Repatriation - why and how to succeed?

Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject Leadership and Human Resources - Miscellaneous, grade: 1,0, University of Hamburg (Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften), course: International Human Resource Management, language: English, abstract: Against the background of global activities, Multinational Companies (MNC's) increasingly send managers and executives abroad, to work on their management skills and promote their knowledge of business across national borders (Halpern, 2005). The results of ECA International research (2008) have shown that 63% of MNC's are planning to extend their international delegations and underline the importance of international assignments. Within implementation of international assignments, repatriation shows the largest potential for improvement in current practice (Keller, 2001). Human resource managers mainly focus on the pre-departure phase and activities during the assignment. According to a survey conducted by Matthews (2007), only 4% of personal managers report on re-entry strategies, while 21% do not worry about the reintegration process. Although 70% of 100 MNC s state to offer a formal re-entry policy, more than 50% have no evaluation of repatriate overseas-experience (Stahl, Mayrhofer & Kuhlmann, 2005). As result, remarkably 30% of repatriates in German-based MNC s leave their company within the first year after their return (Siebeke, 2009). Hence, despite thorough selection, preparation of candidates and great expense, many MNC s fail to capitalize on their human investments (Halpern, 2005). This paper concentrates on measures for creation of a successful repatriation. A short discussion of re-entry difficulties in the current practice and their theoretical background will be followed by a description of impact on MNCs caused by insufficient repatriation. Furthermore, some measures will be introduced to facilitate the repatriation especially by creation of a win-win situation.