Submitted by Gilhofer Pascal/ 0958296

Submitted at International Management

Supervisor a.Univ.Prof.in Dr.in Erna Szabo MBA

Handed-in: 30/06/2020

Coming Home: The Repatriation Process of

Expatriates analyzed with the Critical

Incidents Technique

JOHANNES KEPLER UNIVERSITY LINZ Altenberger Str. 69 4040 Linz, Austria www.jku.at DVR 0093696

Diploma Thesis to obtain the academic degree of

Magister der Sozial- und Wirtschaftswissenschaften in the Diploma Program

Wirtschaftswissenschaften

STATUTORY DECLARATION

I hereby declare that the thesis submitted is my own unaided work, that I have not used other

than the sources indicated, and that all direct and indirect sources are acknowledged as

references.

This printed thesis is identical with the electronic version submitted.

Place, Date

Signature

LIST OF CONTENT

1 Introduction 6

2 Expatriation 8

2.1 Definition: What is it? 8

2.2 Reasons for More Frequent Assignments 8

2.3 Types of International Assignments 10

2.3.1 Classical Types of Assignments 10

2.3.2 New and Flexible Int. Assignments 11

2.4 Expats in Terrorism-Endangered Countries 17

2.5 The Expatriate´s Global Career Cycle 18

2.6 Reasons for Failure of Expatriation 20

2.6.1 Culture Shock 22

2.6.2 Coping Strategies 24

3 Repatriation 26

3.1 Definition: What is it? 26

3.2 Problems in Repatriation 27

3.3 Pre–Repatriation and Support 29

3.4 Successful Repatriation 34

3.5 Unsuccessful Repatriation: Reasons and Consequences 36

3.6 W- Curve 38

3.7 Reverse Culture Shock 39

3.8 Factors Associated with Repatriation 40

3.8.1 Social and Cultural Aspects 40

3.8.2 Spouse and Family Issues 41

3.8.3 Career-Related/ Job-Related Issues 42

3.9 Debriefing of Repats 43

3.10 Numbers on Repatriation (KMPG) 47

4 Research Questions 57

5 Methodology 58

5.1 Research Design 58

5.2 Qualitative Research 59

5.2.1 Critical Incident Technique (CIT) 60

5.2.2 Semi-structured Interviews 61

5.3 Sample Description Chart 65

5.4 Presenting the Candidates 65

5.5 Template Analysis Approach 68

5.6 Limitations 72

6 Analysis & Findings 72

6.1 Analysing the Transcripts 72

6.2 Identifying Critical Incidents 73

6.2.1 Socio-Cultural 74

6.2.1.1 Cultural Differences & Reverse Culture Shock 74

6.2.1.2 Re-Adjustment 75

6.2.1.3 Living Conditions 76

6.2.1.4 Friends 79

6.2.2 Identification/ Commitment 79

6.2.3 Communication 82

6.2.3.1 Intensity of Communication 82

6.2.3.2 Timing of Communication 84

6.2.4 Company/ Career 85

6.2.4.1 No available/ Same Position upon Return 85

6.2.4.2 The Career Ladder 87

6.2.4.3 Work Satisfaction 91

6.2.5 Pre-Repatriation 93

6.2.6 Repatriation Process 95

6.2.6.1 Existing Procedures 95

6.2.6.2 Use of Experience 97

7 Conclusion/ Further Research 99

Appendices 114

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1 “The Expatriate´s Global Career Cycle” …………..................................................................................19

Figure 2 “Possible outcomes from international Assignments [IA] “ .....................................................................20

Figure 3 “U-Curve” ..............................................................................................................................................24

Figure 4 “Goals of International Assignments” ....................................................................................................48

Figure 5 “Number of International Assignments” .................................................................................................48

Figure 6 “Types of Assignments” .........................................................................................................................49

Figure 7 “5-year Forecast” ...................................................................................................................................49

Figure 8 “Pre-Assignment Visits 1” ......................................................................................................................50

Figure 9 “Pre-Assignment Visits 2” ......................................................................................................................50

Figure 10 “Trainings provided 2018” .....................................................................................................................51

Figure 11 “Trainings provided 2019” .....................................................................................................................51

Figure 12 “Prerepatriation” ....................................................................................................................................53

Figure 13 “Services provided for Repatriation” ......................................................................................................54

Figure 14 “Top three Reasons to leave” ................................................................................................................55

Figure 15 “Repatriation Success” ..........................................................................................................................55

Figure 16 “Global Mobility Metrics” ........................................................................................................................56

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 “Most cited Problems with International Assignments” ..........................................................................13

Table 2 “New Forms of Assignments” ................................................................................................................16

Table 3 “Sample Description Chart” ...................................................................................................................65

Table 4 “Phases of Thematic Analysis” ..............................................................................................................71

Table 5 “Final Template with Themes and Sub Themes” ...................................................................................74

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ABSTRACT

1 Introduction

According to Fischlmayr/ Kopecek (2015, 200) repatriation has to be considered as the most

important phase of the expat cycle, as the outcome of the phase decides whether the

repatriates stays within the organization or not.

The business environment during the 21st century has been rapidly changing. The changes

have been highly innovative as well as becoming more global hence the increase of diverse

demand in several aspects. All of these facts combined have led to an increase in global

assignments. Some of the reasons for these international assignments are the transfer of

knowledge and state of the art technologies, the transmission of corporate cultures, the

penetration of new markets and target groups, as well as the development of global skills and

mind-sets within the organizations workforce. Considering the extensive costs of failure of an

international assignment, companies have to take all necessary actions to promote expatriate

success and avoid failure. One critical source for failure of expatriation is the repatriation

process of former expatriates. Repatriation is the very last step taken by expats; coming back

home from an international assignment. Several authors have tried to research potential

reasons for the failure of the repatriation process, which will be reviewed later on in this written

piece of work.

Having mentioned the fact, that repatriation is still an issue of utmost importance within the

International Human Resource Management (IHRM) and according to Bonache et al. (2001,

13) „repatriation, remains one of the more underresearched dimensions of expatriation”, it was

clear to me to write my Diploma-Thesis to this topic. As I have already written my Bachelor-

Thesis about the role of training in expatriation; this Diploma-Thesis is exploring the field of

IHRM in more depth. Especially the socio-cultural aspects of repatriation, which can lead to

great trouble of the process, are of my interest. In this connection, it should be mentioned that

the whole process of repatriation will be considered by using CIT (Critical Incident Technique),

which allows to show potential sources of failure. Some of these sources for failure have

already been covered by the existing literature (e.g. Tung, 1981; Tung, 1998; Selmer, 1999;

Adler, 2002; Gaw, 2000; Porter/ Tansky, 1999; Harvey/ Kiessling, 2004; Riusala/ Suutari,

2000) others not. This study should help to find out more about the issues faced by repatriates

within their repatriation processes, in order to manage the process better and to avoid harmful

encounters in future processes.

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„A company must purse global knowledge and maintain a global perspective in order to remain

competitive in today´s dynamic business environment. The opportunities available to

companies in a global market are tremendous” (Paik et al., 2002, 635). Several statements

about globalization exist in the literature and as highlighted by Brewster/ Suutari (2003, 1132):

“The concept of increasing internalization of business is not uncontroversial.”

According to Harvey/ Moeller (2009, 275) there will be an increasing number of expatriate

managers in leading positions, within the near future. These managers’ performances will have

an impact on the success of numerous multinational companies (MNC) worldwide.

Vidal et al. (2007a, 1396) point out the existence of a globalized economy as well as the

internationalized business, which has led to an international Human Resource Management

(IHRM), over the last decades. Putting together these factors, there is a great demand for

doing research in the field of international assignments. Paik et al. (2002, 635) mentioned that

despite of considering the outcome of expatriate management, repatriation is still a potential

threat for expatriates as well as HRM. Accordingly, Paik et al. (2002, 636) highlight the

importance of managing the repatriation process of expatriates successfully, in order to make

the best out of the skills and knowledge gained by the repatriates in their overseas

assignments. Still many HR managers are concerned about the high attrition rates of

repatriates, the sunk costs of failed repatriation and the improvement of the final stage of the

expatriation process. According to studies of Black/ Gregersen (1998, 112) 25% of repats

leave the company within one year of returning back to the home country, which is the double

rate of manager’s attrition rate of non-expatriate employees. Fischlmayr/ Kopecek (2015, 204)

even mention that around 50% of repats leave the organization within one year after returning.

Vance/ Paik (2011, 250) mention that an expatriate assignment can be considered as a very

expensive investment, as annual costs range between $300.000 to $1 Million. „Many people

are skeptical of the notion of reentry shock; that sojourners returning home are likely to

experience adjustment difficulties similar to, or more severe than the original culture shock.

This skepticism is understandable in that repatriates expect to be returning to a familiar

environment; one that will reunite him or her with loved ones. In actuality, individuals are

confronted with changes having occurred in themselves, at home and in the world” (Mathews,

1994, 91).

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LITERATURE REVIEW

2 Expatriation

2.1 Definition: What is it?

“Expatriation is sending parent company nationals to another country, or the host country to

perform management duties. This staffing alternative has been one of the most frequently used

means for staffing oversea assignments for Western multinational corporations” (Harvey/

Kiessling, 2004, 552). Inkson et al. (1997, 351) point out that a main characteristic of an

expatriate assignment is that when the initial impulse comes from the company itself, asking

the manager to fill a position in a subsidiary outside the home country. “The job requires both

knowledge of the company´s strategy, procedures, etc., and the ability to work and live in

successfully in a foreign environment. A suitable individual is assigned on a temporary basis,

and subsequently returns to another position in the same company in the original country”

(Inkson et al., 1997, 351). In contrast to the above described expatriate assignments there are

overseas experiences, which are self-intended by the individual – the so-called self-initiated

expatriates. Another possible terminus for expatriate is the term “sojourner” which will be used

occasionally in this piece of written work (Brislin et al., 2008, 397).

Alongside the reasons for sending an expatriate abroad, there have been changes in the

expatriate themselves, as well in what organizations expect from them. “The traditional,

middle-class, crusty, career expat can still be found, but much more rarely. Expatriates now

will more often do one assignment and then return home, occasionally undertaking a second

assignment later in their career. More of them have degrees or MBAs. One consequence is

that they are more likely to see a foreign assignment as a part of their career, expecting to

come back to headquarters in an improved position and ready to negotiate and argue about

their contract” (Brewster/ Scullion, 1997, 36). Moreover, the before mentioned authors highlight

the increasing number of female expatriates.

2.2 Reasons for More Frequent Assignments

According to Adler (2002, 259), companies send staff to live and work abroad for various

reasons, depending on the stage of globalization they focus on, the industry and the strategic

path they want to go. Additionally, the number of global staff depends on the company type:

domestic, multi-domestic, multinational (MNC) or global enterprise.

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Adler (2002, 273ff) mentions in her book that multi-domestic firms send trusted home-country

nationals abroad as expats to get a certain job done. As headquarters often see their

international operations as a replication of what has already been done back home – hereby

mostly average performing managers are used instead of top performers, which are needed

in HQ. MNC send high performers abroad, who can responsibly take global lines of business

and later benefit from their international experience.

„MNCs continue to use expatriates to assist in their global operations as extensions of their

headquarters’ governance and control as these individuals will typically hold similar goals and

values as those in headquarters. The expatriates also are used to transfer headquarters’

corporate culture and operating systems, functional technical expertise and to give home

country personnel international experience” (Harvey/ Kiessling, 2004, 570).

People are sent abroad to transfer technologies, to maintain control over autonomous

operations, to get a certain job done within a subsidiary, and to replicate what has already

been achieved in the home country. According to Tallman/ Fladmoe-Lindquist (1994), in

Bonache et al. (2001, 7), it has shown that globalization makes innovation and learning

possible, as companies get in contact with new cultures, ideas and experiences, which then

can be combined with existing knowledge. Not only do headquarters send staff abroad, but

also the other way around is a possible source for knowledge transfer (one-way): managers

from local cultures are sent to the HQ, in order to learn how business is done within the HQ

and to adjust to the organizational culture – so called inpatriates.

Another list of reasons for sending expatriates abroad as stated by Torbiörn (1985) and

Brewster (1991) in Brewster/ Scullion (1997, 33), include the lack of management and

technical know-how in some destinations, as well as the control over local operations.

Bennett et al. (2000, 239) point out that there is more demand for sending people abroad

(short- and long-term assignments), as the transfer of technologies, the management of

oversea start-ups, the management of Joint Venture Companies (JVC), to enter new markets,

the development of global skills, as well as knowledge within the workforce play crucial roles

in doing business today.

The support of the organization’s business objectives, controlling of costs as well as being

adaptable to the changing business requirements worldwide are said to be the most important

goals for their assignments, according to the surveyed enterprises (KPMG, 2019, 13). In

Chapter 3.9 more information about the debriefing or returned expats will be provided, as well

as some information on the organizational use of knowledge gained by expats while on

assignment.

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2.3 Types of International Assignments

In this section of this thesis information about the classic form of expatriation – so called long-

term assignments, as well as new forms of international assignments will be provided.

Tahvanainen et al. (2005, 663) point out that several authors have already covered common

expatriation extensively; whereby newer forms of expatriation haven’t been researched a lot.

More and more authors try to fill the need for new and up-to-date data. “Despite global

developments of many kinds, our understanding of the international assignment and

international assignee remains largely locked into the idea of the traditional long-term

expatriate sent overseas for a 3-5 year period. The consequence of this focus on the traditional

long-term expatriate is that research is lagging practice rather than informing it, thus new

research agendas need to be developed with respect to the international assignment and

assignee“ (McKenna/ Ricardson, 2007, 307). Cerdin (2008, 211) points out that international

assignments become more and more diverse and now differ not only in length and location but

also in the career stage they appear. Expats consider their international experiences as special

periods of their careers – which can happen to be short-term (up to one year), mid-term (2-3

years) and long-term (more than 3 years). According to Collings et al. (2007, 205) most of

these new forms of assignments emerged out of the given problems and drawbacks of long-

term assignments which will be mentioned later on in Chapter 2.3.2.

2.3.1 Classical Types of Assignments

According to Collings et al. (2007, 204) traditional expatriation lasts three to five years, and

includes physical relocation of the expat as well as the spouse and family of the expat. The

Global Assignment Policies and Practices (GAPP) Survey (KPMG, 2019, 21) defines long-

term or standard assignment formats as one to five year lasting assignments, which are used

by 86% of the participating organizations, compared to the same report done in 2018, a drop

of 10% can be seen. Cerdin (2008, 211) highlights that an assignment can be considered as

traditional expatriation as soon as the individuals´ family relocates with the expat. This classical

form of expatriation, is according to Bonache et al. (2001, 8) and Tahvanainen et al. (2005,

663) the most researched one and tends to follow Adler’s (2002) expatriate cycle. Issues

hereby are recruitment, selection, and training, followed by a focus in later studies on

adaptation, compensation, and performance management, leading through to more recent

attention to repatriation and further careers. According to Tahvanainen et al. (2005, 669) a

classical assignment lasts between one year and three years, with the purpose of filling open

positions and skill gaps, development of international mangers, and development of the

organization. The relocation of the expat and the family is essential in this type of assignment,

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and cross-cultural trainings are mostly provided for both of them. Compensation includes

salary plus various allowances and benefits which should cover the relocation as well as the

changes given in the expats private life.

2.3.2 New and Flexible Int. Assignments

“Both in research and practice, classical expatriation remains an important element of

international work. Yet, in recent years alternative forms of international work have gained

considerable importance” (Mayrhofer et al., 2012, 300). Yet a drastic decline traditional expat

assignments couldn’t be proved, but the rising of several new forms of assignments (Mayrhofer

et al. 2004; Tahvanainen et al., 2005).

According to Petrovic (2000, 1) there are three new forms of assignments next to the classical

form of long-term expatriation, these new forms of international assignments include short-

term assignments, frequent flying and commuting. Short-term assignments are time limited

assignments, which last mostly less than one year – in some cases the expats family is

relocated as well in some no relocation of the family is given. For frequent flyer assignments,

the main characteristic is that business people travel frequently to avoid relocation – in

Mayrhofer et al. (2004, 1387) frequents flyers are called “flexpatriates” – this term is used to

avoid confusion with existing frequent flying programs used by several airlines. International

commuters travel from A to B on a weekly or even bi-weekly basis in order to do business

without the need of permanent relocation, same applies for the family of the expat, which stays

within the home country.

„[W]e define a short-term international assignment as a temporary internal transfer to a foreign

subsidiary of between one and twelve months duration. We argue that the relocation of family

and remuneration issues are of secondary importance in terms of definition although they may

have significant operational implications for the MNC and personal implications for the

assignee” (Collings et al., 2007, 205).

Also, Collings et al. (2007, 206) stated new forms of assignments, which are similar to

Petrovics´ (2000) work. Another new form of expatriates are frequent business travelers, or

international business travelers (IBT), for these expats travelling frequently is a main

component of their work. Advantages are avoiding the need for relocation of the expat itself as

well as the relocation of the expats family. Especially in Europe as well as South East Asia,

where short-haul flights are common, this form of expatriation is increasing. “IBTs are most

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appropriate for conducting irregular specialized tasks, such as annual budgeting meetings or

production scheduling in MNCs but more crucially they can develop important networks with

key contacts in foreign markets. Further, they are useful in maintaining a personal touch in

managing subsidiary operations without the need for relocation” (Collings et al., 2007, 206).

Mayrhofer et al. (2004, 1387) highlight the upcoming importance of new forms of expatriation:

“An increasing number of global staffing movements are not expatriates but flexpatriates –

those who undertake global assignments frequently, and with flexibility” (Mayrhofer et al.,

2004, 1387).

Collings et al. (2007, 206) state several advantages of IBTs such as face-to-face contact at

the point of interest, building of social capital and knowledge without relocation, reduction of

costs for MNCs as well as minimization of interruption of the expats career. Mayrhofer et al.

(2004, 1386) mention that as flexpatriate assignments are rather short, adjusting to partners,

locals, cultures and customs must be done more effectively than in long-term assignments.

New forms of technology as well as their worldwide access help to keep up communication

with families, friends, the company and other global contacts, which can be useful to gain

important information in time. Moreover, it is mentioned that flexpatriates do not interrupt their

careers and so do not miss promotions as easy as expats, which must leave HQ for longer

periods of time. Assignments at short notice are mentioned as a potential stressor for

flexpatriates, which are compensated with additional days off by the company.

Advantages of short-term assignments are mentioned: „The three most commonly mentioned

were: (1) flexibility, (2) simplicity and (3) cost effectiveness. The flexibility and simplicity

associated with short-term assignments work for both parties, the employee and the employer.

If the employee’s personal situation does not favour a long-term foreign assignment, a short-

term assignment might be acceptable. Typically, the employee’s family does not relocate

abroad, thus making the arrangement in many ways easier from a family perspective. There

is no need to interrupt the children’s schooling, and the partner can continue with his or her

own career“ (Tahvanainen et al, 2005, 667ff). Having given the data of several authors

consistency is given among their results, even though the categorization and definition of the

terms slightly differs from author to author.

Problems according to Collings et al. (2007, 206) as well as Tahvanainen et al. (2005, 669)

hereby can be the frequency of travelling, especially for dual career couples. Moreover, health

and stress issues are more concerning than in longer and less frequent assignments.

Furthermore, alcoholism, higher divorce rates, taxation issues as well as visa and work permit

issues are mentioned.

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Not only pros and cons are mentioned in the existing literature, but also some critics and

statements which make one think about the new forms of assignments and their strategic fit.

“Organizations may see that alternative types of international assignment offer opportunities

for cost savings, yet this is hardly strategic reasoning. Decisions concerning the nature and

type of international assignment should be driven by the objectives and purpose(s) of the

assignment, not by cost alone. The effective and efficient management of assignments and

assignees, therefore, will depend greatly on their definition, objectives, and purpose.

Furthermore, clarity of definition, objectives, and purpose will enable an effective determination

of the nature and type of assignment required, or whether an international assignment is

necessary at all” (McKenna/ Richardson, 2007, 308). Moreover, the authors McKenna/

Richardson (2007, 308) mention the urge to replace long-term assignments with short-term

assignments is a very complex process, especially as new and important issues arise, not only

for the IHRM but for the organization as a whole. Existing standards, procedures and

processes must be implemented, considering all stages of the expatriate cycle in relation to

the new forms of expatriate assignments.

Petrovic (2000, 2) lists problems stated by companies considering each new form of

international assignments (compare Table 1).

Table 1. “Most cited Problems with International Assignments”, Source: Petrovic, 2000, 2

Alongside, Shaffer et al. (2012, 1286) provide an important initial step in establishing a

theoretical framework for the differentiation of new forms of international assignments. After

reviewing 114 articles about expatriation they came up with the following Table 2, which

compares as well as it summarizes all aspects of “ordinary” corporate expats. Providing this

chart, which summarizes definition, purpose, duration, relocation, as well as advantages and

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disadvantages of all kind of forms of assignments it makes understanding and using new terms

easier, more logical and can be used to rethink each form in detail.

Due to the uprising interest in sustainability and ecological topics within the global economics,

a different point of view should be given here. On the one hand, several authors (Collings et

al., 2007; Tahvanainen et al., 2005) mentioned that new forms of expatriation are more often

favored over traditional forms of expatriation, as several advantages such as cost cutting for

organizations and reduced stress for the expat are reached. On the other hand, Kantenbacher

et al. (2018) highlight that “The current trend of increasing demand for air travel runs contrary

to climate-related sustainability goals” (2018, 46). Shaw/ Thomas (2006, 213) highlight in their

findings on hyper mobility that it will be hard for airline consumers, as well as organizations to

accept that their actions directly interfere with ecosystems and the climate. Also, they point out

in their findings that most frequent airline users still ignore the impact of aviation on the climate

as well as they favor their own personal advantages of low-cost travelling over the interests of

the society or the environment. The dilemma of organizational goals and environmental goals

is not the only one arising with more frequent airline use, according to Cohen et al. (2017),

also, “…the personal and social consequences of frequent travel…” (Cohen et al., 2017, 406)

need to be considered. Cohen/ Gössling (2015) came up with three areas of consequences,

which are negatively affected by hyper mobility and harmful to travelers according to their

studies. “1) physiological consequences; 2) psychological and emotional consequences; and

3) social consequences” (Cohen/ Gössling, 2015, 1996). They point out that those three areas

are not to be viewed as single categories only but they are interlinked and blend into each

other. The authors mention common physiological consequences such as jet-lag, thrombosis,

dehydration and the exposure of the human body to high levels of radiation. Some class two

consequences of hypermobility mentioned by the authors are the feeling of isolation and being

lonely, as well as they mention that hypermobility can, in extreme cases, favor mental illnesses

and psychological dis-orders. “Many of the above aspects concerning the darker physiological,

emotional and psychological sides of hypermobility have already illustrated connections to

social consequences. But the costs at kinship, friendship and community levels entail at least

several further dimensions” (Cohen/ Gössling, 2015, 1672). The authors conclude their paper

with the following statement, which shows that frequent travelers face new and underrated

consequences by favoring frequent travelling over traditional assignments. “Overall, our critical

review of the physiological, psychological, emotional and social consequences of

hypermobility has rendered some key insights on the impacts of excessive travel. Whilst there

is evidence of the impact of chronic jetlag and frequent radiation exposure on airline cabin

crew, the implications of these physiological effects on business and leisure travellers has

largely been ignored” (Cohen/ Gössling, 2015, 1673). Given those result; pros and cons of

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new expatriate assignments as well as their implications for the global environment as well as

the person in question have to be still researched and thought on.

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Table 2. “New Forms of Assignments”, Source: Shaffer et al., 2012, 1286

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2.4 Expats in Terrorism-Endangered Countries

“Terrorism threatens IB [International Business] through its direct and indirect effects”

(Czinkota et al., 2010, 839).

This digression should provide brief ideas and information about terrorism in context with

international assignments, as terrorism and political unrest are upcoming issues in our present

times. Moreover, those different realities in which expatriates need to adapt, could be potential

challenges for repartition as well and therefore could be considered. This unrest creates jobs

which often must be done by foreigners, as well as some assignments must be fulfilled even

though terrorism or other threats have occurred within the destination in question. Often lesser

developed countries offer high economic potential for MNCs. According to Bader et al. (2015,

849) more and more expats are being sent not only to industrialized and stable surroundings,

whereas also to countries in which political and even terrorist risk are in the forefront. Being

sent to such countries is of course even more stressful for the expat as well as his/her trailing

partner and family, as well as integrating and succeeding is more challenging.

Terrorism is according to the Wernick (2006) “…premeditated, systematic threat or use of

violence by subnational groups to attain a political, religious, or ideological objective through

intimidation of a large audience. It involves communicating a political, religious, or ideological

message via fear, coercion, or intimidation of non-combatant persons or the general public”

(Wernick, 2006, in Czinkota, 2010, 828). Hereby it can be distinguished between national and

international terrorism, whereby international terrorism doesn’t know any geographical limits

and can occur across borders. Terror acts can be planned in one country and executed in

another. New terrorism can be seen as a trend among terrorists which is marked by new, even

more cruel and violent forms of attacks. These attacks are often targeted aimlessly, whilst

aiming a high number of destruction.

Czinkota et al. (2010, 827) highlight that direct effects of terrorism can lead to loss of civil life,

destruction of infrastructure, buildings and other personal belongings, which are not the main

concern for MNCs. More crucial concerns are the indirect effects of terrorism such as a

decrease in foreign direct investment, higher international business costs for transactions,

decrease in buying power, and issues within international supply chains and international

staffing decisions.

According to Czinkota et al. (2010, 839) researchers must focus on the relationship between

expatriates and MNCs as this is a topic of utmost importance in the 21st century as more and

more companies empower international activities and terrorism concerns arise. The main focus

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hereby should be set on how research can help IHRM to better prepare and take care of its

international workforce in times and areas of crisis.

“Ongoing alertness and environmental scanning to detect and monitor emergent threats are

critical, to prepare to meet evolving challenges” (Czinkota et al., 2010, 840). Interesting in this

connection is that following citation, as it says that these security measures favored by IHRM

impact expatriate success indirectly. “In some situations, expatriate managers and their

families are encapsulated in expatriate enclaves for safety and social reasons. This type of

living arrangement is frequently seen in the Middle East and other locations where safety for

family members are of a high level of concern. It is anticipated that as MNCs focus on transition

economies and emerging market countries, these enclaves and the adjustment of an

expatriate to not only the cultural disparities but to these established groups will have an impact

on expatriate success” (Harvey/ Kiessling, 2004, 551).

Melton (2005) published a list of safety and security tips in his book “The New American Expat”,

which focuses on American expats being sent to high-risk destinations after the 9/11 attacks.

Following the top five of his list will be presented to conclude this chapter on high risk expats.

§ “Keep up to date with the U.S. government Travel Warnings and Public

Announcements.

§ Have a safety plan for you and your family.

§ Be aware of your surroundings and of current events in your area. Always act confident,

but don’t draw attention to yourself.

§ Inform family, work colleagues, and/or friends of your whereabouts.

§ Make sure your employer takes the security issues discussed in this chapter seriously

and provides a secure living and working environment that includes an evacuation plan

in the event of an emergency. If not, either come home or find a different employer”

(Melton, 2005, 193ff).

2.5 The Expatriate´s Global Career Cycle

Even though the reasons for transferring candidates differ in each case, all assignees,

especially those of long-term assignments, go through certain stages when leaving the home

country and going on an assignment, and then coming back; these stages can be seen in

Figure 1 “The Expatriate´s Global Career Cycle” (Adler/ Gundersen, 2008, 276). First of all,

the organization has to recruit candidates, which can be either done internally or externally.

19

Moreover, the right candidate has to be chosen, as well as, s/he has to agree to go on an

international assignment. Hence, short orientation should be provided, as well as, training.

During an assignment training can be conducted, which is the so-called post arrival training

(differs from pre-arrival training, which is provided in advance of the assignment). Last but not

least, debriefing sessions, as well as preparation for the reentry of the candidate, so-called

repatriation training, in the home country should be provided. According to Adler (2002, 263),

only the most successful global enterprises are able to understand and handle all these phases

of the cycle. Moreover, the author points out that the expatriate global career cycle includes

two international transitions when completed, which are the cross-cultural entry when entering

a new culture, and the re-entry when repatriating.

Due to these two international transitions two potential culture shocks can occur, the culture

shock itself as well as the reverse culture shock, which can be drawn as a W-curve (Gullahorn/

Gullahorn, 1963), both phenomena will be described in detail later in this thesis in Chapters

3.6 and 3.7.

Figure 1. “The Expatriate´s Global Career Cycle”, Source: Adler/ Gundersen, 2008, 276

According to Harzing/ Christensen (2004, 619) in order to evaluate the effectiveness of an

assignment a closer look needs to be taken on the expatriate assignment cycle. In contrast to

Adler (2002), Harzing/ Christensen (2004) present two possible cycles, one which are very

similar to Adler’s´ cycle (2002) and represent the “ideal” cycle and one which deals with all

kind of negative scenarios. The ideal and circular process covers issues such as recruitment,

selection, hiring of a suitable candidate, the assignment itself and returning home at the end

20

of the circle. After returning home, the expat continues with the former job within the

organization, or the cycle repats itself with a new assignment. The second, disrupted cycle,

which can be seen in Figure 2, covers several potential drawbacks and negative scenarios an

expat can suffer from. This second cycle can show several reasons for expatriation failure,

which will be described in more detail in the upcoming Chapter 2.6.

Figure 2. “Possible outcomes from international assignments [IA]”, Source: Harzing/ Christensen, 2004,

620

2.6 Reasons for Failure of Expatriation

According to Harzing/ Christensen (2004, 621ff) it is of utmost importance to define failure and

success in the context of expatriation first in order to deal with this issue properly. “From an

organisational perspective it is of great interest that a specific job is done, that something is

produced and value added to the organisation. However, it is also of concern to the company

that the expatriate and his/her spouse and family are thriving under the new circumstances”

(Harzing/ Christensen, 2004, 621).

“However, we must realise that what might be regarded as an expatriate failure from an

organisational perspective, might not be an expatriate failure to the expatriate and vice versa.

In the expatriate management literature, it appears that in order to be called an expatriate

failure, the negative aspect needs to be damaging to the organisation and not necessarily the

21

expatriate” (Harzing/ Christensen, 2004, 621). Most of the authors do not define explicitly what

they consider as expatriate failure, and which point of view they take as granted. In order to

avoid confusion, the authors came up with a new definition of expatriate failure: “the inability

of the expatriate or repatriate to perform according to the expectations of the organization”

(Harzing/ Christensen, 2004, 621). This broader formulated definition does not allow to blame

the company or the expat directly for the failure of an assignment, and the concepts of turnover

and performance management are included into the definition. Caligiuri (1997, 117), mentions

the most commonly cited criteria for expatriate success, the opposite of failure: “(1) completing

the assignment, (2) cross-cultural adaptation during the assignment and (3) performance while

being abroad”.

„At the same time, there are several key issues that need to be addressed to help insure the

success of expatriate managers. These issues include individual manager characteristics,

organizational features, foreign environment context, as well as, the systemic planning and

support put into place for the expatriate manager and his/her family” (Harvey/ Kiessling, 2004,

552).

Collings/ Scullion (2008, 92) and Haslberger (2008, 130) point out that many expatriate

assignments end earlier than expected since expats fail to adjust to the new environment. Still

they highlight that turnover rates are not as high as originally assumed, which is mainly caused

by poor citations in the past according to Harzing (1995).

Moreover, Collings/ Scullion (2008) and Haslberger (2008) mention that the family of the expat

are often found to be at the top of the list when it comes to adjustment issues. Which can lead

to families struggling to adjust, hence there is a push for an early return. Additionally, families

are blamed for the assignment failure, which in return aids to save the expats reputation within

the company.These findings considering the adjustment of the family go well along with the

reasons for expatriate failure found by Tung (1981, 76) as well as Riusala/ Suutari (2000, 86).

Tung (1981) provides a list with seven reasons for failure, in descending order, and two out of

the top three reasons for failure deal with the adjustment of the expats family. Reasons

mentioned by Tung (1981, 76ff) were the problems of adjustment of the expats family and/ or

spouse, the inability of the expat itself to adapt, other family related issues, personal or

emotional issues of the expat, unbearable responsibilities abroad, lack of technical skills, and

lack of motivation towards the assignment.

Cooperation with local staff also plays a crucial role in adaptation and performing well on an

assignment. “[E]xpatriates who are not well integrated and accepted by their local staff

colleagues are less likely to perform the job well or be satisfied with work relations within the

team. In the case of expatriates sent to transfer knowledge and expertise to local staff and

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train future local managers, these expatriates will not be successful if local staff are not

receptive to their presence in the host organization and are unwilling to learn from them” (Toh/

Denisi, 2005, 135).

Emotional support plays a crucial role in failure of assignments, this support is not only

demanded from the family and spouse of the expat, but according to Toh/ Denisi (2005, 135)

also from co-workers. Without doubt entering a new culture and environment is stressful, but

support from others helps to make this transition smoother for the expat. Another problem

could be the pay gap between host country nationals and expats. “These discrepancies can

lead to strained relationships between the two groups of employees, making it unlikely that the

local staff will go out of their way to help out an expatriate who may be having difficulties

adjusting to the new job and environment. Worse, the discrepancies can result in resentment,

leading the local staff to be unwilling to cooperate with the expatriate on any aspect of the

assignment, and potentially frustrating the expatriate´s efforts to be successful” (Toh/ Denisi,

2005, 137).

2.6.1 Culture Shock

„Change causes stress; expatriates face many changes in leaving their home country and

organization and transferring to a new country and a new job” (Adler, 2002, 279).

“A major objective of intercultural training is to help people cope with unexpected events in a

new culture. An individual overwhelmed by a new culture will be unable to perform required

work duties effectively. Further, an ill-prepared individual may inadvertently offend or alienate

a foreign host and perhaps jeopardize existing long-term relations with a host country. Thus,

an objective of training is to reduce conflict due to unexpected situations and actions” (Earley

1987, 686). These unexpected events, as well as new circumstances within a new cultural

environment, could cause the so-called culture shock.

According to Selmer (1999, 517), the culture shock is a negative side effect of travelling, which

was first researched by Oberg in 1960. As cited by Selmer (1999, 517 from Oberg, 1960),

there are six signs for culture shock, a symptom occurring in sojourners because of losing all

symbols of social interaction as well as familiar signs. These aspects are: “(1) Strain due to

the effort required to make necessary psychological adjustments. (2) A sense of loss and

feelings of deprivation in regard to friends, status, profession and possessions. (3) Being

rejected by and/or rejecting members of the new culture. (4) Confusion in role, role

23

expectations, values, feelings and self-identity. (5) Surprise, anxiety, even disgust and

indignation after becoming aware of cultural differences. (6) Feelings of impotence due to not

being able to cope with the new environment” (cited in Selmer, 1999, 517; from Oberg, 1960).

Several researchers have agreed that the culture shock is a common phenomenon which

occurs in the process of adjustment when abroad and is tightly linked to cultural stress.

Symptoms are anxiety, helplessness, anger, embarrassment, identity confusion, physical

responses and a negative attitude towards locals (Selmer, 1999, 518; Adler, 2002, 279).

In several cases some perceived high at the beginning of the assignment ends when the

everyday life of the expats starts. Hereby daily routines such as doing grocery shopping,

seeing a doctor, using native language, administrative issues and dealing with local norms and

beliefs play a crucial role. These daily routines often lead to frustration and insecurity as they

differ a lot from the same routines at home. In some cases, expats begin to damn local

customs, consider locals as less intelligent and develop a never before seen and strong sense

of patriotism for one’s own home country. This negative impact of the culture shock can lead

to severe feelings of unhappiness and a decline in work performance, which in some cases

leads to premature returns of expats and their families. After coping with the shock this low

ends and some new high starts, which leads to broader horizons and productivity among

expats.

According to Adler (2002, 263), the phenomenon culture shock takes the form of a “U-Curve”,

which can be seen in Figure 3. Meaning that in the beginning of an assignment, excitement

dominates and after some-time within the new environment and facing serious problems, the

actual culture shock could occur, which is the bottom of the U-curve. Followed by the frustration

and confusion phase, the phase of adjustment to the new culture comes, which helps

expatriates to live a more stress less life abroad. Even though the adjustment process could

be very hard for some expatriates there are different ways of responding. Individuals can either

react aggressively and hostile towards locals, return back home and quit the assignment, or

try to cope as well as possible with local customs and go native. All possible forms of adjusting

can be seen as useful, as the candidate needs to go through these stages in order to be able

to cope with the new environment (Selmer, 1999, 518).

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Figure 3. “U-Curve”, Source: Adler, 2002, 263

Adler (2002, 278) points out that culture shock is not a disease but rather the body´s response

for being in touch with a new environment, and culturally similar countries can cause the same

culture shock as dissimilar ones. Moreover, the author points out that experiencing a culture

shock is a good sign for entering and becoming deeply involved in the new environment,

instead of being in expatriate compounds and ghettos. Important hereby is not how to avoid

the shock, but how to deal with it and how to reduce the stress caused by the shock. Further

details on the culture shock as well a more extended curve will be presented in Chapters 3.6

and 3.7 of this thesis.

2.6.2 Coping Strategies

“Expatriates resort to a variety of mechanisms to help them cope with the stress and strains

associated with the isolation of living and work abroad and the foreignness of the local

environment” (Tung, 1998, 132).

In order to be able to cope with the stress of the experienced culture shock, individuals form

some coping tactics, which according to Tung (1998, 132ff), can result in a preference for

socializing with home nationals rather than with locals, which points out the preference for the

same. Another mechanism is to conduct exercises and to visit a gym in order to release stress.

Moreover, expatriates try to stay in contact with their families at home via a variety of

communication channels. An interesting finding is that expatriates with much foreign

experience tend to have looser contacts with their families, which shows that these

experienced expatriates face less isolation in a new environment and therefore less culture

shock. Another possible way of coping with the new environment is to learn more about the

country and its culture and language or trying to keep busy at work all the time in order not to

face a culture shock. Adler (2002, 280) highlights the importance of stability zones, created by

expats in order to feel like being home for a short time. These stability zones can be anything

25

from listening to home country music, watching movies in one´s mother tongue, going to

international clubs or playing musical instruments. Haslberger (2008, 141) highlights that these

comfort zones, and expatriate ghettos, can help the expat to adjust in the short run, but

considering these ghettos in the long run, the expat will not learn how to deal with locals, the

culture and daily life struggles.

“Some expatriates sought to cope with the isolation of living and working abroad by engaging

in stress-relieving activities such as alcohol consumption. In general, respondents who were

single and those who did not have children at home were more likely to engage in these

activities. Furthermore, assignees to less developed countries were more prone to such

devices as compared to those posted to the industrialized countries” (Tung, 1998, 135). Wurtz

(2018) did a study on the use of substances, such as alcohol and drugs within the international

expat community and found out that “Living and working abroad brings many challenges, which

cause expatriates to have higher levels of stress and to consume more alcohol and tobacco

than domestic employees would” (Wurtz, 2018, 330). The author highlights the high numbers

of expats, especially experienced male expats, which use substances in order to cope with the

downsides of international assignments. “Improper coping mechanisms among individuals

facing increased levels of stress, such as expatriates, may eventually lead to actions that can

trigger a severe crisis” (McNulty et al., 2019, 163).

Wurtz (2018, 328) and McNulty et al. (2019, 171) appeal to HR managers to become aware of

this issue and provide potential solutions for the victims. Anonymous peer support groups as

well as information about substance use before signing an expat contract should be provided.

Having given this interesting result from Wurtz (2018) concerning the substance use trend

among male expats, it should be mentioned that according to the Internations Organisation

Reports (2015) the greatest part of expats used to be male, however more and more female

expats making careers overseas now. Koveshnikov et al. (2014, 368) found out that female

expats have higher levels of adjustment during international assignments than male ones, due

to their advanced social skills, as well as higher levels of emotional intelligence, which help

them to learn quicker and adapt better.

According to Fischlmayr/ Kopeck (2015, 182) contact with locals is especially important in more

relationship-orientated countries such as Peru, China and Africa, countries which are more

focused on output than relations such as the USA, Australia and Northern Europe are less

sensitive when it comes to building relationships.

Worth mentioning in this connection is the time that expats need to adjust to the new

environment. According to studies done by Tung (1998, 132) approximately 20% of the expats

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adjusted after 1 to 3 months, another quarter needed 4 to 6 months to adjust, the majority of

expats adjusted after 6 to 12 months and only a very small percentage of expatriates never

really adjusted to the new environment. Also, Adler (2002, 280) mentions that after about six

months of adjustment time, expats need to escape the low of the culture shock and try to solve

given problems and start to appreciate cross-cultural differences.

3 Repatriation

3.1 Definition: What is it?

„Repatriation, or re-entry, is the transition from a foreign country back to one's own after living

overseas for a significant period of time” (Hurn, 1999, 224).

The last step in Adler/ Gundersen (2008, 276) “Expatriate´s Global Career Cycle”, which can

be seen in Figure 1, is repatriation, which is according to Bonache et al. (2001, 13) one of the

least researched dimensions of international assignments.

“Repatriation refers to the experiences surrounding the return of an expatriate to his or her

home environment following the completion of an overseas assignment” (Litrell/ Salas, 2005,

322). Moreover, again Vance/ Paik (2011, 258) and Bonache et al. (2001, 13) as well as

Mathews (1994, 91) mentioned that the phase of returning home is the most overlooked part

of the international assignment, even though it is the most crucial, dynamic and complex one

for the expat as well as the company itself. “The truth is, repatriation is a time of major

upheaval, professionally and personally, for two-thirds of expats. Companies that recognize

this fact help their returning people by providing them with career guidance and enabling them

to put their international experience to work” (Black/ Gregersen, 1999, 57).

“However, many companies assume that the move back to home territory will be relatively

simple because the language is the repatriate’s own, the culture is one with which the whole

family should be familiar, and the home conditions are perceived to be the same as those left

behind. From this perspective, it would appear that repatriates would slip smoothly into the old

environment and not require significant support. Unfortunately, this simplistic view of the

transition ignores many issues” (Chew/ Debowski, 2008, 4).

“Unfortunately, adjustment after an international assignment (repatriation adjustment) has

received relatively little systematic investigation. Perhaps this is because common sense might

27

suggest that there is little to study. After all, the individual is “coming home”, so how much

adjustment can there be” (Black, 1992, 177)?

Common sense is wrong at this point, as in this phase of coming back to the home country

various kinds of difficulties can occur, as the management of many MNCs is not able to

manage repatriates well enough.

3.2 Problems in Repatriation

As mentioned in Chapter 3.1, repatriation can cause several problems. One problem,

according to Porter/Tansky (1999, 55), is that not only the expatriate itself, but also the parent

company have changed. According to Tung (1998, 138), high turn-over rates are one problem,

which are enhanced by the high levels of dissatisfaction with the reparation process. Moreover,

Porter/ Tansky (1999, 56), Hurn (1999, 224ff) and Andreason/ Kinneer (2005, 109) point out

that potential stressors in the repatriation phase are the reverse culture shock, as repatriates

expect to return in some familiar surroundings, which is often not the case. Due to these

stressors in the repatriation phase, several companies have agreed on the fact that briefing

returnees about their home country and repatriation training are as important as pre-departure

training. Concerns of limited chances for a promotion, a job offered of lower status on return,

a feeling of alienation within peers, friends and family, as well as, a potential loss of status are

additional stressors of the reentry phase. Furthermore, many repatriates leave the company

after the reentry, which is very costly for the organization, as the organization loses top

managers, the money spent on CCT, as well as the expertise gained on the assignment (Litrell/

Salas, 2005, 322).

In studies done by Adler (1981, 342) she found out that expats found it harder to move back

into their home country and their home organizations than moving into a new environment at

the beginning of their assignments. Moreover, she was one of the first authors who discovered

that repats have suffered equally strong culture shocks, regardless of their overseas location,

type of international assignment and length of stay abroad.

Adler (1981, 342; 2002, 288) and Bolino (2007, 819) mention that most repats assume that

their international assignment helps them with their careers, but in most cases, it has only a

neutral effect. Moreover, Adler (2002) points out that in some cases the assignment has even

a negative impact on the manager’s career in the short run. Several authors (Brewster/

Scullion, 1997; Adler, 1981; Adler, 2002; Bonache et al., 2001, Bossard/ Peterson, 2005)

mention that their newly assigned position after returning home bores them as well as it is less

challenging and satisfying than the international assignment. Many repats mention that they

miss the greater responsibilities, the status, the autonomy as well as the variety of their jobs

28

when coming back home. Furthermore, repats are often found to be frustrated and

disappointed after realizing that their new positions are not as expected and their gained

knowledge is not properly used, needed or demanded within the home organization. Adler’s

findings in studies done in 2002 seem to be similar with the findings of her studies on cross

cultural transitions in 1981. Andreason/ Kinneer (2005, 109) and Bonache et al. (2001, 13)

mention that some international managers see their careers stuck in time or a “holding pattern”,

while other colleagues back home in the HQ have been promoted ahead of them. This pattern

has also shown to be true for other aspects of the repats life, such as housing conditions and

financial conditions.

Black/ Gregersen (1991, 674) suggest that repatriation is similar to expatriation a cross-cultural

adjustment process, as the repat is moving from one culture, in which s/he was imbedded for

a certain period of time, to a new one. Even though this new culture, is the former home culture

of the expat, this transition can cause troubles.

Repatriation can therefore be seen as a multifaceted process such as any other cross-cultural

adjustment processes, and not as it was done previously as unidimensional.

“Returning expatriates must adjust to the new job back in their home country, must adjust once

again to interacting with home nationals on a full-time and broad basis, and must adjust to the

general nonwork environment of their home country” (Black, 1992, 181).

When writing about repatriation it has to be mentioned that it can be differentiated between

personal and professional re-entry. Professional re-entry deals with the transition back into the

home organization and is often more difficult than personal re-entry, according to Adler (2002,

288). Fischlmayr/ Kopecek (2015, 202) also highlight that there is a socio-cultural reentry as

well as a professional reentry which both have to be taken into consideration.

According to Arman (2009, 1) repatriation adjustment consists of three main dimensions, which

are “work adjustment, socio-cultural adjustment and psychological adjustment”. Work

adjustment covers issues such as loss of authority, the new position, loss of responsibilities,

relationships with co-workers and changes within the organization. Socio-cultural adjustment

is considered as adjusting to the home culture, the lifestyle and the financial situation back

home, as well as social activities and relations with family and friends. Psychological

adjustment deals with expectations and experienced stress during the transition.

In this connection, the “out-of-sight, out-of-mind syndrome” plays a crucial role. According to

Arman (2009, 2) repats often feel lost after coming home; no one is really interested in their

stories, as no one can connect to their experiences. Moreover, repats recognize that their

29

assignments did not affect anyone but themselves and their closest family members as well

as they are often not well informed about what happens back home. Again, a “holding pattern”

can be seen.

According to several authors (Harvey, 1998, Arthur/ Bennett, 1995; Yate, 1994, Lee/ Liu, 2007)

another essential reason which speaks for a well-managed repatriation process is the fact that

more and more managers avoid international transfers, due to facts such as the “holding

pattern”, serious issues with repatriation and other common problems of transitions.

One concept of repatriation is presented by Dowling et al. (1994, 82) who divide the process

into four related phases:

1. “Preparation” involves developing plans for the future and gathering information about

the new position within the organization. This phase is often overlooked by companies

as they do not consider it as important as pre-departure training tools.

2. “Physical relocation” of the repat deals with issues such as removing personal effects,

breaking ties with colleagues and friends, and travelling to the next destination in

question, mostly the home country.

3. “Transition” phase is often marked by temporary accommodation, deciding for housing

and schooling, as well as other administrative tasks.

4. “Readjustment” involves dealing with reverse culture shock and career demands.

3.3 Pre–Repatriation and Support

“Repatriation adjustment does not begin from the day the expatriate returns. Expatriation and

repatriation are not two separate processes, but rather expatriation is the initiation, and

repatriation is the culmination of the same process. In reality, most activities that ensure high

retention after repatriation happen during the expatriate assignment” (Lee/ Liu, 2007, 131).

This citation highlights the importance of the pre-repatriation stage, as it clearly shows how the

ongoing contact and support of expats, impacts the outcome of every assignment. Only if all

stages of the expatriate life cycle are well managed, success will be given to the expat as well

as the whole organization. Before the actual re-entry of the expatriate the pre-repatriation stage

30

has to be well planned and executed, as returnees appreciate to know what the next step to

take is and to point out the expectations upon return. Moreover, it must be highlighted that the

whole assignment must be considered as a holistic process rather than separated processes.

Support systems are techniques helping to reduce the before mentioned “out-of-sight, out-of-

mind” dilemma, and should assist repats to prepare for the upcoming repatriation process, and

will be explained in this section of the thesis. Harvey/ Wiese (1998, 43) point out that to facilitate

a well-organized reentry process, the intensity, and frequency of communication between HQ

and expat need to increase six to nine months before the actual reentry.

“Yet, while it is widely accepted that the costs of expatriate turnover are considerable, few firms

have formal repatriation programmes to assist managers and their families with repatriation

difficulties” (Brewster/ Scullion, 1997, 35). Not only the lack of formal repatriation programs is

mentioned in the literature but also unrealistic expectations upon return are mentioned.

In addition to the career support, repatriates and their families need other kind of support

practices such as reentry counseling and employee debriefings, which help to integrate the

repatriates back into the society and the organization. Skimming through the existing literature

indicates that such practices are not widely used (Brewster/ Scullion, 1997; Riusala/ Suutari,

2000).

According to Stroh et al. (1998, 112) companies must enable repats to develop more realistic

expectations about their upcoming work and non-work lives prior to their return, thus to

minimize potential surprises upon the actual return. Furthermore, according to Stroh et al.

(1998, 121) as well as Harvey/ Wiese (1998, 45) the “spill-over-effect” from spouse to expat

(Black/ Gregersen, 1991) is crucial in repatriation as well. They found out that if the spouse is

especially happy or unhappy with the non-work-related conditions on repatriation, this mood

spills over to the repats mood. Also, Chen/ Schaffer (2018) suggest in their publication that the

focus of new studies should not be set on the expat itself only, but also on the spouse, as the

spouses use of coping techniques could have a direct influence of the expats readjustment.

Thus, if the spouse’s expectations on the return are met or even over met it will smoothen the

whole repatriation process of the returnees.

In order to smoothen the repatriation process, sense-making, managing expectations and

surprises is mentioned to be helpful for repats according to Stroh et al. (1998, 121ff). Therefore,

the authors came up with some advice for managers:

Repats should be informed about the expectations and challenges of their new job after

returning, repats whose expectations concerning the new job are met or over met are more

31

committed to the company after coming home. Moreover, a realistic job preview considering

all aspects of the job is as important as it is for someone who enters the organization for the

first time. Furthermore, jobs in which former expats can use the skills and knowledge gained

abroad help to make international assignments more valuable and ensure that more and more

managers are willing to take assignments in the future. If the repats expectations of

interpersonal relationships with colleagues are met or over met its commitment towards the

company is significantly higher, therefore, colleagues need to be informed about the

importance of positive relationships with repats and the reintegration of repats. Last but not

least the authors mention that repats must be informed and kept up to date during the

assignment by the organization, therefore, newsletters, and other forms of information should

be provided. All in all, the final message of the authors is, that companies must “close the gap

between expectations and reality for returning expatriates” (Stroh et al., 1998, 123) in order to

make the returnees as committed as possible to the home organization.

Findings of other authors such as Riusala/ Suutari (2000) go along with the above-mentioned

recommendations and even deeper. “First, the expatriates stated that the specific job after

repatriation should be clearly defined at the departure or at least early enough before

repatriation (e.g. four- six months before). Second, the expatriates stressed that the

requirements of the new task should match their present skill level” (Riusala/ Suutari, 2000,

85). According to the KPMG Survey (2019, 79) 9% of repats leave the organization as the

newly acquired skills couldn’t be used after returning.

“The most common (61 per cent) repatriation agreement included the promise by the

organisation to arrange at least a similar level job as the one which the expatriate held before

the assignment. This is a better situation than has been reported in some other studies (Tung,

1998). Still, only a few expatriates (5 per cent) knew their exact future task. In 14 per cent of

the cases the organisation has promised to help the expatriate in the search for a new job. In

addition to the two task-related challenges, there were comments regarding the informing of

relevant persons about the repatriation of the expatriate, informative meetings about recent

developments in the home organisation and extra time for repatriation arrangements after

returning (for example, repatriation vacation)” (Riusala/ Suutari, 2000, 85).

According to Adler (1981, 354) her study done on cross-cultural transitions with Canadian

managers returning from countries all over the world came up with some recommendations for

managers in order to ease the reentry, these recommendations are again similar to the above

mentions ones, which shows that there is an existing pattern of needs for repats. “Predeparture

Training” should be provided to the expat and its family, as managers who adjust well to the

32

new environment tend to be more effective in the re-entry as well. “Selection” is crucial as only

employees who were satisfied prior the assignment are successful and satisfied after the re-

entry as well. Therefore, selecting effective employees over failed ones is highlighted.

“Overseas Contact” is mentioned as expats who are informed about all kinds of events

happening in the home country tend to be more effective on the re-entry than others. New

organizational strategies, plans and policies should be shared with the expats while being

abroad in order to smoothen the transition back to the HQ. “Job Assignment” should not only

include information about the assignment itself, but also about the career perspectives and

responsibilities when returning, also the level of job responsibility on return has a potential

influence on the re-entry satisfaction of the repat. “Cross-Cultural Skills” should be favored by

the HQ to be used within the home country as well. “Assistance to Home-Country Managers”

should be provided, as they often do not value the experiences gained by expats. “Re-Entry

Management” needs to be available for all repats, regardless of distance and similarity of the

overseas location as all transitions are equally stressful. Last but not least “External Validation”

is mentioned as managers whose experiences are valued and used by the organization can

reenter more smoothly.

According to Riusala/ Suutari (2000, 86) most of their interviewed repats were excluded from

their analysis as there were no pre-repatriation support practices available in their

organizations or they didn’t know anything about the existence of these practices. Career

support programs where rare, but some mentioned that the most commonly used practice was

a “pre- departure career development debriefings, [which] was offered to 39 percent of the

expatriates” (Riusala/ Suutari, 2000, 86). Moreover, they mention that other support

practices, such as family repatriation programs and career planning support were favored but

did not exist. “Pre-departure career development debriefings, re-entry counselling and

development rewards” (Riusala/ Suutari, 2000, 86) were mentioned as the most favored

support practices by their interviewees. Other useful forms of pre-repatriation support are a

mentor or person for ongoing contact, which was given in 27% of cases in this study. 41% of

the respondents mentioned that ongoing contact was given during their assignments. Hereby,

it must be mentioned that according to this study, repats who have had frequent contact with

the HQ can avoid the “out-of-mind and out-of-sight” phenomenon, which often causes severe

issues in repatriation.

According to Black/Gregersen (1991, 691ff) the longer the expat has been on an international

assignment, the longer it will take for him/ her to re adjust to his/ her home country. Moreover,

the authors mention that trips back home during the assignment can help to reduce

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uncertainty, which later in the repatriation process can cause severe issues of readjustment

problems. Their study shows that providing trips back to the home country during the

assignment of sufficient length can ease repatriation. Data of the KPMG Survey (2018, 61;

2019, 73) show that 85/84% of companies do not provide any pre-repatriation visits to the

home country at all, 56%/59% do not offer any time off for settling back in, and 64%/65% do

not offer any repatriation counseling for any of their repats. Comparing the latest numbers

(2019) and the numbers given in 2018, it can be seen that companies tend to offer slightly less

time off to re-settle for expats than they did in the before. Also, cross-cultural training prior the

actual relocation back into the country of origin has impact on the repatriation process, such

as CCT provided before the assignment did. This CCT should address the repatriate as well

as its family, and should cover issues such as new emerging trends, changes within the

company as well as other common problems of the process. Another important issue

mentioned by Black/ Gregersen (1991, 692) is the housing condition of repats and their families

after repatriation as this item has significant impact on nearly all facets of the adjustment

process of the repatriate as well as its family. In order to avoid uncomfortable situations within

this field, companies are well advised to offer housing solutions, financing solutions for housing

as well as information about housing conditions prior return and also pre-departure house

hunting trips. Comparing the literature with the latest numbers of the KPMG Survey (2019, 73)

it can be seen that travel to the home country (86%), shipment of household goods (84%) and

tax consultation (71%) are the most common services provided by organizations; pre-visit trips,

and other demanded issues are not available. 25% (KPMG, 2019, 73) of surveyed companies

mentioned that they offer repat counseling to their repats.

All in all, it can be said that supporting expatriates while being abroad does not only satisfy the

individual´s need for information, but also causes fewer surprises and fewer unmet

expectations when reentering the home country. An enhanced flow of information between HQ

and host-country organization is reached and therefore it can be seen as an essential

instrument in repatriation (Tung, 1988; Adler, 1981). Moreover, Chew/ Debowski (2008, 8)

mention “Forward-planning reduces some of the anxieties associated with repatriation, and

provides expatriates with a sense of stability “.

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3.4 Successful Repatriation

According to Fischlmayr/ Kopecek (2015, 200) repatriation has to be considered as the most

important phase of the expat cycle, as the outcome of the phase decides whether the repats

stays within the organization or not. In order to manage this process properly repatriation has

to be looked after at the very beginning of the assignment and not just some months before

the actual return. Considering the high rates of expatriation failure, it seems important to define

success and failure of repatriation.

According to several authors (Tung, 1988; Solomon, 1995, Black, 1992) the difference

between success and failure of expatriate assignments depends on how well the expatriate

life cycle is managed, hereby especially the final step of the cycle needs to be considered.

“In the ongoing struggle to improve the repatriation process, a mutual agreement in the

definition of a successful repatriation should exist between the expatriate and the company.

However, the interviews for this study reveal that the expatriate defines a successful

repatriation differently than the human resources manager. Expatriates place greater value on

reintegration into the home country culture while human resources managers place greater

value on reintegration into the corporate culture” (Paik et al., 2002, 646). This statement shows

that there are two different perspectives and points of views of success in repatriation.

In that regard, it is worth mentioning that on the one hand leaving the organization and finding

a new position can be seen as a success for the repat; but on the other hand, this scenario

would be considered as a failure and loss of past investments for the organization. “The

organizational perspective may be very different from the individual one, because departure

from the company may mean positive career advancement for the individual but is probably a

negative outcome for the company, given the investment in the individual and the widespread

objective of increasing international knowledge” (Bonache at al., 2001, 13).

According to Breitenmoser/ Bader (2016, 198) a differentiation of perspectives is important

hereby, as an expat staying within the company can be useful for the company as well as it

can be useful for him/herself, yet many expats are hired off by MNCs after returning home and

are offered a better position. In this case the new MNC as well as the expat him/herself profits,

but corporate return on investment in negatively affected.

According to Tung (1981, 76) success was defined as “…to function effectively in a foreign

environment”, which means failure must be seen as any situation in which the expat is unable

to function effectively in new surroundings and therefore has to be fired, sent home or must

leave the company. According to Shaffer et al. (2006, 5) expatriate adjustment was the only

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criterion considered at the beginning of researching expatriate success, later in the 1990s also

premature repatriation was taken into the equation and only recently also expatriate

performance was added as a criterion for expatriate success.

Caligiuri (1997, 117) defines expatriate success with three criteria, such as most other

researchers have done so far, which are: “ (1) completion of the foreign assignment, (2) cross-

cultural adjustment while on assignment, and (3) performance on the foreign assignment”.

Caligiuri (1997, 119) mentions that the completion of the international assignment can be seen

as the most basic criterion for a successful assignment, which means an expat is considered

as successful as long as s/he remains in the host country for the entire expected duration.

Moreover, the author mentions that well-adjusted expats can develop deeper interactions with

locals and are therefore considered as more successful than maladjusted expats, which often

feel more negative towards the host country culture.

“Cultural adjustment refers to psychological comfort with various aspects of the foreign culture,

such as food, housing, transportation, etc. Inter-action adjustment has to do with feeling

comfortable in interactions with HCNs. Work adjustment is psychological comfort with the job

itself” (Liu/ Shaffer, 2005, 237) .

Last but not least, beyond fulfilling criterion 1 and 2, the expat should do the assigned work

successfully in order to be considered as a successful expat. According to Caligiuri (1997, 121)

the main problem hereby is that expatriate performance has still not been well researched on.

According to the Global Relocation Trends Survey (Brookfield, 2016), MNCs variously define

assignment success in terms of accomplishment of assignment objectives, attrition rates or

increased revenues, but very few have systems in place to track these outcomes or valid data.

Paik et al. (2002, 636) mention that a repatriation process can be considered as successful,

as soon as it can be managed to fully exploit and use the skills and the knowledge gained

abroad by the repat. Also, Breitenmoser/ Bader (2016, 223) mention that the integration of

gained knowledge is a good outcome serving as an indicator for repatriation success and

effectiveness. Still many companies must face high attrition rates, as repats seek for new jobs

right after they return. The reasons for leaving the company have already been mentioned in

the section problems of repatriation and will not be covered here anymore.

According to Tung (1981, 77) companies with low failure rates, tend to take care in their

selection and training programs for expats, which shows that failure rates can be minimized

before the actual assignment starts. Considering selection of the right candidate for a certain

assignment, Tung suggests that for each assignment a careful analysis of the task, the

characteristics of the assignee and the country in question should be provided. Considering

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the level of CCT the same holds true, as different positions abroad ask for different levels of

cross-cultural know-how and no universal approach of training is given.

Studies done by Stroh (1995, 454) suggest that organizations should plan the repatriation

process well before expats return home. Possible ways to use the expats new skills should be

planned before their return, in order to reach lower turn-over rates and make the repats willing

to stay with the organization. Lazarova/ Caligiuri (2001, 390) conclude that repats who think

that they receive more support from their home organization than usual managers, have higher

commitment to and are more likely to stay with the organization after returning home. Hereby

they mention that the perception of given support is much more important for the repat than

the actual existence and usefulness of certain objective practices. Still the existence of some

“Well-regarded policies often include i.e. debriefing sessions; training opportunities to ease the

impact of reverse cultural shock among expatriates and their families; clear information about

job placement possibilities; career paths for repatriates; etc [are useful]. These policies need

also to take into consideration the local and cultural context of each corporation and of their

employees, and the specific needs of each repatriate. Repatriates who experienced different

types and duration of assignment might have different needs” (Nery-Kjerfve/ McLean, 2012,

624).

3.5 Unsuccessful Repatriation: Reasons and Consequences

“Poor repatriation may result in a loss of valuable employees, a reluctance of future expatriates

to accept overseas positions, and an underutilization of employees. But all of this can be

prevented if multinational organizations prepare their employees for returning home. Both

organizations and expatriates should be aware and prepare for coming home during the

overseas assignment. Returning home should not be the end of global assignments for

expatriates, but the beginning of their career” (Lee/ Liu, 2007, 131).

According to Harvey/ Moeller (2009, 279) the failure rate for overseas assignments is between

20% and 40%, this large variance in failure rates is given due to the different definitions of

failure (premature end of assignment vs. reduced effectiveness during the assignment).

Without considering a certain definition of failure, still it is for sure that any kind of failure leads

to direct and indirect costs for the company, which are estimated to be around $200k and

$500k per expat. MNCs which have assignees all around the world need to manage their

expats extra carefully as otherwise sums of millions of Dollars can be lost in a short period of

time. Not only direct costs, but also indirect costs such as damage of the company´s reputation

and relationships need to be considered. According to Bolino (2007, 824) many studies have

focused on premature returns, and saw these as expatriate failure; still many expats do not

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return earlier than expected but their work overseas can be classified as ineffective. When

taking the three aspects (“completion of the foreign assignment, cross-cultural adjustment

while on assignment, and performance on the foreign assignment”) mentioned by Caligiuri

(1997, 117) which should be indicators for a successful assignment, premature return can be

seen as a source of failure. Moreover, maladjustment of expats can be considered as a source

of failure as well. Taking premature returns into consideration again, it should be mentioned

that according to Fischlmayr/ Kopecek (2015, 196ff) there are several reasons for returning

earlier than expected. Reasons for premature returns are unsuccessfulness, fulfilling all given

tasks and duties faster than expected, the urgent need for returning to the HQ, a new job offer

within the HQ or any other subsidiary within the organization, factors associated with the host

country such as wars, crisis, terror threats, changes within the organization after mergers and

acquisitions, as well as personal issues such as death or sickness of close relatives. Brookfield

(2014, 51) Global Mobility Trends Survey points out that around 6% of expats return earlier

than planned. Premature returns should therefore not always be considered as failure, still for

this thesis any kind of premature return will be seen as an unsuccessful assignment. Moreover,

the authors Fischlmayr/ Kopecek (2015, 197) highlight that around 5% of expats fail in

international assignments, hereby it is even harder to mention and summarize the reasons for

failure. Some reasons mentioned are new assignments in another host country, lacking

achievement, family issues, selection issues – selecting the wrong candidate, lack of local

adjustment.

Again, expectations play a crucial role in this process of returning home, which is highlighted

by the following citation. “Thus, in general, one would hypothesize that level of repatriation

adjustment would be the highest for those with met expectations, moderate for those with

overmet expectations, and lowest for those with undermet expectations” (Black, 1992, 180).

According to Andreason/ Kinner (2005, 109) a study done by Harvey (1989) showed that firms

lack well-planned repatriation training programs due to lack of expertise in creating such tools,

the high costs for setting up programs, and top managers beliefs of uselessness of repatriation

training programs. “First, companies should provide evidence that they value foreign

assignments by making good use of the expatriates' international experience upon their return.

Asking repatriates to help inform and create policies related to the expatriate experience,

special needs and family concerns would not only allow repatriates to make use of their new

knowledge but would help organizations develop policy based on practical experience” (Stroh,

1995, 453). Also, Fischlmayr/ Kopecek (2015, 198) conclude that well planned job criteria,

selection criteria, a well-planned selection process, CCT for a certain host country, as well as

persistent contact between expat and HQ are of utmost importance to avoid sky rocking costs

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of failure. Not only the expat him/herself but also the trailing spouse and children have to be

involved and trained. Furthermore, the authors again mention that failure also includes the

expats decision to leave the organization within one year after returning. Following this point

of view, according to the latest KPMG Survey (2019, 78) many of the assignments can be seen

as failure, only due to the fact that repats are leaving the company within 12 months of the

return.

Summarized consequences of a failed repatriation process can be the loss of managers, high

costs of failure (direct as well as indirect), loss of international know-how, frustration of the

expats as well as the expats family, reluctance to take international assignments, international

staffing issues, network issues, international reputation issues as well as growth issues within

the international field.

3.6 W- Curve

As described in Chapter 2.6.1 of this thesis, the so-called culture shock was first mentioned by

Oberg (1960) is a phenomenon often occurring in international assignments as well as all

international transitions. According to Fischlmayr/ Kopecek (2015, 178ff) living in a foreign

country and a new culture can be stressful and demanding for expats, which can be depressing

in many cases. This feeling called “culture shock” can lead to depression, anger, anxiety and

even to mental sickness. The main goal of expats is to cope positively with this shock, integrate

into the new surroundings and to alter one’s mood. As described before most assignments

start with a “honeymoon stage” during the first weeks or even months of an assignment. This

stage is often considered as a very positive stage, as it feels just like being on holidays

therefore people focus on the new, exciting and positive aspects of the trip.

“During this stage, much of what is different in the new setting is viewed as "interesting" and

"exciting." This stage is followed by the disillusionment or culture shock stage” (Black/

Gregersen, 1991, 673).

Everything described here has already been to some extent been described in Chapter 2.6.1

and can be drawn as an U-shaped curve. Considering the return of the expat, this U-curve can

be extended to an “W-Curve” (Gullahorn/ Gullahorn, 1963), as the phenomena of the culture

shock doesn’t end with the return of the expat. Many repats experience a “return culture shock”

which is often even more intense than the previous shock according to several authors

(Fischlmayr/ Kopecek, 2015; Porter/ Tansky, 1999; Gaw 2000; Black/ Gregersen, 1991). After

returning home another “honeymoon” phase can be given, which then can be followed by

another low, which is the “return culture shock”, which then is followed by a high due to

readaption.

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Fischlmayr/ Kopecek (2015, 180) point out that not every repat has to deal with the reverse

shock as the intensity depends on the number of assignments which have been done

previously, as well as the cultural dis-/ similarity and physical distance of the host and home

country. Still the reverse culture shock is an often-underestimated issue which must be

considered by HR departments and expats, as well as the expat´s family.

3.7 Reverse Culture Shock

The culture shock can not only occur when leaving the home country for an international

assignment, but also the other way around. “Reverse culture shock is the process of

readjusting, reacculturating, and reassimilating into one's own home culture after living in a

different culture for a significant period of time” (Gaw, 2000, 83).

According to Porter/ Tansky (1999, 56) many expatriates see the repatriation and the reverse

culture shock as a potential source of stress. Hereby the perceived expectations come into

play again. In order to make candidates able to deal with these issues, reentry training needs

to be provided (Hurn, 1999, Tung, 1988), which is described in more detail in Chapter 2.5. of

this piece of work.

Fischlmayr/ Kopecek (2015, 201) highlight that the reverse culture shock is a very common

phenomenon in repatriation and therefore must be further addressed within the literature. Right

after returning the repat will see him-/ herself at a very high, as they are happy to be reunited

with family and friends, have access to home country food and can again practice former

hobbies. Even though, repats are happy right after returning a very steep drop can be seen

after this short high, which can cause stress as well as depressions within repats and their

families. As mentioned before this low can hit repats even harder than it did when leaving the

home country and entering the new environments of the host country. This intensity of the

culture shock is caused by the unexpectedness of the reverse shock. Repats as well as many

top managers do not expect to experience a reverse culture shock, when returning home, as

they did when leaving the home country. Reasons for this intensity of the reverse culture shock

is that formerly used practices and actions are no longer used by repats as they now question

these actions or even consider them as useless. If the repat is not able to cope with the reentry,

in many cases repats become “lost between cultures” and begin to move from destination to

destination in order to find a place which suits their expectations. Moreover, the authors point

out that in this phase of the assignment all the former experienced and gained information

come into play, as these events shaped the expat and its characteristics, as well as everyone

back in the home country developed during the absence of the expat. “Those expatriates who

live in another country for a number of years will in all likelihood change their views and ways

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of thinking in subtle ways. At the same time their own country does not stand still. Therefore,

on return some expatriates may experience a gap between themselves and their friends or

fellow citizens and find that aspects of their cultural identity have changed” (Haslberger, 2008,

143).

Due to these changes in the expat as well as in the expats surroundings a seamless connection

is not possible. In this connection, it should be mentioned again that the reverse culture shock

does not hit everyone with the same intensity, which might be affected by former transitions,

the repats current situation of living, as well as the stability of the expats personality.

3.8 Factors Associated with Repatriation

Harvey/ Moeller (2009), Andreason/ Kinneer (2005, 116), Fischlmayr/ Kopecek (2015), as well

as Black/ Gregersen (1991) describe the most frequently cited problems in repatriation of

expatriates in their articles and published books. All their information provided will be used in

order to summarize these issues again for this chapter of the thesis. Many of the here

mentioned issues have probably already been mentioned throughout the thesis, but still due

to the importance of the factors and spheres associated with repatriation a summery will be

provided once again.

3.8.1 Social and Cultural Aspects

Repats as well as their families have to deal with several issues when upon homecoming,

therefore in this section of the thesis the social as well as cultural aspects will be summarized.

According to Fischlmayr/ Kopecek (2015, 202) the expat, its´ trailing spouse, its´ children as

well as its´ home country often have changed while being abroad which can cause severe

issues for all directly or indirectly involved persons. Returnees often are not the same persons

as they have been before leaving the home country as they have become more open-minded

and have brightened their horizons, therefore worries and concerns of relatives back in the

home country often seem insular and small-minded for them. Family and friends often are not

able to deal with, as well as they are not interested in detailed stories of the assignment, as

they cannot imagine they country in question and its people and traditions, but especially in

this return situation the repat has an urge to share its experiences, stories and feelings.

Another social issue mentioned by the authors is the loss of status and loss of financial benefits

when returning to the home country. Often expats have high fringe benefits and better

compensation packages offered when abroad than working in the HQ. Domestic workers,

nannies, drivers and other staff which make the expat´s daily life easier are no longer available

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upon return and therefore problems often occur. “It is not uncommon for expatriate managers

to receive housing, travel, educational, transportation, ‘hazardous duty pay’, support personnel

for the spouse (house-hold assistance) as well as assistance for the expatriate (drivers,

personal aids, etc.). All too often, the expatriate loses all these allowances simultaneously,

placing a financial burden on the family” (Harvey/ Moeller, 2009, 288).

Also, invites for expat events, luxurious dinners and meetings with politics are often only a nice

memory upon return. Hereby it is of utmost importance to provide a clear picture of how life

will be when back coming home, especially for the spouse as well as the children of the expat,

in order to make them aware of what to expect and not to expect when returning home.

3.8.2 Spouse and Family Issues

Fischlmayr/ Kopecek (2015, 202ff) point out that most of the problems expats face upon return

such as the reverse culture shock hit the trailing spouse and children even harder. In most

cases the expat him-/herself deals better with arising problems than the rest of his/her family.

Ordinary administrative activities such as seeing a doctor, changing schools and signing-in for

leisure activities often are a burden for the returning family. Especially changing schools can

be a serious problem for kids, when getting older as they lose their social circle which plays a

crucial role especially in puberty. Hereby serious psychological damage can arise which must

not be underestimated. The spouse often has to deal with family issues as well as with career

issues. Finding a job upon return, often after a longer working break, can cause financial as

well as psychological problems. In a very limited number of cases the spouse´s former

company guarantees a job after coming home. Moreover, it is mentioned that even though

some spouses can restart working with the former employer, they often have missed the boat

due to their break and therefore limited career options, which shows that the “holding pattern”

also stands true for the trailing spouse.

Black/ Gregersen (1991) came up with some interesting findings which do not only cover family

issues in repatriation but provides links for all sorts of repatriation issues. The following citation

of an example in the field of housing- and living-conditions during the assignment and during

the return sheds light on this complex dilemma:

“This study points to the possibility that factors that facilitate expatriation adjustment may in

turn inhibit repatriation adjustment. For example, most expatriates are provided with better

housing conditions during their overseas assignment than they had prior to their departure.

While this may make it easier to cope with and adjust to living in a foreign country, it may also

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cause problems upon repatriation. The results from this study indicate that having better

housing conditions overseas than those upon repatriation has a negative relationship with all

three facets of repatriation adjustment for expatriates and a negative relationship with general

adjustment for the spouse. This may suggest that while providing housing packages that are

attractive to the expatriate candidate may have positive consequences during the overseas

assignment, it may make it more difficult to avoid a drop in housing conditions and its negative

effect on all facets of repatriation adjustment” (Black/ Gregersen, 1991, 691).

Fischlmayr/ Kopecek (2015, 203ff) mention some tricks which should make the return easier

for the expat and its family. They mention that the use of modern communication tools makes

keeping in touch relatively easy, notable hereby is that communication should be regularly and

interactive. Blogs, Facebook and Instagram postings help to inform yourself about changes

within the home country, but real communication should happen through tools which involve

both parties, such as Skype, phone or E-mails. Moreover, it is mentioned that expats should

act proactively when it comes to planning the repatriation phase with the organization, in order

to avoid frustration upon return. This also stays true for the awareness of a potential reverse

culture shock. Being aware of this phenomenon will make this phase less intense as

unexpectedness is reduced.

In order to prevent these potential problems, the company can provide housing assistance and

housing information, either in advance or during the repatriation process. Moreover, financial

benefits can help the repat and its family to make the transition back into the home country

easier. Also, flexible working hours and extra days off are useful for the repat to deal with

administrative issues as well as taking care of its family. Former repats are a source of

information for the organization when it comes to repatriation, also the repats can directly

exchange experiences in this process.

3.8.3 Career-Related/ Job-Related Issues

Another very intense field of tensions is the career related one, as many repats face issues

concerning the personal career path as well as the job itself. Several repatriates feel unsecure

about their position when returning back to the home organization as organizations often do

not consider this part of the expatriate life cycle. Most companies start thinking about possible

positions when the repat has already returned home or is about to return in the very near

future. This fact leads to a “hold pattern” in the short run according to Fischlmayr/ Kopecek

(2015, 204ff). Moreover, the authors mention that experiences and knowledge gained abroad,

43

are often not as appreciated and frequently used than expected by repats, which leads to

frustration among repats. “At the same time, cohorts of expatriates appear to be ahead of

them, because they have ‘been around’ when positions came open in the organization. This

inconsistency in the career paths of expatriate managers and their domestic counterparts can

create problems that are hard to overcome (i.e. psychologically as well as professionally) and

create undue stress in the repatriated expatriate manager” (Harvey/ Moeller, 2009, 289).

Furthermore, a lack of appraisal often gives repats the feeling of being in the wrong position

or not being able to exploit what was learned during the assignment. Not only the position itself

matters, but also the changes which have happened while the expat was on the assignment,

as new networks among managers evolved as well as new structures developed. All of these

above-mentioned reasons make up to 50% (tendency increasing) of repatriated expats leave

their organizations within one year of return. Many repats leave their companies in order to go

on a new international assignment or find a suitable position within new organizations. Hereby

it is crucial for the repats to be able to use the acquired skills and knowledge within the new

organizations.

Black/ Gregersen (1991, 691) suggest a dilemma in job-related repatriation; the longer an

expat is aboard the longer it will take him/her to readjust to work upon return, yet in order to

adapt to local customs and to work properly the expat has to stay a fair amount of time abroad,

which is estimated to be around one to two years. Therefore, companies must have patience

with expats when leaving for an international assignment in order to enable them to adapt and

be successful, as well as these companies must show patience with returnees when

readjusting repats to the home organization.

3.9 Debriefing of Repats

“Repatriate employees have the potential of acting as a major source of knowledge for global

corporations. They may in fact be key players in helping corporations gain and maintain

competitive advantage in the global market. However, much of the knowledge acquired by

expatriates supposedly goes largely untapped for various reasons” (Nery-Kjerfve/ McLean,

2012, 625).

As the transfer of knowledge is a crucial part of each international assignment, this chapter of

the thesis will shed some light on the reintegration of expats into the HQ, how gained

knowledge can be transferred into the HQ and how this knowledge then can be utilized.

According to Burmeister et al. (2015, 736ff) the field of repatriate knowledge transfer (RKT)

has been researched on since the year 2000, first researched on by Berthoin-Antal (2000),

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which means that the existing literature in this field is rather limited and more than half of the

research done are conceptual.

Nery-Kjerfve/ McLean (2012, 614) point out that expatriates are often a source of knowledge,

as they circulate among various offices and subsidiaries around the world and therefore make

knowledge circulate among those offices. „Organizational learning theories suggest that

organizations tend to know less than the sum of the knowledge of their members” (Berthoin-

Antal, 2001, 1).

According to Chew/ Debowski (2008, 6) many expats have grown culturally as well as

technically while being abroad. This personal growth of the expat as well as the knowledge

gained abroad need to be focused on as well as accommodated when returning into the home

organization. “Expatriate managers return from overseas assignments with a wealth of

different kinds of knowledge, but active strategies are needed in order for this individual

resource to become embedded into the organization” (Berthoin-Antal, 2001, 1).

“Knowledge resulting from repatriation is often highly valuable as it may assist corporations in

better understanding the different aspects of various overseas markets, and further may

leverage the potential capabilities of the transnational firm. However, repatriate knowledge

often goes under-utilized because, among other factors, the inability of corporations to place

returning employees in professional positions where they could better disseminate the

knowledge and learning acquired overseas” (Nery-Kjerfve/ McLean, 2012, 622ff).

According to Lazarova/ Tarique (2005, 361ff) many expatriates have long been used as

knowledge senders during the last few years rather than knowledge receivers. Nowadays they

function as senders as well as receivers of knowledge, which makes this topic even more

complex and a double-edged sword. Especially as in some cases expats benefit more from

providing their gained knowledge within a new organization rather than their home

organization, hereby, an issue is that organizations do not provide expats the optimal platform

for sharing and transferring their gained knowledge and therefore decide to leave.

Following the path of Lazarova/ Tarique (2005) internationally gained knowledge will be

categorized the same way as these authors did. “We suggest that it is essential for companies

to focus on two important characteristics of international knowledge: extent of tacitness (tacit

vs. explicit) and extent of specificity (specific vs. generic). Research has suggested that these

two characteristics are most relevant to determining knowledge value“ (Lazarova/ Tarique,

2005, 364). Tacit knowledge, is according to Lazarova/ Tarique (2005, 364) more vulnerable

and important than explicit knowledge (easy to codify and therefore easier to share with a great

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number of potential users e.g. handbooks), as tacit knowledge is harder to be replicated and

used by others. Moreover, tacit knowledge, which is embedded within repats can be a potential

source for international competitiveness and a strategic asset. Specificity of knowledge

describes the extent and applicability of knowledge across various contexts. Generic

knowledge can be used in several contexts, whereby specific knowledge has very limited and

critical areas of usage. Having given this differentiation of international knowledge, it can be

concluded that different forms of assignments lead to different types of gained knowledge,

hereby the host country interaction plays a crucial role. “Highly tacit international knowledge is

the most critical to acquire. It is the most difficult to imitate and hence most relevant to

organizations with respect to sustaining a competitive advantage” (Lazarova/ Tarique, 2005,

364).

As mentioned above repats are a potential source of new knowledge for each organization,

but according to Nery-Kjerfve/ McLean (2012, 615) organizations must create opportunities

and a place in which repats are able to share and make knowledge circulate around the

organization, especially among peers, otherwise this newly gained knowledge is about to get

lost or is not fully exploited. “Building friendships between repatriates and coworkers through

arranging informal social activities and improving office design can play an important role in

helping repatriates build knowledge sharing opportunities (Huang et al., 2013, 688).

Providing the expat with a suitable and demanding position upon return is the first step of

showing respect and value for people who have taken international assignments. According to

Nery-Kjerfve/ McLean (2012, 615) several repats find themselves placed in positions which do

not fit their experiences and expectations after returning home and therefore decreased

commitment as well as decreased levels of productivity can occur. Moreover, the authors point

out that “The lack of repatriation policies and procedures hinders the employees’ adjustment

to the organization and affects their satisfaction on the job and their commitment and loyalty

to the organization“ (Nery-Kjerfve/ McLean, 2012, 623) and are therefore often the main

reasons for expats leaving the organizations right after returning. Also giving the expat a sign

of career continuity is helpful in this connection.

Another potential form of knowledge sharing after the return is according to Berthoin-Antal

(2001) and Holtbrügge/ Berg (2004) cited in Lazarova/ Tarique (2005, 365) the interaction with

others. Also, Oddou et al. (2013) and Huang et al. (2013) agree that the higher and richer the

frequency of communication between repats and receivers of knowledge, the higher are levels

of RKT. This is especially true for tacit knowledge, which can only be shared by interactions

with other peers and then be converted into explicit one. Explicit knowledge, on the contrary,

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is transferred most efficiently by using written mechanisms such as handbooks and reports.

Further, the authors Lazarova/ Tarique (2005) point out the existence of “high, medium, and

low intensity of knowledge transfer tools” (Lazarova/ Tarique, 2005, 365ff). Low intensity tools

are used for sharing explicit and generic information, by using presentations, printed articles,

classes and various intranet tools presented by repats. Medium intensity knowledge sharing

tools should emphasize on the individuals as well as small-scale groups in order to extract

international experiences and knowledge. This could be done by case studies, behavioural

plays and action learning, whereby repats provide others with gained experiences, potential

sets of accurate behaviours and as well as with potential problems as well as ways of dealing

with them. High intensity tools for sharing knowledge are used for sharing tacit and specific

knowledge, which need to be group based as well as they ask for a great frequency of

communication. Potential ways for extracting this knowledge is to assign repats to cross-border

teams, projects and task forces, the involvement of repats in training activities of expats and

repats, as well as using repats as coaches for groups with international responsibilities.

Not only allowing the repat to share its gained knowledge but also the repats´ willingness and

motivation to share this international knowledge play a crucial role in this issue according to

Oddou et al. (2013). Burmeister et al. (2015) extend this statement by adding all actors; RKT

therefore depends on the motivation, ability and opportunity to interact for all parties involved.

“The motivation of recipients was of utmost importance during the assessment phase, as

perceived by the repatriates. Without recipients’ motivation, the RKT process would not

proceed. While repatriates had already reflected on the usefulness of their newly acquired

knowledge, potential recipients were less familiar with their international experience and the

potential value of their knowledge” (Burmeister et al., 2015, 748).

“Finally, organizations can share examples of successful knowledge transfers and their

potential impact on individual and work unit performance to increase the visibility of the value

of knowledge of repatriates, and motivate other employees to reach out to repatriates and

learn from them. Additionally, employees who engaged in RKT might appreciate being

recognized for their knowledge transfer behavior. Knowledge transfer behavior could be

rewarded with appropriate financial and non-financial benefits, such as organization-wide

acknowledgment in newsletters” (Burmeister et al., 2015, 748). Also, Huang et al. (2013, 688)

point out that appropriate reward systems could have an impact on knowledge sharing

processes among peers, but at the same time an environment of trust and friendship among

peers should be favored and created.

„Gaining different perspectives, building international networks and developing personal

competencies and a global mindset are of little use if too many factors hinder their transfer and

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application. Unfortunately, there are a number of these factors that are common to

organizations” (Oddou et al., 2013, 4). One of those barriers of knowledge transfer is the “out

of sight, out of mind” syndrome, many expats mentioned this syndrome in studies done by

Oddou et al. (2013, 4ff). They highlight that significant changes within the organization make

them feel out of step. Moreover, they mention being an outsider is still a common problem,

even though s/he returned to his/her former colleagues. Hereby the repats mention that they

themselves have changed a lot while being overseas, but their peers back in the HQ stayed

the same, which is a potential source of trouble. Another barrier mentioned by Oddou et al.

(2013) is no or no appropriate available position for returnees. Another obstacle for the transfer

of knowledge are unmotivated and narrow-minded managers, which do not allow repats to fully

use their gained knowledge back home. Hereby it is mentioned that managers who have a

global-mindset themselves are more willing and open to accept new ideas and points of view

and are therefore more able to let knowledge transfer.

3.10 Numbers on Repatriation (KMPG)

This final chapter of the Literature Review will help to underpin the provided information on

expatriation and repatriation, and will help to draw an even broader picture with the use of the

latest numbers on those issues, using the KPMG (2018/ 2019) Global Assignment Policies

and Practices Reports will make the need for further research and optimizing procedures even

clearer.

According to the results of the KPMG (2018) report, more and more organizations worldwide

will make use of global mobility programs in order to better function globally. Over 100 cross-

industry organizations were involved in drawing up the reports.

Even though the global business engines seemed to slow down in the past, companies keep

sending expats to emerging markets. China (39 percent), India (14 percent), Singapore (19

percent) and Australia (14 percent) are the main markets when it comes to Asia Pacific, along

with key Middle East locations including the United Arab Emirates (14 percent) and Saudi

Arabia (9 percent) and, further, a focus on Latin America continues with assignment increases

predicted for Mexico (21 percent) and Brazil (17 percent). Unfortunately, the latest KPMG

Survey (2019) doesn’t cover these numbers, and therefore a comparison over time cannot be

made.

31% of the respondents mention that their main goals of the program are the support of

business objectives and 17 % the adaption to changing business requirements, 21% mention

the control of overall program costs, according to the latest KPMG Survey (2019, 13).

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Figure 4. “Goals of International Assignments”, Source: KPMG, 2019, 13

According to the KPMG survey (2018, 10ff) the majority of companies (32%) have 10 to 50

expats, 16% have 201 to 500 assignees, and 13% have between 51-100 expats. These

numbers show that there is a big variance in how many expats are sent abroad by each

organization. The latest numbers of the KPMG Survey (2019, 14) show that nothing much

changed in this variance.

Figure 5. “Number of International Assignees”, Source: KPMG, 2019, 14

Considering the types of assignments, 84% of the respondents offer short time assignments

(<12 months), 96% offer long term ones (1-5 years) and 63% offer permanent transfers with

indefinite length in 2018, according to the KPMG Survey (2019, 21). A drop can be seen

comparing the numbers with 2019, even though other forms of assignments do not increase

significantly.

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Figure 6. “Types of Assignments”, Source: KPMG, 2019, 21

Respondents of the KPMG Survey (2018, 18) suggested, that there will be changes in the

policy of international transfers within the next five years. Increases in extended international

business trips up to three months (72%), an increase in short term assignments up to 12

months (63%) and a decrease in long term assignments (28%) was mentioned. The current

numbers (2019) show a different picture as 65% of the offered assignments last between 12

and 36 months and 25% last even more than 36 months. It is expected to see a change in the

average duration of assignments in the future, which speaks for the accuracy of the provided

literature within this thesis, as well-known researchers such as Mayrhofer et al. (2004; 2012),

McKenna/ Richardson (2007) and Petrovic (2000) have mentioned extensively that there will

be a trend towards shorter and more frequent assignments in the upcoming future. Having

given the numbers of the KPMG Survey (2019, 22) 51% of the respondents think that long-

term assignments will decrease over the next five years, also the foreseen trends for the other

forms of assignments seem to be less prominent.

. Figure 7. “5-years Forecast”, Source: KPMG, 2019, 22

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When it comes to preparation of the assignee 45% of the companies mentioned that they offer

pre-assignment visits for all assignees, and 16% mentioned that they only offer those trips for

selected assignees.

Figure 8. “Pre-assignment Visits 1”, Source: KPMG, 2019, 37

34% of the companies offer either a “look and see” visit or a “house haunting” trip, but not both

of them. 35% said that they offer a trip for “house haunting” or for schooling, but only as soon

as the assignment has been accepted by the expat and only 6% offer both trips (house

haunting and look & see), according to the KMPG Survey (2019, 37ff).

Figure 9. “Pre-assignment Visits 2”, Source: KPMG, 2019, 37

Considering those trips, 57% of the organization provide trips for the assignee as well as the

spouse, only 3% provided trips for the assignee only.

Other forms of preparation are CCT as well as language training, which are both provided by

the majority of companies (44% and 45%) exist, but considering my Bachelor-Thesis on the

role of training in expatriation (Gilhofer, 2013) I think there is still a high need for more training

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provided. According to the KPMG Survey (2018) trainings are in most cases for the assignee

only, around 1/3 of the companies offer CCT and language training for the spouse also, around

1/5 of the organizations provide training for kids too, which is not how it is supposed to be

according to state of the art literature. Taking a lot at the latest results of the KPMG Survey

(2018, 34) it can be seen that 51% of the companies offer CCT, and 39% offer language

training for the expat, the spouse as well as the kids, which is an improvement.

Figure 10. “Training provided 18”, Source: KPMG, 2018, 34

Comparing the latest figures of the 2019 Survey with the data given from 2018, it shows, that

companies are aware of the importance of trainings provided to the whole family and a positive

change in trainings provided is given.

Figure 11. “Training provided 19”, Source: KPMG, 2019, 40

Other forms of spouse/ partner support are summed up in the following statement:

“Spousal/partner assistance is also offered, in some capacity, for 66 percent of participants,

most commonly in the form of either work visa assistance in the host country or an allowance

that must be used for designated expenses, including work visa assistance, education and/or

job search assistance” (KPMG, 2019, 51).

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During the assignment ¾ of the expats are offered host country housing, which are mostly

unfurnished homes; home country furnishing will be shipped to the new destination in most

cases. Household goods shipping benefit is provided by 81% of the responding companies,

according to the latest KMPG Survey (2019, 40ff).

Considering the possibility for the expat to stay in touch with the HQ as well as with the relatives

abroad, 70% of the companies mentioned that they offer one home leave trip each year. Only

12% of the organizations offer their expats two trips within 12 months in order to visit their

home country, relatives and friends.

According to the KPMG report (2019, 34) 48% of the asked companies have special third-party

providers for emergency rescues and other types of assistance when it comes to any kind of

crisis. 34% have a global, but not local specific action plan for such situations. Moreover,

according to KPMG Survey (2019, 58) 48% of the organization sending expats to hardship

locations provide a hardship/ danger premium, which is in the majority of cases based on the

annual salary of the expat. Having given these numbers it can be seen that hardship

assignments are an issue of utmost importance at the moment, and companies keep investing

in their expats, in order to maintain safe surroundings and a safe assignment for them and

their families and of course to ensure that cost intensive investments in such areas of conflict

pay off for the organization as well.

Considering the actual return of the expat, which is the focus of this thesis, a big part of the

KPMG report (2019, 72) is dedicated to this concern. It is highlighted that 71% of the

organizations start to consider the return of the expat around 3 to 6 months before s/he actually

returns and only 2% consider the return right at the beginning of the assignment. Hereby

around 49% of the organizations have no formal policy when it comes to repatriation and

therefore a case-by-case policy is commonly used.

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Figure 12. “Prerepatriation”, Source: KPMG, 2019, 74

The results of the KPMG (2019, 73) survey show, that only 6% offer pre-repatriation visits to

the home country, which shows compared to the percentage of companies offering look and

see visits at the beginning of the assignment (45%), that this issue is considered as less

important, still literature above mentioned shows that also the return to the home country can

be seen as a cross-cultural transition and therefore has to be as well and carefully managed

as going abroad. Positive but still not perfect is the fact that 86% of the companies pay for the

home bound flight/ transport, as well as 84% use the shipment of household goods as a core

benefit for repatriates. Tax consultation for returnees is provided for 71%. 65% of the

companies do not offer any repatriation counseling at all, as well as, nearly 60% of the

companies do not offer any time off for settling in upon return.

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Figure 13. “Services provided for Repatriation”, Source: KPMG, 2019, 73

“In outlining the primary reasons assignees leave the organization after returning home, a

number of survey participants point to external competitiveness as a factor (30 percent).

Others indicate a lack of appropriate jobs available in the home country after repatriation (30

percent)” (KPMG, 2019, 72).

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Figure 14. “Top three Reasons to leave”, Source: KPMG, 2019, 79

Even though companies are aware of the fact that many expats leave the organization upon

return, there are still several companies which are not able to track this crucial information.

33% (KPMG, 2019, 72) of the asked companies do not know the number of expats leaving the

company within the first 12 months of return, which shows that companies have to better

organize and analyze their International Human Resource (IHR) issues and repatriation

processes in order to be able to better reintegrate their returnees and make to most out of

each assignment in all possible ways. How IHR managers should be able to offer suitable

repatriation means, when they do not even know that how many repats keep leaving the HQ

and for which reasons?

Considering the repatriation process, only 5% of the respondents strongly agree that their

organizations managed their repatriation processes well, and 28% are neutral about it, which

shows that there is a lot a possible space for change in the HR policies.

Figure 15. “Repatriation Success”, Source: KPMG, 2019, 75

Last but not least, the use of data concerning the assignment, the expatriate as well as the

overall benefit for the organization is covered in the KPMG Survey. In the following Figure 17,

it clearly shows, that most companies use data in order to have a closer look at costs, and the

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volume of the assignments, but soft factors are still underestimated and should be favored in

the future of international assignments.

Figure 16. “Global Mobility Metrics”, Source: KPMG, 2019, 102

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4 Research Questions

As mentioned throughout this thesis, expatriation and repatriation are topics of interest within

the field of IHRM and need to be further researched on. Furthermore, the costs of repatriation

failure as well as the loss of knowledge for companies are extremely damaging, which makes

it even more useful to analyze and try to improve these processes. Not only the company, but

also the repatriate him-/herself is affected by a poorly managed repatriation process, which

must be considered as well. Therefore, reasons for failure suggested by the existing literature

have been presented.

“However, to make the topic researchable it must be turned into a research question. Because

the key purpose of research is to create new insights, there must be something new, that is

something, we do not already know” (Ghauri/ Gronhaug, 2010, 40).

The main aim of this study is to find out, summarize and understand critical incidents

happening during the process of repatriation, as well as designing a frame of reference for the

challenges, concerns and the experiences of the repats. Specific recommendations for coping

with these factors will not be provided as this would go beyond the scope of a diploma thesis.

Again, it can only be said that there have been some improvements and some issues have

been acknowledged but still there is a lot to be done to fully exploit the potential of international

assignments for companies as well as the assignee itself. Further research as well as applied

practice needs to be focused on, in order to avoid problems in repatriation. In order to gain

insights in this process of returning an empirical study was done and is presented in the

following pages of this thesis. Using the Critical Incident Technique (CIT) and open interviews

helped to shed some light on potential incidents and emotional issues repats have to struggle

when coming home to their familiar surroundings.

A qualitative and exploratory study is done, in order to answer the following open-ended

research questions:

RQ: What makes returning home especially challenging for expatriates?

Sub-Question: Which critical incidents help to shed light on the repatriation process

and what are their implications?

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EMPIRICAL STUDY

5 Methodology

5.1 Research Design

Ghauri/ Gronhaug (2010, 17) highlight that doing research is an interaction between data and

existing theories, whereby hypotheses may be tested and unexpected findings can come up

or speculations are triggered off and prior beliefs may have to be rethought. Several forms of

doing research exist; each has different pros and cons, and is suitable for other kind of findings

and projects.

“The research design is the overall plan for relating the conceptual research problem to

relevant and practicable empirical research. In other words, the research design provides a

plan or a framework for data collection and its analysis. It reveals the type of research (e.g.

exploratory, descriptive or casual) and the priorities of the researcher. The research methods,

on the other hand, refer to the techniques used to collect data” (Ghauri/ Gronhaug, 2010, 54).

Also, Bryman (2004, 27) defines research design as a framework for analyzing and collecting

data, research methods in contrast are the techniques for data collection, which can involve a

certain instrument, such as observation or interviews. Moreover, Bryman (2004, 27) explains

that this distinction is important and helps to better understand the two terms, which often lead

to misunderstandings when doing first steps in the field of research.

According to Ghauri/ Gronhaug (2010, 90ff), potential data sources for the research can be

either primary or secondary data. Whereby secondary data has already been collected by

others for similar or different purposes and primary data is defined as fresh and original

material for the research issue at hand. Secondary data, do not only help to find information

about the research problem, but also to better understand the problem and gain insights in the

existing literature in and around the research problem. In this thesis, secondary data is used

in order to write an up-to-date literature review, using books, journal articles, online data, and

so on. “An important source for research ideas is the past literature. Reading the past literature

is often also necessary to determine whether the indented research will contain an element of

novelty” (Ghauri/ Gronahug, 2010, 40).

The main focus of this thesis is to put on primary data. Several data collection options, such

as experiments, observations and interviews are helpful in this case. “The main advantage of

primary data is that they are collected for the particular project at hand. This means they are

more consistent with our research question and research objectives” (Ghauri/ Gronhaug, 2010,

100). Not only the freshness of primary data is highlighted by the authors, but also the

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disadvantages of collecting first hand data, which are time and money consuming activities,

access to potential partners, and the researchers´ awareness of using the right tools to gain

data. Finally, Ghauri/ Gronhaug, (2010, 100) mention the small degree of control the

researcher has by using primary data collection, as unforeseen factors can influence the

intended study as well as sometimes cooperation is refused by respondents. Saunders et al.

(2009, 140) mention in this connection with explorative research: “Its great advantage is that it

is flexible and adaptable for change. If you are conducting exploratory research you must be

willing to change your direction as a result of new data that appear and new insights that occur

to you”.

5.2 Qualitative Research

“Research methods refer to systematic, focused and orderly collection of data for the purpose

of obtaining information from them, to solve/ answer a particular research question or problem”

(Ghauri/ Gronhaug, 2010, 104).

According to Bryman (2004, 268) qualitative research is focused on words and their meanings

in the collection and the analysis of data rather than quantification of numbers. Moreover,

Ghauri/ Gronhaug (2010, 104) as well as Bryman (2004, 268) above, point out that the

differences between quantitative and qualitative approaches are not only the quantification of

data, but also the interpretation as well as new and different ways of reflecting research

objectives. “In qualitative interviewing, the researcher wants rich, detailed answers; in

structured interviewing the structured interview is supposed to generate answers that can be

coded and processed quickly” (Bryman, 2004, 320). In this connection, some differences in

emphasis in qualitative studies are mentioned: understanding of the issues, the interviewee’s

point of view must be emphasized on, an approach of interpretation, natural settings are used

for data collection, insider views are favored, in order to reach closeness to data and an

explorative orientation. “Qualitative research is thus common in social and behavioral sciences

and among practitioners who want to understand human behavior and functions” (Ghauri/

Gronhaug, 2010, 106). Bryman (2004, 279) agrees to this statement, by highlighting that “many

qualitative researchers express a commitment to viewing events and the social world through

the eyes of the people that they study” (Bryman, 2004, 279).

Taking into consideration that the interviewees´ experiences and their stories form the core of

this research, the most suitable approach of research is a qualitative one. Moreover, it should

be pointed out that an explorative approach helps to gain insights in new areas of interest but

does not aim to give clear directions or final decisions. Exploratory research “tends to tackle

new problems on which little or no previous research has been done” (Brown, 2006, 43) and

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so creates space for others to go deeper and come up with final findings. The above

mentioned, explorative and open-style questions demand this kind of research as interviewees

can come up with new and unexpected ideas.

“In qualitative research, theory is supposed to be an outcome of investigation rather than

something that precedes it” (Bryman, 2004, 268), which means that theory is generated out of

research and therefore is a common critic about qualitative research designs. As well as there

are critiques about quantitative research there are also critiques about qualitative research.

According to Bryman (2004, 284) the difficulty of replication of qualitative studies is a critical

issue, as here the interviewer itself is the main source of information collection, so most of the

gathered information is a product of his/ her predilections. Moreover, the close personal link

between interviewer and interviewee as well as the small scope of studies is often mentioned

as a critique of qualitative research, especially when it comes to generalizing findings. Having

given all the above-mentioned pros and cons of qualitative research, it is still the most suitable

way of gaining information for the chosen topic of this thesis.

5.2.1 Critical Incident Technique (CIT)

“When asking questions it is important that wherever possible these are grounded in the real-

life experiences of your participants rather than being on an abstract concept. One approach

to questioning which makes use of the key participant experiences is the critical incident

technique, in which participants are asked to describe in detail a critical incident or number of

incidents that are key to the research question” (Saunders et al., 2009, 332).

Bryman/ Bell (2007, 226) mention that CIT can be used well as a part of a structured or semi-

structured interview when doing a qualitative research. The authors say that CIT asks

interviewees to mention critical incidents, these critical incidents can be any observable human

activities, which seem to be crucial to be mentioned in this context by the interviewee. “The

most common use of the critical incidents method involves interviewing respondents about

particular types of event or behaviour in order to develop an understanding of their sequence

and their significance to the individual” (Bryman/ Bell, 2007, 226).

According to Flanagan (1954, 2ff) observations on behaviours have been done unintentionally

by researchers as well as ordinary people, so this concept is nothing new, but what was

missing were tools and techniques for analyzing and putting together what researchers have

observed. CIT was first used in the 1940s Aviation Industry and the US Army Air Forces for

setting up selection and classification procedures of aircrews. Several studies have been done

in the past using CIT, potential fields were training, operating procedures, psychotherapy,

motivation, leadership and so on, which shows that CIT can be applied on numerous issues

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(Flanagan, 1954, 21ff). It is interesting to mention, that according to Butterfield et al. (2005,

490) CIT has transformed from a tool for analyzing tasks to a useful tool for explorative and

investigative qualitative research, which is therefore highly suitable for the context of this

thesis.

“From the foregoing discussion, it is clear that the critical incident technique is essentially a

procedure for gathering certain important facts concerning behavior in defined situations. It

should be emphasized that the critical incident technique does not consist of a single rigid set

of rules governing such data collection. Rather it should be thought of as a flexible set of

principles which must be modified and adapted to meet the specific situation at hand”

(Flanagan, 1954, 9).

According to Butterfield et al. (2005, 478), who reviewed 50 years of CIT, Flanagan's (1954)

original article deals mostly with human observations done by experts, still the use of CIT has

changed and the authors point out that other forms of data collection are feasible too, as

observations are not possible at all times. Other potential forms of data collection mentioned

by Flanagan (1954, 16) are the individual interview, group interviews, record forms and

questionnaires. Moreover, Butterfield et al. (2005, 479) point out the sample size of such a

study. Hereby not the number of people interviewed or observed counts, but rather the number

of critical incidents identified and collected.

5.2.2 Semi-structured Interviews

An explorative study is conducted, which demands qualitative means of data collection. Hereby

semi-structured interviews are a highly suitable format in order to use the Critical Incident

Technique.

“Interviews demand real interaction between the researcher and the respondent” (Ghauri/

Gronhaug, 2010, 125). According to Ghauri/ Gronhaug, (2010, 126ff) and Bryman (2004, 113),

there are structured-, unstructured- as well as semi-structured interviews, whereby in this study

the latter one is relevant. Due to open-ended questions interview partners, can answer in their

own words and way of thinking, as no possible answer options are given. This format is highly

suitable for an exploratory research approach, even though the interviews are more difficult to

interpret and analyze afterwards. Bryman (2004, 113) describes the semi-structured interview

as a series of questions, which can be asked in a varied form from interview to interview, as

well as these often more generally formulated questions leave space for further questions in

response to interesting answers.

“In qualitative interviewing, interviews can depart significantly from any schedule or guide that

is being used” (Bryman, 2004, 320). Still Bryman (2004, 283) warns researchers of overloads

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of detailed information gathered through unstructured interviews, which cannot be analyzed

properly in later stages of the research. Especially qualitative researchers tend to get lost in

details due to the emphasis on description.

9 interviews were conducted with repatriates, which have been abroad for a variety of

companies. There was no focus on a certain industry, age groups or gender of the repatriates.

Considering the duration of the assignment, assignments exceeding a period of one year were

favored. Expatriates can have successfully completed one or even more assignments.

Moreover, it was tried to find interviewees who left the company right after the assignment,

stayed for another period of time within the organization, as well as interviewees who stayed

within the company after returning and maintained what some people would call a “career”.

Having given these different scenarios, a broader spectrum of answers was generated and

therefore more diverse spectrum of critical incidents.

In this connection, it should be mentioned that there are several ways of finding interviewees

for this thesis, I chose to work with people I know and/ or worked with. It was very tough to find

people volunteering for my interviews, even though I explained the topic to them in written form

and had a personal tie with them, some of them refused as they have demanding jobs now

and therefore aren’t available for such things. Another problem were the different time zones,

as most of my potential interviewees are US Americans. Due to the fact that I have always

been working full-time next to writing this thesis, my night shifts and the American time zone

weren’t very conducive.

Other sources for finding potential partners were expat groups on Facebook, which I thought

would be a great source to reach more partners in an easy and efficient way, but that turned

out to be untrue as most expats using those kinds of groups were on an actual assignment

and haven’t yet been repatriating, which was therefore not helpful for my research.

In order to get all the information needed, I had to get in touch with my interview partners

several times, and thereby tried not to be annoying. Another issue with some interview partners

was data protection as their companies do not want them to give any information to outsiders.

Two of my conducted interviews, which were very detailed and also gave good insights in the

assignments and the incidents happening during the transition back, had to be blue-penciled

extensively by themselves, as they were afraid that data could leak and managers could be

informed about their statements.

Moreover, some of the repats first agreed on doing an interview, but after having sent them

the transcripts of the interviews done, they no longer wanted to be part of my research as they

considered the transcripts as too emotional; harmful for their further careers or just too explicit.

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At the beginning of planning the empirical interviews, anonymity of interviewees wasn’t on the

agenda, but after more and more interviewees asked for strictly not mentioning company

names, and personal names, especially surnames, I followed those requests. In order to be

d´accord with the interviewees and to finish this thesis, only the real first names of the

candidates are used as well as only some of the companies are named, others are called by

synonyms.

Each interview lasts around 30-50 minutes and was recorded as well as transcribed

afterwards, in order to ensure a qualitative content analysis. Considering the language of the

interviews and transcripts it should be mentioned that either German and/ or English were

options, depending on the language skills and preference of the interviewee. The analysis of

the collected data as well as the interpretation of data is the key purpose of research. Before

being able to interpret the data, analytical activities such as categorization, abstraction,

selection, reduction and so on were necessary.

Considering topics of the interview, I think it was important to begin with some general

questions about the expat him/herself, in order to get to know a little bit about the person and

the company s/he worked for. Moreover, it was crucial to break the ice at the beginning, and

as written above, having more general questions at the beginning of the interview as trust has

to be established in order to go deeper and get the most out of the interviewee. After getting

some information about the preparation of the upcoming repatriation process and the

communication with the HQ, questions about the process of coming home were asked, the

focus hereby was set on critical incidents described by the interviewees. Towards the end of

the interview more personal questions were asked. After questioning the expat about coming

home, some questions about the family and friends of the repatriate were asked. Questions

concerning family and friends of the repatriate are asked, as they on the one hand potential

sources of conflict and frustration while being abroad, and on the other hand they can influence

the assignment positively.

Considering the sample questions given below, it should be mentioned that these questions

were just a draft of potential questions which were asked during the interview as I wanted it to

be an open conversation. Moreover, I thought that asking open questions could cause an

information overflow, as one answer could lead to new questions and new answers. Testing

the outcome of the interview with a pretest was a possible way to reduce the information

overload, and focus on fewer questions. Notable in this connection is that after doing the first

two interviews, the questions were changed and adapted a little bit, as I had the feeling that

expats focused more on the general information of the assignment than on the actual topic of

returning home. Therefore, the general and pre-repatriation section was shortened and the

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questions about coming home adapted. The interview guide can be found attached in the

appendices.

SAMPLE QUESTIONS

General Information Please tell me something about yourself and the last assignment you did recently! (general,

info, where, when, how long, for what, position, why you…)

What kind of knowledge did you gain on that assignment, considering all possible areas for

learning? (company based knowledge, culture, traditions, new friends, language, etc.)

Pre-repatriation phase/ Communication Now please think about the time before you had to relocate back home. What did you feel,

what reminds you the most of the time before finally coming back?

Which (critical) incidents can you remember the most in this pre-repatriation time?

Repatriation Please think about your return. What was it like to come back to your home country?

Which critical incidents happened during your repatriation? Which ones are still in your mind

and need to be talked about?

Communication/ Family/ Friends How was your communication with your family and friends? How did these interactions

influence the process?

Finally, is there anything you would like to tell someone who is about to repatriate soon?

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5.3 Sample Description Chart

5.4 Presenting the Candidates

This section briefly introduces the participants and provides an overview of their background

and story. At the time of the interviews, all participants have already been returned from the

assignments they are talking about.

INTERVIEW 1 – J.

J. was the first interviewee I worked with, she was therefore the pre-test, so I could see if my

questions provide useful answers, as well as focus on the research questions. J. was at the

beginning of her thirties when she went overseas (Spain) for her very first international

assignment. The interview was conducted via skype audio call, and she was actually on her

way home from work and driving her car while doing the call, but due to her working hours, as

well as the time differences between the US and Austria, no other call could be scheduled. J.

is a very open and reflected person, as well as she is very emotional and caring, this also may

be influenced by the fact that she grew up in Sweden and was therefore used to the European

Name Gender Age Home

Country

Position Host

Country

Duration Spouse Remarks

1 J. female 34 USA Store Manager Spain 2 years no left

2 M. male 39 Austria Country

Coordinator

Italy 1,5 years no stayed

3 P. male 37 Spain Store Manager Austria 7 months no left

4 M. male 41 Germany Head of Talent

Mgmt

Italy 2 years no stayed

5 A. female 35 USA Store Manager Austria 3 years no left

6 N. female 36 Austria Regional Sales

Ops

Switzerland 10

months

no stayed

7 K. female 32 USA Store Manager Austria 2 years no left

8 M. female 32 Austria Brand Manager Hong Kong 1 year no left

9 H. male 39 Austria Area Finance

Director

Switzerland/

UAE

3 years yes left

Table 3. “Sample Description Chart”

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culture. J. has left the company shortly after she returned, in order to start a new and more

meaningful career path – she now works for a charity organization.

INTERVIEW 2 – M.

M. was the second interviewee; as well as the first interview, it was done by using Skype, this

time a video call was used, as I thought seeing the other persons facial expressions would be

useful while conducting the open interview. M. had started a new assignment at the moment

the interview was done, which was right after returning from Italy and was in Vienna then. He

stayed with the company and got promoted. M. is a very career-oriented person, which can

also be seen in the interview – emotional and subjective topics were harder for him to answer

than business related issues, also he is very company minded and committed. After sending

him the transcript of the interview, he blue penciled many of the more negative answers, he

also wanted to keep the positive and “accurate” image of his employer to be maintained and

therefore wanted some comments to be deleted. Also, he asked for highest level of anonymity,

as his statements could affect his career; also, he wished to conduct the interview in German.

INTERVIEW 3 – P.

P. was one of my former managers in Linz, he was sent to Vienna and after some months in

Vienna they sent him to Linz, in order to open a new store. P. was very happy and motivated

to talk about his very emotional and special experiences on his assignment. At the moment

doing the Skype call with him, he was working in Spain again, and changed to the Tech-branch,

which was the field where he originally came from. The assignment we talked about was his

second international assignment, but this one he ended after 7 months (original 2-year

contract) as he was not happy with how the company treated him. He was very open during

the interview and also openly mentioned that he started using some unhealthy and bad coping

strategies due to his bad experiences in Linz.

INTERVIEW 4 – M.

M. was one out of two interviewees which I didn’t know personally, he was suggested by

another candidate – snow ball like – and due to the fact that he did several assignments already

he was a good fit. Some brief information about the thesis as well as the research was sent to

him on social media and a skype call was scheduled then. Due to his demanding job, the

interview was then done while he was travelling from Munich to Vienna by train. The

connection was poor from time to time, but in the end, it was all doable. M. started the interview

in German, then continued in English and some small talk after the interview was German

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again. He was very talkative and open during the interview, and also shared some private and

emotional information with me, even though he never met me in person before. M. seemed to

be very company and career oriented and even dramatic personal experiences didn’t interfere

with his drive.

INTERVIEW 5 – A.

A. was in her mid-twenties when she was sent to Austria and localized there for about three

years, it was her first and so far, last assignment when we did the interview. A. was the one

who recruited me for working with her some years ago, and she has always been not only a

manager but also a friend. She was the first person who came up my mind when screening for

interview partners, and she was very grateful as well as relieved after doing the interview. She

said that she nearly forgot about her experiences overseas, especially the more negative ones

and she was glad that someone asked her about those as well as brought them back on her

mind again. A. was very open and emotional; in-depth and emotional stories were provided by

her to my open questions. The interview was done by using a Skype video call and both sides

enjoyed this interview a lot, not only to gather information for this thesis, but also to catch up

and talk about her new job with another fashion brand. After doing the interview, A. sent me a

message about how happy and relieved she felt now, which was a nice gesture.

INTERVIEW 6 – N.

N. s assignment in Switzerland was the second shortest of all within the sample of this thesis,

as it only lasted 10 months. It was planned to consider expats which stayed abroad for roughly

one year, but due to the very interesting, emotional and descriptive answers she provided, the

data had to be used for the analysis. N. had not only one of the shortest but also one of the

most demanding ones, due to the fact that most of her companies’ decisions were made last

minute, and therefore didn’t let much time to think for her. She works for the same company

as another interviewee does, and as she is very career-oriented and company minded as well,

she asked for the same standards of anonymity and wanted to blue pencil the transmitted

transcripts on her own, as she feared that leaking information could harm her career. Hence,

the outside view on the company, and the brand image should be maintained.

INTERVIEW 7 – K.

K. was on her first assignment when we first met in Salzburg, she was working for an American

fashion brand as some of the interviewees did. After conducting the interview with A., she

managed to get in contact with K. and convinced her of becoming an interview-partner as well

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as she was so happy with the relief it had for her. A skype call was scheduled and later hold

via Skype audio. The atmosphere of the call was very open and relaxed and she provided

some very mature and human aspects of the assignment, with a very légere and non-work-

related point of view. K. got frustrated with the job after her return as well as with how the

brands imaged has shifted while she was abroad and therefore left the organization.

INTERVIEW 8 – M.

M. studied in Vienna and did an assignment in Hong Kong, which was for 12 months. She was

the last person screened and chosen for being an interview partner for this thesis. We knew

each other, but not on a professional basis, that’s why she hasn’t been selected to be a

potential candidate earlier. Through her very lively and story-like statements the bond to her

could be deepened. Especially the positivity about her experiences shall be highlighted here.

She enjoyed being in urban Hong Kong a lot and was able to collect several different

experiences of all kind of all kind of areas of interest. However, her assignment worked out

pretty well according to her, she has left the company short upon her return and now works for

a leather goods brand in Vienna.

INTERVIEW 9 – H.

H. was on his first assignment in Dubai when we met many, many years ago. At this time, he

was working for a pharmaceutical company on a three years contract and already back then

he was accompanied by his boyfriend. H. was the only expat among the sample who had a

partner and therefore his answers do not only reflect his point of views but also his partners´.

As a serial expatriate and frequent globetrotter, he has great stories to tell and provided some

crucial information for this thesis. The two-year assignment in Zurich was of great value for

this research. Interesting hereby is that H. is Austrian, who was sent to Dubai, then sent to

Zurich and repatriated to Dubai, which he and his partner consider as home. The cultural and

geographic closeness of Switzerland and Austria did not smoothen his experiences while being

in Zurich, especially as he has already adapted to the lifestyle and cultural norms of the Middle

East. Due to his tight schedule, H. was the only candidate who asked for the interview script

to be sent before conducting the interview, in order to mentally prepare some answers and

save time. H. left his former employer and started working for another pharmaceutical company

upon his repatriation to Dubai.

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5.5 Template Analysis Approach

“You must remember that there are no absolute rules here; in the end you must define an

approach to analysis that suits your own research” (King, 1998, 133).

As described, qualitative data was collected by conducting 9 semi-structured interviews, which

provided in-depth data and real-life stories. According to Bryman (2004, 320) the aim of

qualitative interviews is the get very deep and detailed information out of the interviewee, which

in later steps can be coded, and processed and interpreted. The collected and transcribed

data, was analyzed in order to answer the given research questions of this thesis. In order to

analyze that data, thematic analysis was used, to be more exact, template analysis by Nigel

King. According to Braun/ Clarke (2006) a theme encapsulates something, which is considered

by the researcher as important about the data in relation to the research questions and

represents some level of patterned response or meaning within the data.

“Template analysis is a very widely used approach in qualitative research, …” (King, 1998,

118). “Template analysis is a technique for thematically organising and analysing qualitative

data. The data involved are usually interview transcripts, but may be any kind of textual data,

including focus groups, diary entries, text from electronic interviews (via email/ web based

chatrooms, social networking sites etc.) or open ended question responses on a written

questionnaire” (Brooks/ King, 2014, 1ff).

Very often it is not referred as template analysis, but its given other names or is called such as

“looking for themes”, those themes are called templates, or codes and they are in many cases

defined a priori. “The essence of the approach is that the researcher produces a list (a

`template`) representing themes identified in their textual data” (King, 1998, 118) but also

modification of templates is given upon going through the given data. The author highlights,

that the use of a priori set codes is not a must, but often happens due to the given topic of the

research and underlying assumptions. “Often the best starting point for constructing an initial

template is the interview topic guide…” (King, 1998, 122). Moreover, he highlights that users

should not use too many a priori codes and that those codes should be redefined or removed

when they are considered as misleading or ineffective for the use of the research. Also, the

author points out that it should be avoided to define the template at the initial stage of the

analysis. “Analysis involves a constant moving back and forward between the entire data set,

the coded extracts of data that you are analysing, and the analysis of the data that you are

producing” (Braun/ Clarke, 2006, 15).

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Also, King (1998, 122ff) points out that at this stage of the analysis, it can be helpful to ask

people for advice who are experienced within the field as well as with analyzing qualitative

data, but in most cases, it lacks both types of experience in a single person.

According to King (1998, 118ff) the main aim of template analysis, is to uncover “the ‘real’

beliefs, attitudes, values and so on of the participants in the research” (King, 1998, 119).

Another potential advantage of using template analysis, is that this technique doesn’t require

a lot of previous experiences or uses of the tool, as well as the technique is easy to use and

deals with fewer strict procedures to be followed. “…and template analysis may be preferred

as a more flexible technique with fewer specified procedures which allows researchers to tailor

the approach to the requirements of their particular research project” (Brooks/ King, 2014, 3).

“It is a highly flexible approach that can be modified for the needs of any study. It may be an

appealing alternative when other methods come with prescriptions and procedures which are

difficult to reconcile with the features of a particular research study. The flexibility of the coding

structure in template analysis allows researchers to explore the richest aspects of data in real

depth” (Brooks/ King, 2014, 9). According to King (1998, 133) one disadvantage, especially for

newcomers can be the information overload which can be produced during working with this

technique, as in many cases the whole data becomes “too complex to be manageable” (King,

1998, 133). Another thing someone using Kings template analysis has to be sure about is,

either using “a qualitative analysis software package” (King, 1998, 125) or to do the coding

manually by hand – the latter technique is the one used for this thesis, hereby the use of color

markers came into play.

The following Table 4 shows the phases of thematic analysis, presented by Braun/ Clarke

(2006), those phases are very similar to the phases given in the article by Brooks/ King (2014),

although Braun/ Clarke (2006) offer a better table for presenting the phases step by step.

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Table 4. “Phases of Thematic Analysis”, Source: Braun/Clarke, 2006, 35

According to Brooks/ King (2014) the following steps define the main process of doing a

template analysis:

1. The initial step of doing such an analysis is to learn as much as possible out of the data

which should be analyzed. Reading through transcripts is important hereby, in order to

once again get a good overview before starting to analyze the whole data, this also

applies in such cases were interviews have been conducted personally.

2. The following step is initial coding of the data, which means marking all the necessary

information, which can be interesting and useful for the analysis, hereby existing

themes out of the questions asked can be useful, which might serve as a frame of

reference for the analysis. Changing and adjusting themes in the following steps is

applicable.

3. As soon as themes have been formed and identified, clusters need to be organized.

Hereby hierarchies should emerge within the themes and can be interlinked.

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4. Creating those themes and clusters leads to an initial coding template – which depends

on the sample size of interviews conducted. Having given a greater number of

interviews to analyze, starting to create the initial template by scanning a few interviews

only is advised.

5. Further information can be considered, modified and adapted once the initial template

is created. These modifications and adaptions can continue until a template, which

seems to include all information provided by all interviews, and which represents all

information provided, has been created. In the end of coding the textual data, all

essential information should be considered and coded.

6. As soon as the researcher considered all necessary information out of the textual data

and summed it up in themes and codes, the template analysis is done so far and the

coding process can be finished.

Organized results are the final part of the data analysis; established themes and critical

incidents are compared with existing and reviewed literature, in order to highlight similarities

and differences as well as coming up with final suggestions.

5.6 Limitations

A potential limitation of the study is that one third of the interviewed persons used to work for

one, well-known American brand, which mostly hires young professionals who seek for

adventure, responsibility and international experiences. Moreover, it should be mentioned that

6 out of 9 interviewed repats were single at the time of their assignments, and only one repat

had his spouse being sent abroad with him, therefore, existing expatriate literature focusing

on the accompanying spouse is, unfortunately, less relevant for the empirical part of this thesis.

Moreover, another potential limitation of the study should be pointed out, some of the

interviewed persons are friends of mine; nevertheless, during the interviews I tried not to share

my personal experiences or points of view with them in order not to influence their stories,

even though of course the outcome of the interview is always a product of both the interviewer

and the interviewee. During the analysis, I tried as much as possible to exclude my feelings

and personal views of the topic in question.

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6 Analysis/ Findings

6.1 Analysing the Transcripts

Once I finished the transcripts of the interviews, I started with the analysis of the given data,

following the steps presented in Table 4. I closely read through the first two interviews, as well

as I wrote some comments and remarks next to the highlighted text passages. Symon/ Cassell

(2004, 256) suggest that this template approach is used for organising and analyzing data by

using different themes. The aim is to create several different codes, which represent subjects

found in the textual data analyzed. Those remarks helped me to produce my first initial

template, which I first only drew in my mind, and drew on paper later. My first initial template

consisted of four key themes. At this stage I also highlighted parts of the interview, where

candidates emphasized on their challenges within the whole process of expatriation. For this

thesis, no software solution was used, due to cost saving all the coding and analysis were

done by hand, using different color pen markers, and a lot of space and patience. Furthermore,

all transcripts were read separately and I tried to engage a lot with the data, as well as I tried

to identify and specify the key themes. Afterwards, I put all the relevant text passages, which

I marked before, together into a new document and printed them out. Having drawn the

template by hand (Appendix A), and reading through all interviews again, I started to readapt

the marked textual parts and added and deleted some. Going through all the interview parts

again with the research questions in mind I was able to modify my initial template again. Finally,

I identified seven key areas of interest as well as such sub themes, which in many cases were

hard to differentiate, which can be seen in Appendix C. After going through the list of

highlighted statements again, I tried to break those statements into smaller fractions, as some

of the statements included information of more than one single theme. Moreover, I again added

comments as well as the number of the theme in question next to the highlighted statement,

this ongoing process of editing helped me a lot to keep close contact with the information. On

the next stage I organized all interesting and relevant text fractions within my major themes by

putting them all in one extra document. Hereby, I created Table 5 with the key themes and the

sub themes for each interview, as well as I was checking on the sub themes in order to ensure

that all relevant information was categorized. After creating this table I once more went through

all statements and the comments added and modified the sub themes as they were chosen

too specifically and some could be submerged within broader themes. After redoing the theme,

I moved into the next, final, stage of the analysis, which was finding critical incidents,

mentioned in the marked interview statements, which happened during the repatriation

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process of the interviewees. Hereby, I was focusing on six areas in which those critical

incidents happened, those six areas are the key themes of my template used for this analysis.

Table 5. “Final Template with Themes and Sub Themes”

6.2 Identifying Critical Incidents

In this section I will present several areas, in which critical incidents happened during the

repatriation process of the interviewed expatriates. Those critical incidents made returning

home especially challenging for some of them. Those identified critical incidents shall in further

steps shed light on the process of repatriation and describe the implications they have had for

the repats as well as a brief comparison with the literature reviewed is presented.

6.2.1 Socio-Cultural

The first area of interest considering critical incidents, which made returning home challenging

for repatriates, is the socio-cultural area. Under this key theme all critical incidents, relating to

the topics of culture and cultural differences and the well-known phenomena of culture and

reverse culture shock were taken together. Also, the sub themes of living conditions upon

return as well as friends were considered in this socio-cultural main theme, as I found it

interesting to combine them and as I think relationships build the reality of the repatriate.

1 Socio-Cultural

2 Identification/ Commitment

3 Communication 4 Company/ Career 5 Pre-Repatriation

6 Existing Procedures/ Experience

1.1 Cultural differences & Reverse culture shock

3.1 Intensity of Communication

4.1 No available/ Same Position upon Return

5.1 Information about Repatriation

1.2 Re-Adjustment

3.2 Timing of Communication

4.2 The Career Ladder

5.2 Time until Repatriation

1.3 Living Conditions

4.3 Work Satisfaction

1.4 Friends

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6.2.1.1 Cultural Differences & Reverse Culture Shock

Many of the interviewed repatriates were facing cross cultural challenges during their return,

some of them highlighted that they had struggled a lot more than they expected. They also

mentioned that returning after the international assignment was harder than going on the actual

assignment. This challenge has been covered by the existing literature, but still companies

seem to be investing little efforts to reduce or face this potential source of conflict. According

to Selmer (1999) and Adler (2002) culture shock symptoms can be anxiety, anger as well as

identity issues. Some statements given highlight the intensity of the reverse culture shock:

I thought going to Austria was the biggest step I have ever made, but what I didn’t think

about - never – was that coming back to the US was even harder. Going to Austria was like

an adventure, it was kinda a fun trip, like going on a vacation but coming home was not. (7)

It took me a good year, year and a half, just to readjust. Crazy. When I say it out loud, I just

think oh my goodness, yeah! It’s so weird, you would think it´s harder to go to a foreign

country than it would going home, but it was not like that. (5)

It was a bigger culture shock coming back to the US than it was to go to Austria, it was

harder for me to readjust. (5)

Actually, talking about the return and the experience right now, I can remember, that it was

actually harder to return, I mean, I had trainings, and learned about the culture shock, but

in my opinion the culture shock was much more intense after that one year coming home

from HK than the one I had when entering China. I don’t want to say that I was depressed,

but coming home was a completely different experience than I have expected it to be. (8)

Several authors cited in chapter 3.7. such as Gaw (2000), Porter/ Tansky (1995), Fischlmayr/

Kopecek (2015) and Haslberger (2008) have mentioned the challenges of the reverse culture

shock, and have already tried to cope with its implications from the theoretical point of view,

but still it lacks action by companies who send expats abroad and later make them come home

again. Considering the answers provided by the interviewees in this research and the literature

reviewed it shows a fit between research done and the perceived reality of the repats.

6.2.1.2 Re-Adjustment

Another source of critical incidents was the re-adjustment period of returning expatriates, in

this area many of the repats mentioned that the time needed to re-adjust to the new, but old

environment was longer than they assumed. Of course, the time to re-adjust and the reverse

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culture shock could be viewed as one connected issue, but many of the repats have never

heard of those issues until they have experienced them, which makes it even more important

to highlight them both within this chapter. Several candidates mentioned that readjusting to

their former country of living after returning from an international assignment was challenging

them intensively, as well as it was a source for emotional challenges as well as it took some

weeks and even months for them to overcome them.

Das wird wahrscheinlich in jedem Land so sein, dass die Uhren dort ein bisschen anders

ticken, für mich hat´s sicher 3 bis 4 Monate gedauert generell, um wieder so in die

Österreichische Mentalität zu finden. (2)

It was a roller-coaster drive all along. (7)

I don’t wanna say I was depressed, but I was pretty depressed. I mean it was nice to see

my friends and family, but it really was not. I don’t know. It was hard, it was really hard, it

was probably one of the lowest points I have ever had in my live. (5)

I knew what I was expecting, cause´ I knew Austria, but the lifestyle, I preferred the Swiss

lifestyle, first one or two years, that was probably the biggest problem I had. I was missing

the lifestyle, the people, my own lifestyle there, the work I had and my daily routines, which

changed 360 degrees, yeah. (6)

Having reviewed the existing literature on repatriation while writing this thesis, it could be seen

that re-adjustment is a potential stressor for repatriates while coming home in their used

surroundings. Several authors have already shown that readjustment after being abroad, often

in diverse cultural settings, has severe impact on the process as well as the repatriate and its

trailing spouse and/ or family. Fischlmayr/ Kopecek (2015, 202ff) mentioned that the reverse

culture shock is even more intense for the spouse and the kids, which couldn’t be tested within

this study, as only one of the interviewees was accompanied by a partner. Aldossari/

Robertson (2018, 1498ff) also suggest that repatriates have often assimilated to the overseas

culture while being on an international assignment and furthermore, those positive experiences

of working and living in a foreign country then cause difficulties in readjusting upon return.

Andreason/ Kinneer (2005), Hurn (1999) and Porter/ Tansky (2005) have already agreed on

the fact that readjustment, as well as the reverse culture shock are potential stressors of the

repatriation process, which implies that debriefing of repats as well as provided pre-departure

training is needed in order to successfully avoid or limit those effects. Also, Lee/ Liu (2007,

131) point out that re-adjustment, doesn’t start with the actual return of the repat, but must be

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considered during the whole process in order to keep the repatriate in the organization and

increase retention rates of repatriates.

6.2.1.3 Living Conditions

The changing living conditions upon return of an international assignment challenged many of

the interviewed expats. This area of conflict was mentioned in many of the interviews and was

extremely emotional for the repats. Going through the statements of the interviewees, it can

be clearly seen that the challenges regarding the living conditions upon return are often caused

by financial changes upon return, as well as changes in the context of housing. Herby,

especially moving back to the repats parents’ home was mentioned by some repatriates. The

main reasons for moving back home were either caused by a decreased income upon return

or the lack of services provided by the companies. According to Dowling et al. (1994, 82) one

phase of the repatriation process if the “Transition” phase, which covers issues such as

temporary accommodation, deciding for housing and schooling as well as other upcoming

administrative tasks, which all need to be considered in order to avoid repatriation issues.

Going through the cited statements shows that this “Transition” phase was not or not well

enough planned in some cases and therefore caused severe issues for the repatriates.

Well, in Spain I was living in an apartment all by myself, but then I moved in with my

grandma, so that was very different (1)

Once I came back here to Valencia, I was completely unemployed and it was quite hard for

me to get used to that, and the most important thing is that I quit I didn’t have any kind of

subsidiary from the Spanish government, so all the months I wasn’t employed, I was not

receiving any kind of money, so for me it was a little bit frustrating, because I was looking

for a job, as an engineer, but it took me like 4 months to get a job, and it was frustrating for

me because I was not making money and I was spending my savings, and it was not that

easy. (3)

I felt like I am here back in the US, they didn’t help me find a car, there is no public

transportation out here, like they didn’t give me housing when I came back to the States, it

was kind of like, ah there was another thing, I had a pay gap. Ehm, my pay went down when

I went back to the States, so I got paid, I made the same, let’s say 50.000 Euros equivalent

to 50.000 Dollars, so that’s like a huge change, so it was even a lifestyle change, so I was

you know, like, you don’t think it’s that much but you know 300 or 400 extra a month is huge,

especially for a 26/27 years old, living on my own, you know that! Eh, that was a big incident,

I think that should have been avoided and a little bit more organized, and I think they should

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have, they took care of us when we went out there it was great, we were making money, as

soon as we came home, it was just kind of whatever. (5)

It was different, and I didn’t make as much money as before, and I didn’t make as much to

live on my own, I had to move in with my mom. So not only that I moved back to the States,

but I also moved back to my mom and family, that was a disaster. (5)

If they would have, I don’t know 4 to 5 business apartments, this would really help, and they

can provide that apartment for you for free because they have to pay for the hotels anyways,

until you find yourself a flat. (6)

I was back home and had like 2 weeks scheduled for my return, which means I was off and

had some time to catch up with my family, and yeah, I had to move in back home, as I

couldn’t manage to find a flat and also I had my student loan to pay and yeah stuff like that

and yeah, I had to move in back home. I earned less, I couldn’t manage my costs of living

and the new job bored me… (7)

What I also missed was the big city life, Vienna is an awesome city to live in, but HK offered

other and different things to do, also I missed the international flair among my expat friends.

I guess the main point was that urban and cool lifestyle, which I had in HK. (8)

According to the early studies done by Black/ Gregersen (1991, 691) suggest that several

factors which help to adapt expats on and during their international assignment may make

returning even harder, hereby the authors mention especially better housing conditions and

allowances. Providing high allowances for housing during the assignment make a drop-in living

conditions even harder after returning and therefore have negative effects on the repatriation

process and the repats adjustment upon return. Also, Fischlmayr/ Kopecek (2015, 202) have

already suggested in their studies, that the loss of financial benefits and loss of status upon

return, which is connected to the living conditions of the repat, can be a burden upon return.

Also, Harvey/ Moeller (2005, 288) suggested that losing all those allowances, provided during

the assignment upon return to the home country, can place a financial hardship to the

repatriate as well as its family.

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6.2.1.4 Friends

Another source for critical incidents during the repatriation process was connected to the role

of friends, especially new friendships were mentioned which have established while being

abroad. Some of the interviewees mentioned that being in a new environment for a long period

of time helped to build new relationships with host country nationals, not only at work but also

outside. These interactions are, according to Toh/ Denisi (2005, 135) helpful for the expatriate

to cope with negative effects of the culture shock when going on an assignment as well as with

adapting to the new environment, which then makes the transition smoother for the expatriate,

but also leads to challenges during the return, according to the statements given in this

research.

It was harder to leave the people that I met, even Bettina, I hang out with her every weekend

and her family, and we go hiking, and have dinner, like I was part of the family, and then all

of a sudden, say good bye. You probably never gonna see them again. (5)

We had set up new lives here, I mean we had real good new friends, some of us fell in love

or built up relationships with locals, we had our lives here. (7)

I was kinda lost, my new friends were in Salzburg, my old friends busy here, also they didn’t

really care about my “trip”. (7))

According to studies done by Litrell/ Salas (2005, 322) additional stressors for the repatriation

phase and the successful reentry of the repatriate are the feeling of alienation among peers at

work, as well as among family and friends. Considering Dowling et al. (1994, 82), and the

presented phase of “Physical relocation”, which covers issues such as removing personal

effects and breaking ties with colleagues and friends shows that these issues have already

been identified but probably not been communicated to the companies well enough.

6.2.2 Identification/ Commitment

The following theme, which helped to analyze critical incidents during the repatriation process

deals with the personality of the repatriate as well as its commitment towards the job and/ or

organization and the identification with the job and/ or company. Several of the interviewed

repatriates mentioned that their attitude towards their jobs changed during the return, as well

as, they had a different picture of the company after returning. Some of the interviewed

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repatriates clearly stated their opinions and also stated clear implications which were the

results of those changes and challenges.

What changed for me was the emotional connection to the job, has changed because before

I was highly identified with the values and tasks, and afterwards, it was still ok but it was

more a job. You know liking to work, and enjoying to work, is a part of success and that’s

why it wasn’t successful for me towards the end. So, it was the right time for me to leave.

(4)

…she could do something to take me back to Spain, but it was not that sure and I was too

tired of this company and I wanted to go back to the engineering world! (3)

It was like one of those, oh my God I can’t work here companies. (5)

I think for me personally, my biggest thing is, I was so loyal to that company and the brand,

like, I just assumed that they would always be good to me, and take care for me for what I

did, I did a lot for them, but it was really eye-opening and something that made me mature.

As an adult it doesn’t matter, co-operations can really care less about who you are –

everybody is replaceable. (5)

Not because I was angry or anything, just because I wanted to do something different! (1)

Reviewing those findings and the literature used for the literature review of this study, a

potential gap was expected to be found, but doing more research on this issue, it shows that

some researchers have already done small scale research and case studies as well. In a study

done by van Dick et al. (2004) the authors give some practical implications considering the

topic of identification and turnover rates. Hereby, they mention that organizational

identification, which is often influenced by job satisfaction, is closely related to intentions of

turnover. So, in order to avoid high turnover rates or at least reduce them, managers need to

foster identification; useful hereby are a wide range of strategies for identification management.

Moreover, the authors mention that it can be fruitful to not only foster identification, but also to

stress job satisfaction, as focusing on both concepts simultaneously, can help to reduce or

explain staff withdrawal. Also, van Dick et al. (2004) mention that job identification and job

satisfaction are two different concepts, because the first one “describes the feeling of partial

overlap between self and group and an internalization of the organization’s core values and

central identity features” (van Dick et al., 2004, 353), and the latter one “is an attitude towards

specific aspects of the concrete job and tasks one has to perform” (van Dick et al., 2004, 352).

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“To summarize, previous research has shown that both identification and satisfaction are

predictors of turnover intentions. However, their interplay in explaining and predicting such

intentions is less clear” (van Dick et al., 2004, 352).

In a recent case study done by Santos/ Martins (2019), they wanted to “understand repatriates’

personal opinions about their career success motives in the years following an international

assignment and how that may prompt turnover intentions” (Santos/ Martins, 2019, 31). They

did not only focus on the career motives in the classical sense but also considered how the

company valued and appreciated the repatriates’ efforts. Hereby the authors took a closer look

at “repatriates’ main career–pull motives to stay with the organization” (Santos/ Martins, 2019,

1) upon returning from international assignments. In this connection, it should be mentioned

that the case study done by Santos/ Martins (2019) founded on a career success model, which

was presented by Dries et al. (2008) as those authors wanted to “generate a more inclusive

model of career success” (Dries et al., 2008, 269).

The fourth dimension of their model was described as following: “inter-personal–affect: Career

success constructs belonging to this quadrant refer to feelings and perceptions that

characterize a career; the world external to the career actor’s ‘‘self” acts as the source of

validation. This quadrant contains three distinct ‘‘regions” of meaning: recognition (i.e. success

in terms of being adequately rewarded and appreciated for one’s efforts and talents);

cooperation (i.e. success in terms of working well together with peers, superiors, subordinates

and clients); perceived contribution (i.e. success in terms of serving society through work, in

an ethical way)” (Dries et al., 2008, 269). Having given those very explicit studies shows clearly

that the research community has already put some energies in these issues and is well aware

of the existence of commitment issues, identification issues and also contribution issues

concerning the meaningfulness of certain jobs also after returning from international

assignments. Paik et al. (2002, 646) highlighted that there is a lack of congruence between

the two parties involved in international assignments, which is a potential source for challenges

within the process. They highlight that the expatriates are willing to go on assignments for

potential career steps, the compensation provided as well as the urge for adventure, whereby

the company sends them in order to transfer knowledge or expand internationally. The authors

suggest that both parties involved need to “understand and reconcile their seemingly

conflicting motivations and expectations and have to strike the balance between personal and

organizational goals” (Paik et al., 2002, 646). Also, Paik et al. (2002, 646) suggest that

companies should better understand why expatriates go on an international assignment and

how they can be supported in order to make the transition back to the home country smoother.

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6.2.3 Communication

According to the interviews reviewed, several repatriates mentioned that a potential source for

challenges during the return to their home countries was connected to issues around

communication. Hereby two sub themes emerged in which critical incidents happened.

Generally speaking, it can be said that the literature on repatriation has already mentioned that

communication is an important tool to facilitate a smooth return for expatriates. Harvey/ Wiese

(1998, 43) mentioned in the early times of expatriate research, that the intensity and frequency

of communication between the HQ and the expatriate need to increase six to nine months

before the actually return in order to reduce potential challenges for the repatriate.

6.2.3.1 Intensity of Communication

The first sub theme of communication deals with the intensity of the perceived communication

between the repatriate and the home country organization as some interviewees mentioned

that it lacked communication or the communication level was experienced as too little or too

much. Actually, all those critical incidents happening during the return of the repatriates are all

different, but still their common denominator is the intensity of communication which therefore

is analyzed.

I don’t know, but I think it’s always better to push in those situations as you otherwise get

easily forgotten, I am in HR myself so I know how easily hat happens and how it works. (4)

HR just called me and then they told me that I will be back in the US in like 4 weeks. They

never came to us and discussed the issue, we had to take care of it. (7)

Naja, dadurch, dass durch die Kommunikation, sie mir wissen haben lassen, dass ich ca.

amoi die Woche in Wien zu gegen sein durfte, eigentlich negativ, weils für mich a

unglaublicher Stress war... wo defacto keine Sekunde zur freien Verfügung mehr war...

zwar gut gemeint, aber defacto schwer möglich und nur sehr stressig. (2)

Adler (1981, 354) came up with recommendations for a smoother reentry, in which she

mentioned that “Overseas Contact” needs to be maintained, in which the expatriate and the

home organization share necessary information happening in the HQ. Also, Riusala/ Suutari

(2000, 86) highlight the need for better support practices such as ongoing contact with the

organization or a mentor. Scullion/ Brewster (2001) and Gregersen (1992) pointed out that a

stronger sense of commitment and less conflict with the goals of the home organization upon

return, can be achieved by higher levels of perceived connection and communication.

According to Sulaymonov (2017, 3) there are two critical points which companies should focus

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on, while the expatriate is abroad, firstly, to support the expatriate while s/he is on an

assignment and secondly frequent communication. “In reality, most activities that ensure high

retention after repatriation happen during rather than after the expatriate assignment. Constant

communication between the home office and the expatriates during the assignment is a critical

element of successful repatriation. While still on assignment, the expatriate should be offered

extended home visits that are timed with networking activities to help the expatriate maintain

high visibility at the office. The expatriate should also be included on e-mail lists, sent all

company’s newsletters, and actively encouraged to communicate with colleagues and mentors

back home” (Lazarova/ Caligiuri, 2001, 395). In a study done by Pattie et al. (2010, 370ff) the

authors suggest in their findings that there is a huge demand for implementing methods to

ensure that expats are connected to the home office while being abroad, in their findings they

suggest support services such as frequent home country visits, updates on changes within the

organization, as well as all other essential information which prepare repatriates in advance

and not upon return only. In another study done by Benson/ Pattie (2009, 63ff) the authors

found out, that supervisors within the home organization seem to be more influential than

supervisors within the host organization when it comes to expatriation and repatriation

performance, which points out the need for maintaining a strong relationship between those

two parties. Hereby the authors mention that frequent communication is essential in

establishing and keeping the relationship strong enough. In order to facilitate stronger

relationships, the authors suggest more possibilities for travelling as well as face-to-face

meeting opportunities. Another study done by Vidal et al. (2010, 35) suggests that frequent

communication or a mentor during the assignment, helps expatriates to have more accurate

expectations, which then affect their adjustment upon return. “…human resources managers

should make more effort to keep in touch with expatriates during their assignment. Given the

reluctance of expatriates to initiate contact with headquarters, human resources managers

should more actively seek opportunities to communicate with expatriates so that they can be

kept informed about any changes at headquarters. Such intimate interaction will eventually

help reduce the failure rates in repatriation” (Paik et al., 2002, 646ff). Still Pattie et al. (2010,

371) conclude that “the general lack of repatriate support practices suggests that there is very

little planning on ways in which the international experience can be used by organizations for

employee development” (Pattie et al., 2010, 371).

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6.2.3.2 Timing of Communication

Another source for critical incidents happening during the repatriation phase of the interviewed

expatriates was identified in the area of timing of communication and support practices

perceived. As mentioned in Chapter 5.2.3.1 there is a strong need for communication in the

process of repatriation, in order to smoothen the whole process and to keep turnover rates

low. Several of the interview statements suggest that the process could have been smoother

by providing critical information in time.

Yeah, all in all they took great care of us, I mean they managed the whole transition back

to the US, and all stuff, but it was all a bit of short notice. Maybe if they told us earlier, it

would have been less of a hustle for me and the others. (7)

Actually, the contact wasn’t very intense until May, the contact started in May as the idea

of moving came up in May. So, it came up at the end of the assignment and not during it.

But honestly it was me who came to them and said, hey now my assignment is coming to

an end, I know that there are those development round tables and portfolio rounds and so

I said to them when you do those rounds in spring think about me, as I´ll return, so it was

like a process from both ends, but I was the one who made sure that I was being talked

about. (4)

No… it was all last minute like. (1)

So, I now had to manage my current position, negotiate with my former employer about

what's next, and negotiate with my possible future employer. (9)

It was a very strange and uncertain period of time, we didn’t know how fast the move back

to the US will be performed by the company and I mean it was harsh. We had like 3 or 4

weeks to get our shit together and move back home. (7)

Having given the statements above clearly shows that the factor time in the context of

communication was not considered well by some organizations. Following the authors

mentioned in the Chapter 5.2.3.1, which suggest better ongoing contact with the expatriates

while being on an international assignment, are still to be considered in this sub theme. A study

done by Valk et al. (2013), which deals with repatriation experiences, suggested in their

managerial implications once more that, in the age of internet and the existence of several

forms of online communication, the need for support practices, which include “constant and

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clear communication” (Valk et al., 2013, 348) are higher than ever before. Findings provided

by Suutari/ Välimaa (2002, 631) suggest that making decisions concerning the future role of

the repatriate within the organization, possibly facilitate the adjustment upon return when made

early enough, which highlights the aspect of time. According to Pattie et al. (2010, 370) and

their studies, on average only one or two support practices were used and provided by the

analyzed companies, even though they would like to offer a broader spectrum of services.

Also, they mention that companies are still no doing enough to help repatriates to readjust and

facilitate a smooth return, even though the existing literature has been stressing those issues

in the recent years. How can expatriates expect a perfectly timed set of support practices when

there is a lack of those support practices? The following citation probably sheds some light on

the question asked. “Many companies have excellent intentions. However, the implementation

of repatriation programs often leaves much to be desired” (Chew/ Debowski, 2008, 10).

6.2.4 Company/ Career

In this key theme, all critical incidents concerning the career path of the repatriate as well as

incidents concerning the home country organization are considered. Several interviewees

have mentioned critical incidents which are linked to a potential career within the organization,

which sent them on an international assignment, in the first place. In the literature review of

this thesis this known source for challenges has already been covered to some extent, as

many researchers have already conducted studies around the challenges in repatriation as

well as to some extent have taken closer looks on the career of the repatriates. Several authors

have researched the repatriation process with regard to turnover rates as well as retention,

especially as turnover costs are high and more and more expatriates have been leaving the

organization upon return and therefore organizations cannot achieve goals such as knowledge

transfer and building competitive advantages.

6.2.4.1 No available/ Same Position upon Return

Taking a closer look at the sub theme of no available or the same position upon return, most

of the repatriates found it especially challenging to return to an organization, which was not

able to offer open positions for them, or in other cases offered only the same position, which

they had before leaving for the international assignment.

Ich glaub es gibt a gewisses Frustrationspotential, wenn man dann zurück kehrt in genau

dieselbe Position, die man immer schon gemacht hat, ich glaub, des könnte für ziemlich

viel Frustrationspotential sorgen, sozusagen, dann 1 zu 1 wieder dieselbe Arbeit zu

machen, die man vorher gemacht hat, insofern idealerweise bereichert einen die alte

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Aufgabe, oder man schaut als Unternehmen im Heimatland irgendwas sucht was a so a

bissal neu ist, ich könnt mir nicht vorstellen zurück zu kommen und dann wieder genau das

Gleiche zu machen was i vorher gemacht hab, das wär für mich ausgeschlossen. Ich hab

zum Beispiel einen Kollegen, der hat dann genau wieder die gleiche Position bekommen,

die er vorher hatte, wieder übernommen in Österreich, und is dann ins Burn-out gangen,

also insofern hab ich da so gewisse Erfahrung. (2)

I came home, and they gave us like 2 weeks for relocation, but I had no idea where was

going to work, they didn´t tell me a store or anything, the first two weeks I was home, I was

just home. Lost. (5)

What actually annoyed me the most, was that they didn’t plan open positions for us, I mean

they knew that we are out there and that at some point we all need to go back to the US or

move on to another assignment, but they didn’t plan well. They forgot about us, they forgot

about us coming back to the US. We weren’t told which positions or which stores we gonna

be in back in the US, there was little to no back up plan I guess. (7)

Ehmm, no, they told me that I can change wherever I wanted to go, but I said, ok, I wanna

go to Miami, but they had a store an BRAND NAME opened right outside of Miami, so I

prepared to go to the BRAND NAME store, but then when I got to the States, they said that

they had an opening of an BRAND NAME kids store, which was right in Miami, so they

switched it last minute, but they still said that I could go to Miami. (1)

I think, well in my case I think, COMPANY, didn’t make a good reputation for their expats,

ok? The American guys, once they went back to the US they finally quit the company,

because they were working in the same position in a small store, in the middle of nowhere,

so all the expats I knew from COMPANY they finally quit when they return, the company,

after two or three months when they are coming back to the US. (3)

I wanted to work, I gave them my like top 5 places, and I don’t know if you should write that

in your thesis, but honestly it really sucked coming home, I went into a store, since I was

the general manger, there was three other store managers in the store, they had an expat

that came back from China, they had an expat that was going to India, to open stores, it

was a mess, the store was a mess, and ehm I was, so I was the general manager, but I

was almost my position was equivalent to store manager, so I got paid the same, but my

title didn’t exist in the US, does that make sense? (5)

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Going through the statements given by the interviewed repatriates, it shows that their struggles

were real and that the companies haven’t planned a proper return for many of them. It was not

expected to hear that many repatriates mentioning such issues, as most of the issues

mentioned in the basic literature about repatriation have covered those issues several years

ago. Several authors (Brewster/ Scullion, 1997; Adler, 1981/2002; Bonache et al., 2001;

Bossard/ Peterson, 2005) mentioned that repatriates face severe challenges with their

assigned positions upon return, those challenges were mostly linked to work satisfaction and

not the absence of positions per se. Several authors (Pickard/ Brewster, 1995; Riusala/

Suutari, 2000; Stroh et al., 1998) mentioned that some repats get, in contrary to their

expectations, jobs which are less demanding and in which they cannot fully use their newly

gained knowledge and skills. Which, according to Adler (1981) and Black (1992), can lead to

a “reverse culture shock” and later to high turn-over rates among expatriates. According to

studies done by Pattie et al. (2010, 370), the high turnover rates of repatriates leaving the

organization upon return as there are no open positions for them, shows that it lacks career as

well as strategic planning of human resources by many companies. Findings of a study done

by Suutari/ Välimaa (2002, 632) highlight once more that it is of utmost importance to consider

and decide about the job situation of the repatriate, upon repatriation, as early enough as

possible, so the expatriates don’t have to worry about their situations at all times. Chew/

Debowksi (2008, 15) conclude that repatriates can be protected from culture shocks upon

return, by the use of effective policies, support services as well as agreements. “Included in

such an agreement is a specification of the assignment period, details of the return, incentive

payment, a guarantee of a job equal to or better than the one held before leaving, provision for

re-entry training, and a repatriation program to support the repatriate and help the family

readjust upon return to their home country” (Chew/ Debowski, 2008, 9).

6.2.4.2 The Career Ladder

The following sub theme can be viewed as an extension of the previous one, as these two sub

themes are mostly taken together when talked about. According to the interviewees of this

study, several critical incidents, which happened during the return, dealt with the career ladder

of the repatriate. Due to the literature reviewed in the literature review, the challenging factor

of career advancement in connection with repatriation has been discussed briefly before. Adler

(1981, 342; 2002, 288), Bolino (2007, 819) Bossard/ Peterson (2004, 18) and (Nery-Kjerfve/

McLean, 2012, 624) mention that most repatriates assume that their international assignment

helps them with their careers, but in most cases, it has only a neutral effect. Hereby, especially

the “holding pattern” mentioned by Andreason/ Kinneer (2005, 109) and Bonache et al. (2001,

13) was viewed at, which describes a career-related disadvantage of repatriates over domestic

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employees. Going through the statements cited below, it shows clearly that most of the

interviewees, as mentioned in the existing literature, assumed to be promoted or financially

better off than others after returning from the international assignment, which was not true for

many of them as several interviewees have left the company upon return. Herby, the issue of

met and unmet expectations upon return comes into play, which has already been highlighted

by Stoh et al. (1998) as well as Chew/ Debowski (2008).

I was, I felt like, I had, hmm what´s it called, reached my ultimate goals, with the company.

Because, I didn’t necessarily, my next step was, If I would have stayed with the company

for a longer time, I would have been a district manager, but I honestly….(1)

… you know they promised me to become a district manager and that I would be next and

it never happened. So, I ended up quitting the company, I stayed, I toughed it out for like a

year, and I quit. Cause´ it was just… a mess, because you know, you move all way, you

move to another county, and you know you work really hard, and you do all these things for

this company, and then you come home, and it’s like you are nobody. (5)

Usually, in order to be promoted, you have to be flexible, you have to go abroad to show

your flexibility and go to different countries, but you don’t have a guarantee, so I mean I had

colleagues who stayed with me in Switzerland the same time, but they came back to Austria

with the same position, because, they didn’t perform well or whatever, so there is no

guarantee but usually if you are flexible and go abroad then the chances for you being

promoted are much higher. (6)

Also, I had no clue which store I am gonna be in as my former store already had new store

managers, they offered me several different positions within the area, but none of them was

an upgrade at all… (7)

I thought that this assignment would have helped me to climb the career ladder within the

company, but now I was a store manager in a store, which wasn’t running that well and

wasn’t located at a high-end mall or shopping street, but yeah it paid my bills even though

my salary was a lot less than compared to the European one. (7)

As I told you, I went back to my former workplace, also the same position, it was ok for that

moment, but to be honest I wanted to be upgraded, but yeah that wasn’t possible at that

point of time. They didn’t promote me, also they didn’t do any career planning with me no

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more, also I could see that there are limited options for me within the brand, so I started

looking for other options. (8)

What was maybe the most critical point then, was that a new player entered the field, I got

an offer from a Japanese Pharma company, which were looking for a DOF with focus on

the Middle East and African countries, which fitted my experiences and the offer was for

their Dubai office. Hmm, there weren’t too many to be honest, the only thing was that my

former employer couldn’t compete with the new offer made by my current employer.

Therefore, I ended working for COMPANY and moved back to Dubai with the new company.

(9)

According to Stroh et al. (1998), Harvey/ Wiese (1998) and Chew/ Debowski (2008) companies

must enable repats to develop more realistic expectations about their upcoming work and non-

work lives before they actually return back home and can so minimize potential surprises.

Taking a closer look at the latest and explicit studies on repatriation and the impact of

international assignments on the career of expatriates, shows that this topic is of interest and

is in high demand. According to studies done by Aldossari/ Robertson (2008, 1497) several

repatriates believed that as they had been identified as highly achieving employees and

therefore had been sent on an international assignment. These expatriates thought that this

assignment will help them to further progress on their career ladder. Hereby, those thoughts

mostly grounded in assumptions, which they have made up on their own and not on promises

given by the organization or HR. Also, Benson/ Pattie (2008, 1648) highlight in their studies,

that the experienced international assignment is linked to a perceived chance of career

advancement within the organization as well as external career opportunities within the expat

itself. Also, Aldossari/ Robertson (2018, 1498) highlight that several repatriates felt frustrated

with the process of repatriation as well as its outcome, as they have expected to be promoted

or advanced their career upon return, even though they didn´t know which effect going on an

assignment will actually have for them nor which role they will play upon return. Also, the

authors highlight that feelings of frustration are often caused by the fact that the managers

returned to their previous job, which were less challenging than the tasks they had while being

on the assignment. Another interesting issue mentioned by Aldossari/ Roberston (2018, 1496)

is that almost 60% of their participants perceived the policies for promotion upon return as

unfair, which was mainly caused by the lack of clearly defined criteria for promotion. Lazarova/

Cerdin (2007, 424) point out that HRM teams need to be able to find appropriate positions for

returning expatriates in order to make the most out of the knowledge gained overseas.

Retaining repatriates and enhancing their contribution after an assignment can help MNC to

gain competitive advantages which are lost otherwise. In spite of this optimistic attitude, Pattie

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et al. (2010, 371) mention that very little planning on ways in which the international experience

can be used upon return is taken by organizations, which can be seen in the lack of support

practices for repatriates. Moreover, the authors highlight, that several HR managers of their

studies committed that they were responsible for turnover rates upon return among their

repatriates to a certain extent, however they couldn’t articulate why well-planned support

services weren’t utilized. Another interesting point of view was presented by Lazarova/ Cerdin

(2007, 421), which challenges the statements provided by many other authors before.

Lazarova/ Cerdin (2007, 421) mentioned that for several years the research community as well

as managers have argued that retention of repatriates can be seen as positive for the

organization as well as the repatriate in most cases, even though little evidence supports this

view. Moreover, they suggest that success of retention differs a lot from the perspective of the

organization as well as from the perspective of the repatriate. “What may be good for the

individual might at the same time be bad for the organization, and what may be good for the

organization might sometimes be bad for the individual” (Lazarova/ Cerdin, 2007, 421). Also,

the authors highlight, that researchers should acknowledge, that turn-over is not dysfunctional

in every case, as not all assignments are of strategic importance for organization at all. Herby,

they point out that not all repatriated managers are needed upon return, even though they

have gained skills which are valuable, as well as they suggest that retention of expatriates

does not necessarily create core benefits for the organization at all. Therefore, the authors

suggest, that instead of trying to keep all the repatriates within the organization upon return at

all costs, they should better act strategically as well as realistically. Hereby, it should also be

considered that there are several factors which influence retention upon return, which are

outside their area of control, such as higher demands for internationally experienced managers

on the external job market. Also, Lazarova/ Cerdin (2007, 421) highlight that many repatriates

do not assume, that they have to stay within the organization in order to have successful

careers. Also, Kraimer et al. (2009) suggest “that repatriates who are not promoted tend to see

themselves as overqualified for their position, which increases their intention to look for a job

more commensurate with the knowledge, skills, and abilities they developed while working

overseas” Kraimer et al. (2009, 41). Still, Lazarova/ Cerdin (2007, 418), conclude that

companies which provide support services among their repatriates will likely see higher levels

or retention rates than others. “However, repatriates’ decision to remain with their employer

after their assignment involves more than a check-list of available support programs. They are

keenly aware that there are opportunities outside their current company, and the more such

opportunities they believe they have, the more likely it is that they will leave. Many repatriates

care deeply about their careers, and try to actively navigate their development. The activities

in which they engage were found to be significantly associated with their intention to leave”

(Lazarova/ Cerdin (2007, 418).

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6.2.4.3 Work Satisfaction

Another source for critical incidents upon return, was associated with the perceived work

satisfaction of the interviewed repatriates. This issue has to some extent been covered in the

other sub themes of the Chapter 5.2.4. but as it has been mentioned relatively often, it will be

considered once more. Reading the following statements shows well that work satisfaction

upon return can cause unwanted challenges during repatriation.

So, I don’t feel like, the store that I went to, I don’t feel like the kids in the store and the

managers weren’t necessarily very prepared for me to come as a manger. Ehm, I think that

they were too comfortable with how they had always done things and so when I came in,

as a new manager, it was like different ideas, different ways of doing things and they didn’t

adjust very well and that was like the company should have prepared them for. If that makes

sense? (1)

I mean everybody changed my direct manager, my group head of HR changed and the

CEO, so basically my whole reporting line was gone then after a very short period of time,

after one year. This happened after one year being in Milan. (4)

I wasn’t happy and I wasn’t happy where I was working no more, I mean I guess they did

what they had to do, the company, successfully brought us back, they had me even working

again… I quit COMPANY, I was just not happy, I think the job was, made me the most

unhappy, so and, once I quit that job and I found a new job, and in actual Chicago, ... (5)

At that point of time I wasn’t sure if I still wanna be part of the brand and stayed for some

more time as a store manager but I wasn’t too happy about my job anymore. (7)

I am not sure if you wanna write that in your thesis ha-ha, but everyone almost had this

image, that I was better than them cause I had lived in Europe, I mean I did travel to really

cool places, and took photos, and you know, I mean I had fun, we did all that stuff; in the

States people don’t really travel that much, at least where I am from, so it felt like there was

kinda like I don’t wanna say jealousy but this kind of … and it wasn’t that I was better than

them. (5)

Actually, it felt like not too much time passed, but what I recognized was that some of my

colleagues were a little jealous of me being sent abroad and not them, also they thought,

or at least that’s what my impression was, that this trip was more like a well-paid trip and

they didn’t think about all the obstacles I had to face. (8)

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According to studies done by van Dick et al. (2004) job satisfaction “is an attitude towards

specific aspects of the concrete job and tasks one has to perform” (van Dick et al., 2004, 352)

and the authors also highlight that these certain aspects of a task, may lead to job

dissatisfaction, whereby job dissatisfaction then can be a predictor for turnover intentions.

Another concept which often comes into play with job satisfaction is job identification, which

has been described in chapter 5.2.2.1. of this thesis. According to the following citation by Ren

et al. (2013) “Reflecting on this transition and its implications for their career, repatriates often

consider how their current job situation compares with the job situation they wanted or

expected when they returned home from their international assignments” (Ren et al., 2013,

158), once more the expectations of repatriates come into play. Those expectations have

already been mentioned within the literature review of this thesis, as several authors (Stroh et

al., 1998; Gregersen/Stroh; 1997, Lee/ Liu, 2007) have already researched on the issue of

expectations in the area of repatriation. Another study done by Vidal et al. (2007b, 1273)

suggests that the key factor for turnover, upon repatriation, is the satisfaction of repatriates

with the jobs they are assigned to by the companies. Moreover, the authors point out that it is

clear that job satisfaction reduces the intention to leave the company upon return, however, a

scientific link between job satisfaction among returnees and turnover rates has not been

researched fully yet. In their studies, Vidal et al. (2007b, 1280) came up with some work factors,

which potentially reduce turnover upon repatriation and therefore should be considered in

further research as well as by HRM: “job content on return, being promoted and employees

having accurate work expectations” (Vidal et al., 2007b, 1280). By “job content” the authors

mean assigning repatriates to jobs, which are in line with the skills and experiences they have

gained abroad and are interesting and demanding. Moreover, a career plan should be

established for international assignees, in which the international assignment is a criterion for

further career steps. Furthermore, they highlight the importance of establishing work

expectations, which could be generated by using support services during the international

assignment. Another interesting suggestion provided by Cerdin/ Pargneux (2009, 19), which

can be easily be applied to all returning assignees, is that returnees should, on an individual

level, identify the skills they have gained and developed during their international assignment,

in order to better market them after returning, which could positively favor the repatriation

process at the individual level.

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6.2.5 Pre-Repatriation

This chapter of the thesis deals with critical incidents, which happened during the pre-

repatriation process of the interviewed expatriates. Hereby, several interviewees mentioned

that it was especially challenging for them that they didn’t receive enough information during

their pre-repatriation phase, and/ or their pre-repatriation phase was just too short as

companies changed details of their assignments last minute. Hereby the interviewees

mentioned that companies sent them home within some weeks or even days without a

warning. Those changes were mostly caused by a change in the demand for managers within

the head quarter or strategic moves with affected the whole company. According to the reviewed literature within the literature review provided in this thesis,

companies should consider the phase of pre-repatriation as repatriation doesn’t start with the

actual day the repatriate returns (Lee/ Liu, 2007, 131) and the authors also stress, that the

whole assignment should be considered holistically and not be viewed at in single processes.

Going through the following statements shows that returning home was made challenging for

expats, as the return was often at short notice as well as not enough information was provided.

Zeitpunkt von der Beförderung eben bis hin zum Wechsel ziemlich kurz, also i hab dann

eben relativ rasch alles abschließen müssen, übergeben müssen und mein Nachfolger

bestimmen müssen. Gleichzeitig war ich im Gedanken schon in der neuen Position, des

war eigentlich diese, diese, Herausforderung, also eigentlich schon einerseits in der

Position in Österreich tätig zu sein im Kopf, aber andererseits so zuzusagen alles so zu

bewältigen das des ganze net irgendwie in ana Krise ausartet. Das heißt i bin also ab dem

Zeitpunkt, defakto dann wieder nur noch im Flugzeug gesessen, weil dann ständig der

neuen Position ihr Tribut gezollt werden musste. (2)

War jedoch schon so, dass ich durchaus sehr spontan diese Frage nach Wien zurück zu

kehren bekommen habe, insofern bin i da a bisserl aus dem italienischen Systems

herausgerissen worden, ehm, und des hat mi sicher nu so 2 oder 4 Monate einfach

beschäftigt, da ich sehr, sehr gerne in Italien gearbeitet habe und dort auch sehr gerne die

Aufgabe, die mir dort gestellt wurde, gerne zu Ende geführt hätte. (2)

They pulled everybody out, they even put all the expats from like China and Germany, it

must have been one of those crazy company decisions, where they just sent everybody

home worldwide. So, I never finished that last year. (5)

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Oh, my goodness yeah, we had three weeks to move, pretty much three weeks to pack

everything up and then we, they had hired a moving company for us, so they came and we

were only allowed to have 9 boxes, 9 boxes worth of stuff, so that, remember I left all the

furniture, and like all that stuff, and they sent it back to the States. (5)

If you’re asking me directly, what did I feel, what I felt three months before coming home to

Austria, in that case I didn’t know that I was about to go back to Austria… They told me on

Friday that I will be going back to Austria and start work there on Monday, so I had like three

days! (6)

No, I really had absolutely no time, I was told on Friday morning, or Thursday evening, that

I am promoted and that I´ll be going back to Austria and starting work on Monday. I actually

started on Tuesday because Monday was a holiday, but I had like three days to pack all my

stuff, find myself a flight and so on. (6)

I had to work in between that’s why I had to look after everything during work. You know

what I mean, I had no week off to have hours looking for flats, of course, if I would need it

they would give me a day off, no problem, you just stress yourself a lot more, because you

have to work and you have to organize your life, in three days (6)

They gave me another one year contract, which I never finished actually, as there was a

point where they sent all the expats back to the US, without any warning… that was quite

hard for us all, they really sent us all back home. Can you imagine that? (7)

It was a very strange and uncertain period of time, we didn’t know how fast the move back

to the US will be performed by the company. (8)

Again, Harvey/ Wiese (1998) should be mentioned in this connection, as they suggest that

communication intensity and frequency need to increase six to nine months before the actual

return, in order to facilitate a smooth return. Chew/ Debowski (2008, 12) mentioned that several

international assignments have a fixed-date of return, which is especially helpful for expatriates

and their families in order to time administrative issues such as schooling schedules and so

on. Also, they suggest that a “more open re-entry time frame of three months to one year will

increase the likelihood that an appropriate position can be found for the expatriate. The

expatriate will have the flexibility to explore and select job possibilities. While the certainty of a

specific re-entry may be comforting, the flexibility to exercise greater choice over the return

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time and position he or she accepts may be welcomed by both employee and family” (Chew/

Debowski, 2008, 12). This statement sounds interesting and would help repatriates to make

the return smoother and probably better tailored for their individual needs, but what about the

issue mentioned above in which expatriates are called home without a warning, in order to do

certain jobs in the home organization? Premature return of international assignments has been

mentioned extensively within the reviewed literature, which could be seen in the literature

review of this thesis. Several authors (Caligiuri, 1997; Tung, 1981; Schaffer et al., 2006)

mentioned that premature return can be classified as failure of international assignments,

which would mean that sending an expatriate home, even though s/he is performing and

adjusting well, can be considered as failure. As this definition of failure is not true for some of

the interviewed repatriates within this study, which found repatriation more challenging due to

the premature return, and the missing information concerning the return, but still retained within

the organization. Therefore, these finding go along with the ideas presented by Harzing/

Christensen (2004, 11), which conclude that many assignments don’t turn out in the same way

they are planned, but still premature return is not always necessarily considered to be a failure.

As described most of the research of premature returns during international assignments,

deals with issues such as success, failure, and describes which factors lead to success or

failure, hereby also the different points of views are taken into consideration, as success and

failure can be interpreted differently from the individual as well as the organizational point of

view (Breitenmoser/ Bader, 2016). A gap within the existing literature on repatriation

considering premature returns due to head quarter decisions is probably given.

6.2.6 Repatriation Process

The last theme of this analysis deals with the repatriation process in general, hereby all critical

incidents were summarized which deal with issues around the topics of perceived repatriation

procedures and perceived planning as well as the use of experience by the organization.

Several interviewees mentioned that they struggled while coming home, as they considered

the process of repatriation as unorganized, which lead in some cases to frustration about the

process of coming home.

6.2.6.1 Existing Procedures

In this sub theme, existing or better said non-existing repatriation procedures will be analyzed,

as some of the interviewed repats mentioned those. Hereby, the statements show clearly that

it lacked planning during the return, which caused trouble for some repatriates. According to

the literature about repatriation some authors (Stahl/ Cerdin, 2004; Suutari/ Brewster, 2003;

Tung, 1998) mentioned that in general many former assignees are satisfied with their

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assignment experiences, but are typically dissatisfied with how their repatriation process was

managed. However, the majority of researchers within the field of expatriation and repatriation

management mention that the process of repatriation is of utmost importance and should be

handled with extra care, as well as, it is still the most overlooked phase of the cycle (Vance/

Paik, 2011; Bonache et al., 2001; Mathews, 1994).

I think, ehm, they should have been a little bit more organized with the expats coming home,

they should have had a plan. I would say, honestly, just the planning and organization of it.

(5)

I lived in a hotel for the first 3 and a half months, cause I had to look for an apartment by

myself, so… (6)

Yeah, the planning of the return was a disaster to be honest. I am sure if they had thought

about us it would have been a lot smoother, but they didn’t. (7)

I mean successful as I am back in the US, but unsuccessful, I mean compared to how I

imagined it to be done. I don’t know if I would have struggled less if the whole return was

better planned but I think it would have been easier. (7)

Those statements about the repatriation process show well, how much potential for frustration

is caused by a poorly planned return, especially, as this very last step of the assignment, will

probably stay in the repatriates minds the longest. In order to avoid such additional challenges

for returning expatriates, researchers such as Chew/ Debowski (2008, 10) once more stressed

the need for repatriation programs, as well as repatriation managers, which can provide

assistance and support as well as track individual repatriation processes. Also, the authors

suggest that repatriates can be protected from challenges during repatriation by providing

“effective policies, anticipatory agreements, and supportive programs” (Chew/ Debowski,

2008, 15). A study done by Pattie et al. (2010, 366), in which they reviewed support practices

for repatriates, showed that very little organizations integrated international assignments into

career planning, and only around 7% had formal repatriation programs. Another study done

by Kulkarni et al. (2010, 537) 100% of the participants mentioned that their organizations did

not use any formalized repatriation process. According, to a study done by Howe-Walsh/ Torka

(2017, 69), in which perceived support practices in repatriation were researched on, they

mentioned that “it is not surprising the repatriates do not paint a rosy picture of “formal” HR-

related repatriation support” (Howe-Walsh/ Torka, 2017, 69). In this context formal shall be

understood as clearly defined procedures and defined responsible persons for such issues.

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Respondents of their study complained about too late alters for returns, lack of or intensity of

support which affected their private lives, and dissatisfaction with job and career related

planning as well as career support, which all have already been mentioned within this thesis´

study as well. Moreover, the authors highlighted that not only formal HR support but also

hands-on support services, which weren’t defined and worked on by HR departments, and

mostly provided by family members as well as other managers within the company, were

mentioned positively among repatriates. According to the studies, repatriates as well as other

managers mentioned that not only formal processes in repatriation programs lacked, but also

the international experience of HR managers was not sufficient enough to avoid the challenges

they faced. Howe-Walsh/ Torka (2017, 72) conclude that transparent, congruous and

comprehensive support needs to be provided for repatriates, as well as, “repatriation policies

have to reflect the role and concrete responsibilities of multiple stakeholders including different

HR professionals, home and host line managers and possible others” (Howe-Walsh/ Torka,

2017, 729). Moreover, the authors suggest focusing on career planning of expatriates to avoid

additional challenges for future repatriates. “Ensuring timely information regarding return

positions allays concerns for the repatriate but should form part of the organisation’s human

resource workforce planning. Opportunities to ensure repatriates are being considered for

positions as part of the talent pool is crucial. Providing debriefing interviews upon repatriation

can help to identify future roles within the organisation” Howe-Walsh/ Torka, 2017, 729).

Furthermore, the authors also suggested that exit interviews have to be done with repatriates

leaving upon return; those interviews could highlight which support services or incidents

bestowed the option to leave.

6.2.6.2 Use of Experience

Last but not least, another source for challenges during the return of the interviewed

expatriates was, according to their statements, that companies didn’t seem to be very

experienced with repatriation. Many of the potential solutions have already been described in

Chapter 5.2.6.1. as those sources of critical incidents are very similar and connected. As

mentioned extensively within this study, companies have to acknowledge that repatriation

needs as much attention as all other phases of expatriation, as well as a systematic approach

needs to be given in order to smoothen the process for all parties involved. Going through the

following statements shows that companies haven’t been able to provide the information

needed by the repatriates or weren’t able to provide the services demanded, which could have

been caused by a lack of experience or a lack of use of experiences gained within the issue of

repatriation.

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This time most of the decisions were made by my husband concerning housing and stuff,

as he had more experience and knowledge about the situation in Dubai than HR or

relocation companies. (9)

Now it is a lot different, we really have a department who takes care of expats, but at that

time it was a little different, it sounds so harsh, like they left me alone, but they just really

expect you to take care of yourself. (6)

So that’s something, which also now, they could do a lot better, when you look at other

companies, especially, in Upper Austria, you have a lot of big companies, and they all have

business apartments… and a company as big as COMPANY, I think, that’s something really

important. (6)

According to Kulkarni et al. (2010, 545) increasing global mobility and labor will make issues

concerning repatriation even more important and necessary, which means that HR

management and organizational effectiveness needs to better understand and manage the

repatriation processes. This could be done, according to the authors, by debriefing repatriates

about their experiences with the repatriation process as well as their needs within this process,

in order to better understand and later improve repatriation programs. Those experiences can

then be used to better manage upcoming repatriates. As suggested within the previous

chapters, a systematic approach and standardized expatriation programs are needed to be

implemented and reviewed. According to Hyder/ Lövblad (2007, 277) companies should be

clear about the fact, that there is no single solution of how repatriates are managed as well as

there isn’t one single successful repatriation program. Therefore, the authors suggest, that

companies should offer a set of contact persons, checkpoints as well as support procedures

with each expatriate throughout the whole assignment.

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7 Conclusion/ Further Research

One aim of this thesis was to give an overview of the existing literature on expatriation as well

as repatriation. Moreover, the study done pointed out critical incidents which happened during

the repatriation process of the interviewed repatriates and made returning home especially

challenging for those returnees. Those challenges have been analyzed by comparing them

with up to date literature and studies done by well-known researchers on similar issues.

The study shows, that even though companies have already started to consider the repatriation

process more closely, there is still a great lack of support practices provided and formalized

repatriation programs used. Repatriation challenges pop up all along the assignment, which

shows clearly that repatriation doesn’t start with the last day of the assignment, but with the

day the assignment is planned. According to the results of this study many repatriates find it

challenging to adapt upon return, which can be caused by reverse culture shock, by general

readjustment issues as well as by changing living conditions upon return, which are often

caused by the loss of financial benefits and allowances upon return. The study shows that

some repatriates were depressed upon return as they found it harder to be back home than

they have expected it to be. Hereby some mentioned that being back home was the beginning

of long lasting struggles. Several of the repatriates found it challenging to be in such a bad

financial situation that they had to move in with their parents again, which of course is not what

someone expects after going on an international assignment. Also, not being able to pay back

loans or bills was mentioned as a severe stressor for repatriation, which made it hard for

repatriates to focus on the other arising issues connected to the return.

Another source for challenges can be seen in the friendships and social contacts established

abroad, which during the assignment facilitated adjustment and helped to adapt, but made it

harder to return. Hereby, it was mentioned that some expats missed their overseas contacts

and the close bonds which have established, which would be helpful in a stressful time such

as a return. Furthermore, the results of the study show that communication with the home

organization plays a crucial role when it comes to smoothening the return of international

assignments. Hereby especially the lack of communication as well as badly timed

communication made returning home more challenging for repatriates. They study shows that

timing in communication is of utmost importance, as several repatriates mentioned that they

struggled due to last minute information provided by the companies. Being informed about

repatriation last minute, seemed to induce stress for several repatriates, as they couldn’t

prepare for the actual return mindfully and carefully. Some repatriates also highlighted that it

was stressful for them to not have any contact with the HQ at any time and then get contacted

on short notice about returning within a short period of time. Moreover, the study shows that

100

repatriation challenges are often caused by career issues of the repatriates; in many cases the

return was not perceived as smooth, as the company wasn’t able to provide any available

position upon return, or could only offer the position the expatriate has left before going on an

international assignment. Being sent home without knowing in which position or location to

work within the new few weeks upon return was extremely stressful for many of the interviewed

returnees. Hereby, some interviewees mentioned that it was hard for them to have little job

security during this stressful phase of their assignments. Also, many repatriates experienced

that their international experience wasn’t valued as much as they have thought and therefore

they weren’t promoted upon return which in many cases was unexpected as international

assignments are still considered as a promotion criteria for expatriates but not for companies.

The worst scenario seemed to be a combination of both mentioned issues; returning home

without knowing the position to work in as well as not being promoted at the same time. Work

satisfaction upon return showed to be stressor during the repatriation phase, as many

expatriates were unhappy with their work upon return, which then could cause higher turnover

rates among returnees. In this study repatriates mentioned that being sent back home in order

to work for a brand or company you don’t want to work for anymore is even more challenging

than working for a brand you don’t like while being on the actual assignment. Identification as

well as commitment to the job or the company also seemed to be affecting the turnover

intentions of repatriates, as several mentioned a lack of commitment upon return. Some of the

interviewed expats mentioned that their feeling of isolation and being left alone by the home

country organization made them reconsider their organizational commitment during the return.

Considering the pre-repatriation phase, the study shows that expatriates experienced lack of

information about their return as well as return calls were at short notice, which was perceived

as challenging. Hereby, some interviewees communicated that they found last minute changes

considering return dates as unnecessarily challenging and avoidable in some cases. Also,

being called home within weeks or even days without prior warnings challenged the return of

some repatriates. Moreover, some of the repatriates found it demanding to be caught between

two stools upon return, as they had to manage the actual position as well as the newly assigned

position, but they could not be in two places at once. The same problem was also true for the

private life of some returnees, as they had to manage job as well as upcoming issues such as

housing and so. In many cases the repatriates mentioned that they were overwhelmed with

the perceived workload during their returns, as they had to manage various issues

simultaneously, and perceived services provided by the organizations were considered as

non-sufficient.

Last but not least, the analysis shows that several repatriates had the impression that their

companies were not very organized and professional during their returns, as it lacked

systematic planning and the use of experience. Hereby, again being left alone upon return

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even though those expats have taken so many burden on them during the assignment, was

often mentioned by returnees, especially when it comes to support services provided, which

should be given in global and experienced corporations, according to the literature reviewed.

All in all, the research on repatriation is increasing, due to the increasing numbers of turnover

upon return, still many companies seem to be ignoring the practical recommendations

provided. For the last few years several studies have been giving advice on how to reduce

turnover rates and how to handle repatriation in order to fully exploit international assignments.

Hereby the question comes up if companies are as concerned about repatriation as the

individuals and researchers are or if they care less? What is true for sure is that perceived

support needs to be higher during repatriation in order to make the experience a good one for

all parties involved and to keep to mood up for further steps. Several areas and incidents have

been mentioned within this study, which made returning home more challenging for repatriates

and therefore should be avoided in order to make the transition as smooth as possible.

Potential further research is needed in the field of repatriation, especially longitudinal one.

Another issue which was found to be little researched on, is repatriation in connection with

premature returns due to head quarter decisions, as this issue played a crucial within this study

and was a strong stressor for a successful and struggle-free return.

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Appendices

APPENDIX A: INTERVIEW GUIDE

General Information Please tell me something about yourself and the last assignment you did recently! (general,

info, where, when, how long, for what, position, why you…)

What kind of knowledge did you gain on that assignment, considering all possible areas for

learning? (company based knowledge, culture, traditions, new friends, language, etc.)

Pre-repatriation phase/ Communication Now please think about the time before you had to relocate back home. What did you feel,

what reminds you the most of the time before finally coming back?

Which (critical) incidents can you remember the most in this pre-repatriation time?

How was communication with the HQ during this period of time and how did HQ prepare you

for coming home?

How did the communication influence your repatriation?

Repatriation Do you consider your repatriation as successful or unsuccessful?

Please think about your return. What was it like to come back to your home country?

What surprised you the most during your return?

Which critical incidents happened during your repatriation? Which ones are still in your mind

and need to be talked about?

Which incidents shouldn’t have happened and better be avoided when returning?

What was it like to come back to your former workplace? Where did you start working again?

Did you expect it to be somewhat problematic returning home?

What made coming home especially hard for you?

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How did your home environment change after coming home?

What facilitated the adjustment back home?

Can you think of situations which made you regret coming home, or in which you wished to be

still back on the assignment?

Communication/ Family/ Friends How was your communication with your family and friends? How did these interactions

influence the process?

Any critical incidents you can remember happening to your family during the relocation?

Finally, is there anything you would like to tell someone who is about to repatriate soon?

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APPENDIX B: INITIAL TEMPLATE HAND DRAWN

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APPENDIX C: SEMI-FINAL TEMPLATE AND STATEMENTS FOR ANALYSIS

1

Socio/

Cultural

2

Family/

Spouse/

Friends

3

Communication

4

Company/

Career

5

Pre-

repatriation

6

Repatriation

Process

7

Personality

1.1

Cultural

Differences

& Reverse

Culture

Shock

3.1

Intensity of

communication

4.1

No

available/

same

Position

upon

Return

5.1

Information

about

repatriation

6.1

Un/

successful

7.1

Identification/

commitment

1.2

Re-

Adjustment

3.2

Timing of

communication

4.2

The Career

Ladder

5.2

Time until

repatriation

6.2

Existing

procedures/

Experience

1.3

Living

conditions

4.3

Acceptance

of expats

4.4

Work

satisfaction

1. Socio Cultural

1.1. Cultural Differences/ Reverse Culture Shock

It was more emotional, because when I, once you go back to your home town, you see that

everything is the same, so it didn’t change anything, maybe you changed, because you was

living in another place, with another culture, and another language, and maybe you are the

one who changed but you know you go back to your home town and everything is still the

same. So, it was not, it was more, maybe influenced by the culture from the place you moved

from. (3)

Yeah as I told you, friends changed, some married, some had their own kids now, some made

career and moved within the States, also the pressure on work goals and career seemed much

higher than in Europe. (7)

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What I can remember was also like, I was running around town, and yeah Vienna is small, and

I forgot how it was to meet people on the streets zufällig… of course most of the questions

asked were the same. (8)

What we weren’t thinking of was that we had the material status married in our passports now

as well as on all our papers, which wasn’t perfect for moving back to an Arab country as they

just do not accept that. Therefore, we had to redo all our papers so no one could say we are a

same sex married couple or not. Having considered that fact beforehand would have saved

some costs and extra hours of work, but at the end it was fine. For the new company this was

a new lesson to be learned as well, as they have never sent a gay couple to live in an Arab

country – now they know what to consider for the next assignment. (9)

It was a bigger culture shock coming back to the US than it was to go to Austria, it was harder

for me to readjust. It was hard for me personally, I didn’t like my job anymore, I didn’t get along

with my boss, and everybody… (5)

It took me a good year, year and a half, just to readjust. Crazy. When I say it out loud, I just

think oh my goodness, yeah! It’s so weird, you would think it´s harder to go to a foreign country

than it would going home, but it was not like that. (5)

I thought going to Austria was the biggest step I have ever made, but what I didn’t think about

- never – was that coming back to the US was even harder. Going to Austria was like an

adventure, it was kinda a fun trip, like going on a vacation but coming home was not. (7)

Coming back to the US, as a US citizen, who has been away for like 2 years, it’s a culture

shock. Life here is so different, in so many ways, also, what I didn’t think about was that people

here changed, life changed, the whole circle of friends did, or many of them. Some were

married, others had kids. (7)

Actually, talking about the return and the experience right now, I can remember, that it was

actually harder to return, I mean, I had trainings, and learned about the culture shock, but in

my opinion the culture shock was much more intense after that one year coming home from

HK than the one I had when entering China. I don’t want to say that I was depressed, but

coming home was a completely different experience than I have expected it to be. (8)

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1.2. Re-Adjustment

Uhm, and then just mentally preparing to be back in the States, I mean things are different

here than overseas, I mean that’s for sure. (1)

Das wird wahrscheinlich in jedem Land so sein, das die Uhren dort ein bisschen anders ticken,

hats für mich sicher 3 bis 4 Monate gedauert generell, um wieder so in die Österreichische

Mentalität zu finden. (2)

I don’t wanna say I was depressed, but I was pretty depressed. I mean it was nice to see my

friends and family, but it really was not. I don’t know. It was hard, it was really hard, it was

probably one of the lowest points I have ever had in my live. (5)

I knew what I was expecting, cause´ I knew Austria, but the lifestyle, I preferred the Swiss

lifestyle, first one or two years, that was probably the biggest problem I had. I was missing the

lifestyle, the people, my own lifestyle there, the work I had and my daily routines, which

changed 360 degrees, yeah. (6)

It was a roller-costar drive all along. (7)

That week was strange, I was tired, exhausted and was so happy to be back but I somehow

felt a little bit lost as well. But at least I was off, so I had time for myself and time to work on

my experiences. (8)

I mean u think you come home, everyone is happy to see you, you are happy to see your

family and friends, which of course is the case, but those questions, I couldn’t stand those

questions. (8)

1.3. Living Conditions

Miami is a really big city, I don’t you if u have ever been there, so I mean like, the traffic, and

commuting to work and like that kind of stuff was like really annoying but I wouldn’t say it was

necessarily difficult. (1)

Well, in Spain I was living in an apartment all by myself, but then I moved in with my grandma,

so that was very different (1)

I had to find like, a new life, because I didn’t go back to where I was living before. (1)

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War für mich halt einfach wichtig, möglichst schnell wieder eine Wohnung zu haben und das

du nicht im Hotel wohnst, weil grad beim Zurückkehren, ich hab jetzt die ersten zwei Wochen

in so ‘nem Businessapartment gewohnt und naja des war, ja das muss man mögen, naja je

schneller du beim Heimkehren wieder eine Wohnung findest wo du dich wohlfühlst, desto

schneller fühlst dich dort dann generell wieder zuhause. (2)

Once I came back here to Valencia, I was completely unemployed and it was quite hard for

me to get used to that, and the most important thing is that I quit I didn’t have any kind of

subsidiary from the Spanish government, so all the months I wasn’t employed, I was not

receiving any kind of money, so for me it was a little bit frustrating, because I was looking for

a job, as an engineer, but it took me like 4 months to get a job, and it was frustrating for me

because I was not making money and I was spending my savings, and it was not that easy.

(3)

When I came back to the States, I have to pay for taxes for Austria, but I still had to pay taxes

for the US, so as soon as I came back to America, I had to pay all those taxes, it was crazy.

They did help us with taxes, but at that time they hired, it was Baker & McKinsey, they were

an international law firm, and they dealt with a lot of taxes and all that stuff, but I think they had

messed up, they definitely messed up, so it was a little rough for some of the expats… (5)

I felt like I am here back in the US, they didn’t help me find a car, there is no public

transportation out here, like they didn’t give me housing when I came back to the States, it was

kind of like, ah there was another thing, I had a pay gap. Ehm, my pay went down when I went

back to the States, so I got paid, I made the same, let’s say 50.000 Euros equivalent to 50.000

Dollars, so that’s like a huge change, so it was even a lifestyle change, so I was you know,

like, you don’t think it’s that much but you know 300 or 400 extra a month is huge, especially

for a 26/27 years old, living on my own, you know that! Eh, that was a big incident, I think that

should have been avoided and a little bit more organized, and I think they should have, they

took care of us when we went out there it was great, we were making money, as soon as we

came home, it was just kind of whatever. (5)

But when I came back home everybody had, was married and had kids, and you know and I

am, oh I just came back from Bali last week. You know! It was different, and I didn’t make as

much money as before, and I didn’t make as much to live on my own, I had to move in with my

mom. So not only that I moved back to the States, but I also moved back to my mom and

family, that was a disaster. (5)

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If they would have, I don’t know 4 to 5 business apartments, this would really help, and they

can provide that apartment for you for free because they have to pay for the hotels anyways,

until you find yourself a flat. (6)

I worked from 6.30 to 6 – 7 pm and you don’t have that much time to think about what you are

missing out because when you get home you are just really tired and wanna go to bed and

then time passes, you get to know people, you start going out, having dinner and then it all

starts to make sense, but I can’t tell, maybe this was after half a year, it took some time. (6)

I was back home and had like 2 weeks scheduled for my return, which means I was off and

had some time to catch up with my family, and yeah I had to move back home, as I couldn’t

manage to find a flat and also I had my student loan to pay and yeah stuff like that and yeah,

I had to move in back home. I earned less, I couldn’t manage my costs of living and the new

job bored me… (7)

What I also missed was the big city life, Vienna is an awesome city to live in, but HK offered

other and different things to do, also I missed the international flair among my expat friends.

(8)

I guess the main point was that urban and cool lifestyle, which I had in HK. (8)

2. Family/ Spouse/ Friends

It was harder to leave the people that I met, even Bettina, I hang out with her every weekend

and her family, and we go hiking, and have dinner, like I was part of the family, and then all of

a sudden, say good bye. You probably never gonna see them again. (5)

We had set up new lives here, I mean we had real good new friends, some of us fell in love or

built up relationships with locals, we had our lives here. (7)

I was kinda lost, my new friends were in Salzburg, my old friends busy here, also they didn’t

really care about my “trip”. (7)

In my private life, not too much I guess, I mean some friends got engaged, one got a baby,

and yes some birthdays I missed. (8)

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3. Communication

3.1. Intensity of Communication

Naja, dadurch, dass durch die Kommunikation, sie mir wissen haben lassen, dass ich ca. amoi

die Woche in Wien zu gegen sein durfte, eigentlich negativ, weils für mich a unglaublicher

stress war,... wo defakto keine Sekunde zur freien Verfügung mehr war... zwar gut gemeint,

aber defakto schwer möglich und nur sehr stressig. (2)

I don’t know, but I think it’s always better to push in those situations as you otherwise get easily

forgotten, I am in HR myself so I know how easily hat happens and how it works. (4)

The only thing [INCIDENT] was the communication in the interviews, this is something that

should have been clear for everybody, that there were three interviews and not just one, and

that I am the one who decides which position to take not just them. This could have been more

correct and better planned from company side. (4)

HR just called me and then they told me that I will be back in the US in like 4 weeks.

They never came to us and discussed the issue, we had to take care of it. (7)

3.2. Timing of Communication

No… it was all last minute like. (1)

I had three opportunities, one was a position in Munich, another one was a position in London,

and the other one was three different positions in Vienna, and ehm, I, then had interviews for

the three positions in Vienna, and then I took one out of those three, which I think was the best

one for me. (three months before end of assignment) (4)

Yes, there were like two critical ones [INCIDENTS], there was one funny incident, ehm, I did

not have one interview and then another, it was more like in a fixed order, after the first

interview I said no as I didn’t like the first position offered but they wanted me, but they thought

that this was their decision and not mine, they communicated to everyone that I´d come from

the first of October, which was very unpleasant for everybody… (4)

Actually, the contact wasn’t very intense until May, the contact started in May as the idea of

moving came up in May. So it came up at the end of the assignment and not during it. But

honestly it was me who came to them and said, hey now my assignment is coming to an end,

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I know that there are those development round tables and portfolio rounds and so I said to

them when you do those rounds in spring think about me, as I´ll return, so it was like a process

from both ends, but I was the one who made sure that I was being talked about. (4)

Yeah, all in all they took great care of us, I mean they managed the whole transition back to

the US, and all stuff, but it was all a bit of short notice. Maybe if they told us earlier, it would

have been less of a hustle for me and the others. (7)

So, I now had to manage my current position, negotiate with my former employer about what's

next, and negotiate with my possible future employer. (9)

4. Company/ Career

4.1. No available Position upon Return

Ehmm, no, they told me that I can change wherever I wanted to go, but I said, ok, I wanna go

to Miami, but they had a store a COMPANY opened right outside of Miami, so I prepared to

go to the COMPANY, but then when I got to the States, they said that they had an opening of

an COMPANY kids store, which was right in Miami, so they switched it last minute, but they

still said that I could go to Miami. (1)

Ich hab zum Beispiel einen Kollegen, der hat dann genau wieder die gleiche Position

bekommen, die er vorher hatte, wieder übernommen in Österreich, und is dann ins Burn-out

gangen, also insofern hab ich da so gewisse Erfahrung. (2)

I came home, and they gave us like 2 weeks for relocation, but I had no idea where was going

to work, they didn´t tell me a store or anything, the first two weeks I was home, I was just home.

Lost. (5)

We weren’t told which positions or which stores we gonna be in back in the US, there was little

to no back up plan I guess. (7)

Honestly, I can remember that I had like some weeks to pack all my life into boxes and move

back to the US, at that point of time I had no clue where to go to, city nor store, and I had no

clue about open positions back in the US… (7)

What actually annoyed me the most, was that they didn’t plan open positions for us, I mean

they knew that we are out there and that at some point we all need to go back to the US or

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move on to another assignment, but they didn’t plan well. They forgot about us, they forgot

about us coming back to the US. (7)

4.2. The Career Ladder

I was I felt like I had, hmm what´s it called, reached my ultimate goals, with the company,

because, I didn’t necessarily, my next step was, I would have been stayed with the company

for a longer time, I would have been a district manager, but I honestly….(1)

I think, well in my case I think, COMPANY, didn’t make a good reputation for their expats, ok?

The American guys, once they went back to the US they finally quit the company, because

they were working in the same position in a small store, in the middle of nowhere, so all the

expats I knew from COMPANY they finally quit when they return, the company, after two or

three months when they are coming back to the US. (3)

And ehm, you know my boss, which was Lola, she was in a different country, so she couldn’t

help me, so ehm, finally, they reached out to me through e-mail and they gave me another’s

district managers contact information and pretty much asked me where I wanted to work, I

gave them my like top 5 places, and I don’t know if you should write that in your thesis, but

honestly it really sucked coming home, I went into a store, since I was the general manger,

there was three other store managers in the store, they had an expat that came back from

China, they had an expat that was going to India, to open stores, it was a mess, the store was

a mess, and ehm I was, so I was the general manager, but I was almost my position was

equivalent to store manager, so I got paid the same, but my title didn’t exist in the US, does

that make sense? (5)

… you know they promised me to become a district manager and they I would be next and it

never happened. So, I ended up quitting the company, I stayed, I toughed it out for like a year,

and I quit. Cause´ it was just… a mess, because you know, you move all way, you move to

another county, and you know you work really hard, and you do all these things for this

company, and then you come home, and it’s like you are nobody. (5)

Usually, in order to be promoted, you have to be flexible, you have to go abroad to show your

flexibility and go to different countries, but you don’t have a guarantee, so I mean I had

colleagues who stayed with me in Switzerland the same time, but they came back to Austria

with the same position, because, they didn’t perform well or whatever, so there is no guarantee

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but usually if you are flexible and go abroad then the chances for you being promoted are

much higher. (6)

Also I had no clue which store I am gonna be in as my former store already had new store

managers, they offered me several different positions within the area, but none of them was

an upgrade at all… (7)

I thought that this assignment would have helped me to climb the career leather within the

company, but now I was a store manager in a store, which wasn’t running that well and wasn’t

located at a high-end mall or shopping street, but yeah it paid my bills even though my salary

was a lot less than compared to the European one. (7)

My position was the same one as I had when I left, also the salary was the same at the

beginning, of course I expected an upgrade, financially of course, as I was used to have a

higher income for the last 12 months, but that wasn’t the case. That point I didn’t negotiate

about with HR, I didn’t think about that issue to be honest and they didn’t do it… but yeah I had

a job and it was less demanding than the one I had in HK, and less paid, so it was OK for me,

even though I expected to be upgraded within the first months after my return, and I

communicated that with HR, as I told them I took a lot of efforts for the company and of course

it should pay off career wise as well for me. (8)

As I told you, I went back to my former workplace, also the same position, it was ok for that

moment, but to be honest I wanted to be upgraded, promoted, but yeah that wasn’t possible

at that point of time. (8)

They didn’t promote me, also they didn’t do any career planning with me no more, also I could

see that there are limited options for me within the brand, so I started looking for other options.

(8)

What was maybe the most critical point then, was that a new player entered the field, I got an

offer from a Japanese Pharma company, which were looking for a DOF with focus on the ME

and African countries, which fitted my experiences and the offer was for their Dubai office. (9)

Hmm, there weren’t too many to be honest, the only thing was that my former employer couldn’t

compete with the new offer made by my current employer. Therefore, I ended working for

COMPANY and moved back to Dubai with the new company. (9)

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4.3. Acceptance of Expats

I am not sure if you wanna write that in your thesis ha-ha, but everyone almost had this image,

that I was better than them cause I had lived in Europe, I mean I did travel to really cool places,

and took photos, and you know, I mean I had fun, we did all that stuff; in the States people

don’t really travel that much, at least where I am from, so it felt like there was kinda like I don’t

wanna say jealousy but this kind of … and it wasn’t that I was better than them. (5)

Actually, it felt like not too much time passed, but what I recognized was that some of my

colleagues were a little jealous of me being sent abroad and not them, also they thought, or at

least that’s what my impression was, that this trip was more like a well-paid trip and they didn’t

think about all the obstacles I had to face. (8)

4.4. Work Satisfaction

So, I don’t feel like, the store that I went to, I don’t feel like the kids in the store and the

managers weren’t necessarily very prepared for me to come as a manger. Ehm, I think that

they were too comfortable with how they had always done things and so when I came in, as a

new manager, it was like different ideas, different ways of doing things and they didn’t adjust

very well and that was like the company should have prepared them for. If that makes sense?

(1)

I would have eventually become a DM, but I didn’t want to, I felt like going overseas was pretty

much as high as I wanted to get with this company, so when I came back I kind of felt like I

reached that level, so, I only ended up staying with THE COMPANY for another six months

and then I actually ended up leaving the company. Not because I was angry or anything, just

because I wanted to do something different! (1)

Ich glaub es gibt a gewisses Frustrationspotential, wenn man dann zurück kehrt in genau

dieselbe Position, die man immer schon gemacht hat, ich glaub, des könnte für ziemlich viel

Frustrationspotential sorgen, sozusagen, dann 1 zu 1 wieder dieselbe Arbeit zu machen, die

man vorher gemacht hat, insofern idealerweise bereichert einen die alte Aufgabe, oder man

schaut als Unternehmen im Heimatland irgendwas sucht was a so a bissal neu ist, ich könnt

mir nicht vorstellen zurück zu kommen und dann wieder genau das Gleiche zu machen was i

vorher gemacht hab, das wär für mich ausgeschlossen. (2)

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I mean everybody changed my direct manager, my group head of HR changed and the CEO,

so basically my whole reporting line was gone then after a very short period of time, after one

year. This happened after one year being in Milan. (4)

It was like one of those, oh my God I can’t work here companies. (5)

I quit COMPANY, I was just not happy, I think the job was, made me the most unhappy, so

and, once I quit that job and I found a new job, and in actual Chicago, ... (5)

I wasn’t happy and I wasn’t happy where I was working no more, I mean I guess they did what

they had to do, the company, successfully brought us back, they had me even working again…

(5)

At that point of time I wasn’t sure if I still wanna be part of the brand and stayed for some more

time as a store manager but I wasn’t too happy about my job anymore. (7)

5. Pre-Repatriation

5.1. Information about Repatriation

The recommendation I would give on a professional level to anybody who is about to repatriate

soon, is to find out if there is a formulized process, ehm, where it is talked about, when and

where certain managerial decisions are taken and if there is a standardized process, make

sure that you are on the agenda. (4)

So, I signed one two years, and two one year contracts, but about six months into my one year

contract they all sent us home. It was just like out of nowhere, they said you all have to go

home within the next three weeks, it was kinda pretty scary, so my contract never really ended,

they just sent us all home. (5)

5.2. Time until Repatriation

Zeitpunkt von der Beförderung eben bis hin zum Wechsel ziemlich kurz, also i hab dann eben

relativ rasch alles abschließen müssen, übergeben müssen, mein Nachfolger bestimmen

müssen. (2)

Das heißt i bin also ab dem Zeitpunkt, defakto dann wieder nur noch im Flugzeug gesessen,

weil dann ständig der neuen Position ihr Tribut gezollt werden musste. (2)

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Gleichzeitig war ich im Gedanken schon in der neuen Position, des war eigentlich diese, diese,

Herausforderung, also eigentlich schon einerseits in der Position in Österreich tätig zu sein im

Kopf, aber andererseits so zuzusagen alles so zu bewältigen das des ganze net irgendwie in

ana Krise ausartet. (2)

War jedoch schon so, dass ich durchaus sehr spontan diese Frage nach Wien zurück zu

kehren bekommen habe, insofern bin i da a bisserl aus dem italienischen Systems

herausgerissen worden, ehm, und des hat mi sicher nu so 2 oder 4 Monate einfach beschäftigt,

da ich sehr, sehr gerne in Italien gearbeitet habe und dort auch sehr gerne die Aufgabe, die

mir dort gestellt wurde, gerne zu Ende geführt hätte. (2)

They pulled everybody out, they even put all the expats from like China and Germany, it must

have been one of those crazy company decisions, where they just sent everybody home

worldwide. So, I never finished that last year. (5)

Oh, my goodness yeah, we had three weeks to move, pretty much three weeks to pack

everything up and then we, they had hired a moving company for us, so they came and we

were only allowed to have 9 boxes, 9 boxes worth of stuff, so that, remember I left all the

furniture, and like all that stuff, and they sent it back to the States. (5)

If you’re asking me directly, what did I feel, what I felt three months before coming home to

Austria, in that case I didn’t know that I was about to go back to Austria… (6)

They told me on Friday that I will be going back to Austria and start work there on Monday, so

I had like three days! (6)

No, I really had absolutely no time, I was told on Friday morning, or Thursday evening, that I

am promoted and that I´ll be going back to Austria and starting work on Monday. I actually

started on Tuesday because Monday was a holiday, but I had like three days to pack all my

stuff, find myself a flight and so on. (6)

Suddenly two of my colleges went missing, one of them was pregnant and one was transferred

to a different country, so they were really missing out on someone. (6)

I had to work in between that’s why I had to look after everything during work. You know what

I mean, I had no week off to have hours looking for flats, of course, if I would need it they would

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give me a day off, no problem, you just stress yourself a lot more, because you have to work

and you have to organize your life, in three days (6)

They gave me another one year contract, which I never finished actually, as there was a point

where they sent all the expats back to the US, without any warning… that was quite hard for

us all, they really sent us all back home. Can you imagine that? (7)

It was a very strange and uncertain period of time, we didn’t know how fast the move back to

the US will be performed by the company and I mean it was harsh. We had like 3 or 4 weeks

to get our shit together and move back home. (7)

6. Repatriation Process

6.1. Un/ Successful

6.2. Existing Procedures/ Experience

I think, ehm, they should have been a little bit more organized with the expats coming home,

they should have had a plan. (5)

I would say, honestly, just the planning and organization of it (5)

I lived in a hotel for the first 3 and a half months, cause I had to look for an apartment by myself,

so… (6)

Now it is a lot different, we really have a department who takes care of expats, but at that time

it was a little different, it sounds so harsh, like they left me alone, but they just really expect

you to take care of yourself. (6)

So that’s something, which also now, they could do a lot better, when you look at other

companies, especially, in Upper Austria, you have a lot of big companies, and they all have

business apartments… and a company as big as THE COMPANY, I think, that’s something

really important. (6)

Yeah, the planning of the return was a disaster to be honest. I am sure if they had thought

about us it would have been a lot smoother, but they didn’t. (7)

I mean successful as I am back in the US but unsuccessful, I mean compared to how I

imagined it to be done. I don’t know if I would have struggled less if the whole return was better

planned but I think it would have been… (7)

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This time most of the decisions were made by my husband concerning housing and stuff, as

he had more experience and knowledge about the situation in Dubai than HR or relocation

companies. (9)

7. Personality

7.1. Commitment/ Identification

…she could do something to take me back to Spain, but it was not that sure and I was too tired

of this company and I wanted to go back to the engineering world! (3)

They [FAMILY] influenced a lot because once they came here, and they visit me, they told me

it is not possible to work that much and as I was there under Amber it was not any kind of

growing in the company, I was just stuck under Amber, and I was just stuck in Linz, there was

not any kind of promotion or possibility. (3)

what changed for me was the emotional connection to the job, has changed because before I

was highly identified with the values and tasks, and afterwards, it was still ok but it was more

a job. (4)

I would say that after the change of the CEO, the whole management. team, like full

management team, I would say I didn’t enjoy this as much as I did before. You know liking to

work, and enjoying to work, is a part of success and that’s why it wasn’t successful for me

towards the end. So, it was the right time for me to leave. (4)

I think for me personally, my biggest thing is, I was so loyal to that company and the brand,

like, I just assumed that they would always be good to me, and take care for me for what I did,

I did a lot for them, but it was really eye-opening and something that made me mature. As an

adult it doesn’t matter, corporations can really care less about who you are – everybody is

replaceable. (5)

Doing new things in my off time was a great way to find my inner self, or at least come a bit

closer to my inner self and reduce stress and inner conflicts, conflicts I wasn’t used to have

before returning... (7)