What will help your employees adjust to an expat assignment? The cost of a failure rate is very high. Some reports depending on the country range from 6% to 10%.
Not surprisingly, the single most frequently reported reason for failure in an international assignment (when defined as a premature return) is an inability or unwillingness of the spouse to adapt. Most international firms, however, continue to neglect the spouse and family needs in all phases of the international experience from pre-departure selection and training; to in-country support programs and, finally to reentry and reintegration programs back into the home country.
- Family Stress-- it is generally the trailing spouse who suffers the greatest culture shock in the new country. The result can be a unhappy spouse who does her best to impair the performance of the expatriate manager.
- Cultural Inflexibility--It is common for inexperienced expatriate managers to be taken completely by surprise at the deep cultural differences in their posted country.
- Emotional Immaturity--The combination of greatly expanded responsibility and social status can be difficult to handle for people lacking the emotional maturity to keep themselves grounded.
- Responsibility Overload--large increases in responsibility are difficult for anyone to handle. It is common to work 7 day weeks with 12-hour shifts.
- Physical Breakdown--The combination of emotional despondency and physical exhaustion (otherwise known as burn-out) from elevated stress levels and overwork is a common problem for new expatriates.
One way to assure success of the assignment is to conduct an assessment of risk factors, family and marital status, job expectations and create cultural competency for the assignment. We can help. Give us a call at 713-621-2490.
