Re-Thinking International Assignments

Although there have been a lot of studies, and much has been written over the last thirty years regarding expatriates and overseas assignments, there still appears to be a relatively high failure rate for these overseas assignments. Admittedly, these assignments are very complex in nature, and much of the available information is very helpful to global operations. However, most of this information focuses on particular areas of concern, not an overall picture of the entire process. There is an opportunity to improve a corporation's chance of success by approaching the issue from a program management perspective, utilizing a cross-functional team approach in order to tie together all of the responsible areas. There are two areas that can be improved on. One area is to increase the corporation's responsibility and role in developing employees for their overseas operation. The other is to retain and utilize the employee after their repatriation in order to support and improve the performance of the next expatriate and the overseas office.