Chapter 3: Literature Review

Introduction

This chapter critically reviews scholarly sources on advantages and disadvantages of single versus accompanied international assignments. Adam Smith’s prediction that labour was immobile appears inaccurate today since workers travel across the globe with much ease. Organizations are also increasing their integration into the newly established global economy. Proofs of global mobility of labour are perceivable through the frequency with which Multinational companies (MNCs) send their workers on international assignments. For instance, a conference survey of 130 Multinational companies revealed that approximately half of these companies had about 50 high-level managers on international assignments (Albrecht 2001). This survey implies that global assignment appear an integral operation in the success of MNCs because they create the level of global competence.

Despite the significance of global assignments, Albrecht (2001) suggests that half of international assignments are unsuccessful. This implies that the interplay of various factors assist in the success of global assignment. The success of global assignments is a role of the expatriate and his or her family. In addition, the chapter also analyses the role of family in global assignments. The focus will be on expatriates working in oil and gas industry in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan is historically linked to petroleum and gas production. Azerbaijan is emerging as a significant producer of oil and gas again. This indicates that many oil MNCs are likely to capitalize on the situation. As such, many global assignments might be witnessed.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Unaccompanied and Accompanied Expatriation

Unaccompanied global assignment refers to the situation where an employee relocates to another country on occupational grounds without his family. There is adequate literature that points out the various advantages and disadvantages associated with this form of global assignment. Reiche & Harzing (2008) critically assess the benefits of unaccompanied international assignments by comparing it with the accompanied global assignments.

According to Reiche & Harzing (2008), unaccompanied global assignment is advantageous over the accompanied global assignment. They suggest that the unaccompanied international assignment enable employees to concentrate on their job, which is the primary reason for working abroad. The fact that employees are far away from home implies that they are away from household problems, which they might encounter if they are not working abroad. In their literary work, Reiche & Harzing (2008) affirm that household problems occupy the minds of many employees working from their home country. As a result, such employees cannot focus on the job assigned to them. As much as the employees might wish to perform the task efficiently, they cannot stop thinking of the household problems encountered by their families. Unaccompanied employees on global assignments can rarely attach their emotions to the problems encountered by their families.

However, the proponents of accompanied global assignments such as Altman & Shortland (2008) criticize the above claim. According to the findings of Altman & Shortland (2008),  their literary work titled Women and International Assignments: Taking Stock a 25-year Review, there are flaws in this ideology. They believe that geographical distance cannot detach an individual from his family’s problems. In fact, employees on unaccompanied global assignment tend to be worried of the conditions of their family. As a result, such employees make frequent communications with their family members. This communications can be interruptions at workplace resulting to poor productivity. According to Altman & Shortland (2008), family members of the employees should accompany employees to give them peace of mind, which enable them focus on the job assigned to them.

Another advantage of unaccompanied global assignment over the accompanied global assignment is that it enables employees to save. Employees on unaccompanied expatriation are likely to save more than employees on accompanied expatriation. In most cases, nations hiring workers are developing countries. The currency of such nations is much higher when compared to other nations. Azerbaijan is an example of such a country that is excelling in terms of economy. Presently, Azerbaijan is showing significant progress resulting from oil and gas trade, which prompts her to import labour from other nations. As a result, unaccompanied expatriates in Azerbaijan save financially. This is because employees’ family is far away resulting in reduced family expenses.

According to Becker & Huselid (2006), the families of employees on unaccompanied expatriation are also disadvantaged. The two authors point out that the families of the expatriate normally get worried of the conditions in which their members are exposed to when they are abroad. For instance, the high prevalence of terrorism activities in the Middle East creates tension among family members. The geographical location of Azerbaijan exposes it to terrorism activities. In addition, the nation has a majority of Muslim population believed to be the terrorists. The conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh territory purely indicates quite high levels of tensions in the country. Rampant corruption and unfulfilled promises regarding undeveloped petroleum resources are major issues in Azerbaijan that are likely to result in internal conflicts. The findings of Dowling et al. (2008) indicate that the closeness of Azerbaijan to Iran raises an overwhelming tension among family members of the expatriates working in oil and gas industry in Azerbaijan. The families believe that Iran’s terrorism activities might have some potential negative effects to Azerbaijan, which might hamper with the safety of their loved ones. However, Cassell & Symon (2011) affirm that accompanying loved ones on expatriation does not eliminate the fears. In fact, Briscoe et al. (2012) agrees by affirming that accompanied expatriation only exposes workers and their families to terrorism. In addition, accompanied expatriation might be costly to the company in case terrorism occurs in the country of work. This is because the company will have to make necessary arrangements to evacuate both the employees and their families to their mother countries.

The Role of Families on International Assignments

Poelman’s (2005) literary work titled Work and Family: An International Research Perspective critically reviews the role of families in global assignments. One family member, the expatriate, children or spouse, has the ability to positively or negatively influence the family’s cross-cultural adjustment. According to Poelmans (2005), it is essential to understand the different concerns of family members. In accomapnied international assingment, family members experience three forms of challenges as analyzed by Poelmans (2005). The analysis of these challenges reveals various roles of the family in international assignment, which are discussed in the following paragraphs.

The first challenge is transitions issues for the expatriate. Many expatriates have a problem adjusting to the new job position in the new foreign context (Genisyürek & Stock, 2012). For instance, exaptriates might have have to work extremely long hours to become accustomed to the new positions, which might, in turn, influence their pyschological well-being. As a result, conflicts might result when occupational responsiblities become incomaptble with home responsibilities (Cassell & Symon 2011). It is the role of the expatriate to balance between occupational responsibilities and family responsibilities. This finding conforms with Albrecht (2001) suggestion that unaccompanied expatriates have to meet the demands of their families in homecountry. Expatriates might have to work long hours, socialize with citizens of host country and develop culturally stable behaviours. Some of the developed culturally consistent behaviors might differ with their family roles resulting in stress. To solve such conflicts, expatriates must be willing to be culturally consistent with family roles in their home country. For instance, expatriates working in oil and gas industry in Azerbaijan might develop the muslim culture that might differ with with his family’s religious beliefs (Sparrow et al. 2004).

The second challenge that faces the family in international asignment is the trasition issues for the spouse. Approximately 90 per cent of expatriates are male, though this seems to be changing because of the dual-career couples in assignment. According to  Poelmans (2005), the greatest transition problem encountered by spouses is the reestablishment of social networks. Poelman (2005) also affirms that spouses face the problem of adjusting to their careers. Global relocation might even bring to an end the career of spouse. For example, a couple with one spouse working as an expatriate in oil and gas industry in Azerbaijan might have problems. The other spouse might have to adjust to the new foreign environment, change career or end his or her career (Briscoe et al. 2012). This implies that the effect of global assignment is higher for couples in dual career marriages. This is also another disadvantage related to accompanied international assignment. It is the role of the spouse to adjust effectively to career demands without initiating new financial problems to other family members.

Another role of non-salaried spouses is to make a home in the new foreign location (Becker & Huselid 2006). This role is moslty applicable in situations where the spouse is a female. To the male expatriate, the global assignment might signify enhanced occupational challenges. As such, moving to a new foreign country requires a non-salaried partner to facilitate in the setting up of a home as the other partner attends to family needs. As the salaried spouse, the husband, engages in serving the corporate world, the wife should try to make direct contact with the new environment. This role reveals another disdvantage of the unaccompanied international assignment. Expatriates on unaccompanied international expatriation do not travel with their spouses who might assist in establishing a home in the foreign environment.

Poelman (2005) conducted a theoretical research on the transition issues for children. The findings of the research revealed that children aged between three and five years suffer the most from emotional difficulties resulting from misinformation and misinterpretation. The research further revealed that children aged between 14 and 16 years suffer from uncertainty and doubt, especially concerning social issues. Teenagers might experience a loss of control over their lives resulting in psychological problems. In addition,  the research of Genisyürek & Stock (2012) on domestic and international relocations had an amost similar finding to to the research conducted by  Poelmans (2005). The research revealed that about 50 percent of children aged between 13 and 18 suffer various social problems such as missing old friends, inability to socialize and inability to adjust to new schools.  Reiche & Harzing (2008) conducted a study that revealed  the pessimistic attitudes of mothers towards the relocation negatively affect children. From these findings, parents play a critical in influencing the perceptions of their children. According to  Reiche & Harzing (2008), optimistic perception of parents can reduce the both social and pyschological problems facing children. The figure below summarises the role of the family in international assignments (Reiche & Harzing, 2008).

From the figure, the ability of the family to adapt influences the success of global relocation. However, family’s perception  of the global relocation might hinder global relocation. It is the role of parents to influence the perception of children to adjust to the new foreign environment. Once all these challenges have been overcomed, the expatratriate can proceed to his or her work life (Reiche & Harzing, 2008). If this challnges are not addresssed, it is obvious that spillovers might arise. Spillovers refers to conflicts between the family and the expatriate.

This thesis will be helpful in adding knowledge to the existing literature on advantages and disadvantages of unaccompanied and accompanied global assignments. It is evident that prior empirical studies and theoretical literature provide explanations that help individuals and firms to decide on which form of assignment to take. Therefore, this thesis has effectively used empirical evidence to explain the benefits associated with each form of international assignment.

References

Albrecht, M 2001, International HRM: managing diversity in the workplace, 3rd edn,        Blackwell Business, London.

Altman, Y & Shortland, S 2008, ‘Women and international Assignments: Taking a 25-year            review’, Human Resource Management, vol 47, no. 2, pp. 199-216.

Becker, B & Huselid, M 2006, ‘Strategic Human Resources Management: where do we go            from here?’, Journal of Management, vol 32, no. 6, pp. 898-925.

Briscoe, D, Schuler, R & Tarique, I 2012, International Human Resource Management:     Policies and practices for multinational enterprises, 4th edn, Routledge, London.

Cassell, C & Symon, G 2011, ‘Assessing ‘good’ qualitative research in the work psychology         field: A narrative analysis’, Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology,  vol 84, no. 4, p. 633–650.

Dowling, P, Festing, M & Engle, A 2008, international human resource management:       managing people in a multinational context, 5th edn, Cengage Learning, London.

Genisyürek, N & Stock, R 2012, ‘A taxonomy of expatriate leaders’ cross-cultural  uncertainty: insights into the leader–employee dyad’, The International Journal of            Human Resource Management, vol 23, no. 15, pp. 3258-3286.

Poelmans, S 2005, Work and family: An international research perspective, Routledge, New         York.

Sparrow, P, Brewster, C & Harris, H 2004, Globalizing human resource management, 3^rd  edn, Routledge, New York.