Motivations for Expatriation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Motivations for Expatriation - Essay Example Thus, international strategy is the direction that companies seek to pursue, and these strategies must be geared primarily towards the achievement of the business goals. Sending home-country managers abroad or internationalization of people is one of these strategies adopted by organizations working at the international level. This strategy known as expatriation is not a new phenomenon but has only recently taken the corporate world by storm making expatriate managers the norm. Expatriate managers play an important role in managing the parent firm's foreign subsidiaries. Expatriate managers are crucial to the process of globalization as they are the parent company's or headquarters' reliable representative posted overseas to effectively implement corporate strategies. As they gain in experience, country-specific knowledge, inter-cultural skills and global perspective, they become valuable assets for the parent company becoming seasoned players on the global stage. The converse of this where by international managers from their overseas assignments are transferred to the home- market is known as inpatriation. Selmer (1995) maintains that expatriation and inpatriation are the leading strategies where personnel are appointed at international postings. Line managers and technical personnel are the most common positions as subjects of expatriation and inpatriation (p. 3). While both expatriates and inpatriates are seemingly at opposite ends of the spectrum, they have some important common requirements: inter-culture skills, country-specific or local knowledge and so on. Of the two internationalizing strategies, expatriation is the older one and the prime focus of this research. Shell is one of the companies that foster a high level of expatriation (Cameron, 2002). Shell is proud of its long history of expatriate employment as well as the considerable number of its expatriate staff. Shell understandably, sees expatriate employment as fundamental to the nature of the company. Shell believes strongly that expatriate staff, at every one of its centers, contributes greatly to the growth and success of the company especially in combination with the skills and expertise of the local staff. In 2004, the company launched the New Generation Expatriation program to facilitate and accommodate the changing needs of the business, needs of staff and their families including partners' careers. The program acknowledges the high value Shell places on its expatriate staff and their families and tries to meet diverse requirements as far as possible. Having an impressive number on the expatriate rolls, Shell is in a position to move critical skills to places where they are required and develop careers which will supply Shell with globally competent leaders (Hofmeister, 2004). 2.0 Rationale It is imperative for organizations to identify and train their expatriate staff and leaders in preparation for global deployment. Especially since the ability of expatriate managers to succeed on foreign shores has a direct impact on the company's performance in the global market. While the expatriation strategy has significant advantages and the expatriate manager is a 'seasoned player' there