Managing Multicultural Environment in International HRM and

Expatriation in Multinational Organisations

Chapter 1

1.0 Introduction

1.1 Research Background

“In today’s global marketplace, to get the right people with the right skills

inventing and utilising technology, formulating and implementing strategy, and

designing and building organisation structures at the right place and at the

right time movement is needed movement across national borders” Black,

Gregersen and Mendenhall (1992; p. 3)

“Globalisation” is the term that has been used widely the past decades to

describe the world we are living in. It involves many aspects of changes such

as structural changes in trade, economics, products and technology, the

emergence of international and global organisations (Yaw & Smith, 2001).

There are concerns that globalisation will result in a continued shake-out of

jobs, especially in higher wage economies where the workforce in developed

countries are substituted by those in low wage economies (Yaw A. & Smith,

2001). In a changing global marketplace where competition is constantly

growing in the international sense, organisations need to create and sustain

the competitive advantage by using different global strategic tools; one of

them is creating a local presence in the international markets. One way to

create a local presence is to staff employees from the parent company in the
subsidiaries abroad. This is the work of the International Human Resource

department that takes care of the task of moving people around to different

positions in different places (Yaw A. & Smith, 2001).

An important issue related to cross-national Human Resource Management is

the policy of recruiting parent company employees to a managerial position in

foreign subsidiaries (Gooderham & Nordhaug 2003). The term expatriation is

used to describe the process of international transfers of managers working in

foreign subsidiaries for a pre-defined period, usually two to five years (Harzing

& Ruysseveldt, 2004). The concept of expatriation is not new; already in

ancient Rome some trading houses used trustworthy representatives to

manage distant subsidiaries. Today the role of expatriates in international

organisations is more diverse than in ancient times. Expatriate management

nowadays is regarded as one of the tools international organisations use to

enhance global integration (Barsoux, Evans & Pucik, 2002). According to

Perlmutter (1969), there are three basic attitudes to the staffing of foreign

operations: ethnocentric (home-country oriented), polycentric (host-country

oriented), and geocentric (world-oriented). Which approach to use depends

on where headquarter decide to select the expatriate from.

There are a few theoretical clarifications regarding the motives for

international transfers. The study by Edstrom and Galbraith (1977) explains

why an international transfer of managers occurs. Three general motives were

found: fill positions, which concern the transfer of technical and managerial

knowledge. Management development, which gives the expatriate manager

international experience and develops him/her for future managerial tasks.

Organisation development consists of socialisation of both expatriate and

local managers into the corporate culture and creation of an information

network between subsidiaries and the headquarter (Edstrom & Galbraith,

1977).

1.2 Problem Statement

International transfers of managers imply problems. The whole process of

expatriation requires a lot of planning and training before departure and

adaptation when on-place and also re-adaptation of oneself when coming

back to the home country. Problems that occur when the expatriate is on

place may affect his/her performance at the subsidiary. That is one of the

reasons why the international assignments, expatriates have been carrying

out over the years have not always been successful. Both the expatriates and

the home country company they belong to, have faced difficulties with the

expatriate assignment. There are several reasons behind the problems, such

as poor pre-departure training which might lead to adjustment difficulties at

place, difficulty to cooperate with the new staff in a foreign country due to

different management styles, language or culture et cetera (Dowling &

Welch, 2004).

The problems an expatriate faces during his/her time abroad might lead to

expatriate failure which in turn could lead to termination of the assignment

prematurely and the expatriate returns to the home country. This may be a

result of a selection error (Dowling & Welch, 2004). Tung (1987) argues that

about five per cent of European multinational transfers, thirty per cent of US

multinational transfers, and five per cent of Japanese multinational transfers

are mistakes. Due to several consequences the home country company has

to encounter, like cost and resources in form of training in the home and host

country; it is in the organisation’s interest to avoid expatriate failure.

According to Naumann (1992) it is estimated that the direct cost for each US

expatriate who returns home prematurely is between $55,000 and $150,000.

The indirect costs associated with the failure are even larger than the direct

costs (Ashamalla & Crocitto, 1997; Harvey, 1985 in Douglas & Martinko,

1999). The company might need to send a new expatriate to follow up and

finish the assignment. Therefore the firm does not want their expatriates to

encounter problems during their time abroad which can lead to the failure of

the international assignment. Authors like Barsoux et al. (2002) and Dowling &

Welch (2004) argues that some typical problems that lead to expatriate failure

are the expatriate’s inability to adjust to the foreign work environment, the

foreign culture or his/her family’s inability to adjust to the new environment

(Dowling & Welch, 2004).

Almost all expatriates get pre-departure training before they take on the role

as an expatriate. It is a critical step to ensure the expatriate’s success abroad

(Dowling & Welch, 2004). Then why does problems still occur during the

expatriation period? This is an interesting aspect to investigate, both from an

individual’s perspective and from a company’s perspective. The above

discussion leads to an interesting question concerning what kind of problems

expatriates encounter during the expatriation process.

1.3 Research Purpose

This research purpose is to how to improve the process expatriation and to

understand the problems face by expatriates during the period of expatriation.

1.4 Research Perspective

To gain a deeper understanding of the whole expatriation process, I have

decided to do the research on the problems faced during the period of

expatriation from both the expatriate’s perspective and the parent company’s

perspective. The reason for looking at the research from two perspectives are

because I want with this research contribute with an understanding of

expatriate problems for both future expatriates and organisations that work

with expatriation.

1.5 Research Limitation

This research will concentrate on the expatriation process in two

organisations; however the organisation’s activities are not being investigated

in any large extent. There will not be a comparison of the organisations in

terms of their business activities as this research does not focus on any

specific industry sector. The research will mainly cover the whole process of

expatriation, namely: selection, pre-departure training, on the international

assignment and repatriation. In addition, this research does not cover issues

or problems that occur an extended time after the repatriation.

1.6 Definitions

Central terms related to expatriate management and concepts that are

necessary for the reader to understand before further reading are discussed

in this part. From an international human resource management view, the

term “expatriation” defines the process of sending home country company

employees to a host country company, in most cases to a foreign subsidiary,

during a pre-defined period of time. The employees that are sent to work in a

foreign country are called “expatriates” (Herry & Noon, 2001). When referring
to “international assignment” I mean the work the expatriate takes on abroad.

“Expatriation period” refers to the expatriate’s whole expatriation time which

starts with selection and ends with repatriation.

According to Herry and Noon (2001) “repatriation” is the returning process of

employees to their home country after they have been working in a foreign

country over a period of time (Herry & Noon, 2001). Last term that is important

to explain is “expatriate failure” which means premature return of the

expatriate to the home country and home country company; it could also be

referred to as unsuccessful completion of the international assignment

(Dowling & Welch, 2004).

References

• Barsoux, J-L., Evans, P. & Pucik, V. (2002). The Global Challenge –

Frameworks for International Human Resource Management. McGraw-

Hill/Irwin: New York

• Black, J.S., Gregersen, H.B. & Mendenhall, M. (1992) Global

assignments: Successfully expatriating and repatriating international

managers, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco

• Douglas, S.C. & Martinko, M.J. (1999). Culture and expatriate failure:

an attributional explication. International Journal of Organisational

Analysis; Vol. 7, No. 3 (July), pp. 265 - 293

• Dowling, P. J. & Welch, D. E. (2004). International Human Resource

Management – Managing People in a Multinational Context (4th ed.).

Thomson Learning, London

• Gooderham, P.N. & Nordhaug, O. (2003). International Management.

Blackwell Publishing Ltd

 • Harzing, A. & Ruysseveldt, JV. (2004). International Human Resource

Management. The Cromwell Press Ltd. Great Britain

• Herry, E. & Noon, M. (2001). Oxford: A Dictionary of Human Resource

Management. Oxford University Press Inc.; New York

• Naumann, E. (1992). A conceptual model of expatriate turnover.

Journal of International Business Studies, 3, pp. 499-531

• Tung, R. (1987). Expatriate assignments: Enhancing success and

minimising failure. Academy of Management Executive, 16, pp. 68-78

• Yaw A, D. & Smith, I.G. (2001). Globalisation, Employment and the

Workforce. Cardiff Business School, Employment Research Unit Staff,

Routledge

Chapter 2

Literature Review

Expatriate Management

Expatriation is perceived as an attractive method for accumulating foreign

markets for many organisations. Successful international assignments

increases the organisation’s international reputation and profits (Lee, 2005).

Training and retaining people for international assignments are an important

aspect of global operational efficiency. According to Medich (1995) there are

five dimensions of international human resource management (IHRM) that

have impact on expatriate management. The dimensions are; selection,

culture, training, adjustment and repatriation. One reason for expatriates to

accept international assignments is the expectation to advance in their

careers upon return (Medich, 1995). One presenter once commented at a

corporate human resource (HR) conference in the US early in the 1990s, that

most international HR managers occupied about 90 percent of their time to

expatriate issues (Barsoux et al., 2002). Furthermore Barsoux et al. (2002)

argues that the process of expatriation could be arranged into four phases:

recruitment and selection, training and development, on assignment and

repatriation.

Expatriation is the most expensive staffing strategy for multinational

organisations, but still it is a viable method for increasing the organisation

understands of international operations. Furthermore expatriation is a way for

the organisations to develop global competencies that are consistent with the

organisation’s overall strategic human resource plan. Expatriates will during

their assignment period gain tangible skills which are value added for the

home country company (Lee, 2005). The expatriate issue is important for

multinational organisations. Expatriates are used to transfer technological

knowledge and organisational culture (Graf, 2004). One important

determinant of foreign venture success is the organisation’s ability to transfer

its critical capabilities on an international basis. According to Malinowski, Paik

and Segaud (2002) the most effective way to transfer these company critical

capabilities is through expatriation (Malinowski, Paik & Segaud, 2002)

Selection

The selection process of expatriates for international assignments is critical

from a cost perspective, both for the organisation and the individual (Medich,

1995). Different organisations uses different selection procedures, one

common procedure used when selecting candidates are for example interview

with both the candidate and his/her family members. Other procedures are

used for selection are formal assessment instruments, decisions made by the

organisation committee and assessment centres to evaluate the candidate’s

suitability (Briscoe & Schuler, 2004). One common used criterion for selection

is the technical competence of the candidates. Another criterion used for

selection is the candidate’s skills in handling relationships with people from

other cultures. This criterion becomes more important in culturally different

countries and for expatriates that has much contact with foreign country

residents. When selecting the candidate for the international assignment it is

important to regard the cross-cultural strength of the candidates. Still the

cross cultural strength criterion is rarely used by companies because it is hard

to identify measure and compare between the candidates (Medich, 1995).

Other criteria that are commonly used by multinational enterprises (MNEs)

regard the maturity of the candidate, ability to handle the foreign language

and if he/she possess appropriate personal characteristics.

Errors in the selection process can have a negative impact on the success of

an organisation’s overseas operations and therefore it is crucial to select the

right person for the assignment (Briscoe and Schuler, 2004). There exist

different decision-making methods when selecting expatriates and it is

important that the methods used for selection define the meaning of expatriate
success, which has three aspects; adjustment, performance and turnover.

Expatriate success is used to utilise effective predictors in the selection

process. During the selection international experiences and stress tolerance

of the candidates should been taken into consideration (Chen & Tye, 2005).

Selecting appropriate individuals for the international assignments are

challenging for the organisations (Chen & Tye, 2005; Lee, 2005). Traditional

selection methods are solely based on the candidate’s job performance at the

home company. The technical competence and management skills of the

expatriate are important but still the cross-cultural aspect of the foreign

environment need other competencies to succeed (Chen & Tye, 2005).

International experiences from previous successful assignments are one of

the factors that should be considered during the selection process because

this factor might ease the future adjustment for the expatriate. Extraversion,

excellent socialisation and relationship skills, are important factors that lead to

expatriate success. Candidates that display high levels of extraversion have

easier to adjust to the new environment (Chen & Tye, 2005). Graf (2004)

claims that intercultural communication skills and intercultural sensitivity are

two important competencies to regard when selecting expatriates. She

discusses in her article whether the selection should be based on a culture-

specific profile or culture-general profile. Graf (2004) argues that a

combination of both profiles is preferable. The culture-general profile which

regards general intercultural communication skills and intercultural sensitivity,

should be combined with a culture-specific profile for each country to see if

the candidate is suitable for caring out the assignment in that specific country.

Culture
National culture distinguishes people from one country from those of another

country (Hofstede & Pedersen, 2002). It refers to the way of life of a group of

people. Obvious differences in culture could be the way people dress and

behave, whilst hidden cultural differences are values and assumptions.

Cultural differences across countries can influence people in their work

environment (Harzing & Ruysseveldt, 2004). Hofstede (1984) defines culture

as “collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of

one human group from another” (Hofstede, 1984, pp. 21). Usually individuals

only become aware of their own culture when confronted by another

(Gooderham & Nordhaug, 2003). It is of importance when dealing with cross-

national players to understand people’s different cultural backgrounds to be

able to identify the consequences for international management. By

comparing and studying cultures, differences will emerge (Harzing &

Ruysseveldt, 2004). According to Medich (1995) culture is a crucial variable in

international assignments and should be included in international

management practices (Medich, 1995).

Different countries and different MNEs cultural characteristics can be

significantly different from each other. Many people working abroad lack

knowledge or sensitivity to cultural differences which often results in mistakes

during interactions on the job and privately. The cultural issue makes the

interaction with people from other cultures to a challenge for those working

abroad. It is therefore important to learn about other cultures or at least

understand that there exist different cultures and always pay attention to this

fact (Briscoe & Schuler, 2004). According to Hofstede et al. (2002) learning a

new language is more than learning new vocabulary and grammar. It is about
broadening one’s cultural competencies as well, knowing for example when to

say something, how to say it and why you say that. It is also important to pay

attention to nonverbal communication, like gestures, because some cultures

uses it very often to deliver unspoken messages (Hofstede et al., 2002).

According to Briscoe and Schuler (2004) “knowledge about and competency

in working with country and company cultures is the most important issue

impacting the success of international business activity” (Briscoe & Schuler,

2004, pp.114). Understanding of various values, beliefs and behaviours of

people are important aspects of success for conducting business

internationally. Two other important aspects are cultural awareness and good

understanding of the cultural effects on a day-to-day basis in business

operations (Briscoe & Schuler, 2004). Ethnocentrism which is “an

exaggerated tendency to think the characteristics one’s own group or race

superior to those of other groups or races” (Hofstede, 2001, pp.17) should be

avoided because it prevents the understanding of other cultures. Briscoe and

Schuler (2004) argue that culture is complex because of its multiple cultural

layers (see fig.1).

Surface culture

Hidden culture

Invisible culture
Figure 1: The three layers of culture (Briscoe & Schuler, 2004, pp.118)

The layers of culture model provide an understanding of culture as a series of

three layers, as the layer moves towards the inside of the circles the values

and assumptions becomes more and more invisible and implicit. Also the

values and assumptions become more important in determining the attitudes

and behaviours of that specific culture one is studying as it moves towards the

inside. The outermost layer, which is called the surface layer, corresponds to

readily visible values and assumptions, like dress, body language and food.

The middle layer or the hidden culture layer corresponds to religions, values

and philosophies concerning for example what is right and wrong. The

invisible layer at the core represents one culture’s universal truths, which is

most difficult for foreigners to understand (Briscoe & Schuler, 2004).

According to Harzing and Ruysseveldt (2004) there exist different cultural

dimension among different cultures. These cultural dimensions have been

identified, and one frequently cited work from a well-known researcher within

this cultural dimension field is Geert Hofstede.

Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions

Hofstede have identified five cultural dimensions for which each country could

be classified in. These five dimensions are power distance, uncertainty

avoidance, individualism versus collectivism, masculinity versus femininity,

and long-term versus short-term orientation (Hofstede, 2001). Power distance

indicates the level of inequality in institutions and organisations. A country

with large power distance is characterised by formal hierarchies and by

subordinates who have little influence in their own work and where the boss

have total authority. Uncertainty avoidance focuses on the level in which

people in a certain country tolerate uncertainty and ambiguity within the

society. High uncertainty indicates that the country has a low tolerance for

uncertainty and ambiguity. This will inevitably create a society which is rule-

oriented, which institutes laws, regulations and controls to diminish the

amount of uncertainty (Hofstede, 1984).

Individualism versus collectivism refers to the degree where people prefer to

take care of themselves, and making their own decisions rather than being

bound to groups or families. A highly individualistic society consists of usually

impersonal and loose relationships between individuals, while a low

individualistic society has more tight relationships between individuals, hence

referred to as collectivism by Hofstede (1984). The masculinity versus

femininity dimension describes if a culture are bound towards values that are

seen as more similar to women’s or men’s values. Masculinity is

characterised by stereotype adjectives such as assertiveness and

competitive, while the femininity is characterised by modesty and sensitivity. A

high masculinity ranking indicates the country experiences a high degree of

gender differences, usually favouring men rather than women. The fifth and

last cultural dimension is long-term versus short-term orientation. A long-term

oriented society emphasise on building a future oriented perspective in

contrast to the short-term oriented society which values the present and past

(Hofstede, 2001).

Female Expatriates

One issue that is of concern when selecting expatriates is the role of gender.
The typical expatriate tends to be male but Dowling and Welch (2004) argue

that as international experiences becomes an essential criterion for career

advancement within MNEs the number of female expatriates are increasing,

as well as the number of women in workforce. But still women are under-

represented in international assignments. Reasons behind this under-

representation could be because of host country prejudice regarding the role

of women as managers in certain countries (Dowling & Welch, 2004).

Hofstede (1984) claims that countries and organisations that lie towards

masculinity in the cultural dimension, the country tend to promote men.

Examples of masculine countries are Japan, Austria and Venezuela, these

countries ranked highest in Hofstede’s masculinity index over different

countries. On the other hand UK was ranked at the average top in the

masculinity index (Hofstede, 2001).

Female expatriates face both external and internal barriers when taking on an

international assignment. Common external barriers could be the HR

manager’s reluctance of selecting female expatriates and cultures that

preclude female expatriates. Internal barriers are the female expatriate’s own

self-established barriers and are for example limited willingness to relocate

which can be due to that female expatriates place more value on family

integration issues prior to and during the international assignment than male

expatriates (Dowling & Welch, 2004). Adler (1984) argues that women have

better opportunities to be assigned international assignments if associated

with large financially strong organisations that have considerable sales

volume overseas. Still the survey research Adler (1984) conducted with

thirteen hundred major American and Canadian firms, with a sixty percent
respond rate, showed that of 13,338 expatriates only three percent or 402

expatriates were female in 1984.

In Adler’s (1984) article, the author claims that prejudice against female

expatriates might not be as strong as thought, this misunderstanding is due to

the fact that there have been few female expatriates with management

position in the past. It has been observed that there exist few women in

management positions in countries like Japan and Middle east, hence the

error in assumption. Female expatriates are not seen as local women in the

eyes of the local, instead they are regarded as “foreigners who happen to be

women” (Adler, 1984, pp.9). Assumptions like female expatriates will

experience more problems than male expatriates whilst on assignment have

limited the participation rate of female expatriates (Harzing & Ruysseveldt,

2004). Despite all the disadvantages for female expatriates there also exist

advantages, Adler (1987) identified two advantages female expatriates have

over their male counterparts. These advantages are; high visibility as foreign

clients were curious about female expatriates and anxious to meet them and

good interpersonal skills as it was easier for the local men to talk to the female

expatriates than male expatriates (Adler, 1987).

Training and Development

Once an employee has been selected for an expatriate position, the next step

is the pre-departure training. The purpose of the pre-departure training is to

improve the employee’s current work skills, behaviour and to adjust the

expatriate to the demands of living and working in a foreign environment.

More and more MNEs have established their own in-house training centre

school’s, such as McDonald’s, Motorola and Walt Disney. Much training is

concerned with developing cultural awareness and to help the expatriate to

cope with unexpected events in a new culture. An effective pre-departure

training program that provide the expatriate with a smooth transition to a

foreign location includes several components such as cultural awareness

training, preliminary visits, language instruction and assistance with practical

day-to-day matters (Dowling & Welch, 2004). Intercultural preparations enable

the expatriates to overcome cultural shocks more easily and help the

expatriates to create more realistic expectations in a different cultural

surrounding (Fink, Meierewert & Rohr, 2005).

A well designed cultural awareness training is necessary to help the

expatriate become aware of the host country’s culture in order to behave

accordingly, or at least develop appropriate coping patterns. The cultural

awareness program may vary depending on the country of assignment,

duration, purpose of the transfer and the provider of the program. The

duration of the training is determined by the duration of the assignment and

dissimilarities between the cultures. Preliminary visits are provided to the

expatriates and their spouses before the actual assignment to allow them a

preview of the host country environment and to encourage interest in the

coming assignment. Knowing the host country language is of great

advantage. It can provide the expatriate access to information regarding the

country’s economy, market and government. The expatriate’s effectiveness

and ability to negotiate will also be improved. Language training is therefore

an important component in the pre-departure training, especially when English

is not the primarily language in the host country. Practical assistance should

be given in form of finding suitable accommodation and schools for the

expatriate and his/her family before they arrive (Dowling & Welch, 2004).

According to Tung (1982) the level of rigour of training depends on two factors

which is the degree of interaction required in the host country and the

similarity between the culture in home country and host country. If the

expected interaction with the host country is low, accompanied with low

dissimilarity between the two cultures, then the training should focus on task

and job related issues rather than culture-related issues. On the contrary, if

the expected interaction is high and there are high dissimilarities between the

home and host country, then the training should be focused on cross-cultural

skill development (Dowling & Welch, 2004). Even if training is regarded to be

an important preparation for the expatriate and his/her family, many

companies still do not have well developed expatriate training programs and

the reasons for this are for example lack of time, cost issues and the lack of

recognising the need for training programs (Medich, 1995).

One of the main reasons for effective cultural training is to minimise the rate of

expatriate failure, which is defined by Farner and Luthans (2002) in their

article as “the premature return by an expatriate from an overseas

assignment”. A major reason for expatriate failure is the expatriate’s and/or

the spouse’s inability to adjust to the new culture. Several researches have

showed that cultural training have a positive effect on the expatriate’s

performance and the adjustment to the local culture. The authors list four

dimensions of cultural training that need to be tailored to the specific country

were the expatriate will work. These four dimensions are; negotiation styles,

communication, social relations and family lifestyle adjustment. To improve

cultural training it is suggested that contingency should be utilised when

designing the training program. The training should help the expatriate

develop his/her management skills and interpersonal skills; also it should

enhance the expatriate’s efficacy building and leadership abilities. Cultural

awareness is very important for expatriates working in a host country. Cultural

training should help the expatriates to more effective communication and

understanding of people from different cultures. Expatriates those values

cultural differences are more effective in managing multicultural teams (Farner

& Luthans, 2002).

Many organisations do not include management training and interpersonal

skills development in their training programs. They are also neglecting the

importance of efficacy building and leadership development. These might be

the reasons to the expatriate’s performance problems. To enhance an

effective cultural training program the companies need to evaluate the

programs continually and also evaluate the expatriate who have received the

training. It is important to measure the expatriate’s learning and behaviour

change to see if they have developed knowledge and understanding of the

culture they are assigned which will lead to better performance. Farner and

Luthans (2002) discuss about the multisource (360-degree) feedback

approach that can be used to effectively evaluate the effectiveness of the

cultural training the expatriates receive. This approach evaluates the

behavioural change level from the impact of training and provides information

to develop the expatriate’s performance level on-the-job (Farner & Luthans,

2002).

Cross-cultural Adjustment

Two strong predictors of cross-cultural adjustment are job satisfaction and

 socialisation in the host country (Lee, 2005). According to Lee (2005) the four

dimensions; self-orientation, other-orientation, perceptual skills and cultural

toughness are important for successful expatriate acculturation. Further

language training and orientation programs should be offered to the expatriate

by the host country’s HR department when on place. After arrival to the

foreign environment, a process of adjustment starts taking place. An

adjustment curve is depicted below (see figure 2) to demonstrate the different

phases that may be encountered when coping with cultural adjustment. The

first phase is named the tourist or honeymoon phase where the expatriate

may encounter positive and negative emotions such as excitement, concern

of the unknown. An upswing of mood may arise upon arrival but as the days

pass, the everyday life will not seem that exciting anymore.

Adjustment

Phase 1:
Tourist

Phase 4:
Phase 3: Adjustment
Pulling up
 Phase 2: Crisis,
Culture shock
Time

Figure 2: The phases of cultural adjustment, (Dowling & Welch, 2004, pp.91)

Homesickness kicks in; the new environment may be hard to accept which

lead to a period of crisis, defined as culture shock which is the second phase.

This phase is important for the expatriate to get through as it may affect

negatively on his or her performance at the host company. However once the

expatriate have passed the second phase, he/she starts to accept the

demands of the new environment and the third phase is reached. There is a

pulling up from the third phase to the fourth phase, where the expatriate has

adapted himself/herself to the new surroundings and the new organisation.

This curve is a common depiction used to describe the cultural adjustment

process, but individuals differ in their reactions therefore the curve may not

apply to everyone (Dowling & Welch, 2004).

When living and working in the host country, several dimensions of cross-

cultural adjustments have been defined; like adjustment to work, general

adjustment, and interaction adjustment. Adjustment to work becomes difficult

if the work is unclear, discretion is fairly given or conflicts about possession of

roles. Therefore, to assist the expatriate’s work adjustment, the host company

may appoint the job predecessor to work with him or her. Adjustment to the

general environment refers to reactions to daily affairs such as education,

housing, food, education, transportation and so forth. Many host country

companies provide expatriate house and educational allowances to help

minimise the problems. The adjustment to interaction with local nationals is

the most difficult dimension of adjustment for the expatriate and the family.
Communication and behavioural patterns, language skills, relational issues

and such may be hard to cope with, which create frustration and anger. The

support by the host company may in many cases minimise the difficulty of

adjustment for the expatriate (Barsoux et al., 2002).

It should be noted that family members might experience different adjustment

phases than the expatriate and at different times. Hence the expatriate’s

ability to adjust to the new environment can therefore be affected by the

spouse’s behaviour towards the new life in the host country which in turn

could affect the expatriate’s performance. Studies have shown that the

expatriates who are most willing to be relocated and have easier to adjust to

the environment are those whose spouses support them (Dowling & Welch,

2004).

Expatriate Performance Management

The foreign culture is an important variable that influence the expatriate

performance management (EPM). EPM practices are according to Chiang,

Kim and Shih (2005) affected by three layers of contextual factors;

organisation context, domestic context and international context. A major

concern in the international context is the level of internationalisation;

managers in highly internationalised companies are more involved in EPM

practices. In the domestic context the national culture is very important.

Important factors in the organisational context are for example organisation

structure and company size (Chiang, Kim & Shih, 2005). Since expatriate

assignments play a key role in MNEs cultural control, the expatriate’s

performance during the assignment is an important factor to consider for the

organisations. To achieve a desired level of organisational and individual

performance the companies should emphasis cultural control, which is a

combination of personal control and socialisation control (DeCieri, Fenwick &

Welch, 1999).

The expatriation process is a way for headquarters to control the subsidiaries.

The home country company uses expatriates to socialise the subsidiaries into

the headquarters corporate culture and in this way exert control (DeCieri,

Fenwick & Welch, 1999). Expatriates with multiple superiors have different

performance expectations than thus with only one superior. A crucial factor

that influences the content of EPM is the nature of the expatriate’s

assignment. A long-term assignment with focus on management will probably

make the expatriate more involved in issues like goal setting, performance

appraisal and review feedback (Chiang et al., 2005). According to Dowling

and Welch (2004) the impact of five variables and the relationship between

these variables are important to consider when determining expatriate

performance. These five variables are; the expatriate’s compensation

package, the cultural adjustment of the expatriate and his/her family, the

assignment tasks and the role of the expatriate, support from parent company

and the subsidiary environment in which the assignment takes place (Dowling

& Welch, 2004).

Cultural adjustment has already been discussed and the expatriate’s

compensation package is discussed below. Expatriates are assigned

international assignments with specific tasks and roles to carry out. Four roles

that are common for expatriates to take on during the international

assignment are; the chief executive officer who oversees and directs the

foreign operation. The second role is the structure reproducer who tries to
reorganise a part of the subsidiary’s operation and the structure of the

operation to be in line with the home country company’s operation and

structure. The third is the trouble-shooter who is sent to a subsidiary to

analyse and solve a specific problem and last is the operative role were the

expatriate perform functional job tasks at the subsidiary. Except the well

defined tasks and roles of the assignment, the support from parent company

and the subsidiary environment are two other variables that have an impact in

determining expatriate performance (Dowling & Welch, 2004). Furthermore to

improve the expatriate’s performance the host company should include them

in the objective setting process. Performance appraisal system influences the

expatriate’s performance and behaviour during the assignment, and Chiang et

al. (2005) claims that the systems should be tailored to the individual

expatriate’s assignment (Chiang et al., 2005).

According to Dowling and Welch (2004) organisation goals tend to be

translated into expatriate performance appraisal criteria to measure expatriate

performance and to specify how they can reach these criteria. Three kinds of

goals are often used as basis for performance appraisal criteria; these are

hard goals, soft goals and contextual goals. Hard goals can be directly

measured, they are objective and quantifiable. Soft goals can be interpersonal

skills, leadership abilities and relationship building skills of the expatriate

which are more difficult to measure. Contextual goals take into consideration

how the expatriate deals with a specific situation and which factors lead to

that performance (Dowling & Welch, 2004). Other criteria that could be used

for expatriate performance appraisal are for example; the expatriate’s decision

making and communication skills, personal growth and development

openness to change and ability to cope with stress. The criteria used for

performance appraisal of expatriates should meet parent company standards

within the cultural context of the assignment country. The difficulty here is that

the performance criteria used at home may not be appropriate in the foreign

country (Briscoe & Schuler, 2004).

International Compensation

Harzing and Ruysseveldt (2002) define international compensation as “the

provision of monetary and non-monetary rewards, including base salary,

benefits, perquisites, long- and short-term incentives, valued by employees in

accordance with their relative contributions to MNC performance” (Harzing &

Ruysseveldt, 2002, pp. 308). The international compensation strategies used

at MNE are influenced by several internal and external factors. Internal factors

that influence the international compensation strategy are for example,

organisational culture, labour relations and goal orientation at parent

company. The external factors are for example, Labour market

characteristics, local culture and industry type (Harzing & Ruysseveldt, 2002).

Beside that many companies have recognised that if the international

assignment contributes to career advancement for the expatriate upon return,

the expatriates might demand less immediate compensation while on

assignment and still be satisfied (Latta, 2003).

Dowling and Welch (2004) argue that the international compensation policy

should from the home country company’s perspective be consistent with the

organisation’s overall strategy structure and business needs. Also the policy

should be competitive and recognise factors like tax equalisation and

reimbursement for reasonable costs and facilitate cost effective transfer of

expatriates. With regard to the expatriate’s objectives the compensation policy

should offer financial protection in terms of benefits, living costs and social

security. Also the expatriate would expect issues like housing and education

for the children to be included by the policy (Dowling & Welch, 2004). The key

components in the compensation program are basic compensation like salary

and bonuses, and allowances which could for example be in form of cost-of-

living allowance, education allowance for children and spouse and expatriate

hardship and danger premiums (Briscoe & Schuler, 2004).

Repatriation

Many expatriates experience difficulties in adjusting to the work environment

at home when they return due to greater job autonomy whilst working abroad.

Common factors for dissatisfaction of the repatriation process are for

example; lower levels of work responsibility at home, less prestige and status

in their new assignment at home, difficulties to readjust to the home

environment and no more financial benefits. These factors might cause the

expatriate to seek higher paid jobs in another company. If the expatriate

leaves the organisation upon repatriation, the organisation faces a loss of

knowledge and experience that the expatriate have gained during the

international assignment period (Medich, 1995). According to Chen and Tye

(2005) about one third to one half of the expatriates leaves the organisation

within two years of their return. The expatriates have during the international

assignment gained valuable international experiences and they have a high

rate of turnover upon their return which leads to a great loss for the company

if they leave. Therefore MNEs need to develop effective repatriation strategies

that help the returning expatriates handling their high level of ambiguity and
anxiety upon return (Chen & Tye, 2005; Malinowski et al., 2002).

The importance of repatriation processes and its impact on successful

expatriate management have been recognised, but still it is a source to

frustration for the HR departments and the expatriates. Malinowski et al.

(2002) claims that repatriation is the final link to the completion of the

international assignment, but many companies do not pay attention to this

phase and its importance. In order to increase the retention rate of expatriates

it should be a priority for organisations to examine the repatriation phase

(Malinowski wt al., 2002). Repatriates will upon return transfer knowledge and

constitute a valuable source for the organisation that is difficult to copy for

competitors. The repatriates have during the international assignment

generated useful knowledge that gives them self-esteem which leads to high

expectations upon return to home country. If the organisation fails to meet

these expectations the repatriate might leave the organisation (Fink et al.,

2005).

The MNEs must recognise that the repatriation period will result in a major

change for the expatriates, both personally and professionally. According to

Malinowski et al. (2002) if the international organisations pay attention to the

three factors; work environment, socio-cultural and family, than the

repatriation process will be successful and the rate of repatriate resignation

will decrease. Many times the HR department and the expatriates values

different factors in the repatriation process. Expatriates usually place greater

value on reintegration into home country culture whilst the HR department

place greater value and reintegration into the organisational culture

(Malinowski et al., 2002). When returning home the expatriate will experience
four faces in the repatriation process, these phases are preparation for the

return, physical re-location, transition which includes making arrangements for

housing and selecting school for the children and last re-adjustment to the

home country and the home country company (Dowling & Welch, 2004).

For a successful repatriation program Harzing and Ruysseveldt (2004)

suggest that before the assignment starts the organisation and the expatriate

should have an agreement that outlines the type of the expatriate’s position

upon return. This will reduce the expatriate’s ambiguity upon return. During

the assignment there should be continuous contact between the home

country company and the expatriate, also the expatriate should be offered

mentoring programs whilst on assignment. A successful repatriation program

will also offer the expatriate career management activities and pre-departure

briefings of the repatriation process, just before the actual return. After the

expatriate have returned the organisation should offer training seminars that

help the expatriate and his/her family to re-adjust to the lifestyle at home. The

organisation could also offer financial counselling, an orientation program

about the changes in the organisation, give the expatriate some adjustment

time at work and signs that shows that their international experiences are

valuable (Harzing & Ruysseveldt, 2004).

Expatriate Failure

Bruning and McCaughey (2005) define expatriate failure as “an expatriate’s

premature return from the international assignment or underperformance

whilst conducting the assignment”. Utilisation of poor expatriate selection

methods are one reason to expatriate failure (Chen & Tye, 2005). Another

reason to the high rate of expatriate failure could be inappropriate expatriate

training and development programs (Farner & Luthans, 2002). According to

Medich (1995) the most frequent reason for expatriate failure is the

expatriate’s and/or spouse’s inability to adjust to the foreign environment. The

expatriate’s inability to handle relations with people from other cultures and

poor personal adjustment to the new environment is other reasons that lead to

a premature return (Medich, 1995). The failure rate for expatriates working in

a developed country are between 25 and 40 percent, whilst the failure rate for

expatriates in still developing countries are around 70 percent. The costs

associated with expatriate failure are high and are dependent on the work

location. The estimated direct costs of premature return of expatriates are

between $250.00 and $1 million. The premature return of expatriates also

yields indirect costs like missed opportunities of market development and

revenues abroad (Farner & Luthans, 2002).

Expatriate failure increases the cost for the home country company in form of

additional recruitment cost, relocation expenses, premium compensation,

repatriation and replacement costs, and the cost of poor job performance.

Expatriates that choose to return home before the assignment is finished

might face consequences as lost self-esteem and self-confidence. The

expatriate’s consequences lead to more problems for the parent company,

like reduced productivity and reluctance among other employees to accept

international assignments (Medich, 1995). Harzing and Ruysseveldt (2004)

argue that when addressing expatriate failure more attention should be

focused on clear directions about the expatriate’s job tasks abroad and well

developed training programs for the expatriate and his/her family. The cultural

training and adjustment are very important and the expatriate and his/her
family should get help with these issues both from the home country company

before departure and from the subsidiary during the assignment period

(Harzing & Ruysseveldt, 2004).

To decrease the high rate of expatriate failures Bruning and McCaughey

(2005) suggest that organisations should consider three important areas

affecting the expatriate performance and the expatriate failure rate. These

three areas are; individual adjustment, environmental issues and position-

related issues. To handle these three areas and decrease the expatriate

failure rate the MNEs should implement three different support strategies.

First the organisation should develop tailored pre-assignment preparation

strategies for the expatriates to help the expatriates ease the adjustment, like

pre-departure training. Second, when on assignment the organisation should

provide the expatriates with support, in form of local mentors and contact

persons at home, which can be referred to as the assignment support

strategies. These strategies are used to prevent the expatriate to feel isolation

from the organisation at home and ease the adjustment at the current work

environment. Last is the use of repatriation support strategies to ensure that

the expatriate will not resign from the organisation whilst back home and ease

the repatriation process for the expatriates (Bruning & McCaughey, 2005).
Chapter 3

Methodology

Research Perspectives

The word hermeneutics is derived from the Greek God Hermes. It is a

scientific tradition concerned with interpretation, which exists in both

qualitative and quantitative studies. However it is mostly perceived to be

typical for qualitative approaches as interpretation is inherent in all human

effort to understand the world (Gummesson, 2003). Because interpretation is

inherent in all human effort as Gummesson (2003) claims, it was suitable for

this research to take a hermeneutical perspective. Research concerning

people is difficult to generalise because it does not exist two identical human

beings, as in this research none of the expatriates are similar. It is because of

this reason the expatriates have encountered different problems. A

hermeneutical perspective which tries to understand the subject of study and

the meaning of it (Andersson, 1979) are more suitable for this thesis which is

to understand the problems from the expatriate’s perspective.

The central question in hermeneutics is “what are the conditions under which

a human act took place or a product was produced that makes it possible to

interpret its meanings?” (Patton, 1990, pp.84). The purpose of this research is

in line with the hermeneutics in the way that I have investigated the problems

the expatriates have faced throughout their expatriation phase also how the

process of expatriation better. The expatriate problems faced can be seen as,

Patton (1990) describes, the conditions where the human act took place and

the product of it. For fulfilment of the purpose, subjective experiences of each

of the interviewed expatriates are important and since hermeneutics sees

subjective experiences as knowledge it is more suitable to interpret this

research from a hermeneutical perspective (Bryman, 1995). As subjective

experiences, like feelings and emotions were taken into account for the

purpose of the research a hermeneutical perspective was be more suitable for

this research.

Prerequisites for social life are language and words therefore interpretation

becomes a part of people’s daily life. Hermeneutics strives to understand the

meaning of the research and also the interpretation of non-lingual expressions

which can be transformed into words by the researcher. Except interpretation,

hermeneutics also embrace pre-understanding, which is what the researcher

knows about the subject of study before it starts. The other two processes

embraced in hermeneutics are understanding, which is improved knowledge

as a result of the research, and explanation which often are ambiguous, soft

and transient in business research (Gummesson, 2003).

The subject of research in this dissertation is people and the meaning is to

understand the problems the expatriates interviewed have encountered from

their point of view. As Gummesson (2003) claims, in a hermeneutical

research interpretation from the respondents aspect is essential and pre-

understanding, understanding and explanation need to be embraced as well. I

wanted with this research try to understand the meaning and impact the

problems have on the expatriates and also give advice to improve the

expatriation process. To be able to do that I need to have a pre-understanding

of the research topic in advance and during the research improve and deepen

the understanding and the meaning of the problems expatriates have faced

abroad. The problems might be ambiguous and transient to its nature and

therefore an explanation from a hermeneutical viewpoint is more appropriate

for this research.

Research Approach

“Qualitative research thus refers to the meanings, concepts, definitions,

characteristics, metaphors, symbols, and descriptions of things. In contrast,

quantitative research refers to counts and measures of things”. (Berg, 2001,

pp.3)

The research subjects of this dissertation are people, as mentioned before,

and as the amount of data collected were limited and from a small population

a qualitative approach seemed suitable for my purpose. My purpose requires

that the theories used later on for the analysis are determined by the nature of

problems the expatriates have faced throughout the period of expatriation.

Qualitative research methods focus on interpretation and are subjective to the

nature (Cassel & Symon, 1994) it gives the researcher more detailed

information gathered from a smaller reference group (Patton, 1990).

According to Berg (2001) “qualitative research properly seeks answers to

questions by examining various social settings and the individual who inhabit

these settings”. The aim of this research is to contribute to an understanding

of the problems expatriates working in different social settings have faced due

to cultural and social differences. In qualitative research techniques the

researchers try to understand the perception of respondents and explore how

respondents structure their daily life’s to make it meaningful (Berg, 2001),

which is what I aimed to do with the research.

The meaning of qualitative research is to examine and learn to understand the

respondents (Berg, 2001). There are three central aspects in qualitative

research, the first aspect is the researcher’s possibility to see and interpret the

reality from the respondent’s perspective. The second aspect is about

studying the relationship between theory and research within the qualitative

tradition. The last aspect is to decide on how much qualitative research

results can be generalised (Bryman, 1995). Due to different personalities and

different social settings the problems the expatriates have faced are different

and the interpretation of the importance of the problems and difficulties are

different as well because they are different human beings. I wanted to learn
about the expatriates experiences and gain insight in the problems from their

point of view. A qualitative research is appropriate because it is inductive to its

nature, which means that the researcher gains insight and understanding from

the patterns in the data collected. It is important in qualitative research to

understand the people from their own point of view (Bogdan & Taylor, 1984).

Many conceptions in social science are abstract and the qualitative approach

is seen as more suitable than the quantitative approach (Bryman, 1995). As

this research consists of people, the qualitative research approach is more

suitable for the purpose of this dissertation. Due to the nature and differences

in the problems expatriates face abroad, a qualitative research method were

taken to be able to gather detailed information about the problems from a

small reference group. It is important for the purpose of the research that I

understand the perception of the respondents and am able to look at the

problems from the respondent’s point of view.

Case Study

The process of putting together a piece of good research is not something you

can accomplish by only following a set of acts about what is right or wrong. In

practice, “the social researcher is faced with a variety of options and

alternatives and has to make strategic decisions about which to choose”

(Denscombe, 1998, pp. 3). Each choice brings with it a set of advantages and

disadvantages and some research methods are better suited to deal with

specific kinds of problems than others (Denscombe, 1998). The natures of the

problems the expatriates have faced when working abroad are different and

dependent on the foreign country culture and the expatriate’s personality. The

aim is to collect information about the problems the expatriates have faced
throughout their period of expatriation. From that information I wanted to

analyse and get a deep understanding of each specific problem encountered

and according to Brannick and Roche (1997) a case study is a preferable

research method to use. The purpose of using case studies is to gather and

analyse data in a deeper theoretical context (Brannick & Roche, 1997) which

is what my purpose aim to do.

Case studies have the defining characteristic as “focus on just one instance of

the thing that is to be investigated” (Denscombe, 1998 pp. 30). The idea of a

case study is to use the spotlight to focus on individual instances rather than a

wide spectrum. (Denscombe, 1998). The focus could be on one individual, or

a small number of individuals such as in life history studies (Blaxter et. al.,

1996) which is what I intended to do. Doing research on just one case instead

of using a strategy that tries to cover a large number of cases, such as a

survey, provided us with more insights. What a case study can do that a

survey normally can not is to study things in detail. Case studies focus on

relationships and the processes that lead to the outcomes. The valuable

things about case studies are that it offers the opportunity to the researcher to

find out why certain outcomes might happen and not simply just to find out

what the outcomes are (Denscombe, 1998). One of the strengths of the case

study is that it is based on two or more methods of data collection (Hakim,

2000). Observations of events within the case study could be combined with

formal documents and interviews with people involved. Whatever technique

appropriate could be used to investigate the relationships and processes that

are of interest (Denscombe, 1998).

A case study is the most suitable research approach for this research since I
aimed to gain a deeper understanding in the problems analysed and focus on

a small number of individuals. Case studies allows using various research

methods to conduct the research which in this case, interviews mainly used

and supported with organisation documents to gain access to empirical data.

Since I aimed to describe and analyse the problems that occurred throughout

the period of expatriation, a lot of the problems that occurred might deal with

social and cultural issues. A case study is more favourable to deal with

relationships and social processes in a way that other research approaches

might not, therefore I believe that it is the most suitable research approach for

this research.

Data Collection

According to Patton (1990) qualitative research consist of three different kinds

of data collection methods. The first one is in-depth open-ended interviews,

detailed information are collected from a small group of respondents. In-depth

interviews take into consideration the respondent’s opinions, feelings,

experiences and knowledge. Due to the nature of my purpose which is “to

contribute with an understanding of problems expatriates face throughout their

period of expatriation and how to make the process of expatriation better”, I

need to collect detailed information about the problems each individual

expatriate have faced, therefore in-depth open-ended interviews seemed

suitable for our research. Also because the problems faced are individual and

dependent on the expatriates personality I need to take into consideration

their opinions, feelings, experiences and knowledge as Patton (1990) claims

that in-depth interviews does. The two other ways of data collection are direct

observation and written documents (Patton, 1990).

The major part of information need for the fulfilment of my purpose will be

collected through, interviews with expatriates from Bechtel Corporation in UK,

Halcrow Group limited UK and the Atkins. Furthermore to get an

understanding about the process of expatriation and the consequences the

home country company faces due to the expatriate’s problems faced

throughout the period of expatriation, interviews with people from the

personnel department at three organisations will be conducted as well. In this

research both primary and secondary data will be used. Primary data is

devised and controlled by the researcher. An individual unstructured interview

that I will be used for my research purpose, is an example of a primary data

source. Secondary data are information that is already collected for another

purpose, for example documentations and archival records. It is less

expensive than primary data but when using secondary data it must be

carefully evaluated in relevance to the research purpose. When using

secondary data the validity and reliability of the information must be

considered (Brannick & Roche, 1997).

Data Analysis

Analysis of data which will be obtained from in depth interviews in a qualitative

research may not be as straightforward as in a quantitative research. It is the

most difficult aspect of any qualitative research project but it is also the most

creative part. The analysis of a qualitative research can not only obtain texture

but also meanings and understandings of the problems. When analysing data,

one should begin with looking for similarities and dissimilarities, a pattern in

the data (Berg, 2001). The process of data analysis aims to conduct order,
structure and significance of the gathered data. When analysing qualitative

data, it is sometimes of relevance to reduce the amount of data and not to

accumulate too much data or irrelevant data. (Ryen, 2004). This will also take

into consideration as this research focus on the whole period of expatriation,

from selection to repatriation. Any information that is not relevant within the

different phases will be ignored. Ryen (2004) argues that the data received

has to be divided into descriptive categories which refer to relevant topics

such as people, places, activities and so forth. This is to increase the different

perceptions that the data can generate. The empirical data are divided into

different persons and phases as mentioned above, namely from selection to

repatriation which gives a clear understanding of the expatriate’s experiences

throughout each of the phases. This is in light with Erlandson’s (1993) three

phases of data analysis. The first phase is to bring together all the data

obtained, the second phase is to divide the data into different subject

categories and the final phase is to analyse negative examples. In other

words, the data should be collected, categorised and then analysed.

Interviews

I wanted to investigate the problems the expatriates have faced throughout

their period of expatriation, from their perspective and to do that I need to take

into consideration their opinions and feelings. Due to different personalities of

the expatriates, the problems encountered will be different for each person

and one often used method to gather information are respondents’ emotions

and knowledge are taken into consideration is the unstructured interview.

According to Bryman (1990) the unstructured interview is a commonly used

technique within qualitative research. The researcher uses open-ended

questions and let the respondents talk freely with their own words. In an

unstructured interview the respondent’s feeling, experiences and emotions

are taken into account (Bryman, 1990). The interviews conducted are like

guided conversations between the researcher and the respondents (Yin,

2003).

According to Breakwell (1995) interviewing is a flexible tool used in research.

The stream of questions in a case study interview has a fluid nature and is

more likely to be open-ended. The advantage of open-ended questions is that

the researcher can gather both actual facts (Yin, 2003), like what kind of

problems the expatriates faced and their opinions about these problems.

Shortcomings of open-ended interviews are for example, the difficulty of

achieving reliable and valid result from the conducted interviews because

feelings and emotions are taken into consideration (Brewerton & Millard,

2001). I wanted with the interviews to gain knowledge about the actual

problems the expatriates faced and also their opinions why these problems

occurred. Due to limited time I will conduct individual focused interviews with

each of the respondents. According to Yin (2003) in a focused interview the

respondents are asked similar questions that are predetermined during a

short period of time, normally one hour. The researcher will during this time

ask a set of open-ended questions to keep the conversation fluid.

The specific questions asked are carefully constructed and leading questions

that might influence the expatriates answers are avoided (Yin, 2003). This is

because I wanted the respondents to answer with their own words from their

point of view. The interviews with each of the expatriates and the employees
from the personnel departments will be recorded. It is easier for me to analyse

the data gathered correctly later on if I am able to listen to the conversations

from the interviews later on. In this way fewer interpretation mistakes would

occur. Audiotapes provide the researcher with a more accurate rendition but

the respondents must approve it before the actual interview starts so no

misunderstandings occur (Ryen, 2004; Yin, 2003).

Question Formulation and Interview Structure

According to Berg (2001) there exist four types of questions that should be

included in the interview. The essential questions concern the topic of the

study (Berg, 2001) which in my case is the expatriate’s problems and the

expatriation process. One of the topics during the interview will be cultural

differences. I tried to analyse the problems with respect to the social and the

cultural settings of the expatriate’s assignment country and how well they

have adjusted themselves to the new environment. Extra questions are

roughly equivalent to the essential questions but will be asked in different

words. These types of questions are used to measure the reliability of the

answers (Berg, 2001). For this research to be more reliable I included a

couple of extra questions, concerning expatriation that resembles the

essential ones to see if the answers from the respondents differed.

The other two types of questions are throw-away questions and probing

questions. Throwaway questions are usually used in the beginning of the

interview but they also appear frequently during the interview. These kinds of

questions are used to develop a dialog between the researcher and the

respondent. Probing questions are used to collect more detailed information

from the respondents (Berg, 2001). In the interview I will use a couple of
probing questions to get a deeper understanding about the problems these

expatriates have faced. In this way I could get the expatriates own opinions

and feelings about the problems and why they think the problems occurred.

Due to limited time a set of similar questions for the expatriates are formulated

in advance and as well for the respondents from the personnel departments. It

is important to avoid bias in the questions asked. There exists a bias when the

question is formulated in a way that not all answers are equally accepted, for

example a leading question (Keats, 2000). The purpose is to investigate

expatriate problems and improve the process of expatriation. Hence there

might be a bias towards cultural differences, but I tried to avoid making

assumptions beforehand and in that way minimise the bias effect.

There exist a couple of problems when designing the interview questions,

double-barrelled questions is one of the most common question formulating

problems. In this kind of questions there exist two different issues and it can

be confusing to ask the respondent to answer both questions at same time

(Berg, 2001). To avoid confusion I designed questions concerning expatriate

problems in that way that it is simple to understand for the respondents and

one question will only cover one important issue. I tried to avoid long complex

questions and kept the questions short and easy to understand for the

respondents in order to gather as much relevant data as possible.

The interview structure should aid the researcher in achieving the purpose for

the research. According to Keats (2000) an interview includes three phases,

in the opening phase I will inform the respondents of the purpose with this

interview. This will be done so no misunderstandings would arise later during

the interview. Also during the opening phase I will tell each respondent how I
am going to conduct the interview and asked for permission to use a tape

recorder. In the beginning I will ask a couple of questions concerning basic

background information, like: in which country he/she worked as expatriate;

during which time period and other relevant background information. After the

opening phase I will continue to the more detailed questions that involved

their own experiences, feelings and knowledge. This part is called the main

body of questions (Keats, 2000). The main questions will be those concerning

the specific problems that the expatriates have faced and the reason why they

experienced it as a problem. Also questions about how they can make the

expatriate process differently if they would work abroad one more time will be

a part of our main questions. In the closing phase, the interviews will be

ended by thanking the respondents for their participation and asked them

about further contact through e-mail or telephone, if it is needed.

Conducting the Research

To gain appropriate material for this research I will conduct interviews at three

companies, Bechtel Corporation, Halcrow Group Limited and Atkins. Three

expatriates from Bechtel Corporation, three expatriates from Halcrow Group

Limited and one expatriate from Atkins will be interviewed for the fulfilment of

the purpose in this research. Furthermore employees at the human resource

departments in all three organisations will be interviewed. This will be done in

order to gain a better understanding of the expatriate process from the home

country company perspective in these three organisations. The empirical

findings will be conducted based on the exact formulation and meaning by the

interviewee.

Validity and Reliability

There are certain techniques for enhancing the quality and validity of

qualitative data; like searching for rival explanations, explaining negative

cases, triangulation, and keeping data in context (Patton, 1980). Rival

explanations concern with looking for other ways of arranging the data in

order to come up with another findings and looking for other possibilities that

can be supported by the data. This will be done in order to present what

alternative method or explanations are considered in the data analysis which

aims to increase the credibility of the final findings (Patton, 1980). The data

received for empirical findings both from expatriates who have been working

abroad and also from the managers who are handling the expatriation

process and whom have better insight about expatriation. By interviewing both

parties, different perspectives will arise and the findings will be supported by

different explanations which according to the rival explanation increases the

credibility of the final findings.

Searching for negative cases means finding the case which breaks off the

pattern that has been identified. For example, instead of asking employees for

satisfying employments, it could be of high relevance to ask them about

unsatisfactory employment. Sometimes, humility can enhance credibility more

than certainty (Patton, 1980). The aim is to investigate what specific problems

that the expatriate faced throughout the period of expatriation from his/her

point of view in a deeper context. To be able to fulfil the aim, both questions

about problems and what the expatriate experienced as satisfying and

rewarding will be asked. This will be done to absorb a broader viewpoint

about the expatriate’s experience during the whole process in order to come

up with relevant improvements.

Triangulation has to do with the combination of methodologies in a research,

for instance using several kinds of methods or data sources. Four types of

triangulation have been identified by Denzin (1978 in Patton 1990), which are;

data, investigator, theory and methodological triangulation. Keeping data and

methods in context meaning that the “evaluator analyst must be careful to limit

conclusions to those situations, time periods, persons, contexts, and purposes

for which the data are applicable” (Patton, 1980, pp. 471). Methods and

results should be reported in their proper context (Patton, 1980). As for the

fulfilment of triangulation, I will collect the data from two data sources, namely

from the expatriate and from the human resource managers handling the

process of expatriation. A small amount of the data already collected from

organisation brochures. Methods to gather the empirical findings will be

conducted through face-to-face interviews and telephone interview. I believe

that the choice of method and data are in context seeing that the method I am

using is appropriate to fulfil the purpose of this research. A case study with a

qualitative research approach is preferable considering that I intend to gain a

deeper insight into the problems.

A voice recorder will be used during the interview to avoid missing out on the

important information and to obtain as accurate information as possible.

According to Denscombe (1998), validity is achieved in interviews as there

are direct contacts where data can be checked for accuracy and relevance as

they are collected. I will try to interpret the interviews as accurate as possible

by proposing sub questions to verify that it is what I think before I will come to

a conclusion. Furthermore, the empirical results from the interviews will be

written down word by word, this will be done in order to prevent making any
misinterpretation of wordings and not to miss out on relevant results.