Question 1 [20 Marks]

Read the extract below and answer the question to follow:

Expatriate management is a concept that may include two different activities: management of expatriates and management by expatriates. The former includes all the traditional activities undertaken by organisations to manage their assigned expatriates (AEs), from recruitment to repatriation. Management by expatriates is associated with most cross-cultural and other issues that foreign managers encounter in a host location, from language problems and communication difficulties to leadership challenges. However, these two activities are not mutually exclusive and may overlap since many AEs may need support and help from the parent country organisation to discharge their managerial duties successfully.

Lately, many non-traditional global workers have emerged, such as self-initiated expatriates, inpatriates, international business travellers, short-term assignees and international commuters. Recently, expatriates in non-corporate communities, such as diplomats, academics, international school teachers, international volunteers, military, missionaries and sports professionals, have also been studied. Healthcare employees are another type of expatriate group, but despite their growing international importance, they have seldom been investigated. Similarly, the vast numbers of low-status expatriates, from construction workers in the Middle East to domestic helpers in Southeast Asia, have been neglected by scholars. Many of these foreign workers need to be managed, and some of them perform management tasks themselves.

Required: As a Human Resources (HR) manager you are tasked to investigate whether expatriation has made a great contribution to the understanding of issues surrounding international human resource management for employment possibilities for your HR department. You are tasked with:
• Writing an essay, providing a detailed discussion, on how managers need to appreciate the role of multiple parties in shaping expatriates’ psychological contracts.
• Discuss three (3) challenges for gaining an understanding of the motives and demands of those expatriates.

Answers to Above Questions on Human Resource Management

Answer 1: Expatriation has made a significant contribution towards understanding the issues associated with international Human Resource Management for employment possibilities in my Human Resource Department. This is mainly because globalisation has forced the HR manager to take into consideration different issues associated with expatriate management such as achieving cross cultural competence within employees, managing different types of expatriates, ensuring the sufficient management of talent globally and many more.

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