Expatriate Management in Cross Cultural Business Environment in MNCs

Abstract

With liberalisation of trade barriers and increased internationalisation of companies, the number of multinational companies (MNCs) coming into existence is higher than ever before.  With internationalisation, business is being conducted with different countries with distinguished socio-cultural, economic and political environment. An increasing number of companies are performing business in cross cultural environment and adapting to different institutional and cultural factors in the host country. In the global context, managing human resources effectively is an important aspect of gaining competitiveness by the MNCs to ensure that effective balance is maintained between strategic and economic aspects and the human resources practices. Expatriation is one such crucial human resources practice important for meeting the strategic goals of an organisation. In this article, the increasing importance of expatriates in the cross cultural business environment is reflected upon. The analysis then focuses on the aspects of evaluating the success of expatriate assignments and effective management practices that can improve expatriate management.