Repatriation of Employees in Multinational Companies

Repatriation of Employees in Multinational Companies
Name
Institution
Professor
Course
Date
Repatriation of Employees in Multinational Companies
In recent years, multinational companies (MNCs) have increasingly acknowledged the significance of international knowledge in organizational success and global competitiveness. International knowledge from the company's foreign subsidiaries is a useful resource for innovation, developing new products, and aligning and implementing organizational strategies in foreign markets (Bucher et al., 2020). Companies increase their presence in foreign nations through expatriation, a process in which a firm sends its employees (expatriates) to work in their subsidiaries in another. Organizations repatriate their employees in foreign jurisdictions to domestic locations, especially the headquarters, to facilitate knowledge transfers. Repatriates can return to their domestic location through three paths as retained or non-retained employees or retirees. Retained employees are particularly important in transferring knowledge since they can share their expertise and experience from exposure to foreign cultures and subcultures.
When repatriates come back to their home countries as retirees or non-retained employees, they have little to no importance to the former employers unless they are hired privately. Unlike retained repatriates, retirees and non-retained employees cannot share knowledge with the parent organization after working in the foreign subsidiaries (Chiang et al., 2018). Non-retained employees can share their repatriate knowledge with their new employers but not the initial place of work while. On the other hand, retained repatriates are expected to expand business networks through their foreign connections, build international experience, learning, and capabilities in the parent organization, transfer knowledge, skills, ideas, attitudes, and competencies, and open new markets (Chiang et al., 2018). Thus, repatriates are integral in securing the competitive advantage of their parent organization.
Transferring knowledge, skills, and competencies from foreign subsidiaries to a company's headquarters can be a complex, daunting, multidimensional process requiring effective planning, coordination, and collabor...