Page 113 - DMGT548_GLOBAL_HRM

Global HRM

Notes loss of status and autonomy. So, the repatriate is treated as just another company
executive. This shift may cause readjustment problems.
Compounding the problems is the loss of expatriate premiums. Employees are
brought home to resume life on a scale that may be significantly less comfortable
than what they had grown used to abroad. Pay is usually lower in absolute terms.

The returning manager is no longer able to afford to buy a home similar to the one
sold a few years before. Providing expatriate with better housing than they had at
home may contribute to repatriation problems. This creates somewhat of a dilemma
for US - HR managers. A drop in the standard of housing conditions has a negative
impact on the adjustment of U.S. repatriates.

Did u know? Patriation is a non-legal term used in Canada to describe a process of
constitutional change also known as homecoming of the constitution. It is based upon
repatriation, since critics of the use of the word repatriation pointed out that the constitution
could not return to Canada, as it was not formulated in Canada in the first place. Thus the
term patriation was coined as a word meaning to make something part of one’s own
nation.
2. Social Factors: The familiar surroundings of the home environment eases the transition
or at least the cultural adjustment will not be as demanding as that confronted in the
foreign country. International experience can distance the repatriate, and his family, socially
and psychologically. If the expatriate position gave the person a high profile, involving
interaction with the social and economic elite, the return home may bring with it some
measure of social disappointment, thus reinforcing the kingpin syndrome.
Where spouses, partners, and children are involved, each family member is experiencing
his own readjustment problems. As a coping behaviour in the foreign location, others
may have glamourized life back home. Life at home may now seem dull and unexciting,
and the family may begin to glamourize the life they left behind in the foreign location.
These reactions can be compounded if the family income has been reduced upon
repatriation. Impressions generated about changes in the home country may depend on
how effectively the family has been able to keep up-to-date with events back home.
Re-establishing social networks can be difficult, especially if the family has been repatriated
to a different state or town in the home country. Families who return to their previous
domestic locations often find that friends have moved away. Children may find re-entry
difficult. Coming back to school, attempting to regain acceptance into peer groups, and
being out-of-touch with current slang, sports, and fashion can cause problems.
3. Effect on Partner’s Career: Partners encounter difficulties in re-entering the workforce, if
the partner has not been able to work outside the home prior to, or during, the foreign
assignment, but now desire to find outside employment. Negative experiences during the
job search may affect the partner’s self-worth, compounding the re-adjustment process
and even cause tensions in the relationship.

Readjustment of the expatriate, whether male-led or female-led, may be linked with
concerns that the foreign assignment might have on the partner’s career. Given that dual-
career couples are on the increase and that more females expect international assignments,
the issue of the partner’s career is likely to become a major factor determining staff
availability for future international assignments.

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