Skip to main content

LUP Student Papers

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Expatriater: överbetalda lyxlirare eller utsatt personal? En fenomenologisk studie på fyra svenska multinationella företag.

Stjernquist, Sara LU (2010) PSYM99 20092
Department of Psychology
Abstract (Swedish)
Expatriater är viktiga men också dyra tillgångar i multinationella företag. Expatriering innebär en stor utmaning i form av ett nytt arbete i ett nytt land, allt inbäddat i en ny kultur, ofta med ett främmande språk, vilket kräver nya sätt att hantera tillvaron. Då de flesta expatriater har familj, gäller det i högsta grad även den medföljande. Genom en kvalitativ studie med fenomenologiskt angreppssätt undersöktes expatrieringsprocessen på fyra svenska multinationella företag, med syfte att beskriva processen utifrån olika perspektiv; forskning, företag och expatriater. Fyra kvalitativa intervjuer genomfördes med yrkesverksamma inom området, vilka utgjorde deltagarna tillsammans med 10 återvändande expatriater som genom en skriftlig... (More)
Expatriater är viktiga men också dyra tillgångar i multinationella företag. Expatriering innebär en stor utmaning i form av ett nytt arbete i ett nytt land, allt inbäddat i en ny kultur, ofta med ett främmande språk, vilket kräver nya sätt att hantera tillvaron. Då de flesta expatriater har familj, gäller det i högsta grad även den medföljande. Genom en kvalitativ studie med fenomenologiskt angreppssätt undersöktes expatrieringsprocessen på fyra svenska multinationella företag, med syfte att beskriva processen utifrån olika perspektiv; forskning, företag och expatriater. Fyra kvalitativa intervjuer genomfördes med yrkesverksamma inom området, vilka utgjorde deltagarna tillsammans med 10 återvändande expatriater som genom en skriftlig självrapport beskrev sina upplevelser med egna ord. I diskussionen återfinns likheter och skillnader mellan teori och praktik och huvudsakliga förbättringsområden, inklusive förslag på åtgärder. Eftersom de flesta expatriater upplever större problem vid repatrieringen än anpassning till värdlandet, tyder det på att repatrieringsprocessen till stor del bör förbättras så att företag i högre grad kan ta tillvara på personal med internationell kompetens och förhindra att de lämnar organisationen. Vidare verkar det finnas stor utvecklingspotential gällande urvalsprocessen och att man bör satsa mer på att utforma korrekta förväntningar inför uppdraget, samt tvärkulturell träning, både innan avresa och efter ankomst. (Less)
Abstract
Expatriates are important but also expensive assets in multinational companies. A new employment and a new country, all embedded in a new culture, often with a foreign language, makes expatriation a big challenge. This also highly affects accompanying partners, since most expatriates bring their families on the assignment. The process of expatriation was examined by a qualitative study with a phenomenological approach and included four Swedish multinational companies, with the purpose of describing the process using different perspectives; research, companies and expatriates. The participants were four HR professionals who participated in qualitative interviews, and 10 repatriated expatriates, who through a written self-report described... (More)
Expatriates are important but also expensive assets in multinational companies. A new employment and a new country, all embedded in a new culture, often with a foreign language, makes expatriation a big challenge. This also highly affects accompanying partners, since most expatriates bring their families on the assignment. The process of expatriation was examined by a qualitative study with a phenomenological approach and included four Swedish multinational companies, with the purpose of describing the process using different perspectives; research, companies and expatriates. The participants were four HR professionals who participated in qualitative interviews, and 10 repatriated expatriates, who through a written self-report described their experiences, in their own terms. The discussion includes similarities and differences between theory and practice and areas of improvement, including proposals of interventions. Most expatriates experience more problems with the repatriation than adaption to the host country, which indicates that the repatriation process should be improved to make companies more able to take care of employees with international competence and prevent them from leaving the organisation. Forming correct expectation prior to the assignment, development of the selection process and cross-cultural training, both prior to departure and after arrival includes other areas of great significance.


Keywords: expatriate, adaptation, repatriation, phenomenology, Sphinx Lexica (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Stjernquist, Sara LU
supervisor
organization
course
PSYM99 20092
year
type
H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
subject
keywords
fenomenologi, repatriering, expatriat, anpassning, Sphinx Lexica
language
Swedish
id
1529734
date added to LUP
2010-02-11 10:55:18
date last changed
2010-02-11 10:55:18
@misc{1529734,
  abstract     = {{Expatriates are important but also expensive assets in multinational companies. A new employment and a new country, all embedded in a new culture, often with a foreign language, makes expatriation a big challenge. This also highly affects accompanying partners, since most expatriates bring their families on the assignment. The process of expatriation was examined by a qualitative study with a phenomenological approach and included four Swedish multinational companies, with the purpose of describing the process using different perspectives; research, companies and expatriates. The participants were four HR professionals who participated in qualitative interviews, and 10 repatriated expatriates, who through a written self-report described their experiences, in their own terms. The discussion includes similarities and differences between theory and practice and areas of improvement, including proposals of interventions. Most expatriates experience more problems with the repatriation than adaption to the host country, which indicates that the repatriation process should be improved to make companies more able to take care of employees with international competence and prevent them from leaving the organisation. Forming correct expectation prior to the assignment, development of the selection process and cross-cultural training, both prior to departure and after arrival includes other areas of great significance. 


Keywords: expatriate, adaptation, repatriation, phenomenology, Sphinx Lexica}},
  author       = {{Stjernquist, Sara}},
  language     = {{swe}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Expatriater: överbetalda lyxlirare eller utsatt personal? En fenomenologisk studie på fyra svenska multinationella företag.}},
  year         = {{2010}},
}