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Unit 6: Re-entry and Career Issues

(a) Career Anxiety: Expatriates are motivated to accept an international assignment due Notes
to career advancement and financial gain. The prime factor in re-entry is career
anxiety. This can emerge prior to the physical relocation and can affect productivity
during the last couple of months of the international assignment as the person
contemplates the re-entry process. The causes for career anxiety are:
(i) No post-assignment guarantee of employment: This is becoming a harsh reality
for the majority of those on international assignments. Repatriation more
often leads to redundancy, as the 1990s trend away from re-entry job guarantees
continues.

Majority of expatriates did not guarantee a position at home upon successful
completion of the overseas assignment. Lack of job security results in career
anxiety which commences prior to homecoming, and acts as a readjustment
moderator upon re-entry if career outcomes are not realised.

Example: In International HR practices in German and UK firms, it is found that the
majority of German firms offered a guaranteed job upon return from the foreign assignment,
whereas the majority of UK firms admitted that they were not able to offer jobs upon repatriation.
(ii) Fear of out of sight, out of mind: It is the fear associated with the expatriate
that the period overseas has caused a loss of visibility and isolation, which
brood over the end of the international assignment as the person begins to
consider the re-entry process and depends on various elements: the amount of
contact that the person has had with the home organisation, the position level
concerned and whether the person is aware well in advance of the type of re-
entry job awaiting in the home country. Lack of information may increase the
level of anxiety, leaving the person with a decided impression that the company
has not planned adequately. If there is no post-assignment job guarantee, the
anxiety level will be exceptionally high.
(iii) Change in the home workplace: Anxiety can be exacerbated by informal
communication from home-based colleagues about organisational changes
like MNC is in the process of a major restructuring, the aftermath of a merger
or acquisition, or sale of divisions or business units. These changes are usually
accompanied by job-shedding. Knowledge of such changes and potential or
real job loss naturally will add to the level of anxiety, particularly if the
expatriate does not have a guaranteed job upon repatriation.
(b) Work adjustment: Work adjustment has an important impact on a person’s intent to
stay with the organisation. Career anxiety is the moderating factor but others may
lead to readjustment problems. They are:
(i) Employment relationship: An individual’s career expectations are based on
clear messages sent by the top management to the effect that an international
assignment is a condition for career progression. These pronouncements can
be made in the context of the need for a global orientation or mindset where
a definite link is made between international experience and global managers.
Perceptions regarding expected career outcomes also are influenced by
comments made by HR or line managers during the recruitment and selection
stage.
Unmet expectations or unfulfilled promises can provoke intense feelings of
betrayal and violation of the psychological contract. The psychological contract
is a moderator of re-entry readjustment as well as on-assignment adjustment

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