
HI6006 Competitive Strategy Editing Service
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An organization expands its business in different countries in order to enhance its market share and profitability. The modern global business environment provides different opportunities and challenges that arises the need for expatriates. The term expatriate means an employee sent by the company in other different countries to manage the organizational operations. A company send employees from parent country to other countries in order to manage different operations in that company (Rocke, 2017). There are different factors that are important for the successful expatriation of staff. This assignment demonstrates the importance of different factors associated with the expatriation of staff.
The case study of ‘Woolworths is adopted in this assignment to investigate different factors associated with the expatiation. Woolworth is an Australia based multinational retail Company. It is a second largest company in Australia on the basis of revenue. This assignment elaborates the different dimensions of expatriation associated with Woolworths.
In modern scenario, the global business market provides different opportunities to a company to enhance its market share as well as profitability. Companies send their employees to other countries in order to operate and manage different business operation in that company (Lin and Lin, 2017).
Woolworths limited is Australian Retail Company which operates its business in different countries. It is one of the largest chains of retail stores in the world. The company is operating its business successfully in different countries of the world. Woolworths can open up a new operation in India as it is one of the largest markets for the retail industry. India is the second largest country in population, therefore, it can provide different beneficial opportunities to Woolworths. Woolworths would need to send the employees to India in order to manage the different business operations of India. HR department of the company need to understand and analyse the different factors associated with Indian market (Rocke, 2017).
There are different factors that should be considered by Woolworths for successful expatriation of the staff members. Key factors that must be considered by Woolworths for the achievement in the success of expatriation of the staff are:
1.Personal attributes
2.Family-related factors
3.Cultural factors
Personal attributes influence the success of expatriation of staff. Personal attributes include personal and situational factors. These both factors influence the expatriation to a great extent. Woolworths should consider both factors to achieve success in expatriation of employees to India (Lin and Lin, 2017).
Personal Factors
Personal factors are associated with the beliefs, value, cultural background and expectation of the employees. These factors influence the capability of the employees to adopt the new environment. The key personal factors that play most important role in expatriation are:
1.Willingness to relocate
2.Degree of international orientation
3.Perceived career path
Willingness to relocate - This personal factor influences significantly to expatriate success. The employees who are eager to relocate to other country adopt the new environment easily. The expatriate those who are reluctant to accept transfer faces different problems in adopting new environment. Woolworths should select the employees who willing to work in India.
The degree of International orientation –Cross-cultural awareness and level of internationality incorporates different factors such as travel experience, language skills, ethnic background, previous expatriate assignment. Expatriate is most likely adopt the new environment if they are international.
Perceived career path -Expatriate’s assignment is closely connected with the perceived with the career path and different future professional opportunities. The success of the expatriation can be greatly influenced by this factor.
Situational Factors
Situational factors influence the expatriation of the staff members of a company. Woolworths should focus on the different situational factors as they play important role in achieving success in expatriation of the employees (Montenegro, et al. 2015).
1.Training
2.Selection criteria
3.Level of support
4.Role clarity
5.Relations between company and expatriate
Training – Training is an important factor that can influence the expatriation. A company should provide effective training to its employees so that they deal with different factors in the new country. Training helps employees to handle the different factors and situations which can affect the expatriation. Woolworths should provide training to its employees so that they can adopt the environment of India.
Selection criteria –An organization should focus on the different factors for the selection of expatriation. Usually, a company select the employees on the basis of technical skills only discarding other important skills such as communication skills, cross-cultural skills, knowledge of language etc.
Level of support –level to support refers to the extent to which a company includes both parent and host company to support the expatriate. An expatriate needs different support such as financial support, family support and other general support in order to work in the new country.
Role clarity -Employees faces different uncertainty in their daily life which can affect the adoption of a new place, therefore, clarity with the role is important for an employee. Woolworths can minimize the uncertainty in minimizing the level of uncertainty.
Relations between company and expatriate –Relationship between an organization and expatriate influence the success of expatriation of staff members to a great extent. Time spent by an employee in a company, relationship of employees by leaders and managers, employee relation with the executives of the host country (Howe-Walsh and Schyns, 2010).
Family-related factors influence significantly to the expatriation. It is found that one of the main reason behind the rejection of international assignment by the employees is the family reason. Most of the companies do not focus on this factors due to which employees refuse the proposal of an international assignment. The inclusion of family members complicates the decision process of the expatriate as well of the company. The inclusion of family members makes the process costly and slower but a company should include the expatriate's family into the process as it is can influence the decision of expatriate on the international assignment. The inclusion of family members is very important as it can reflect positively on the decision of expatriate as well as it would be also helpful in adjusting in a new country (Lee & Kartika, 2015).
Spouses are major elements which influence the decision of the expatriate on international assignment. The spouses may be categorized into three categories that are :
1.Male spouses who expect to work in new country
2.Female spouse who like to work in new country
3.Female spouse who does not want to live and work is new country
In modern scenario, female are getting the proposal for the international assignment but the decision of female can get influenced by her children or husband. Male spouses can reflect positively on the decision of female expatriate regarding the international assignment as they like to work in a new foreign country. Male supports the decision of female expatriates on the international assignment. A female needs the supports in a foreign country to adjust to a new environment, therefore, the support of the support of spouse may be beneficial for her. The studies of children is also a major factor which can influence the decision of expatriate, therefore, it is imperative for a company to consider this factor while selecting expatriates.
Female spouse can also influence the decision of a male expatriate regarding the international assignment. A male expatriate needs the support of her spouse in a foreign country. Support of spouse in the foreign country helps in adopting new environment. Female spouse can accept as well as deny the proposal of the expatriation. In modern scenario most of the female spouse supports the decision of male suppose regarding international assignment as the concerns about the career and future of their husband. Some of the females can also be one of the main reason for the rejection of proposal of international assignment. There may be different reason behind the rejection of the assignment such as education of children, her own career etc.
Woolworths should consider all these family factors for the successful expatriation of the staff. The company should provide different facilities to employees as well as their spouse in order to convince them to accept the proposal of international assignment. Company can also sponsor the education of children and can provide medical benefits to the company. Woolworths should focus on all the family related factors which can influence the decisions of expatriates for the successful expatriation of the family members (Sarkiunaite & Rocke, 2015).
Cultural factors include ideology and set of values of group of individual or a particular community. The culture of a nation varies with that of others which can influence the business operations of a company to a great extent. There are different cultural dimensions that can influence the expatriation of the staff members. The difference in culture of parent and host country can influence the success of expatriation. It can be difficult for an expatriate to adjust in a new foreign country with different culture and it can lead to the rejection of proposal of international assignment (Vijayakumar, et al. 2016).
Woolworths should focus on the different cultural factors associated with the expatriation of the employees in order to achieve success in expatriation. As Woolworths is planning to send its employees in India to manage new operations, therefore, it should focus on the culture of India. India is cultural diverse countries which possess different culture which can influence the employee belong to different nation. There are various factors associated with the culture of India that should be considered by Woolworths for successful expatriation of the staff members.
There are various factors associated with culture of India that can influence the expatriation of the employees of Woolworths. Key cultural factors that can affect expatriation of the employees are :
1.Language
2.Traditions and customs
3.Gender
Language - It is a key factor that can be challenging for the expatriates in India. People of India speak numerous languages which are difficult to understand by a person belong to different country Hindi and English are the key languages which are used at workplace to communicate with each other. In India people also use different local or regional languages at workplace such as Marathi, Gujarati, bangali, Punjabi etc. Woolworths is an Australian company so it would be easy for the expatriates to communicate with local employers and customers of India in the English language. Woolworths should provide effective training to employees so that they can understand different Indian languages such as Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati etc.
Tradition and customs –The traditions and customs vary from country to country. Tradition and customs of India are different from that of other countries. India is considered as the birthplace of different religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism. The culture of India is also influenced by different Persian, Turkish, and Arabic culture. Traditions and culture include different elements such as dance, music, paintings, dressing style, films etc. The interests of Indian are different from that of the Australian citizens. Woolworths should consider all these cultural factors of Indian in order to achieve success in expatriation of the employees (Bonache, et al. 2017).
Gender –Gender difference is also key factors associated with the culture of India. In India, females are treated differently as compared to females. Nowadays scenario is changing and equal importance is given to both males and female in corporate world. An expatriate should focus on this factors in order to communicate effectively with both genders (Sambasivan, et al. 2017).
Personal attributes, family-related factors and cultural factors play an important role in the success of expatriation of the employees. There are different factors which can influence the success of the expatriation but Woolworths should mainly focus on these factors in order to manage its new operation in India.
It is described in the above section of this report that the personal attributes include various factors which are important for the successful expatriation of the employees. Woolworths should focus on this factor for the selection of employees who can operate and manage organizational operations in different countries. Woolworths should take care of the personal needs of the employees and should provide different facilities to them so that they can work in foreign countries without any issue (Kumar & Sethi, 2016).
Family-related issues can also influence the success of the expatriation of the employees. It includes different factors such as education of children, career or spouse, willingness of the family members etc. The decision of employees on working in different country depends on the family factors, therefore, Woolworths should also provide different facilities to its employees.
Cultural factors also influence the expatriation of the employees to a great extent. The culture of India is totally different from Australian culture, therefore, this factors should also be considered to provide proper training to employees so that they can operate and manage business operations in India. It is imperative for Woolworth to make its employees aware of different cultural factors such as language, custom, tradition etc.
All these factors should be considered by Woolworths to operate its new business in India as the absence or ignorance of these factors can give rise to different factors that can affect adversely to the expatriation of the employees of Woolworths. Job dissatisfaction, stress among the employees, personal and professional problem, problem in adoption of new environment, communication problems are the key problems which can occur if personal attributes, cultural factors and family-related factors are not considered in the preparation of the expatriates. Selection of expatriates for foreign assignment, cross culture training, foreign language training, facilities in overseas countries are also key factors that should be considered by Woolworths to prepare expatriates for the foreign assignment. Woolworths should also focus on different factors which can play important role in motivating the employees for the international assignment. Different facilities such as accommodation and transportation facilities can motivate employees to work in different culture. Salary increment, promotions, free education for children, medical benefits can also motivate the employees to work in foreign countries (Cole & Nesbeth, 2014).
Human resource practices in India are different from that of Australia. It is responsibility of Human resource functions of Woolworths to train the employees according to different aspects of India. Human resource function of Woolworths should educate its employees according to the corporate culture of India. Woolworths should consider all the favourable as well as the issues associated with the expatiation of the employees in order to operate and manage its business in India (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014).
It may be concluded that it is imperative for a company to focus on the different factors associated with the expatriation in order to operate its business efficiently in a new country. There is always a vast difference between working in the parent country and host country, therefore, a company should focus on all the factors that are responsible for creating difference in the working of employees in overseas country. There are different key factors which are crucial for the successful expatriation that are personal attributes, cultural factors and family-related factors. A company should consider all these factors in order to achieve success in expatriation of the staff members. It may be concluded that a company should emphasize the various factors associated which can be favourable or unfavourable for the successful expatriation of the employees.
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