their former employer.
The entire reason Oce Printing Systems hires employees is to generate revenue for the company. An employee's salary and benefits represent only a small portion of the value that employee brings in. Oce Printing Systems employees are not liabilities; they are assets. Every person in the organization can be considered a salesperson. One practical approach is to give each employee and manager — including support staff — personalized business cards, and to provide a commission on their next paycheck for every new customer they bring in.
Because of the specialized nature of Oce Printing Systems, a high turnover rate is far more costly than investing in employee promotions and enhanced benefits. Employees who leave take with them knowledge of the company's strengths and weaknesses, and may either start competing businesses or share sensitive information with competitors. This is why securing employee commitment and dedication — by ensuring their reasonable satisfaction — is essential. The company will see multiple returns on its investment in retaining dedicated employees.
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