Critical Analysis of Possible Causes of Expatriate Failure at AFW Direct

Essay from the year 2014 in the subject Business economics - Personnel and Organisation, grade: 73 (outstanding), University of Hertfordshire, course: Leadership and Management Development, language: English, abstract: Anglo-French Wines Direct (AFW), a large multinational company based in UK, establisheda 'High Flyers Programme' four years ago in order to develop middle and senior managers ofthe future to enable the achievement of its global growth objectives. The aim was to sendthem to one of the international subsidiaries for two years and bring them back for a moresenior position in the UK. However, the new Global HR Director of AFW has discoveredseveral problems associated with this leadership programme. More precisely, she identifiedthe following three types of assignment failure:1. 25 per cent of the expatriates returned home early due to dissatisfaction.2. Over 35 per cent of the expatriates who remained in post were considered to beunderperforming compared to local management's expectations of them.3. Around 30 per cent of those who completed their postings, left within a year of theirreturn to England.These outcomes, however, are not attributable to a particular cause but are rather influencedby a variety of factors which will be analysed more closely in this report. Generally speaking,it can be assumed that the reasons for the present difficulties are mainly due to an ineffectivemanagement of the 'Ideal International Assignment Cycle' (see Figure 1) which includes thekey components recruitment and selection, hiring, preparation, expatriation and repatriationand will be elaborated on below: [...]