Page 125 - DMGT548_GLOBAL_HRM

Global HRM

Notes position, pre-departure training is considered to be the next critical step. This is an important
attempt to ensure some cultural familiarity, especially if the expatriate’s host country is considered
culturally tough. Effective cultural training enables individuals to adjust more rapidly to the
new culture.
A large number of U.S. multinationals have been reluctant to provide even a basic level of pre-
departure training. U.S. multinationals tended to use training programmes for expatriates less
frequently than European and Japanese firms.

A Price Waterhouse survey of European firms (including subsidiaries of non-European
multinationals) revealed that cultural awareness training remains the most common form of
pre-departure training, and that it is still offered on a voluntary basis rather than as a mandatory
requirement.



Caselet High Failure Rates

xpatriate managers, especially U.S. managers working in foreign countries,
experience very high failure rates. Black and Gregersen (1999) report the following
Ealarming findings:
1. Nearly one-third of U.S. managers sent abroad do not perform up to the expectations
of their superiors.
2. Up to 20 percent of all U.S. managers sent abroad return early because of job
dissatisfaction or difficulties in adjusting to a foreign country.
3. One-fourth of U.S. managers completing a foreign assignment left their company
within one year after repatriation (often joining a competitor).

Perhaps, what is even more disturbing than Black and Gregersen’s findings is the fact that
we have known about these appalling failure rates for many years. In January of 1990, a
Training & Development Journal article stated, “Up to 40 percent of U.S. expatriate managers
fail in their overseas assignments” (Hogan and Goodson, 1990).
In that same article, Hogan and Goodson described how the Japanese companies had
achieved a dramatically better success rate with their expatriate managers. They discussed
one survey that stated “86 percent of multinational corporations in Japan had failure rates
below 10 percent for their expatriates.” Hogan and Goodson (1990) described the typical
Japanese firm’s expatriate support program as follows:

1. One year before managers depart, they devote company time to studying the culture
and language of the destination country.
2. In the foreign country, the expatriate managers work with mentors who are
responsible directly to the head office for assisting the managers with cultural
problems that arise.

3. The first-year performance appraisal form clearly indicates that the expatriate’s
primary job during year one is to learn about and adjust to the host country.
Question

How can the failure rate of US expatriates be converted to success rate? Suggest.

Source: http://www.drbeitler.com/freestuff/articles/Expatriate-Training.pdf

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