Managing expatriates: analyzing the experience of an internationalized Brazilian Company

Abstract

The management of expatriate employees is an important topic in the field of international business. Most of the studies on expatriation management are based on the experience of North American and Western European corporations. Few studies focus on corporations from developing countries. The purpose of this study was to examine, in the cultural dimension, how expatriates were managed by a Brazilian multinational corporation. This is a single case study based on qualitative research. The focus was a Brazilian telecommunications company operating in China. The research investigated the preparedness of expatriates prior to departure and the kinds of difficulties they faced in daily life abroad. The analysis revealed that the lack of preparation of expatriates before departure was an important barrier to overcome in order to achieve better performance. The findings indicated that psychic distance was the key factor responsible for major problems facing expatriate workers. The contribution of the study is that it shows how a Brazilian corporation addressed the challenges of managing its expatriates in China.

Keywords

• Internationalization
• Expatriates
• Management