Expatriate Management: Win-win all along the line? Perceptual evidence of the hurdles and added value of the expatriate process

Abstract

Sending employees abroad has many proven benefits for all participants – the home corporation, the recipient branches and the expatriate himself. Due to the everchanging environment, influencing factors are constantly in a transitory state. Among other things, the composition of the workforce and rising globalization lead to a shrinking and increasingly interdependent world which plays an enormous role in the successful adaptation of the expatriate management process. Therefore, this area of study has not lost any of its topicality, especially when referencing to the field of human resource management. In this thesis, the basic conceptions (expatriate selection, training phase, assignment phase and repatriation phase) that the expatriate management cycle is built upon will be elaborated on. Conducting semi-structured interviews with an equal number of female and male former expatriates as well as human resource representatives in addition to self-assessment questionnaires allow for capturing diverse opinions of experts to challenge and broaden the previously developed theoretical concepts and insights. Further, using content analysis will enhance the credibility and accuracy of the interviews and will be used to answer the research question: How do former expatriates and human resource staff perceive the expatriate process? Besides that, a closer look will be taken at the specific hurdles female expatriates have to encounter during the selection and assignment time and how the future of expatriate management may look like. Ultimately, courses of action will be defined on how to improve the expatriate management process.