Cross- cultural Communication This page intentionally left blank

Expatriate failure
Despite all the warning signals about the frequent failure to adapt to a new 
culture, relatively few organizations send their staff on specific cultural 
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Selection and Preparation for Foreign Assignments 105
awareness and orientation programmes before they go overseas, although 
profound culture shock, compounded by the inability to recognize it, to come 
to terms with it and to make the necessary cultural adaptations, has been 
identified as a major cause of the failure of many overseas assignments.
Expatriate failure can be defined as the premature return home before 
the period of the assignment is completed. It should be emphasized that 
expatriation is for many a major life change that puts individuals at risk of 
psychological difficulties. Three significant life events are involved: changing 
culture, changing jobs and changing accommodation. International assign-
ment failures usually result more from an employee’s or the family’s failure 
to adjust to the new culture than from any business issues. Tung (1998) cites 
the following reasons for expatriate failure:
The manager’s inability to adapt to a different physical or cultural envi-
ronment.
The inability of the manager’s spouse/family to adapt to a different 
physical or cultural environment.
The manager’s personality or emotional immaturity.
The manager’s inability to cope with the responsibilities presented by 
overseas work.
The manager’s lack of motivation to work overseas.
In 1993, the Shell Expatriate Survey ‘Outlook’ found that the major areas of 
concern related to the problems associated with moving overseas on assign-
ment were:
children’s education and separation of families;