Stefan Kroes 1666479 Page 1 of 22
How to get an assignee
willing to do another
short-term assignment?
An empirical research on how companies should set up a
short-term assignments so that the assignee is willing to do another
short-term assignment after his/her previous short-term
assignment
Name: Stefan Kroes Std.nr: 1666479 Date: 18-05-2011
Stefan Kroes 1666479 Page 2 of 22 Content Pre-face ... 3 Summary ... 4 Introduction ... 6 Literature research ... 8 Methodology... 12 Results ... 13 Discussion... 15 Conclusion ... 17 References... 18 Appendix I: Questionnaire ... 19
Appendix II: Outcomes of the questionnaire in percentages ... 21
Stefan Kroes 1666479 Page 3 of 22 Pre-face
It all started in April 2010 and ended in May 2011. It all started a bit opportunistic in terms of planning. I underestimated the fact that writing a master thesis while having a full-time job is a bit challenging. It wasn’t always easy to find the time and energy to work on a frequent base to finish this master thesis within the original planning. However by now I finished the last part of the master-program which is the result of this master thesis which lies before you.
To come up with a good topic for my master thesis, I go back to a lecture course in which I participated in my master year. I’ve participated in the course “advanced international business” by Dr. Christoph Dörrenbächer. In this course I worked together with Ellis de Haan (student). One of the assignments was to do a small sized research with 10 respondents. The topic that has been chosen for this small research was short-term assignments. By doing this research we found out that there is a difference between the way companies think what is important in short-term assignments and what the assignee says is important. This gave me new insights, especially because not much is known about this issue. Knowing that we only did a small sized research, I wanted to do an extended research based on our findings. In a way, I extended the research I had at that time. I’m glad it worked out, because it gives a better insight in the topic and some unanswered questions.
I would like to thank my supervisors for their patience with me during the last year and also for their feedback which gave each time a better direction for me to complete my master thesis. Also my girlfriend and family I would like to thank. They kept me focused on finishing the thesis because they motivated me in all possible ways to make it happen.
Stefan Kroes 1666479 Page 4 of 22 Summary
The world is globalizing and so are companies. Nowadays there are over 60000 multinational companies (MNC) that operate globally (PPI, 2005). Business theorist Peter Drucker says that there were 7,258 known multinationals in 1969, and by 2000 there were more than 63,000, spread out among banks, telecom companies, energy, manufacturers, insurance firms, retailing, restaurant chains, consultancies, and other types of businesses. This shows how rapidly these companies arise. One aspect of being a multinational is that the organization has a few subsidiaries across the world. To be able to manage all of the subsidiaries, good and qualified personal is needed to lead a business to success. In this sense, companies can choose to hire local employees or by sending their home-country employees abroad (Doz & Prahalad, 1986). The last group of employees is called expatriates. Edström and Galbraith (1977) proposed that there are three motives for using expatriates. Firstly, as position fillers when suitably qualified employees from the host country aren’t available. Secondly, as a means of management development, aimed at developing the competence of the individual manager. Thirdly, as a means of organizational development, aimed at increasing knowledge transfer within the MNC and modifying and sustaining organizational structure and decision processes. According to Sparrow, Brewster and Harris (2004), these three motives will often occur at the same time. Traditionally, companies use the long-term assignments for expatriates in which these expatriates would stay for a couple of years in the foreign subsidiary. However due to problems that occur in finding the right people that are knowledgeable but more important willing to do international assignments, there is a shift in the kind of international assignments that are being done. A rather new kind of international assignments can be seen, better known as short-term assignments. The biggest difference at first sight is that short-term assignments last up to 12 months and the traditional long-term assignments between 1 and 5 years. Because short-term international assignments are rather new, not much research has been done, especially when looking at the way assignees experience the short-term assignments programs. This thesis takes the first steps in finding out how satisfied assignees are with the current short-term programs and whether they are willing to do another assignment after completing one. This way companies can use these findings to be able to use a good short-term program that ensures the willingness of an assignee to do another assignment after completing one.
The thesis starts with a literature research in order to find out what leads to the willingness to do another assignment within the traditional long-term assignments. This is done because there is yet little known about short-term assignments. In traditional assignments, companies generally do a formal selection of assignees, provide cross-cultural training, make arrangements for the family, provide the assignee with a native in the host-country to help him with practical issues, the assignee attends a repatriation program and will get more responsibilities when he/she returns to the home country. By arranging these aspects, assignees are more willing to do international assignments. In case of short-term assignments companies in general do not use a formal selection, don’t provide a cross-cultural training, make no arrangements for the family, don’t provide a native in the host-country to help the assignee, no repatriation program will be started but they will get more responsibilities when they return back home. So there are some differences.
Stefan Kroes 1666479 Page 5 of 22
As it turns out, literature findings on what is important within the traditional long-term assignments for the assignee so that he/she is willing to do another assignment isn’t the same on all variables. The selection process, arrangements for the family and clarity before leaving about the career perspective when returning doesn’t contribute to the willingness to do another assignment in case of a short-term assignment. However, can be seen a similarity in whether or not the assignee attended a cross-cultural training before leaving. This variable does have an influence on the willingness to do another assignment. Also, assignees that have a host-country mentor are more willing to do another assignment and so when they are not assigned to a host-country mentor, they will be less willing to do another assignment. When looking at the responsibilities when the assignee returns to the home-country, it turns out that when the responsibilities are in line with the expectations before returning to the home-country the assignee is more willing to do another short-term assignment.
Stefan Kroes 1666479 Page 6 of 22 Introduction
Since the world is globalizing, the number of multinationals operating internationally increased with the result that the number of international assignments increased as well. According to Amble (2006), 44 percent of the multinational companies (MNC’s) report an increase in the number of international assignments. As a result of this expansion, paying attention to attain the right mix of staffing operations practices will increase the performance of the global organization (Meyskens et al., 2009). However, academic research1 has suggested that many MNCs continue to underestimate the
complexities involved in global staffing, resulting in a lack of knowledge of what the right mix is. Companies that have a strong urge to internationalize can do this in various ways. One crucial aspect in this path of internationalization are the human resources. Companies can basically choose between two options when they internationalize. They can choose to do so by hiring local employees or by sending their home-country employees abroad (Doz & Prahalad, 1986). Employees that come from the home-country and who are being send abroad are called expatriates. Expatriates are employees that are willing to go abroad for a certain period in time. Within this field of international employees there can be distinguished two types of international assignments. Traditionally companies would send one of their employees abroad for a few years to set up (part of) a subsidiary of the company in the host-country. This way of using expatriates looks promising. However the reality showed us that using expatriates could have its consequences for both the company as the assignee. McCaughey and Bruning (2009) state that approximately 25 to 40 percent of all traditional expatriate assignments fail, meaning that either the assignment isn’t finished, the assignee leaves the assignment before completing it, the willingness to do another assignment will disappear or that the company loses its assignee after the assignment. When considering that companies pay between € 50.000,- up to € 150.000,- per year just to attract one employee to do the international assignments, train him, let him commit to the company, develop the person and finishing it, it’s quite obviously that it will cost a company a substantial amount of resources let alone the costs of the project itself. Any assignment should be considered as an important human resources project for those responsible for its conduct; assignment failure should never be considered an option. Failure is first and foremost very costly, as well as potentially damaging to the business, stressful on the people involved and an avoidable waste of talent. Unfortunately, the failure rate, marked by assignee disengagement, ineffective performance, unmet business objectives, family disruption or cultural incompatibility, remains a concern. Expatriate assignments require effort and attention to succeed (Csizmar, 2008).
Only until recently companies started to use an alternative for the traditional long-term international assignments to prevent these failures from happening. This alternative looks like a long-term assignment only it is focusing on the short-term. Looking at both kind of international assignments, there are some clear general differences between a short-term and a long-term assignment. Short-term assignments mainly differ from long-Short-term assignments in 1) assignment period which is no longer than 12 months; 2) the assignee’s family remains in the home-country; 3) no preparation/cross-cultural training will be given to the assignee; 4) the selection process is not as thorough/formal as in case of long-term assignments; 5) no host-country mentor is assigned and; 6) the assignee will not attend a repatriation program before returning to the home-country (Peltonen, 2001, PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2002, PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2005 and Tahvanainen et al., 2005). One of the motivations of trying to find alternatives for the traditional long-term assignment was the amount of candidates that are willing to do such an assignment and also the willingness to do several short-term assignments. Konopaske and Werner (2005), found out that potential assignees are less willing to accept an international assignment when it lasts more than one year. So by using short-term assignments, the number of potential assignees that will eventually do an international assignment will grow when short-term assignments are being used. PricewaterhouseCoopers (2005) did a research on the amount of short-term assignments that are being used by MNC’s. They report that over 50% within their sample expect the use of short-term assignments to increase in their operations in the future. These assignees can be suitable for organizational, or to a lesser degree individual, development objectives, which could be achieved at a fraction of the costs associated with traditional expatriate assignments (Scullion & Collings, 2006c).
Stefan Kroes 1666479 Page 7 of 22
Based on their exploratory empirical study Tahvanainen et al. (2005) identify the following situations in which short-term assignments are used in MNCs: (1) Problem solving or skills transfer; (2) for control purposes and; (3) for managerial development reasons. Other rationales which emerge include, temporarily importing the talent necessary to train the local workforce, to handle needs on a project basis, to eliminate the cost and disruption of relocating entire families (Melone, 2005).
Up till now, much research has been done on the traditional long-term assignment. Because so, much is known about how they look like, what the pros and con’s are and also what impact it will have on the company and the assignee. In contrast, not much research has been done on short-term assignments. Some researchers like Tahvanainen, Starr, Welch, Worm and Dowling (2005) have done research on short-term assignments. However they mainly focused on the impact of using short-term assignment on the company itself and what, according to the MNC’s, will lead to success. What isn’t explored in much depth yet, is the assignee’s perspective and his preferences when doing a short-term assignment. So in this perspective a research gap exists in which not much research has been done on circumstances and factors that have an influence on the willingness of assignees to do another short-term assignments and thus make the assignment a successful because additional costs for finding new assignees will not be the case and so costs for recruiting, training before leaving, developing the assignee’s knowledge and make sure that he stays committed to the company will be minimized. By doing this research I will focus on this gap and try to find out what can be done to prevent these problems in short-term assignments.
By knowing that international assignments often fail, which is very costly, it is important to know what needs to be done to make sure that assignees are willing to do an international assignment. To find out what is important for assignees, so that he/she is willing to do another assignment, the following research question will be answered in this thesis.
“How should a short-term assignment program look like, so that the assignee is willing to do another short-term assignment?”
Willingness of the assignee, after completing his/her assignment, is chosen as an indicator for success or failure of the short-term program. This indicator has been chosen because in this stage, companies face the risk in terms of losing money when the assignee doesn’t decide to take on a new assignment. Quitting while on an assignment will not be in the scope of this research and thus will not be used as an indicator for failure or success. To support the research question, sub-questions will be used. These questions are; (1) What factors influence the level of success within a long-term assignment?, (2) What aspects of a long-term assignment program are being used in short-term assignment programs?, (3) What do assignees say is import for their willingness to do another assignment in case of a short-term assignment program?
Stefan Kroes 1666479 Page 8 of 22 Literature research
It has been argued that MNC’s have recognized the importance of physically relocating managers to foreign locations where business operations are based. MNC’s use international assignments because they believe that locals are inferior and restricted to lower level jobs while parent country nationals (PCNs) were afforded superior conditions, similar to modern day expatriates (Moore & Lewis, 1999). Owners of international organizations thus realized the benefits of utilizing people known to them and socialized into the organization in minimizing the agency problems associated with managing spatially diverse organizations from an early stage (Jensen & Meckling, 1976). The reason why MNCs prefer to use PCN’s is because these individuals already have proven their trust towards the MNC. It’s argued that because this is the case, these individuals are more likely to act in the best interest of the MNC and so these individuals have been used to address the agency issues in a foreign subsidiary of the MNC. These individuals are called expatriates. Edström and Galbraith (1977) proposed that there are three motives for using expatriates. Firstly, as position fillers when suitably qualified employees from the host country aren’t available. Secondly, as a means of management development, aimed at developing the competence of the individual manager. Thirdly, as a means of organizational development, aimed at increasing knowledge transfer within the MNC and modifying and sustaining organizational structure and decision processes. According to Sparrow, Brewster & Harris (2004), these three motives will often occur at the same time.
Stefan Kroes 1666479 Page 9 of 22 Pre-stage: 1. Selection of assignees 2. Cross-Cultural training 3. Family Assignment-stage: 4. Host-country mentors Post-stage: 5. Attending a repatriation program 6. Level of job responsibility
Repatriate to home organization
The assignee goes back to the home-country and will repatriate in the home-organization
New assignment
The assignee goes on to the next assignment
Fig. 1: Three stages of international assignments
The pre-stage is very important for the success of the assignment. Before starting with an international assignment, the selection of candidates is very important. Many companies select management candidates based on previous successes in their home country, or they pick people based on job experience but give no thought to their cultural fitness. That’s a mistake (Osland, 1995). Companies have a lot of reasons for selecting people for overseas assignments, and often none of those reasons are that they would do well working in a foreign culture. In most cases, the characteristics that make an ideal expatriate candidate are contrary to those that define a successful project manager at home. For example, aggressive leadership strategies, self confidence and quick decision-making skills may be successful in the United States, but may result to frustration for employees in Latin America or Asia. So selection of the right kind of manager for a given assignment is very important. Next to the possibility of checking the cultural fitness of the person during a formal selection process, the candidate can also be screened on his strengths and weaknesses to make sure that the right person will be given the assignment. Also the development of the assignee can be discussed to make sure what the development is before the assignment and what is expected when returned after the assignment (Osland, 1995). By knowing this, the following hypothesis can be formulated and will be answered in this master thesis:
H1: Formal selection results in the willingness to do another assignment
This selection stage is also related to giving specific training to the candidate. Cross-cultural training is important to give to the candidate. According to a research done by Tahvanainen (2005), the success of an assignment is influenced by whether the assignee has done some sort of cross-cultural training. It gives the candidate the opportunity to get to know the country and culture beforehand. This will help the candidate to get a clear picture on what to expect while doing the assignment. Cross-cultural training for expatriates aims to develop the awareness, knowledge and skills needed to interact appropriately and effectively with host-country employees (Black & Mendenhall, 1990; Shen & Darby 2006). MNC’s do spend a lot of time and money on training and preparation to prevent failure. This brings us to the following hypothesis to be answered:
Stefan Kroes 1666479 Page 10 of 22
Next to these aspects, the family of the candidate will also have an impact. No matter how much support a company offers its expatriate employees, project failure still can happen, largely because of family problems. Both family and friends will influence the assignee in choosing an international assignment and also in deciding to take on another assignment. More and more researchers are looking into this aspect. Starr and Curry (2009) have found that three themes need to be taken in consideration when recognizing the role of the family in choosing an international assignment. These are: theme 1: Considering the spouse and family: Accepting the assignment; theme 2: The impact of separation: During the assignment; and theme 3: The aftermath of separation: Repatriation. Their main conclusions are: “First, ‘single’ assignees, as well as married assignees, have family related concerns. Second, extended, as well as immediate family, are influential in the assignment process. Third, long-distance family support is crucial in the way of assignment-imposed separation. Finally, there are significant family issues associated with repatriation in the aftermath of an assignment” (Starr & Curry, 2009). Miller (1999) estimates that up to 80 percent of projects fail because of family complications. So it is important to make sure that also the family is being taken care of and that they are involved in the pre-stage of international assignments. For this research the arrangements for the family starts within the pre-stage of the short-term program and thus it has been incorporated in the pre-stage. This brings up the following hypothesis to be answered:
H3: Setting up arrangement for the family before taking on the assignment results in the willingness to do another assignment
When the pre-stage has been arranged, the next stage will begin which is the actual assignment itself. During the assignment a few important aspects need to be taken care of. The first and perhaps the most important factor is making sure that good communication between the assignee and the home-country is being taken care of. Next to this the communication between the assignee and the host-company is very important (Starr, 2009; McCaughey & Bruning, 2009). When looking at the communication several kinds of communication techniques can be distinguished. To mention just a few, it can be done by using the telephone or email. However next to this it is very important that the assignee has the ability to have face-to-face communication with the host-company. That is why McCaughey and Bruning (2009) suggest using a host-country mentor. Meeting the challenges of involvement and organizational acculturation involves providing the expatriate with assignment assistance. Baruch and Altman (2002) found that a mentor provides a safe sounding board for the expatriate. He or she can offer advice in handling unfamiliar situations and provide a link into the corporate network (Mendenhall & Oddou, 1985; Mayrhofer & Scullion, 2002). Mentors are especially valuable when they have expatriate experience, that is, having a repertoire of international experiences from which to draw upon to aid the new expatriate (Downes, et al., 2002). Studies have demonstrated the value of attaining a mentor. Expatriate managers clearly indicate that having a mentor is perceived to be a key component of assignment success (Linehan & Walsh, 1999, 2001). This brings up the following hypothesis to be answered:
Stefan Kroes 1666479 Page 11 of 22
After the assignment has been completed and/or ended, the assignee turns back to its home-country and so to the home-company or he/she can go on to the next assignment in perhaps a new host-country. When the assignee goes on to the next assignment, he or she will begin again with the pre-stage of international assignments and then going on to the assignment-pre-stage. In case of returning back to the home-country it is important to take care of the repatriation of the assignee. The repatriation experience has the potential to undo all of the valuable development of the expatriate if he/she is not effectively integrated into the home environment. Oddou (1991) shows with his study that up to 40 percent of expatriates report having no clearly identified position in their parent corporation and 68 percent have no guarantee of a position. Repatriation is frequently identified as one of the most stressful components of a foreign assignment (Sanchez, et al., 2000). Expatriates report struggling to cope with the lack of autonomy they have become accustomed to on assignment, feeling isolated by the lack of acknowledgement of their new multicultural identification, and having their expectations of being promoted upon return to the home-country unmet (Sanchez et al., 2000). Further, repatriation difficulties involve expatriates becoming accustomed to prestige and elevated social status while on assignment and the subsequent struggle with their decreased roles when returning to the parent corporation (Copeland & Griggs, 1985). These feelings may have an influence on job dissatisfaction and potentially leading the individual to seek employment elsewhere. An average of 20 percent of repatriated employees leaves their companies within six months of repatriation (Adlec, 1997). Repatriation involves the following aspects; 1) Continued expatriate development, 2) Attractive future assignments, 3) Promotion upon return, 4) Enhanced employee responsibilities, 5) Repatriated employee retention, 6) Utilization of new expertise, and 7) Knowledge transfer of new skills into the organization. When looking at the job progress, assignees can have contradicting perspectives when looking at the perspective of the company. Assignees might want to have a rapidly rising career. In this perspective they would choose a traditional assignment to get more experiences and knowledge that companies ask for in highly ranked jobs. But on the other hand they will in this case also be of the “career radar screen” (Joinson, 2000) meaning that they will be less attractive for other companies or they are hard to find. This all brings up the following hypotheses:
H5 Attending a repatriation program before leaving to the host-country results in the willingness to do another assignment
H6: When the expected real level of responsibility is the same as when returned to the home-organization, it will result in the willingness to
Stefan Kroes 1666479 Page 12 of 22 Methodology
Based on the literature findings a survey has been made to see whether the variables that make assignees willing to do another assignment in case of a traditional long-term assignment are equally important in case of an short-term assignment. The survey has been done to get more insights in the research gap that exists at this moment. For the empirical research the Dutch branch Relocatie Informatie Netwerk (RIN) has been used to find enough respondents to get a solid empirical research. Sample
The population exists of employees that work for companies that are within the Relocatie Informatie Netwerk (RIN) organization. Their members, which are companies that are all multinationals and having subsidiaries all over the world, having between 10.000 up till approximately 150.000 employees all over the world, differ in age of the company but all have a subsidiary in the Netherlands. Some of the members of RIN are Shell, Phillips, IKEA, AKZO NOBEL, CSM, ING Groep, Unilver, etc. As can be seen, there is no specific industry in which these companies operate. Due to the anonymity of the respondents, the dataset can’t be used to control for industry specific aspects. However due to this research approach, it can be seen that the outcomes have externally validity because no specific industry has been chosen. On the other hand, it isn’t known which percentage of respondents is coming from each of these companies. For my research I will look at employees that just finished one assignment and also stayed in the company after the completion of the assignment. The reason for this is because it is hard to get respondents that have left the company after an assignment, but most of all to find out what the willingness of the employees will be towards doing another assignment for the same company after finishing the previous assignment. This means that the assignee has taken part of a pre-stage, assignment-stage and post-stage. This way they aren’t influenced by other experiences of other international assignments. Also the group of respondents will be more comparable because all of them did only one assignment.
Questionnaire
For the empirical research I have been using a questionnaire that has been sent to the research group. I’ve been using an online anonymous questionnaire so that the participants of this research feel free to fill in the questionnaire at any time they prefer. The questionnaire consists of several topics with a few sub-questions related to that topic. The topics that have been used are 1) selection process; 2) communication; 3) training and; 4) repatriation. These topics relate to literature part of this thesis. The total questionnaire exist of twelve multiple choice questions. Some have a two answer possibility scale (yes and no) and some have a five answer possibility scale. This can be seen in appendix I. Next to these questions eleven open questions have been used to generate some qualitative results in order to check whether the respondent has some other input that might be useful. To test the questionnaire I asked four former assignees, that also did only one short-term assignment, to fill in the questionnaire and to provide me with some feedback. As it turns out, these four people understood what I was trying to ask. I verified this by talking with them by using the phone. Also they didn’t find it hard to fill it in or that the length/duration was too long. By knowing this, I concluded that the questionnaire was a good one and so I published it online. The questionnaire has been sent to 127 persons that fit the criteria for this research. The design of the questionnaire can be seen in appendix I. In order to distribute the questionnaire, an online survey tool has been used. The potential respondents in the population have been sent an introduction email in which they were asked to fill in the online questionnaire. The distribution of this introduction email has been done by the president of the Relocatie Informatie Netwerk (RIN). In total there were 23 questionnaires sent to IKEA employees and 104 to co-workers in organizations that are within the Relocatie Informatie Netwerk (RIN). The total response was 65 respondents (= 51 per-cent). For the quantitative analysis I’ve been using the statistical program SPSS version 14. With this program a correlation and regression analysis have been made to see how each variable correlates with each other and to see how much impact each independent variable has on dependent variable.
Dependent & Independent variables
Stefan Kroes 1666479 Page 13 of 22 Results
First all quantitative data results are presented. Next the qualitative data will be presented. To start with, table 1 gives a clear overview of the descriptive statistics of the database at hand.
Table 1: Descriptive statistics, mean, std. deviation, minimum and maximum (N=65) Hypothesis Mean + meaning Std.
Deviation Min. Max.
Age 33,38 years 7,71 24 50
Acceptable length/duration of an assignment 5,08 months 0,84 4 6 1 Formal selection process before leaving 46% yes ,50 0 1 2 Cross-cultural training before leaving the home
country 15% yes ,36 0 1
3 Arrangements for the family 4,08 (=good) ,48 3 5 4 Assigned to a native in the host country 31% yes ,47 0 1 5 Repatriation program that started before the
assignment 38% yes ,49 0 1
6 Level of responsibility after returning to the home-organization
2,54
(=mediocre) ,85 1 3 Willingness to do another assignment 2,85
(=mediocre) ,96 1 4 In total, 65 respondents filled in the questionnaire. Of all respondents 25 were male and 40 were female. The average age of respondents that have done one short-term assignment is 33,38 years. Most respondents prefer to do international assignments that have a duration of 6 to 12 months. Only 15% of all respondents have participated in a cross-cultural training. This represents the findings that in general companies do not arrange a cross-cultural training for short-term assignees. 31% was assigned to a native which is not completely in line with the general way companies arrange short-term assignments. In most cases they don’t arrange a native in the host-country to help the assignee. 46% of the respondents have had a formal selection process. As described in the literature part, most companies do not put a potential short-term assignee in a formal selection process. 69% was provided with a designated person or department, 38% did participate in a repatriation program before going on the assignment and 85% knew what they could expect when they would return to their home-organization. On average, the respondents were satisfied the way things that had been arranged for their families. Those who are not that satisfied when considering family said in general that they find it hard to not be able to see their families. When looking at the way assignees are being informed and given information about the organization, 38% prefer email, 23% prefer by phone, 0% prefer by letter, 31% prefer personal contact (face-to-face) and 8% would like to receive information by their host-country mentor. Most of the respondents say that the level of position, responsibility and career progress is as they expected it would be when they returned to their home-organization. Of all respondents, 7% would never do any international assignment again, 31% isn’t sure yet, 31% will probably do one again, 31% is willing to do one again. In appendix II an overall view of the outcomes of the questionnaire can be seen.
Correlation analysis
Stefan Kroes 1666479 Page 14 of 22
Regression analysis
To see what impact all independent variables have on the dependent variable a linear regression analysis has been done because the dependent variable is measured using an interval variable. This makes it possible to do a linear regression analysis that incorporate binary and ordinal independent variables. As it turns out, the three variables of table 2 have a significant contribution to the model. In the regression analysis, the variables gender and age have been used as a control variable. As it turns out, both control variables aren’t significantly contributing to the model (R square = 0,009) and so to the willingness to do another assignment. In the total model with the three variables there is an R square of 0,829. Table 3 gives an overview of the regression analysis. Looking at cross-cultural training before leaving the home-organization, it can be seen that it significantly contributes to the model with a B value of 1,172 (p<0,001). This means that when people had a cross-cultural training, it increases their willingness to do another assignment. Being assigned to a native in the host-country also significantly contributes to the willingness to do another assignment with a B value of 0,917 (p=0,001). This means that when the assignee is being assigned to a native in the host-country, the willingness of the assignee to do another assignment will increase. The same goes for the variable Responsibility when returned which has a B value of 0,291 (p=0,030). This means that when the assignee repatriates and he/she will get the responsibility he/she expected to get, the willingness to do another assignment will increase.
Table 2: Correlations between the most important variables within the model (N=65)
Hypothesis 2 4 6 variable Dep.
2 Cross-cultural training - 0,178 -,272(*) ,294(*) 4 Assigned to native - -,426(**) ,419(**) 6 Responsibility when returned - ,296(*)
Dep.
Variable Willingness to do another assignment - ** p < 0,01, * p < 0,05
Table 3: Regression analysis (N=65)
Unstandardized
Stefan Kroes 1666479 Page 15 of 22 Discussion
As discussed in the literature part, not much is known about short-term assignments and especially when looking at it from the assignee’s point of view. That is where this research will contribute to add new insights and trying to fill the gap. Looking at the results, first steps have been made in an attempt to find out what makes assignees willing to take on another short-term assignment. Underneath, the findings of each stage in the short-term assignment program will be discussed. Pre-stage
Beginning with the pre-stage of a shot-term assignment, there are some interesting findings. Based on the long-term assignment literature, it might be expected that the selection process, attending cross-cultural training, taking care of the family during the assignment and career perspectives are clear before leaving are contributing to the willingness of the assignee to do another assignment. But we also know that in general companies do not arrange these aspects for the assignee in case of short-term assignments. A somewhat similar situation can be seen when looking at the dataset of the empirical part of this thesis. Not many assignees did for example follow a cross-cultural training. However 46% of the respondents did participate in a formal selection process. So this variable isn’t representing the general notion that companies do not use a formal selection process in short-term assignments. When looking in more detail at the dataset and so the findings of this research, some of the variables, mentioned above, are clearly not contributing to the willingness to do another assignment. As it turns out, the selection process, clarity before leaving about the position when returned and arrangements for the family don’t contribute to the willingness to do another assignment. However there are some variables that actually do contribute. This variable is attending a cross-cultural training before leaving. This contributes to the willingness of the assignee to do another assignment after completing one. Based on the statistical findings, hypothesis 1 and 3 can be rejected and hypothesis 2 can be accepted which is cross-cultural training. To give some more insights in the pre-stage, a qualitative question has been used to find out whether or not they missed something in the pre-stage of the assignment. None of the respondents said anything about family or what so ever. This is also in line with the result that can be seen on the question what they miss when considering their family. Almost nobody said they missed their family or that they missed something in this sense. Only 8 of the respondents said they would like to see their family more often. What must be mentioned is that 21 added that they where single and that this is a reason not to miss their family during a short-term assignment. When answering the question whether cross-cultural training will help the respondent during his assignment, 29 answered that it is needed to attend such training so that you are well prepared. 13 of them said that it is probably not needed when you for example live in Holland and you go to Germany to do an assignment, however it would be helpful to attend one when you go from Holland to China. One of them said:
“I think this would entirely depend on the country that the assignment was in; for example Asia/Middle East as their cultures and laws vary greatly compared to Western Europe. “
Assignment stage:
In the assignment stage of short-term assignments, companies in general say that it is not needed to have a host-country mentor that can help the assignee with practical issues. In line with this, most companies don’t arrange a native to support the assignee in case of a short-term assignment. This is also underlined by the dataset meaning that most respondents (69%) didn’t have a native in the host-country that could help them. As it turns out, assignees that didn’t have a host-host-country mentor are less willing to do another assignment and so when they will be assigned to a host-country mentor, they will be more willing to do another assignment. This means that hypothesis 4 can be accepted. In addition to the statistical findings, one of the respondents said:
Stefan Kroes 1666479 Page 16 of 22
Post-stage
Based on the long-term assignment literature, the repatriation is important. That is why one might expect that this would also be the case in short-term assignments. Looking at the dataset in the empirical part of this thesis, only 38% did follow a repatriation program before returning to the home-country. But when analyzing the data, it turns out that attending a repatriation program before leaving the host-country doesn’t contribute to the willingness to do another assignment. Next to this, the real responsibility when returning is also important according to the long-term assignment literature. By analyzing the data of the empirical research, it turns out that when the assignees gets the amount of responsibility as he/she expected before returning, it contributes to the willingness to do another shot-term assignment. So when looking at the hypothesis 5, this hypothesis can be rejected. Hypothesis 6 however can be accepted according to the findings of this research. In addition, one of the qualitative questions was why the respondents even thought about doing a short-term assignment. The majority had answered that they were trying to get to know the organization and to develop themselves. Some answered that before they left their home-organization, they expected that they would do a job which was higher in the hierarchy then before they would leave and so get more responsibilities. Next to this, the respondents were asked to tell what is an acceptable length for a short-term assignment. On average this was 6 to 12 months. Main reasons for this is because this is the right length to do a meaningful project that could be rounded up within that period and so the assignee could show in a relative short period what their capabilities are. When asking whether or not the respondents would do another short-term assignment and also why, the following quotes will give an impression.
1. “Short term assignments is the best way to broaden knowledge and experiences” 2. “ I would like to try another short term assignment, but it depends on my needs and
opportunity”
3. “I think it's a great way to share skills and experience and also to progress in my career. It's also a great way to develop yourself, I learned a lot about myself!”
4. “You’re never too old to learn new thing. And it's fun to work in different culture. I hope after another international assignment that it will give me the chance to work international on a regular base.”
Stefan Kroes 1666479 Page 17 of 22 Conclusion
So this thesis did find some interesting things when looking at the collected data and especially when comparing it to the long-term assignment literature. This brings us back to answering the main research question. However before this can be done, the three sub-questions of this thesis will answered. These questions are; (1) What factors influence the level of success within a long-term assignment?, (2) What aspects of a long-term assignment program are being used in short-term assignment programs?, (3) What do assignees say is import for their willingness to do another assignment in case of a short-term assignment program?
The factors that influence the level of success within a long-term assignment can be divided into the three stages of an international assignment. In the pre-stage, attending a formal selection process, attending a cross-cultural training, arrangements being made for the family and having clarity about the situation when returning to the home-country are contributing to the willingness and so the success of the long-term assignment. During the assignment stage, being assigned to a native in the host-country will contribute. In the after-stage, getting at least the same responsibilities as expected before hand and also attending a repatriation program before leaving are contributing to the success of a long-term assignment.
When looking at what aspects of the long-term assignment program are being used in the short-tem assignment program, we see that in general there is no formal selection, no cross-cultural training before leaving, assignees will not be provided with a native in the host-country that can help them and also that they don’t attend a repatriation program before leaving to the home-country.
When answering the last sub-question, the assignees say that the success of the program and thus the willingness to do another assignment doesn’t depend on the selection process, family arrangements and whether or not the assignee participated in a repatriation program before leaving. What is contributing however is cross-cultural training, being assigned to a native in the host-country and whether or not the assignees expectations are being met for the level of responsibility. These last three variables contribute to the willingness to do another assignment. Knowing this implies that companies should take care of cross-cultural training for all its international assignments whether it is a long- or short-term assignment. Also a company should provide a native in the host-country that is able to help the assignee when he/she is in the host-country and it should be clear and perhaps agreed on what the level of responsibility and job progress will be before even starting a short-term assignment.
Stefan Kroes 1666479 Page 18 of 22
References
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Stefan Kroes 1666479 Page 19 of 22 Appendix I: Questionnaire
General information Answer categories Purpose of the question
Nationality Open text field ‐
Gender male – female ‐
Age # years ‐
Could you briefly write down what the main reasons
are why you're doing a Short Term Assignment? Open text field ‐ What's an acceptable length/duration of an
assignment for you?
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6‐12
months ‐
Why is this an acceptable length/duration for you? Open text field ‐
Pre-Stage Answer categories
Did you participate in a formal selection process to
be able to attend the assignment? yes – no Answer hypothesis 1 Did you follow a cross-cultural training before
leaving the home country? yes – no Answer hypothesis 2 How satisfied, on a scale from 1 to 5, were you with
the way things are arranged for your family? (1= not satisfied and 5= very satisfied)
not satisfied ‐ hardly satisfied ‐ not satisfied nor dissatisfied ‐ satisfied ‐ very satisfied Answer hypothesis 3
Have you been assigned to a native in the host country who can inform you, before leaving, about
the behavior, norms and values of the host country? yes – no Answer hypothesis 4 What do you miss when considering your family? Open text‐field Get more additional
information
Do you think cross-cultural training before leaving is necessary for succeeding in your international
assignment? Explain your answer. Open text field
Get more additional information + hypothesis 2
Did you miss anything in the preparation stage of
your assignment? Open text field
Get more additional information + check whether the questionnaire misses something Assignment-Stage Answer categories
While on assignment, were you provided with a designated person or department to give you
information regarding the HOME organization? yes – no
Hasn’t been used in deeper analysis
While on assignment, by what mode would you prefer to receive information from the home
organization? yes – no
Hasn’t been used in deeper analysis
Do you think being assigned to a native or mentor in the host country who can help you with practical issues is important for succeeding in your international assignment? Please explain your answer.
Open text field
Get more additional information + hypothesis 4
While on assignment from whom would you most prefer to receive information? (position/department)
E.g.: HR-department / Store manager Open text field
Get more additional information
What did you miss in the communication with your
home organization? Open text field Get more additional information
Have you ended the assignment due to
Stefan Kroes 1666479 Page 20 of 22 Post-Stage
Answer categories
Purpose of the question
Were you involved in a repatriation program that
started before you repatriated? yes – no Answer hypothesis 5 Was it clear what position you would hold when you
returned to your home-organization? yes – no
Get more additional information
After the assignment, the level of responsibility in my job was: worser than expected ‐ almost as expected ‐ as expected ‐ more than expected ‐ far more than expected Answer hypothesis 6
What did you miss in your repatriation program? Open text field Get more additional information
Would you do another Short Term Assignment?
No not at all ‐ I’m not sure yet ‐ yes I would ‐ of course I will!
Answer on the dependent variable
Why would you do/not do a next Short Term
Assignment? Open text field
Get more additional information
Final remarks? Answer categories
Purpose of the question
Stefan Kroes 1666479 Page 21 of 22 Appendix II: Outcomes of the questionnaire in percentages
Gender 38,46% male 61,54% female
% Yes % No
Did you participate in a formal selection process to be
able to attend the assignment? 46,15% 53,85% Did you follow a cross-cultural training before leaving
the home country? 15,38% 84,62% Have you been assigned to a native in the host
country who can inform you about the behavior,
norms and values of the host country? 30,77% 69,23% While on assignment, were you provided with a
designated person or department to give you
information regarding the HOME organization? 69,23% 30,77% Were you involved in a repatriation program that
started before you repatriated? 38,46% 61,54% Was it clear what position you would hold when you
returned to your home-organization? 84,62% 15,38%
% Not satisfied
% Hardly satisfied
% Not satisfied,
nor dissatisfied % Satisfied
% Very satisfied How satisfied, on a scale
from 1 to 5, were you with the way things are
arranged for your family?
0,00% 0,00% 7,69% 76,92% 15,38% % Worser than expected % Almost as expected % As expected % More than expected % Far more than expected After the assignment,
the level of
responsibility in my job was:
23,08% 0,00% 76,92% 0,00% 0,00%
After the assignment, my career progression was: 15,38% 7,81% 61,54% 15,38% 0,00% % No not at all (0 – 2,5) % I'm not sure yet (2,5 – 5,0) % Yes I would (5,0 – 7,5) % Of course I will! (7,5 – 10,0) Would you do another
Appendix III: Correlations
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
1 Gender - ,556(**) -0,235 -0,117 ,415(**) -0,101 -0,205 0,184 -0,025 -,337(**) -0,058 0,038
2 Age - 0,147 0,226 0,216 -,272(*) 0,183 -0,230 -0,102 0,216 0,242 0,093
3 Nationality - ,782(**) -0,068 0,117 ,521(**) -0,216 0,051 ,275(*) ,443(**) ,458(**)
4 Acceptable length assignment - -0,086 -,297(*) ,572(**) -,263(*) 0,117 ,297(*) ,271(*) ,407(**)
5 Formal selection or informal - -,395(**) -0,150 0,051 ,537(**) -0,033 0,141 0,150
6 Cross cultural training - -0,069 0,178 -,337(**) -,409(**) -,272(*) ,294(*)
7 Satisfied with arrangements family - 0,243 0,205 0,069 0,089 0,197
8 Assigned to native - ,501(**) -,640(**) -,426(**) ,419(**)
9 Repatriation program before leaving - -0,101 0,058 -0,038
10 Clarity position when returning home - ,778(**) 0,156
11 Responsibility when returned - ,296(*)
12 Willingness to do another assignment -
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). *. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
