Human Resource Management

Introduction

This group essay will aim to analyse the case study of Jaguar or Bluebird (B), detailing our observations of the case study, the major themes, as well as our proposed solution to the issues contained within the case study.

Major Themes and Observations

Upon a closer reading of our case study, these were the observations that we garnered as a group. Mark and his family lacked a preparation or psychological adjustment period prior to returning from England.

There was also the issue of physical relocation for Mark and his family. Mark did not receive financial assistance to cope with dealing with the loss of his overseas allowance, that lead to the decline in the standard of living for him and his family, one with less material comforts than they had in England.

On the front of readjustment, there were social factors and job-related factors. Mark's re-entry position into the company was essentially a demotion in status and pay, and he accepted it thinking that it would only be a temporary position. He only found out that it was likely to be a more permanent position due to the lack of available senior positions in the company for him, caused by the onset of a global economy downturn. He was also dissatisfied with the job scope of his current job, and it seemed that the company did not value his overseas experience. All this led to mounting career anxiety and he felt he would have been better off in another company who would value his international experience, culminating in him deciding to exit the current company. Linda too, had difficulty looking for a job. She sent out several applications but none of them resulted in a job offer. This was partly due to the economic downturn in Singapore.

Once he and his family had returned to Singapore, they were also faced with social issues, the inability to smoothly transition to life in Singapore. Mark's two children Jeremy and John had difficulty making friends in school. This was mostly because they faced a communication barrier. They spoke with a British accent and their classmates could not understand them, and vice versa. Linda too, was having trouble identifying with her friends as she found she had little in common with them. They were less interested in listening to her England experience than she thought, and she on the other hand had little to say about Singapore having spent the past few years away.

The Repatriation Process

Before the global assignment, preparation would be done to reduce the culture shock upon return. The organisation will first assign mentors who have relevant expatriate assignment experience and attach them to the expatriates to keep in touch with them the changing condition in the home country. Besides that, formal and informal communication channels will be provided to allow expatriates to keep up with changes in the home country, organisation and their community. Furthermore, there will be pre-departure training and orientation such as preliminary visits, cultural awareness as well as language training (Dowling, Festing & Engle, Sr 2008).

During the assignment, there will be regular work-related information exchanges to update the expatriate about the organisation's current position. Other than that, the expatriates are allowed periodic returns to the home country to help the expatriate to reconnect with his/her family, friends as well as the firm employees to catch up about the changing business condition (Velde 2009).

Upon return, the organisation is required to help with the expatriate's physical relocation and transition back to the home country. For instance, making arrangement for accommodation, children' schooling and carrying out other administrative tasks. The expatriates would be given new tasks, a platform to share their experiences with the organisation and its employees. They would have to experience an adjustment process which involves coping with reverse cultural shock as well as personal, family and career demands adjustment (Velde 2009).

Expatriates are generally sent overseas to develop international perspectives and skills as well as to gain global perspectives that will facilitate future strategy formulation and implementation responsibilities. To constitute effective use of an expatriate, he/she should possess the required competencies for both management and development once he/she returns, which includes providing an understanding to the international market critical to the business, knowledge transfer between the headquarters and foreign locations as well as aiding the organisation to work well across multiple cultures and time zone (Dowling, Festing & Engle, Sr 2008).

However, to utilise and integrate the home and host experience of expatriates, the organisation needs to be able to retain these talents and they do this by valuing the expatriates' international experience and give them a promotion once they return home. Other than that, the organisation should also give these expatriates greater role discretions and more autonomy in decision making. This will then allow the expatriates to exercise greater flexibility and freedom to experiment with new methods which they have acquired in overseas and believe that they will be effective in their home country (Scullion & Linehan 2005).

Career Anxiety

There are several factors that lead to career anxiety for an expatriate who returns from an international assignment. The primary motivation for accepting an overseas assignment is usually career advancement (Stahl, Miller & Tung 2001). Anxiety may arise if an expatriate feels that his or her career advancement opportunities are not proportionate to the sacrifices made in relocating and uprooting oneself as a result of accepting the assignment, and this was certainly the case for Mark. A study shows that the common re-entry fears are difficulties in finding a suitable re-entry, lack of long term career planning, and inadequate advancement opportunities after re-entry. (Stahl 2000). One major cause of career anxiety is the fact that most companies do not provide any post-assignment guarantee of employment (Bolino 2007).

Often towards the end of an international assignment, a fear begins to develop in the mind of the expatriate that the period he has spent overseas has caused a loss of visibility and isolation. The lack of the expatriate's visibility at the home office contributes to his or her feeling that achievements and newly acquired skills are not recognized on return (Ramsey & Schaetti 1999). This is mostly due to a lack of information being transmitted to the individual, leaving him with