Bhr 3352 Hr Management: Case Assessment Answers

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Introduction:

The company Nordic Oils is operating its business in Finland and in five other countries. The company is into the expatriation for more than thirty years, but the recent expatriation of one of the employees and his family to Columbia has emerged several issues. Moreover, due to the emergence of the issues the employee had resigned the company which has affected the productivity of the firm. Therefore, the following report discusses both the surface and underlying issues encountered by the employee and his family along with the suitable recommendation for the same.

Identification of the Issues:

The difference of the expatriation of Pekka and his family was significant enough in terms of the time span of the expatriation. The previous expatriations conducted by Nordic Oils were spanned not more than two years. On the other hand, this assignment of Pekka is of five years. Along with this, the employees were given opportunities to visit their home during their work terms. This is the primary key differences that are apparent. However, there are some underlying differences that are appearing the severe issues and the same has caused one of the good employees to resign (Kraimer et al., 2012).

Despite the expatriation of the Pekka has been proved to be successful and productive for the company, the same has created many challenges for the family of Pekka. One of the major issue is that the while living in Columbia, the family has elevated and broadened their mind and thoughts. Therefore, they faced severe challenges in coping with the mentality of the people of Finland (Mitrev & Culpepper, 2012). People of Columbia have boarder and friendly mentality. In addition, people of this country possess expressive thoughts. The family of Pekka found it difficult to adapt to the reserved mentality and social norms of Finland on return from Columbia after five years. On the other hand, Pekka’s two sons also encountered challenges to make new friends in school as well as experienced rejection for aggressive nature that they adapted while living in Columbia (Vance & Paik, 2015). Their mother as well as their father also faced the same challenges in her workplace. While Pekka’s wife faced rejection from her friends, Pekka faced workplace diversity in his workplace. In addition, they had to tighten their expenses due to the high cost living in Finland unlike Columbia.   

Conclusion and Recommendation:

As the Hr of the company I should have inspected the possible effects of the expatriation of Pekka and his family to Columbia for five years at a stretch.  The difficulties that the family had to face after their return to Finland from Columbia caused Pekka to resign from his position in Nordic Oils (Kraimer et al., 2012). At the same time, it was the effect on Pekka and his family indirectly causes the company to lose a loyal and productive employee from the organization. Being the HR needed to consider the effects of the expatriation before the departure as well as after return of Pekka along with his family.

Being in the position o HR, I should have taken a thorough inspection of the economical condition of Columbia before sending the employee for a long period of time. At the same time, the company should have taken into consideration about the lifestyle of the family which was affected by the expatriation (Nery-Kjerfve & McLean, 2012). On the other side, after the return of the family to Finland, Pekka was demoted to his previous position whereas his previous employees were promoted which made the work of Pekka less significant. Therefore, the implication suggests that the company for adjusting the repatriation of the family of Pekka, needed to increase the salary though promoting his to a higher position. In fact, the success of Pekka over the five year foreign project proves his potential and eligibility of him for the promotion, which would make the livelihood easy for his family in Finland.  

Apart from the company’s responsibility to help and support Pekka and his family for a smoother repatriation, it is also suggested that the family itself should have taken some responsibility in terms of adjusting the repatriation process. The family should have remembered that the foreign assignment will end after five years and they have to come back to the native place again. Therefore, not only the company is responsible for throwing them into a difficult situation, but also the family to certain extent can be blamed for the same (Nery-Kjerfve & McLean, 2012).

The family should have maintained their usual and similar family expenses while living in Columbia (Mitrev & Culpepper, 2012). The cost of living in Finland is high and it is clear that before departure the family maintained the livelihood with limited expenses. The five years of living in Columbia had made the family expanded their budget which created trouble for them after their return to Finland. Therefore, the maintenance of the same and limited budget would be helpful for their repatriation. On the other hand, they have broadened their mentality while living in Columbia which caused hazards in their acceptability by the people of Finland including former friends and colleagues. The recommendation implies that the family should have remembered their primary and usual social practice so that they do not have to face any problems on their return.  

Reference:

Kraimer, M. L., Shaffer, M. A., Harrison, D. A., & Ren, H. (2012). No place like home? An identity strain perspective on repatriate turnover. Academy of Management Journal, 55(2), 399-420.

Mitrev, S., & Culpepper, R. (2012). Expatriation in Europe: factors and insights. Journal of International Management Studies, 7(1), 158-167.

Nery-Kjerfve, T., & McLean, G. N. (2012). Repatriation of expatriate employees, knowledge transfer, and organizational learning: What do we know?. European Journal of Training and Development, 36(6), 614-629.

Vance, C. M., & Paik, Y. (2015). Managing a global workforce. Routledge.