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Keywords Expatriates, Management, Financial services, Financial institutions
Abstract The paper tells us about the experience of a financial services company in managing its expatriation and repatriation processes. Data were gathered from official company sources and via in-depth interviews with former expatriates. The analysis indicates that some 50 percent of people left the company following the repatriation within a few years after return The experience gained by the company manifests the importance of proper management of the processes of expatriation and in particular repatriation. To attain a successful expatriation and repatriation the management should handle both processes as an integrated part of career management, since expatriation can form a crucial point in the development of a psychological contract between the employee and the company.
Introduction
Most of the literature on multinational corporations (MNCs) focuses on leading brand companies. Companies that gain most attention are the like of IBM, CocaCola, Macdonald's, General Motors in the USA; Shell, Nestle in Europe; and Toyota, Sony, Samsung in the Far East All of these are considered leaders in their business and well known all over the world. They are all large, if not "giant" organizations. Most cited cases in the literature are American (i.e. headquartered in the USA). While much can be learned from their experience, these firms do not necessarily represent the typical company wishing to become international, especially not the typical European medium-sized company.
The strategy, policy and practice of large USA MNCs do not necessarily serve as a role model or even benchmark for international firms located elsewhere (Baruch and Altman, 2002). Many, perhaps most, companies with global or international aspirations, are neither large nor US based. It is apparent that they need not, and perhaps should not, necessarily follow the giants as role models in their pursuit of international markets. They need different strategy, policy and practice for their international operations, in all aspects of management, and in particular the management of their people.
The aim of this paper is to explore how a mid-size UK company, FinCorp, has dealt with the issue of global management. Thus the paper is a case study presentation of global human resource management (HM, and its focal point is the management of expatriation and repatriation.
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