Success Rates of Us Expatriates

Describe the success rates of US expatriates. What are the most common reasons expatriates fail inforeign assignments? How might this failure be prevented?

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Expatriate refers to anyone living or working outside their home country. Research indicates that10-20% of all US managers sent abroad return home ahead of schedule. Of those who stay for theduration, nearly 1/3 did not perform up to the expectations of their superiors. Finally, approximately ¼of those who complete their assignments left their company within one year of repatriation. The mostcommon reasons expatriates fail in foreign assignments are personal/family adjustment problems andhomesickness. Realistic job previews, intensive cross-cultural training (including language instruction),host-country sponsors, and home-country sponsors can all improve the success rates of US expatriateassignments.Culture shock may occur when expatriates leave their home country and take up residence in the hostcountry. Culture shock involves anxiety and doubt caused by an overload of unfamiliar expectations andsocial cues. The best defense against culture shock is comprehensive cross-cultural training, includingintensive language study. In contrast, reality shock occurs when the expatriate is repatriated to his orher native country. Having adjusted to another country's way of doing things for an extended periodof time can put one's own culture and surroundings in a strange new light. Areas for potential reentryshock include work, social activities, and general environment. Reentry shock can be reduced throughemployee career counseling and home-country sponsors.Intercontinental business, foreign direct investments, expatriates' work and any international cooperation requires an understanding of the differences between cultures.

For instance business negotiations, expatriate professionals, management of foreign personnel, and cross-cultural teams presuppose a good knowledge of cultural differences. Studies abound with recommendations on how to increase expatriate success in a new culture. Knowing the relationship between values and cultures can assist the business person or traveler in better understanding the intercultural differences within regions.

Today globalization fastens the transfer of not only the products and services among nations, but also, the intangible factors of production like know-how and expertise. This transfer makes it a necessity to have a workforce that is confident in international arena, therefore, today majority of medium and large sized companies send their professionals' abroad and many of them plan to boost their number of expatriates.

Expatriates refer that anyone living or working outside their home country and non-citizens of a country in which they are working. This started to play an important role in the international business activities of most companies. Thus, at the moment an overseas experience has become a significant step in career plans of individuals as well as the competitive advantage of a company and continuous development. There are several reasons for this international movement such as increased number of joint ventures, reduction of resources in local markets, export strategies of some countries, easy transfer of factors of production among nations, growth in direct foreign investment and increased rate of unemployment. While, an international assignment is mostly attributed to management and employee level expatriation and volunteer career development motive refers to a self-governing sought of an international experience.

Kiewit Corporation was founded in Omaha, USA in 1884 and it is a mining and construction company. Kiewit is a global corporation. Kiewit assigns employees other countries where it has ongoing project and branches. Kiewit has ongoing projects in Turkey such as rail mass transportation system construction and gold mining business. Kiewit employees are assigned to Kiewit-Turkey Corporation to build and teach the company dynamics and structure. Kiewitt-US expatriates face sort of problems such as homesickness and personal and family adjustment problems in Turkey.

United States of America government type is constitution-based federal republic; strong democratic tradition. The independence was declared on 4th of July 1776. The population of USA is 313,232,044 (July 2011 est.) and the median age of people is 36.9 years. Religions are Protestant 51.3%, Roman Catholic 23.9%, Mormon 1.7%, other Christian 1.6%, Jewish 1.7%, Buddhist 0.7%, Muslim 0.6%, other or unspecified 2.5%, unaffiliated 12.1%, none 4%.(CIA website).

Republic of Turkey government type is republican parliamentary democracy. The independence was declared on 29th of October 1923. The population of Turkey is 78,785,548 (July 2011 est.) and the median age of people is 28.5 years. Religions are Muslim 99.8% , other 0.2%.( CIA website).

The United State culture is low-context