Why are companies so reluctant to implement comprehensive expat partner support programmes?

Extensive research into the area of expat partner adjustment has identified many general recommendations of support that companies can provide to help ensure the successful outcome of their international assignments.  Many of these support activities also relate to domestic relocations, but become of critical importance when looking at the international environment.

Support recommendations

• Family career management - assists the couple in achieving a balance between their long-term careers, life and family aspirations, by providing counselling and flexible working practices to overcome the inevitable conflicts that arise.  In doing so, the value and effect of international assignments are put into perspective.
   
• Global mentoring - helps speed up cultural adjustment particularly for the partner and organisational adjustment for the expat so that family life if disrupted to a minimum.  Mentors, being concerned with the well-being of couples, are in an ideal position to help oversee a comprehensive support programme for couples.
   
• Preview of life in new location - along with detailed reviews of both partners’ proposed activities help partners prepare for culture shock and identify any potential family career conflicts.  For career partners an assessment of the foreign employment situation is made.  Arrange a paid trip to the foreign location to finalise preparations.
   
• Job search assistance - help for career partners in their job search and dealing with the inevitable ‘red tape’.  Companies can assist by offering employment, making available their network of intra-company contacts and providing access to professional recruiters.  An office environment can also be provided.
   
• Self-development - especially for non-working partners, foreign language and cross-cultural training to help adjustment to the local culture and counselling to help create a meaningful life outside the supportive home environment.  Financial support for productive activities can assist partners in achieving their goals.
   
• Social support - sponsoring and encouragement of support groups run by experienced expats.  Provision of professional counsellors to help resolve conflicts and deal with psychological problems caused by stress and culture shock.  Assistance to ease communication and reunions between family and friends.
   
• Financial and logistical assistance - to compensate for expenses incurred and the disruption suffered when undertaking international assignments.

Why aren’t more companies following these recommendations?

Many companies, however, fail to implement many of these recommendations concentrating mostly on the tangible areas such as financial assistance and little on the people issues such as the family and spouse.  So why is this so? 

A marked difference between providing more tangible benefits versus a lack of intangible ones may be indicative of the company’s wider approach to the issue of human resource management (HRM) which has been conceptualised by the hard and soft models of HRM.

Contrasting approaches to managing people

The hard model is concerned with managing according to market issues in a command and control fashion.  There is a preoccupation with keeping the core labour force small and trim to achieve cost rationalisation and flexibility.  Emphasis is placed on obtaining the right people for the right job.  As a result, expat partner support is unlikely to be perceived as a necessity by top management, who consider it a personal matter and unnecessary if the right expat can be selected. Any support received by partners is likely to be part of a benefits package bestowed on the expat for accepting the job and any training deemed necessary to carry out the expat job in the new environment. 

At the other end of the scale, the soft model recognises that people make a difference and are treated as a resource rather than a dispensable economic unit.  Emphasis is shifted from compliance and control to commitment and co-operation to foster a creative rather than reactionary role from employees.  Realising that partners also make a difference to the success of international assignments, many partner support activities are likely to be considered; the only limiting factors being doubt about the cost and/or the lack of understanding of a particular issue.

How do you use your expats?

We can take the theory further and say that the position on the hard-soft scale can be linked to the strategic direction being taken by the company and hence how expats are being utilised on international assignments. 

Potential family conflicts should be identified prior to the posting

Companies trying to adapt their products to the local market need expats, not only to understand local conditions, but to control subsidiary operations to maintain the interests of the parent company.  Companies can also use expats in a similar way to help co-ordinate interdependent subsidiary operations.  In both cases, the drive for control and co-ordination to achieve efficiency leads to a preference towards the hard HRM implementation. 

Conversely, companies who are focusing more on providing opportunities for organisational learning and innovation will require expats to help transfer tacit knowledge around the organisation that results from different cultures, ideas and experiences existing between subsidiaries.  This requires a more creative outlook from employees, leading to the preference for a softer HRM implementation.

And now the reality

The reality is more complex, however, as we have assumed that there is a consistent approach to human resource policy and that it is indeed tied to business strategy.  If these assumptions are not upheld then the result is likely to be a ‘pick and mix’ of the different approaches to HRM. 

Such non-strategic activities carried out by expats include ‘fire-fighting’, short-term job-filling, sole individual development, and other activities arranged at the operation level without reference to the company’s strategy.  In such cases the likely reasons for not providing partner support activities will centre on lack of time and the fact that support is made available on an ad-hoc basis.  Since the idea of learning organisations is relatively new, it can be surmised that historically companies have tended to implement hard versions of HRM, explaining the past reliance on the tangible aspects of partner support programmes.

So when an employee returns home and announces to his or her partner that their company wants to send them on an international assignment to help promote organisational learning and innovation, chances are that the outcome is less likely to end in a messy divorce for the individual or the company concerned.

Take part in a survey to explore these issues further

As part of my MBA thesis at Leicester University in the UK, I have developed an on-line survey to further explore these theories.  Please go to http://home.arcor.de/ajackson93/survey to read more about the study and to take part in the survey.

The questionnaire, which can be taken anonymously if necessary, should take less than 20 minutes to complete and all participants will receive a full version of the final thesis report by email.

Subject: Expatriate support, Expatriate spouse issues, Expatriate assignment