Research on Repatriation in the Taiwanese and Western Contexts: Findings and Implications

Although both the international human resource management literature and multinational corporations invest considerable resources into the selection, preparation, and adjustment/performance of expatriates, both prior to and during their assignments. But, relatively less attention has been paid to the repatriation process. As a result, a high percentage of repatriates reported low adjustment and satisfaction with their repatriation experiences, and a significant percentage end up leaving the organization shortly upon return. Repatriate turnover is problematic for several reasons. First, it loses all the efforts and resources invested in the expatriate assignment. Second, it gives away the chance to utilize the newly-developed knowledge and skills that repatriates obtained during the expatriate assignment. Third and most importantly, it forgoes the possibility that repatriates can engage in the critical knowledge transfer and social capital creation upon repatriation.In this regard, the present project aims to provide the following two outputs. First, this project aims to provide a meta-analytic review of the antecedent and outcomes of repatriation. The meta-analytic review examines both the organizational (e.g., organizational supports and expectations met) and individual (e.g., international identity and coping skills) antecedents of repatriate experience and behaviors, such as repatriate desirable attitudes, adjustment, turnover intention, and job performance. It also examines the outcomes of repatriation importance for MNCs (e.g., knowledge transfer) and for repatriate themselves (e.g., career success). Moreover, several moderating effects of cultural values on the antecedents and outcomes of repatriation investigated will also be explored across different cultural groups. Second, in addition to the academic literature review, this project aims to provide a thorough review of practitioner outlets and media on repatriation practices. It is hoped that a theoretical and a practical discussion illustrating prior repatriate-related studies conducted in the Western and Taiwanese contexts, the differences in the business environments between Western MNCs and Taiwanese MNCs, as well as the differences in the difficulties faced by Western repatriates and Taiwanese repatriates can be summarized.The present project aims to make two main contributions to our understanding of the repatriate experience, behavior, and importance in the repatriate literature and practices. First, it provides the first meta-analysis on the antecedents of repatriate experience and behaviors, as well as the outcomes of repatriation for MNCs and repatriate themselves. Such a meta-analytic review is likely to open up many fruitful research directions. Second, no prior study in the repatriation literature has made direct cultural comparisons. This project examines the cultural moderating effects in the meta-analysis between Anglo versus Confucian Asian societies, and present a thorough review of repatriation literature/practices between the Western and Taiwanese contexts. Such a comparison can encourage researchers in the future to apply a more localized approach to examine more meaningful repatriate-related issues for Taiwanese MNCs and repatriates.