A review of empirical studies that directly investigated the overseas adjustment of expatriate managers revealed four dimensions that were related to successful expatriate acculturation: (1) the “self-oriented” dimension; (2) the “others-oriented” dimension; (3) the “perceptual” dimension; and (4) the “cultural-toughness” dimension. The study's implications for expatriate selection and training procedures in multinational corporations are discussed.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/258210.pdf

The Dimensions of Expatriate Acculturation: A Review

In order to delineate the current state of the art of overseas relocation programs in US multinational corporations, the extant literature was reviewed in the areas of expatriate personnel selection, training and career-pathing The implications of the study's findings for US MNCs are discussed and recommendations for policy change are offered

Expatriate Selection, Training and Career‐Pathing: A Review and Critique

Intercultural competency is an adaptive capacity based on an inclusive and integrative world view which allows participants to effectively accommodate the demands of living in a host culture Resea

Intercultural Competency: A Transformative Learning Process:

Intercultural personhood: Globalization and a way of being☆

(1990). Intercultural competence and expatriates. The International Journal of Human Resource Management: Vol. 1, No. 3, pp. 341-362.

Intercultural competence and expatriates

Person perception in cross-cultural settings: A review of cross-cultural and related cognitive literature

In the early to mid-1990s, Alcatel, a French telecommunications giant, went on a merger
and buying spree such that in a very short amount of time it had 200 operations in France
itself and over 700 in the rest of the world, representing a huge increase in the number of
its operations. These mergers with, and acquisitions of, foreign operations created
significant management challenges for Alcatel. The telecommunications giant was
struggling with the immediate issues of determining what to standardize and what to
localize. It needed to build a common corporate culture yet allow decentralization as
appropriate. It needed to understand how to manage foreign units that wanted greater
independence yet also encourage cross-unit collaboration in order to leverage experience
economies among its vast domestic and foreign operations. To manage such an operation,
Alcatel needed a new management mentality, one that would reflect a keener
understanding of countries – their cultures, politics, economics; of the individual
operations it had acquired – their history, their organizational cultures, their distinctive
competencies; and of management and organizational principles – balancing the needs of
local independence and system interdependence.

/pdf/global-leadership-development-4zs6ht5myd.pdf

Global Leadership Development

Gaining a knowledge of marketing strategies, accounting and financial systems, labor laws, etc is most directly accomplished by sending managers to work in an overseas subsidiary and utilizing them on re-entry. However, one of the most serious stumbling blocks to expatriates' career paths is the lack of recognition of the value of expatriation and the informality with which firms accurately evaluate their expatriates' overseas performance. Two of the most significant aspects of management's inability to understand the expatriate's experience, value it, and thereby more accurately measure his or her performance are (1) the communication gap between the expatriate and the home office and (2) the lack of domestic management's international experience. In summary, an expatriate's performance is based on overseas adjustment, his or her technical know-how, and various relevant environmental factors. Actual performance, however, is evaluated in terms of perceived performance, which is based on a set of fairly complex variables usually below the evaluator's level of awareness.

Mark E. Mendenhall

Papers

Person perception in cross-cultural settings: A review of cross-cultural and related cognitive literature

Global Leadership Development

. 1 J . S t ew art Black FRED BAILEY: A N I NN OCE NT ABROAD