Describe what an expatriate is and factors that impact expatriate success

What will be an ideal response?

Answer: Expatriates (expats) are noncitizens of the countries in which they are working.

Employers often can't find local candidates with the required qualifications. Multinationals also view a successful stint abroad as a required step in developing top managers. Furthermore, the assumption is that home-country managers are already steeped in the firm's policies and culture, and thus more likely to apply headquarters' ways of doing things.

Posting expatriates abroad is expensive, security problems give potential expatriates' pause, returning expatriates often leave for other employers within a year or two, and educational facilities are turning out top-quality candidates abroad. Systematizing the entire expatriate management process is one way to avoid such early returns. For example, employers should have an expatriate policy covering matters such as compensation and travel costs. Include procedures, for instance, requiring that the manager responsible for the expat's costs obtain all chain of command approvals. Another step in avoiding early returns is to test and select people who have the necessary traits and adaptability (as discussed earlier). And perhaps most importantly consider the expat's family situation. In one study, U.S. managers listed, in descending order of importance, reasons for expatriates leaving early: inability of spouse to adjust, managers' inability to adjust, other family problems, managers' personal or emotional immaturity, and inability to cope with larger overseas responsibility. Such findings underscore a truism about selecting international assignees: The problem is usually not incompetence, but family and personal problems.