International assignments
Intercultural management
Hilla Back and Minna Pekkanen, October 21, 2025
21.10.2025
1
Stop and
reflect…
What did you learn from yesterday’s
video case? What was most
surprising?
Agenda for today
• The role of expatriates
• Staffing decisions
• Factors affecting expatriate success
• Repatriation
• Guest speaker: Minna Pekkanen, Global Mobility Manager,
KPMG
3
Do you have any expatriation experiences (e.g. due to your parents)?
How has it shaped you?
If you have not yet had expatriation experiences, would you be
interested in them in the future?
Discuss first in groups of 2-3.
21.10.2025
4
Types of international assignments
• International expatriate
• ”permanent” transfer
• International hire
• Cross-border commuter
• Virtual assignee
• (self-initiated foreign experiences)
What decisions affect MNC staffing
strategies?
21.10.2025
5
Case: Anna
•
Anna works at a multinational telecommunication company in
Sweden, where the company is headquartered.
•
She is a middle-manager with expertise in infrastructure
development.
•
Anna has been asked to transfer to the Kentucky-based office in
the USA for a three-year term. The offer includes housing,
medical benefits, and a higher salary than working in Sweden.
•
Anna, 38 years old, married with one child, is contemplating the
offer.
Why would the company send her to Kentucky? What reasons would
make her accept or refuse the offer?
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Reasons for expatriation
Company objectives:
Acceptance or refusal by applicants:
➢ Fill a technical requirement, especially
for complex tasks
➢ Financial rewards
➢ Develop manager’s skills
➢ The desire to escape undesirable
circumstances at home
➢ Develop the organization
➢ Career advancement
➢ Bridge cultural distance
➢ Willingness of the spouse to relocate
➢ Maintain managerial control
➢ Family concerns
➢ The partner’s career
➢ ….
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International assignment process
Foreign
Assignment
Contract
Recruitment and
section
Compensation
& Benefit
Insurance
Training
Performance
management
Repatriation
Relocation
21.10.2025
8
Selection criteria
• Technical skills
• Cost
•
-
Personal skills
Accepting of change
Resolute in front of cultural frustration
Sensitivity to high-context issues
Experience
Ability to get along with different people
Positive outlook on difference
Knowledge of teamwork preferences
Motivation
Readiness of family
Leadership abilities
Communication skills
Independence
Initiative
Creativity
Health
Etc…
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Factors affecting success
Personal
Organizational
• Personality traits: extroversion,
emotional stability, agreeableness,
conscientiousness, openness (the Big
5)
• Ambiguity and conflict regarding job
role
• Ability to manage stress
• Quality of preparation
• Realistic job description and
expectations
• Ability to communicate appropriately
• Ability to establish interpersonal
relationships
• Good family adjustment, especially
spouse
• Job knowledge
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Rank of criteria across countries
Criteria
Austrialian
Managers
European
Managers
Asian
Managers
1. Ability to adapt
1
1
2
2. Technical competence
2
2
1
3. Spouse and family adaptation
3
3
4
4. Human relations skill
4
4
3
5. Desire to serve overseas
5
5
5
6. Previous overseas experience
6
7
7
7. Understanding of host-country culture
7
6
6
8. Academic qualifications
8
8
8
9. Knowledge of language of country
9
9
9
10.Understanding of home-country culture
10
10
10
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Host-country expecations also differ
POSITIVE BEHAVIORS
NEGATIVE BEHAVIORS
Indonesia
Is honest with employees
Provides clear work expectations
Shows confidence in employees
Provides regular feedback
Engages in unfair discrimination
Disciplines and criticizes in public
Shows off power
Mexico
Shows respect to employees
Shows confidence in employees
Is flexible to employees needs
Provides clear work expectations
Practices favoritism
Does not understand employees’ values and
traditions
United States
Is honest with employees
Shows loyalty to employees
Shows respect to employees
Shows confidence in employees
Disciplines and criticizes in public
Shows off power
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Screening & preparation techniques
• Interviews of candidate (and spouse)
• Encounters with former expats
• Cultural training: passive vs. experiential
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Cultural training
• Proved to be essential to adjustment
• Should be dispensed when expats are most motivated to learn
• Should match cultural distance and (in)experience of the expat – the more hands-on
the better
• Needs to reduce uncertainty
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Compensation package
• Base salary
• Benefits
• Allowances (cost of living, housing, schooling, hardship)
• Incentives – sign-up bonuses
• Tax incentives
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Anna has decided to move to Kentucky with her family.
Problems
However, the move is not straightforward. Her husband is
not adapting well, and Anna feels overwhelmed with the
pace of work in the Kentucky office.
She is also receiving some comments of her gender and
Asian appearance.
What can Anna do? What support could her company
offer her?
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Adjustment assistance
• Company assistance is positively related to expat job satisfaction
• Home-country (anticipatory mentoring, pre-departure training, workshops)
• In-country (help in maintaining optimism in the face of difficulties, counseling,
mentoring, resisting ethnocentrism, developing social network, seeking sources of
support)
• Success of training depends on expat’s motivation
• Social support, especially in-country
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What would a successful assignment look like
• To the company?
• To Anna and her family?
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What is a successful assignment (for the organization)?
An overseas assignment is successful if the expat:
✓ Meets the performance expectations of both home country and host country superiors
✓ Develops satisfactory relationships with local nationals
✓ Acquires skills related to managing people of different cultures
✓ Remains on assignment the agreed-upon length of time
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What is a successful assignment (for the individual)?
✓Greater confidence
✓Better listening ability
✓More tolerance and patience
✓Greater sensitivity to other cultures
✓Better understanding of people
✓More assertiveness and independence
✓Greater diplomacy
✓A higher degree of flexibility
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After two and a half years in Kentucky, Anna
and her family are well-adjusted. Her husband
has started a local job, and her son is happy in
school. Anna feels that her career trajectory is
stronger than ever.
However - now comes the time to start
preparing for returning home. What does this
entail, and what problems might Anna and her
family face? How can her company help her?
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Re-entry problems
75% of expats feel that their experience is
a demotion.
60% do not use their foreign experience
when back in-country.
25% leave their company within a year.
Foreign home-sickness
Economic let-down
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Repatriation preparation and assistance
• Mutual agreements
• Housing assistance
• Post preparation
• Re-entry shock assistance for employee and
family
• Thorough review of accomplishments/ Validation
of work done
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Critical reflection
• How have international assignments
changed over time?
• What is the impact of increased remote
work, geo-political tensions, or
corporate cost-saving schemes?
• Does the ‘text-book’ expatriate still
exist?
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Next:
Minna Pekkanen
Manager, Global Mobility & Immigration, KPMG
21.10.2025
25
Coffee break
21.10.2025
26
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