Early recall of manager - company and employee effects

• Many failures can be traced to poor company practices and lack of preparation
• US failure rates estimated between 25 - 40%.
• European data - 10% France, 3% Sweden, about 10% overall
• Japanese data - about 5%

Typical Causes of Failure (US Companies)

• Inability of spouse to adjust
• Manager's inability to adjust
• Other family problems
• Manager's personal or emotional maturity
• Inability to cope with larger overseas responsibility

Failure is defined in many ways but generally in terms of early recall of staff. This failure has serious consequences for both staff and employer.

Think and write down the possible effects of expatriate failure on both parties.

In fact, the effect on employers is easier to understand at first hand: there may be damage to the firm's standing in the market or damage may have occurred to working relationships within the organization or with supplier and customers Furthermore, expatriate deployment is an expensive exercise and, presumably, another member of staff will have to take over at short notice, adding further to the costs.

A little consideration will identify the problems of failure faced by the member of staff. Failure is always demotivating, at best, and could result in that person leaving the company's employ. However, the failure may not be the fault of the individual concerned - it might have been due to lack of preparation or even poor selection, both of which are the firm's responsibility. Alternatively, it might be due to problems with others and not the expatriate individual, for example. The data shows that U.S. failure rates are well above those of European or Japanese firms and it is interesting to speculate why this is so. The following two slides show the most common sources of failure in U.S. and Japanese firms. They are inherently different, U.S. failures tending to emanate from non-work situations and the Japanese from pressures encountered in the work situation.