Quality of Cross Cultural Research †Free Samples to Students

Question: Discuss about the Quality of Cross Cultural Research. Answer: Introduction Solarco is an international organization in the energy sector which is headquartered in Sydney. The Company is setting up subsidiaries all over the globe and due to recent growth experience by the organization the Company is adopting plans for expansion in international country. The Solarco Company should adopt right strategies for the selection process, staffing of the candidates and the development of the international team. A strong and unified corporate culture should be developed for the international team. The repatriates leave an organization within one year of returning to their home country, the percentage can go up to 20 % and organizations incur huge loss because of the turnover of the repatriates. Therefore, the Solarco Pty Limited should adopt strategies to handle turnover of the repatriates, the retention strategies of the repatriates should be developed well and the staffing process of the international team should follow certain specific strategies to select the right candidates for the international assignment. When employees are sent in a different country for work assignments, they get highly influenced by the work culture of the host country. The new and different culture of the host country bring a lot of change in the employees who start working overseas and often they discover a new identity within themselves. The employees who have experience in working overseas feel that they are more valuable than the employees of the organization who are working in their home country. The employees feel that working abroad in an international environment has enhanced their knowledge, skills and abilities. However, when these employees return to their home country, they feel that their organization do not give them their due value and they start comparing themselves with their co-workers with no international experience. This is a prime reason why employees chose to quit from the organization within one year of returning to the home country (Tung and Verbeke 2010). The repatriates perceive that after an international exposure, his job should contain more responsibilities, challenges and respect. The reasons why repatriates leave an organization after returning to their home country are because of several factors- they feel they do not have opportunities of career planning, they perceive that they are not adequately paid in home country and they are not supported and counselled well by their managers to stay with the organization((Bjerregaard, Lauring and Klitmller 2009). When there is wide gap between the perception of the repatriates of the overall support they have received from their organization and the level of commitment they have towards their organization, then there is a high chance of turnover. The repatriates compare mentally the sacrifices they made while pursuing the international assignment like staying away from family in home country, bearing the risks of working in a completely different work culture and the rewards and recognition they have received from their present organization after completion of the international assignment. The turnover of repatriates is higher when there is an imbalance between the rewards they receive and the recognition they get (Zhu and Bargiela-Chiappini 2013). The apparent losses organisations need to deal due to turnover of repatriates The losses that Solarco Company has to bear when repatriates leave the organization are as follows The repatriates gain additional knowledge, skills and experiences while working on the international assignment and they have all the technical know-how which will enable them to take up future international assignment for the Solarco Company. If they leave the organization, the Solarco Company will lose talented employees with international experience which the organization could have utilized effectively (Thomas. and Peterson 2017). The employees with international experience can play diverse role in the organization like they can be a part of the cross-cultural training team of the organization and can train other employees who plan to undertake an international assignment in future. These employees with international experience can also be a part of global strategy team and can assist in new product development, Customer Relationship management of the global team. So Solarco organization would lose valuable employees if repatriates leave the organization (Mor, Morris and Joh 2013). The Company would bear financial cost to train the employees for international assignment as well as the employees would have a higher pay in a foreign country. If repatriates leave organization after returning to home country, Solarco Organization would incur financial loss (Trevor, Lansford and Black 2004). Based on research analysis, review recommendations to the organisation to better retain repatriates; The career path of the repatriates should be tracked by the human resource department of the organization once the repatriates return to their home country. There repatriates should be given opportunity for counselling of career planning and career advancement once they return to their home country. The managers who work on international assignment expect that they will be promoted to a senior level when they return to their home country after completion of the international assignment even though they are not promised the same by the employer. There International Human resource department of the Solarco Company should discuss with the repatriates their expectations and communicate to them the rewards and opportunities that the Solarco Company can provide to the repatriates. Clear communication and open flow of information will help in better retention of the repatriates (Stanley et al 2013). The international experiences that the repatriates have gained should be appreciated. There should be forums where the repatriates can share their experiences with their co-workers, Even if the employers cant promote the repatriates to a senior level immediately there should be enough recognition given to the repatriates. The creative potential of the repatriates should be utilized effectively by the organization when they return to their home country. The repatriates should be allowed to handle different functional areas. For example repatriates can be a part of the cross-cultural team or they can be involved in designing a product developed for the international market. There should be a mentor for the executives who work on international assignment who will not only guide them during their overseas assignment but will also assist them to utilize their international experience on returning to their home country. The mentors can play instrumental role on the retention strategies of the repatriates once they return to their home country (Hancock et al 2013). The Solarco Company should guide the expatriates throughout their international assignment by providing them the safety and security in the foreign country, visa assistance, assistance with search of home in the foreign country, assistance to cope up with the technical requirements of the international project, assistance with handling of the challenges of the international assignment. This assistance from the organization during the international project will create a psychological bonding with the overseas employees and they will remain loyal to the organization even when they return to the home country (Samuel and Chipunza 2009). The co-workers of the home country should remain in touch with the overseas employees and a global communication plan should be developed for the overseas employees. The employees working on international assignment should be informed about the progress in the home country through employee newsletter, emails, chat messages and other formal mode of communication so that they stay connected with their co-workers and work culture of the home country which will enable them to develop psychological feelings of loyalty when they return to home country (Testa 2009). Recommendation of a suitable IHR Management strategy to successfully staffing; executives internationally and developing the international executive team The Solarco International Company should adopt specific strategies for developing a team of international executives who will work on international assignments The process of staffing and selection of candidates for the international team should follow the steps like determination of the competencies required for the international assignment, recreation of job analysis and job description which will be based on the skills and competencies required for the international assignment, keeping a pool of applicants of the Solarco Company who will be interested in the international assignment, reviewing the pool of these applicants and interview the interested candidates for staffing and selection of the international team once an international assignment is open. While staffing executives for the international assignment, Solarco Company should select candidates who have managerial competence. The executives of the international team should have the knowledge required for the international operation, should have leadership and technical skills for the job. Training It is essential to culturally train the executives who will work on the international assignment, the executives of the international team should be willing to receive training about the culture and language of the host country. Adaptability- The international assignment will pose new challenging situations to the executives of the international team. While selecting the candidates for the international team, Solarco International should ensure that the team members have capacity to handle new risks and challenges posed by the international assignment. While staffing the executives for the international assignment Solarco Company should check the interest level of the executives of the international team to work on the international assignment. The Company should maintain a spreadsheet of the interested executives with data like languages spoken by them, cultural experience and skills. Once there is availability of an international assignment, the Solarco Company can interview the interested candidates who meet the technical skills and expertise of the international assignment. The training of the executives of the international team provided by the Solarco Company can be both in-house or it could be an external training. The international team should be trained on five key components to develop their skills and competencies for the international assignment. These five components are language spoken in the host country where the team will be deployed for the international assignment, the culture of the host country, an orientation and inclusion program should be conducted by the International Human Resource Team of the Solarco Company for cultural induction of the international team, the international team should be guided towards setting goal of the international assignment, they should receive training of repatriation and they should be trained to manage stress of the family they leave behind in the home country while working on international assignment. The cultural training should include training on etiquette, the arts, geography, food, and management style, aspects of logistics like the currency and transportation of the host country. The international team of the Solarco Company should be trained to manage homesickness, stress and cultural shock of the foreign country. Conclusion It can be concluded that Solarco International Company is planning for expansion in the international countries due to recent growth. It is of paramount importance to adopt the right strategies for the staffing, selection and development of the international team. The cultural training and selection of the right candidates based on the knowledge, experience, skills and competencies required for the international assignment will enable Solarco Company to staff right candidates for the international assignment. The Solarco Company will incur huge loss which is financial loss as well as loss of employees with better skills and knowledge and exposure to international experience if the repatriates leave the job after returning to their home country. Therefore, it is of paramount importance to be proactive and adopt strategies for retention of the repatriates after they return to the home country. The reason due to which repatriates may quit from their job after returning to the home count ry is because they perceive that their international experience, new skills and competencies gained during the international experience is underutilized by the organization in their home country. There is also lack of career planning, lucrative pay as compared to the international assignment in a foreign country, and lack of counselling and motivation by managers in the home country due to which the repatriates might consider quitting the job after returning to home country. The repatriates can be given higher responsibility to be a part of cross-cultural team and their creative abilities should be utilized effectively to retain them in the organization after they return to home country. Reference Lists Bjerregaard, T., Lauring, J. and Klitmller, A., 2009. 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