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What is an expat?

  • Watch the video: Piercy, D. (2014, Nov 4).  Global Human Resource Management. [Video File]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COQgJyCpU4A
    • This video features an employee who agreed to locate himself and his family from New York to Paris, France.  This situation was not successful and the employee asked to have his contract terminated and return to New York. 
  • Read the article: Chew, J. (2004). Managing MNC Expatriates through Crises: A Challenge for International Human Resource Management, Research and Practice in Human Resource Management, 12(2), 1-30.  Retrieved from: https://rphrm.curtin.edu.au/2004/issue2/expats.html
Using the video, discuss the issues you found most compelling.  Was the employee being unreasonable in his requests?  How did the HR team handle the situation?  Given what you know about the challenges of expatriates, was there anything that the company should have done for this employee and/or his family?  Who is ultimately responsible for making sure the expatriate experience is a successful one?
  • Provide analysis and suggest some solutions and strategies for improving expatriate success.  
  • If you have ever been an expatriate, please use your own experiences to enhance the discussion. 
As the commentators in the video stated, there seemed to be a breakdown in communication before, during, and after the travel.  The employee appeared very defensive during the session.
I feel the company was being accommodated in stating that he would not lose his salary even though the position they had available in New York was at a lower level.  They also offered the opportunity of moving within the country to remain at this current level.  I can understand why the thought of another move would be stressful to this employee, but I also feel that someone who is clearly at a high level in the company should appreciate that his old position has been filled and that they are willing to keep him on and keep him at his current salary.  Everyone in the video mentions that he broke a 3 year contract but it isn’t clear at what point he broke the contract. 
It seems that the employee and his family did not take full advantage from the employee assistance program prior to moving. To me both the employee and the HR department are equally responsible.  The HR department should have been monitoring and working with the employee and his wife to ensure that they were fully taking part and being prepared for this move and likewise, the employee and his wife are adults and should have stepped up and taken full advantage of programs being offered.
It might be part of the employee assistance program, but I think that facilitating meetings/conversations between an employee getting ready to move and someone who has previously done that would be of benefit.  It would help to learn the common problems and stressors but also the joys and the benefits from someone who has been there, done that.
Lastly, there was no mention of support in France while the employee was there.  I understand that he was the first employee going over to set up the company in that area, but certainly frequent contact should be built into the system. I would also suggest in-person meetings - either his supervisor or someone from HR going there in the first month to check in and/or providing opportunities for him and his family to come back to New York. 
As an adult I have not been an expatriate, but when I was a child my father was transferred out of country and our whole family went (Canada to Puerto Rico) for just less than 2 years.  This was in the mid-1970s.   My father’s situation sounds different than the one on the video in that there was a group of 6 from my father’s company (Bell Canada) who all went at the same time, and even though they didn’t necessarily know each other prior to going, there was at least a group of people and not someone sent there on their own.  We all spent a great deal of our time together and in fact even 40 years later are still in touch with each other and have had several reunions.  The children of these families all attended an American private (English speaking) school as opposed to a local, public school.  Also, the reason this group went was to assist the Puerto Rican telephone company with setting up newer, more reliable equipment as opposed to going out to start a satellite of a business, which again might change the emotions and the stress levels.  My parents still talk about it in a very positive way and say that they had support both locally and back at home from the management team.
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