Expatriate assignments are increasingly correlated with several difficulties that impact the expatriate’s responsibilities. Ideally, relocating into a new state for an international assignment is faced with several challenges due to demands for adjustment. The main reasons why expatriates encounter problems in their foreign assignments are their inability to adjust, the inability of their family and spouse to adjust, cultural shock, language barriers, lifestyle changes, and their inability to cope with the entire overseas responsibilities.
The outcomes of such problems are that an employee can be detrimental overseas, ineffective, or return prematurely before the job tasks assigned are completed. A firm can lower the occurrence of expatriate issues through the development of effective recruitment, selection process, repatriation program as well as training. Considerably, the most effective expatriates are those that have self-confidence and eager to get along with others, effort to converse foreign languages as well as empathize with other individual’s cultures.
Organizations rely on different approaches to teach expatriates the cross-cultural skills that are aimed at increasing interactions with overseas culture. For instance, an expatriate program is essential in the transition process by enlightening employees’ cultural sensitivity by offering skills and facilitating the adjustment process. An expatriate program can include practical, language, and cultural training. Cultural training seeks to facilitate an appreciation of the host nation’s culture for the expatriate to behave accordingly.
On the other hand, language training involves the training of local language from a personal and business perspective. Practical training helps the expatriate and their family cope with daily life in the host nation. Ideally, the expatriate program will enable the expatriate and the family to adapt successfully. Therefore, before the expatriate gets to the host country, there is a need for specific procedures and Plans that need to be put in place for the repatriation of the employee.
