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2021 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

11. Guidelines for Practitioners: Emphasis on Narrative Work and Relationship Building

Author : Iris Koleša

Published in: Becoming an International Manager

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

The results of the multilevel cross-case qualitative analyses have several practical implications for international assignment implementation and management by EMNEs and their employees, such as (1) a need for enhanced organisational communication aimed at raising awareness about the international employee mobility-related opportunities for and necessary adjustments by an individual as well as how these are linked to the organisational objectives, (2) a need for investments in firm–employee and inter-employee relations aimed at increasing employee commitment to an assignment (including in the form of collegial support for an assignment), (3) a need for the greater gradualness of the international assignment adjustment process, (4) a need for organisational flexibility in terms of assignee recruitment as well as assignment management through the different stages of an assignment (this needs to be either individualised or adapted to different assignee segments), and (5) the importance of (support for) role transitioning and identity work. These implications are explained in more depth in this chapter.

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previous chapter Clashes of Interests Versus Clashes of Identities: Theory on Firm–Employee Interactions During International Assignments
Footnotes
1
Commitment to the host entity is often increased through assignment complexity, intensity of the experience (e.g. crisis resolution, first assignment, or establishment of a new entity), and close collaboration with local staff based on joint goals.
 
2
However, junior recruits can be at an integration advantage in relationship-oriented markets with low power distance or in SME entities where operative engagement of a manager with the staff is required. Firms thus need to also consider the macro and mezzo contexts in their international staffing decisions.
 
3
While this allows for immediate international staffing decisions by the firm, internal recruits with longer tenure in the MNE may require a longer transitional period for transfer of business to their colleagues in the sending entity. External recruits, on the other hand, can be sent abroad almost immediately (after the initial rotation in the firm for MNE familiarisation purposes).
 
4
Long-term career development (characteristic of the internal recruitment of senior employees) is considered as the least intrusive and disruptive, most gradual, and holistic approach to employee development (it also fosters relevant networking and firm embeddedness). As such, it is described as the optimal approach to employee preparation for managerial international assignments by both the studied firms and the individual-level interviewees. However, this is a lengthy process and requires great organisational investment in the individual, as well as detailed staffing plans. It may thus not always be feasible—especially in ad hoc (HR) crises.
 
5
The interviewees also warn against assignee-related myopia with regard to the overall MNE objectives and headquarters-based changes (e.g. in culture, language, or sensemaking) due to their long absence from the parent firm, and thus stress the need for continuous information flows between the parties to the assignment contract (i.e. the individual and firm) and inter-entities in the MNE network.
 
6
Firms can support such networking through arranging frequent (work) visits to the parent firm that foster intra-MNE networking as well as simultaneously facilitate private visits to friends and family for social networking outside the firm. They can also clearly communicate the value of parent-country national networking in the context of business networks in the host market as part of the assignee’s managerial role and identity, rather than a merely social event that may deter assignees from engaging in such socialising and instead focus on the more immediate work tasks (see also the pilot interviews).
 
7
In one of the pilot interviews, the ‘reorganisation’ approach is also suggested as a solution to repatriation of teams after the more complex and longer short-term mobilities that necessitate the assigned teams to be substituted in the domestic facility for an interim period. Since the assigned team members acquire skills that make them overqualified for their past positions, new positions need to be created to capitalise on the returnees’ newly acquired knowledge—as well as to fulfil the organisational promise of job security after an assignment that acts as additional motivation for expatriation.
 
Literature
Duviver F, Peeters C, Harzing A-W (2019) Not all international assignments are created equal: HQ-subsidiary knowledge transfer patterns across types of assignments and types of knowledge. J World Bus 54(3):181–190 CrossRef
Valcour PM (2002) Managerial behavior in a multiplex role system. Hum Relat 55(10):1163–1188 CrossRef
Metadata
Title
Guidelines for Practitioners: Emphasis on Narrative Work and Relationship Building
Author
Iris Koleša
Copyright Year
2021
Book
Becoming an International Manager

Print ISBN: 978-3-030-87394-3

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-030-87395-0

Copyright Year: 2021

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87395-0_11

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