Changes to Expatriation

Interviewees were also asked whether they had observed any changes in the way in which assignments operated over the years, and in the reasons for sending expatriate managers abroad. C1, the HRD who was in charge of organising these assignments, had been with the company for four and a half years and stated that he had seen little to no changes to this program during his time with the organisation. He had however observed that there was an increase in self-initiated expatriate assignments coming out of Madrid and into the UK. This, he stated, had been in response to recent challenges within the Spanish economy after 2008. C1 explained this further:

“There may be people who come from the group who want to come to the UK and they are making the decision to come rather than the group saying we’d like you to go to…So we’ve had quite a few people who, particularly as the Spanish economy is not brilliant or whatever, are interested in exploring opportunities in the UK…The bank in Spain has had no problem with employment but the economy generally, unemployment in Spain is quite high.”

- C1, HRD (CoinCo) C1 also explained that these managers sought expatriate opportunities with the company’s UK- based locations and following the end of their expatriate contract, once their performance was

188| P a g e consistent, they had the opportunity to apply for permanent posts within the assigned office. Although, none of the AE managers interviewed were in the UK assigned under such circumstances, it was important to highlight that the option to localise after five years was built into all expatriate contracts in this firm. This was in stark contrast to the first two firms interviewed, which indicated that it was typically the intention of the firm to have locals replace expatriates upon completion of the assignment.

Another interviewee, C2 in finance, stated that he had observed some change with regard to the amenities provided to international assignments during his twenty-four years with the firm. In relation to the functions that AE managers perform, he stated that he had noticed a trend towards international leadership development: About this, he said:

“The bank had spoken a lot over the last decade about building up a cadre of people, a reliable core of people who can move around to give the bank, to allow the bank to benefit from the different cultures in the different subsidiaries, and then bring best practice back in Madrid” - C2, Finance (CoinCo)

This manager explained that in earlier years, he observed that international management assignments were largely used for trouble-shooting around the globe. With the new focus pointing towards the development of managers with cross-cultural capabilities, he believed that the company was moving in the right direction, and better equipped to deal with changing subsidiary environments. Apart from this, none of the other interviewees indicated that they had observed any other changes in the use of international assignments.

6.7. Summary

This chapter has outlined the findings from interviews conducted within the CoinCo, the UK head office of MonCo, with regard to the nature and use of expatriate management assignments within this organisation. It was found that expatriate managers were sent to the UK for the purposes of knowledge transfer, management development and coordination and control. These roles involved several objectives, including language translation, knowledge dissemination, and development of a global perspective, development of managers’ professional network, identification of more global opportunities, internal consistency, and the socialisation of local employees. While

189| P a g e managers were undertaking a number of these roles at any given time, the primary reasons for assigning managers to the UK head office CoinCo, was for language development and translation, as well as for the purposes of closer alignment with the global HQ. The use of AE managers for the purposes of language translation was linked to limited foreign language skills within the UK context, and the need to ensure smooth communication not only between CoinCo and MonCo’s Madrid HQ, but also with MonCo’s global customer base. Assignees typically performed these roles for a period between three to five years, and had the option to localise at the end of the assignment period.

Assignees engaged in a number of activities at a micro-level in order to achieve their various role mandates. These activities occur both formally and informally, and included daily interaction with local employees and stakeholders, demonstration of specific practices or values, attendance at organised training workshops, organisation of meeting and workshops to address problems or queries, and internal negotiation with employees about work practices. To assess the extent to which their roles had achieved what they were meant to, assignees were appraised bi-annually, and also on a more regular and informal basis through conversations with their superiors within MonCo’s global HQ, their home offices, or in some cases their functional superiors within CoinCo. With regard to the outcomes of their assessments, these were identified as increased awareness of global best practices, better quality of communication across different units, increased firm visibility and partnerships in the local context, better working relationships and experiences, and increased cultural diversity. These outcomes were observed both during and after the particular expatriate assignment, and impacted at various levels of the organisation. The HRD and other managers, however, stressed that more could be done within the company to harness the knowledge gains of international assignments.

With regard to changes in the nature and use of international management assignments, there was an increased number of self-initiated assignments coming out of Madrid, which the HRD stated was due to economic challenges in Spain. One manager who was with the company for twenty- four years had noticed an improvement in the amenities that were offered to managers while on assignment. In addition, it was observed that the bank was placing more emphasis on using expatriate assignments for management development, in order to ensure that they had a ‘cadre’ of people capable of leading on a global scale. No other changes were reported by those interviewed.

190| P a g e The following chapter will move on to examine the findings from the fourth and final major case study firm, ComCo.

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