At present, many companies seek to expand to emerging markets. Finding suitable managers to operate this growing company sector is a significant challenge for human resource managers. A number of international cooperations indicate that they lack managers to sustain their current commitment level to the existing foreign markets, and even fewer to expand the industries of the future on foreign territories. Therefore, the question arises about what measures should be taken to educate the global expatriate managers so that they can assist in maintaining the staffing needs of global organizations over the coming years.
Developing an HRM Perspective Relative to Global Expatriate Managers
The international stuff of an organization may be significantly and directly impacted by globalization. A global expatriate manager is understood as a person in an international leadership role who exemplifies the adaptability required for the organization to flourish in a market that is fast going global. Because the globalization of the marketplace has begun, global managers must create a new set of skills and abilities in order to advance learning across global network organizations and to produce and disseminate information (Harvey et al., 2011). Increasing the chances of success of expatriate managers by putting an emphasis on learning can in turn provide the groundwork for their future strategic adaptability.
The main problem for HRM is therefore not only how to build or obtain managerial skills necessary for succeeding in a global setting, but also how to convert them into human capital. Harvey et al. single out the two key components of human capital: a manager’s cross-cultural competencies and the abilities to create a competitive advantage. While the idea of a competitive advantage does not seem to find support across modern scientific community, Allen & Vardamanplace (2017) place a manager’s cross-cultural competencies in the center of HRM framework, considering them as an “the interplay of culture with core processes of recruitment and turnover” (p. 174). Thus, Harvey’s et al. idea about the dominant role of a cultural component in HR processes finds support at a more modern period of time.
Nevertheless, despite the fact that the features of a human capital mentioned by Harvey et al. are by all means essential in a global paradigm, their development, in a large part, relies on the skills a manager has or does not have. Therefore, it would be wise to show what skills are needed for the conversion, and what types of personalities are more likely to succeed in human capital development. While Harvey et al. do neither, Wang et al. (2022) state that expatriate learning demands cognitive flexibility and personal networks. One can say that, in a way, Wang’s et al. research builds on Harvey’s human capital concept, enlarging it to include the prerequisites expatriate managers should or should not have to succeed.
The Skills International Expatriates Require to Succeed in International Organizations
Most companies are revising management models and developing adaptive, matrix organizational structures. Among the skills most necessary for a successful expatriate manager, Harvey et al. (2011) single out self and social awareness, interpersonal influence and control, genuineness and sincerity, and social capital inside/outside the organisation. While these skills are by all means important, placing them at the core of a manager’s future success is, at least, debatable. Thus, Javidan, Teagarden, & Bowen (2010) state that global success depends on a growth mindset, which comprises intellectual, psychological and human capital (p. 110). Kunz (2023) asserts that a successful manager should be focused on creating a collaborative environment, have a developed emotional intelligence, possess indirect management skills, be able to convince.
While Kunz does not contradict Harvey’s at al. ideas, he complements them by a more recent developments in the field. Thus, Kunz (2023) states that the politically aware global expatriate will be capable of adapting more easily in a global team setting if they are keen observers of what is happening or not in a global team. The consciousness and self-efficacy of an international expatriate manager will increase with improved social awareness and group member behavior modification success (Kunz, 2023). The success of these people may then be translated into a more fluid transition in the international culture and the international team. The global expatriate may possess political competences that many of his or her peers in the global organization may be lacking by being able to understand foreign social conditions.
Creative ‘Solutions’ to Globalise’ the Concept of the Global Expatriate
According to Harvey et al., recognizing that managers would have a discontinuous period of adjustment is one of the first stages in producing global expatriates. This implies that expatriate managers’ prior expertise and knowledge—which are based on transnational experience—will not always transition effectively into a global framework. According to Harvey et al., major steps for successful integration include “expatriation with ‘flexible’ assignment durations”, “establishing a network of global training centres for global expatriate managers” and “development of a proactive ‘patriation’ process for global expatriate managers” (Harvey et al., 2011). The listed solutions were later broadened by the consideration the complexity of work done, with Fernández-Aráoz (2016) claiming that the more complex the task is, the better chances a manager has to grow on the global scale. Hill (2016), in his turn, focuses on the kind of assignments a manager needs to grow. He believes that project-oriented and successive assignments are the best in term of managers’ development.
While Harvey’s et al. ideas on the topic are by all means valid, the structure of preferred assignments has undergone considerable changes. Where expat workers of the past often were given long-term assignments that may have encompassed several projects in the same location, today’s workers are more likely to be assigned to single projects on a short-term basis (Kunz, 2023). Project-oriented assignments tend to last, at most, a few weeks or months.
References
Allen, D. G., & Vardaman, J. M. (2017). Recruitment and retention across cultures. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 4, 153-181.
Fernández-Aráoz, C. (2016). To Grow as a leader, seek more complex assignments. Harvard Business Review.
Harvey, M., Napier, N., & Moeller, M. (2011). Improving the probabilities of success of expatriate managers in the global organisation of the 21st century. International Journal of Human Resources Development and Management, 11(2-4), 141-166. Web.
Hill J. A, Protecting a global workforce in a changing world (2016). Benefits Magazine, 53 (5), pp. 26-31
Javidan, M, Teagarden, M & Bowen, D. (2010). Making it overseas. Harvard Business Review, 109-114.
Kunz, S. (2023). Towards a new breed of expatriate manager in international business. In Expatriate (pp. 89-119). Manchester University Press. Web.
Wang, D., Vu, T., Freeman, S., & Donohue, R. (2022). Becoming competent expatriate managers: Embracing paradoxes in international management. Human Resource Management Review, 32(3), 100851. Web.