Many companies worldwide deal with excellent purchasing power, which forces them to build sustainability and resilience in the market through expansion. However, when moving to a new area, businesses face unknown markets and partnerships in a new geographic area, forcing companies to need help finding a suitable and efficient way to optimize their work. Therefore, it is critical to have trusted employees with high commitment to the company to avoid problems in an expanded area. When my employees move to Europe, they face cultural barriers, lack of communication and support, and loneliness, which should be resolved by constant company support through mental training and monetary incentives.
The modern world is characterized by high international mobility when employees are sent to different countries to strengthen the company’s reputation abroad. Since expatriates are usually characterized by individuals occupying senior positions in the international subsidiaries of their organization, companies assign them through a strict selection process. When expatriates first come to the host country, they undergo the person-environment fit, where the match between “individual’s values, behavior and knowledge and environmental dimensions on and off the job” are accessed (McNulty et al., 2019, p. 158). Regarding the language barrier, transferring workers from the US to Europe somewhat affects their communication ability since English is the official language for all countries in the European Union. However, expatriates should expect that there are entities characterized by other official languages, as some people speak only native ones. Although culture is the primary barrier affecting an employee’s adaptation, language affects his fit only slightly.
However, the consequences of adapting to a new environment can be even more detrimental. In some cases, it results in culture shock, which triggers impaired physical and mental well-being. When people are far away from their homeland and struggle to fit into a host country, they deal with many frustrating feelings: anger, a sense of identity loss, loneliness, feelings of unsettlement, and isolation. Unsurprisingly, it affects their company as workers feel more stressed, neglected, and committed to the organization.
Moving to another country without disrupting family balance is impossible for every engaged employee. Shah et al. (2022) overwhelmingly focus on the positive correlation between temporary migration and family conflicts, as more than half of expatriates agree to move to a new area with their children only for a short time. The effects include the spouse’s dissatisfaction, perceived impact on the partner’s career, and disturbed education for children. Considering that my employees will complete this assignment in nine months, they will be more interested in receiving support from the company to relieve the consequences of family adjustment.
More interestingly, when employees move to another country, they can face more challenges on an organizational level due to different governmental influences and company structures. For example, in Western Europe, employees are more privileged to make formal decisions since about 90% of them are under coverage, meaning that collective bargaining contracts dictate their employment terms and conditions (Noe et al., 2022). Meanwhile, in the US, unions have less power over employees, making it more challenging for workers who settle in European regions to adapt. Undoubtedly, the company negotiates all changes in employment contracts with the expatriates to avoid unexpected regrets.
Considering all the issues expatriates face in the host countries, it is critical to select employees based on their stress resistance and ability to adjust to a new environment rather than just career length and professional level. The first step my company should take to help resolve future problems with expatriates is to create a strict selection process for interpersonal skills. Fehér et al. (2022) highlight the importance of “cultural sensitivity among their employees based on understanding and empathy,” which means that employees with such skills are more successful in adaptation (p. 21). Moreover, each candidate should be assessed for cross-cultural competence, motivational questions, previous international experience, and emotional intelligence to avoid assigning mentally unstable expatriates. This measure would eliminate the risks of putting more stress on an unprepared professional.
When expatriates come to their host countries, their families should receive financial and emotional support from the companies during their assignment, which is the next step of an action plan. Although some companies neglect paying school fees in a new country, this action would indicate that the organization cares about the family’s well-being, increasing job satisfaction and positive orientation (McNulty et al., 2019). Shah et al. (2022) acknowledge schooling as a significant part of children’s curricular and extracurricular activities, affecting children’s and spouses’ adjustment to a host country. Eventually, the expatriate’s spouse influences his life, work balance, and adaptation. Thus, if the company guarantees the expatriate’s partner a chance for occupation in the host country, it helps to stabilize family income. This way, companies relieve the financial burden of their expatriates for effective adjustment.
As cultural borders and misunderstandings constitute the most significant threat to employees’ mental health, it is vital to provide training for expatriates and their families. My company must explain national, governmental, legal, educational, and labor culture in a host country to ensure that expatriates recognize the risks and adjust to such an environment. The vital component of this training is cultural relativity, which teaches expatriates not to judge any beliefs according to their own culture, meaning that diverse European practices should be recognized as foreign and inviolable (Fehér, 2022). It is even better to incorporate psychologists to alleviate the consequences of cultural shock for expatriates.
Finally, when employees move back to their homeland, they should evaluate their expatriation experience highly. Western European subsidiary companies can offer paid vacancies as they complete the assignment (Noe et al., 2022). Moreover, a company should provide welcoming packs and communicate with the managers about their experience to decrease turnover chances. If employees realize their heroism in leaving their comfort zones to develop the company’s international reputation is praised financially and emotionally, they do not leave the workplace. Additionally, the company should organize meetings for returning employees “for panel discussions and invite them to blog about their experience during and after the assignment” (Noe et al., 2022, p. 518). These measures help prevent the loss of repatriates by giving them support and time to recover.
To conclude, companies, be they multinational, international, or global, should support expatriates when they settle in a new environment since they face cultural obstacles, language barriers, family misunderstandings, and a lack of social support. When five employees from my company move to Europe, they undergo a strict selection process to ensure that expatriates deal with all stress triggers successfully. Regarding the company’s support, it eases family expenses in a new area, provides training for cultural shock release, and monetary incentives to motivate expatriates. After repatriates’ arrival, they receive enough time to recover from their experience and engage with their colleagues to increase their interest in the company’s development.
References
Fehér, J., Kollár, P., Szobi, Á., Urbán, A., Jarjabka, Á., & Poór, J. (2022). Relationship between cultural origin of multinational companies and employing expatriates in foreign subsidiaries in Central and Eastern Europe. Zagreb International Review of Economics & Business, 25(2), 19–38. Web.
McNulty, Y., Lauring, J., Jonasson, C., & Selmer, J. (2019). Highway to hell? Managing expatriates in crisis. Journal of Global Mobility: The Home of Expatriate Management Research, 7(9), 157–180. Web.
Noe, R., Hollenbeck, J., Gerhart, B., & Wright, P. (2022). Chapter 15: Collective bargaining and labor relations, Chapter 16: Managing human resources globally. In Fundamentals of Human Resource Management (pp. 468–533). McGraw–Hill. Web.
Shah, D., de Oliveira, R. T., Barker, M., Moeller, M., & Nguyen, T. (2022). Expatriate family adjustment: How organisational support on international assignments matters. Journal of International Management, 28(2), 1–16. Web.