An Innocent Abroad: The Story of Expatriates

An Innocent Abroad
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An Innocent Abroad
Introduction
As companies are expanding to different parts of the world, it is becoming inevitable to have expatriates. Today, the number of expatriates continues to rise, with the U.S. said to have about 9 million expatriates globally (Dore, 2021). Regardless of these numbers, the challenges experienced by expatriates are immense as they try to settle in foreign countries. The cultural differences between the U.S. and other countries often lead to culture shocks that have some expatriates considering repatriation, as is the case of Fred.
Question 1
One of the things that ought to have been done was cultural awareness training for Fred and his family to help them acclimatize or adapt to their environment. The transition to the new role proved difficult because the company did not train Fred and his family. The need for better techniques and training procedures is crucial to help expatriates transition to foreign countries (Abdullah & Jin, 2015). While the selection technique of Klein, especially in the acquisition of Fred was not flawed, the training methods proved lacking. Japan’s business culture was different, and Fred’s poor preparation was in full display the moment he held his first meeting with the employees at the Tokyo office. In the meeting, Fred went straight to business and laid out his plan. While his decision to take a direct approach would be accepted in the U.S., such a direct approach is often interpreted as rude in Japan. Developing relationships with coworkers and employees is quite crucial in Japan. Grosse (2007) notes that often, U.S. managers make the mistake of being too direct and trying to get business done without necessarily working on building relationships. However, as Grosse (2007) opines, Japanese and other Asian countries consider building strong relationships in the workplace important. With his lack of training and awareness, Fred’s weaknesses were quite evident. Therefore, Fred should have been taken through cultural awareness training to help ease his adjustment.
Also, the time Fred was given to prepare and relocate to Japan was not enough. As per the case study, Fred and his family were already in Japan in less than a month. While everything else made sense, including the salary increment and the promise of an illustrious career for Fred, three weeks was not enough for Fred to prepare himself and his family. More time to make the decision to move and the actual moving would have helped Fred to learn as much as he needed to learn about the Japanese business culture. Considering the significance of the assignment, making a transfer as haphazardly as they did was a major mistake on the part of the firm. There ought to be enough time set aside for pre-departure training else, more people will quit after the
Question 2
Fred and his family experienced a number of cultural differences while living and working in Tokyo. First, the food was different in Japan. Jenny had complained to Fred about the difficulty of finding products like peanut butter, quality beef, and maple syrup at the store. The cost of products they could access back at home were also high. Secondly, Fred was experiencing di...