Repatriation as an essential part of intercultural training in the context of intercultural management

Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject Tourism - Miscellaneous, grade: 1,0, Stralsund University of Applied Sciences (FH Stralsund in Zusammenarbeit mit Université de Haute Alsace Mulhouse), language: English, abstract: “Diversity among employees in terms of cultural background leads to a richer, more sophisticated and more effective corporate environment.” World has changed completely and is still on a way of continuous transformation. Globalisation and international business are keywords nowadays. Introduction of Intercultural Management and International Human Resource Management has become inevitable the last few years. Companies have to think and act in an international way. In order to be successful it is necessary to enter new markets and to make international contacts. With intercultural well trained leaders a company gets competitive advantage: global leaders know the customs, culture, and etiquette of a foreign country and understand the nuances of business practices in those areas. Expatriation of executives or managers has become an important part of business life. But this mobility represents a real challenge for multinational organisations. In most cases the implementation and performance of Intercultural Management and International Human Resource Management cannot be made without difficulties. Expatriation failures, deterioration of performance, social or personal problems are just some examples of intercultural difficulties . One tool to solve or avoid such problems is Intercultural Training which consists of two parts: preparation for expatriates who are going to leave the home country and training for repatriates who come back to the home country after a foreign assignment. The following seminar paper focuses on the repatriation. This part of Intercultural Training is often badly treated and lots of companies do not pay attention to it. If they do, their programmes are often incomplete although satisfying reintegration is a key factor for success or failure of the foreign assignment . In a first theoretical part general facts about repatriation, its necessity and meaning will be pointed out. It follows a practical part that should underline the company’s behaviour towards repatriation. Therefore a questionnaire was made which can be found in the appendix. Unfortunately only few companies responded so that this survey is not representative. Nevertheless it gives an interesting insight into company’s practices of Intercultural Training. Together with the theoretical facts it allows to draw a general conclusion about repatriation programmes.