Talent Management and Expatriation System †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Talent Management and Expatriation System. Answer: Introduction: Culture shock is experienced by expatriates when they move to a different country for overseas assignments. The inability of the expatriates and their families to successfully adopt the culture leads to the failure of assignments (Dowling, Festing Engle, 2008). Therefore, the companies should consider the policies and practices in order to manage the culture shock by way of training the expatriates for the overseas assignments. The focus of this essay is on the term culture shock, international HRM policies and practices that can be utilized for the effective management of culture shock along with the example of Unilever. Culture shock can be defined as an experience that a person may have when one moves to a different cultural environment than ones own. In other words, culture shock can also be regarded as a personal disorientation felt by a person at the time of experiencing unfamiliarity with the language, local customs and acceptable behavior as a result of variation in norms across cultures. This unfamiliarity may be due to visit to a new country or immigration, movement between social environments or a changeover to another type of life. A variety of culture shock are experienced by the expatriate employees which include issue relating to organizational factors, personality factors, differences between cultures, language, work factors, communication styles, food and environment. The unexpected difficulties and differences faced by the employees even when they move to culture similar to their own make them face culture shock. Various international organizations provide cultural training to their employees for the purpose of reducing cultural gaffes which has the capability of affecting the business. Culture shock experienced an expatriate leads to depression, homesickness, frustration, irritability during the period of adjustment (Naeem, Nadeem Khan, 2015). Culture shock is often considered as the primary reason behind the reduced on- the- job performance and failure of the expatriates (Pokharel, 2016). For the purpose of managing the culture shock, a variety of international HRM policies and practices can be used. The selection of expatriates should be made after standardized tests which measure emotional maturity and adaptability along with the assessment of their past performance. The selection factors should also include good cross cultural communication, willingness to communicate, flexibility, language skills and open- mindedness regarding other cultures and the capability to cope with the stress of dealing with new situations. This will allow screening the individuals who have the initial capability of handling the culture shock. The management of the cultural shock is possible by way of motivating the candidate by way of offering higher incentives and position to the candidate that will allow the candidate to attain success (Presbitero Quita, 2017). The international HR managers should arrange cross- cultural training for helping the expatriates in adjusting with the new c ulture. Such trainings can be in the form of didactic training with the help of which the expatriates are made familiar with the culture, working and living conditions of the new country by providing informal briefings. Expatriates are provided an opportunity in experimental training to meet the people belonging to the new country and getting an overview of their working environment. Training should also be given regarding the culture and language of the country by allowing interaction with the expatriates who have already experienced the local culture (Cerdin Brewster, 2014). When effective cross- cultural training is provided to expatriates, it would significantly assist in minimizing the failure rate of expatriates. Such trainings will manage the culture shock by having a positive effect on the cultural adjustment and the performance of the expatriate (Furusawa Brewster, 2016). The expatriates will get motivated with the help of these trainings. Moreover, the companies should o ffer various extrinsic and intrinsic rewards to the expatriates in order to motivate them to deal with the culture shock. The expatriates should also be made aware about the variations in the negotiation styles between different countries. Along with this, information should also be provided regarding the adjustments required to be made by the expatriate in the lifestyle of their family. Moreover, they should also provide the required information regarding the location and assignment in order to familiarize them with the location, their responsibilities and the policies of the firm regarding international assignment compensation, taxes, benefits, security procedures and repatriation. The focus of this orientation and training must be on the norms and cultural values of the new country along with their contrast with the norms and cultural values of their home country (Tarique, Briscoe Schuler, 2015). Also, intercultural programs for expatriates can be introduced in order to provide them knowledge regarding the cultural attitudes and their relative impact on the workplace. The expatriation strategies should be formulated by taking into consideration the understanding of motivation from the viewpoint of the expatriates. Various organizations have achieved success in managing the culture shock. One of such organization is Unilever. For the purpose of effectively managing culture shock, Unilever undertakes global training programs. These global training programs assist the employees in developing skills for understanding the global opportunities. With the help of such programs and global training, expatriates are made aware regarding the culture, economic, legal issues, language and labor market of the country. Unilever provides functional training, behavioral training, general skill development and negotiation skill development. Global training is also provided by Unilever by way of e-learning. Unilever spends plenty of money every year on the global training programs. Global training by Unilever facilitates the expatriates to gain cross functional and cross cultural experience and thereby assists in managing the culture shock (Moumita Zaman, 2013) Therefore, it can be concluded that culture shock is experienced by an individual at the time of being surrounded by a different cultural environment than ones own. In order to effectively manage the culture shock, various international HRM policies and practices can be used including cross- cultural training such as didactic and experimental training, motivation with intrinsic and extrinsic rewards and compensations and intercultural programs for expatriates. Unilever has succeeded in effectively managing culture shock with the help of global training programs that create awareness regarding the culture, language and other relevant issues among the expatriates. References Cerdin, J. L., Brewster, C. (2014). Talent management and expatriation: Bridging two streams of research and practice. Journal of World Business, 49(2), 245-252. Dowling, P. J., Festing, M. Engle, A. D. (2008). International Human Resource Management: Managing People in a Multinational Context. Cengage Learning EMEA. Furusawa, M., Brewster, C. (2016). IHRM and expatriation in Japanese MNCs: HRM practices and their impact on adjustment and job performance.Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources,54(4), 396-420. Moumita, N. Zaman, L. (2013). An Analysis of Global Training and Experience Sharing in Multinational Companies. American Journal of Business and Management. vol 2(1). pp. 75-83. Naeem, A., Nadeem, A. B., Khan, I. U. (2015). Culture Shock and Its effects on Expatriates.Global Advanced Research Journal of Management and Business Studies,4(6), 248-258. Pokharel, B. (2016). Triumph over failure of expatriate in an International Assignments from the International Human Resource Management Perspective.International Journal of Business and Management,11(5), 310. Presbitero, A., Quita, C. (2017). Expatriate career intentions: Links to career adaptability and cultural intelligence. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 98, 118-126. Tarique, I, Briscoe, D. R. Schuler, R. S. (2015). International Human Resource Management: Policies and Practices for Multinational Enterprises. Routledge.