Repatriation as an essential part of intercultural training in the context of intercultural management

Table of contents

1 Preface

2 Theoretical Part
2.1 Basic concepts and theoretical approach
2.2 Necessity of repatriate training
2.3 Repatriation Difficulties
2.3.1 Causes of problems
2.3.2 Professional difficulties
2.3.3 Social and personal problems
2.4 Possible Responses to difficulties
2.5 How to benefit from repatriate and their experiences

3 Practical Part
3.1 Evaluation of the questionnaire
3.2 Question 1: Does your company offer Intercultural Training for repatriates?
3.3 Question 2: Are you going to implement such a programme?
3.4 Question 3: How do you value a repatriation programme?
3.5 Question 4: Which of the following items do you offer to a repatriate in order to support his/ her re-entry and how do you evaluate them? (from 1 =completely to 5 =rarely, n.a.=no answer)
3.6 Question 5: Which tasks and costs does your company cover? (n.a. = no answer)(See Appendix 2 for the diagrams)
3.7 Question 6: How long does the preparation phase for the re-entry take?
3.8 Question 7: Which role does the repatriate play in your company after his/ her return and how is it valued? (from 1 = very important to 5 = not important, n.a. = no answer)
3.9 Question 8: What benefits does your company get out of the experience of the repatriate?(See appendix 4)
3.10 Question 9: Which problems occurred for the repatriate? (from 1 =very often to 5=rarely, n.a. = no answer) (See appendix 5 for the diagrams)
3.11 Question 10: Please give us some personal remarks concerning your experience with repatriates
3.12 Question 11: If one of your repatriates had time to answer some questions we would be pleased to make a short interview with him. Therefore we would appreciate it if you give us his/ her contact details

4 Conclusion

5 Appendix
5.1 Appendix 1
5.2 Appendix 2
5.3 Appendix 3
5.4 Appendix 4
5.5 Appendix 5
5.6 Questionaire and Email (English)
5.7 Questionaire and Email (French)
5.8 Questionaire and Email (German)

6 Bibliography

1 Preface

“Diversity among employees in terms of cultural background leads to a richer, more sophisticated and more effective corporate environment.”^[1]

World has changed completely and is still on a way of continuous transformation. Globalisation and international business are keywords nowadays. Introduction of Intercultural Management and International Human Resource Management has become inevitable the last few years. Primary reason is globalisation which means a blossoming of business opportunities, open markets, more resources and newfound competitors. Therefore it is hard to maintain margins and profitability for global players^[2]. Companies have to think and act in an international way. In order to be successful it is necessary to enter new markets and to make international contacts. The risk of asset loss (capital, knowledge, employees, products) is quite high. Companies have to deal with unfamiliar business practices and regulations in foreign countries. This is why there is a high demand for multinational strategies, global leaders and intercultural experiences. With intercultural well trained leaders a company gets competitive advantage: global leaders know the customs, culture, and etiquette of a foreign country and understand the nuances of business practices in those areas. These skills can be the small difference which determines success^[3]. The mobility of human resources becomes absolutely necessary. Expatriation of executives or managers has become an important part of business life. But this mobility represents a real challenge for multinational organisations. In most cases the implementation and performance of Intercultural Management and International Human Resource Management cannot be made without difficulties. Expatriation failures, deterioration of performance, social or personal problems are just some examples of intercultural difficulties^[4]. One tool to solve or avoid such problems is Intercultural Training which consists of two parts: preparation for expatriates who are going to leave the home country and training for repatriates who come back to the home country after a foreign assignment.

The following seminar paper focuses on the repatriation. This part of Intercultural Training is often badly treated and lots of companies do not pay attention to it. If they do, their programmes are often incomplete although satisfying reintegration is a key factor for success or failure of the foreign assignment^[5]. In a first theoretical part general facts about repatriation, its necessity and meaning will be pointed out.

It follows a practical part that should underline the company’s behaviour towards repatriation. Therefore a questionnaire was made which can be found in the appendix. Unfortunately only few companies responded so that this survey is not representative. Nevertheless it gives an interesting insight into company’s practices of Intercultural Training. Together with the theoretical facts it allows to draw a general conclusion about repatriation programmes.

2 Theoretical Part

First of all some general definitions must be given in order to create a common basis for the whole topic of repatriation. It is essential to make clear what repatriation means and how it can be classified in the context of Intercultural Management.

2.1 Basic concepts and theoretical approach

Repatriation, also called cross-cultural re-entry, or reintegration, is defined as the “transition from a foreign country back into the home country”.^[6] Repatriation is similar to expatriation because every re-entry is a new start and requires adaptations^[7]. In particular, it is an active process of readjusting the home country environment, the working conditions and the socio- cultural patterns^[8]. It is considered being the final part of the process of a foreign assignment^[9]. Often re- entry is related to several difficulties; concerning not only professional re- entry problems but also socio- cultural problems^[10] That means there have to be made a distinction between personal and professional re- entry because both parts have their special difficulties. Personal re- entry includes the readjustment to social environment, the contacts to friends and relatives. While being abroad the expatriate himself has changed and has adopted the new culture. At home the political and socio-cultural environment has changed too and the repatriate who has come back has to familiarize with its home culture. For most of them “going home is a harder move”^[11] because they did not expect any difficulties. Back at home they have to face the gap between their idealised image of the home country and reality. Regarding the professional re-integration it has to be mentioned that the global assignment often has just neutral effects on the career instead of pushing the career. Sometimes even negative effects occur that expresses oneself in the way that the repatriate does not get a working position according to his/ her qualifications so that he/ she has to re-start at a lower level. Researches have shown that “more than two-thirds of returnees […] have suffered from the out- of- sight, out- of- mind syndrome^[12]. There is no appropriate position available and the start just like a beginner because work habits, procedures, norms have changed during their absence. Some repatriates stated that “I lost time”^[13], which is a signal for a lack in the evaluation of foreign assignments and the unsatisfying repatriation process. Reintegration can be summarised in four main parts: professional re-orientation and adjustment to corporate changes, resumption of old relationships/ friendships, redefining your own identity and social re- orientation^[14].

The topic of repatriation is an essential part of Intercultural Management, especially of intercultural training, as well as International Human Resource Management. This classification can be declared by the special characterisations. After the French author Sylvie Chevrier Intercultural Management should give answers to the questions which difficulties in the management are caused by the different cultures working together in a multinational company, how theses obstacles can be overcome and how a company can benefit from cultural diversity^[15]. Intercultural Management has precise objectives which are directly linked to the expatriation process: Intercultural interactions should be improved which is directly dependent on personal experiences of the employees. Moreover with the help of good intercultural management negative consequences for the individuals of an enterprise should be minimised and the company should benefit from potential resources of every different culture. It is all about transferring international management skills and knowledge. Intercultural Management prepares employees to mind and implement intercultural principles and behaviour. Always, when employees from another culture are integrated in a team or when business outruns borders intercultural management strategies have to be taken into account^[16]. It comes out that the focus is always on the employee. That is the reason why ex- and repatriation can also be allocated to International Human Resource Management (IHRM). IHRM has to deal with cross- cultural management and international perspectives^[17]. It has to analyse, organise, control and observe employees’ behaviour, their relations and working conditions. Another important part is to manage and train the staff. As a consequence of a remarkable growth of trans-national corporations and international human resource issues multi-national firms respectively international oriented firms need intercultural competences- not the firm itself but its most important asset: the employees, the managers, the executives. One characteristic of IHRM is that staff moves across boundaries. Foreign assignments have become part of the normal business operations nowadays. Therefore the IHRM department has to deal with foreign operations. This is exactly was an expatriate does: he/ she serves as an international business traveller.

To ensure that the foreign assignment is successful the employee send abroad needs intercultural training. Such trainings are important for developing intercultural competences^[18]. They should prepare the employee for a new, different culture, the language, sensitise him/ her for different behaviour and habits. On the whole the training should simplify the entry into a new environment and should help to cope with a foreign culture. Intercultural trainings are not only necessary in advance (before going to a foreign country) but also after the stay abroad, when re-entering the home country. Repatriation training or preparation is still underrepresented as a study of the “Institut für Interkulturelles Management” shows although the requirement for such training is quite high^[19]. During the whole process of foreign assignments there is nowhere such a high number of dissatisfaction than during the phase of repatriation. As already mentioned repatriation is often considered being harder than expatriation. Anyway, there is a quite good preparation in advance offered by the companies but missing support for the re-entry. On the whole repatriation is an essential part of the foreign assignment process. Therefore Intercultural training for repatriates should be a case in point.

2.2 Necessity of repatriate training

The introduction and the first chapter have already shown that during the last years intercultural questions such as foreign assignments have become more important, among others because of an increasing number of merger and acquisitions, collaborations and globalised businesses. There are some more reasons that should be listed here in order to underline the necessity of intercultural repatriation training.

Without paying attention to intercultural affaires companies run the risk of failure. Moreover business is part of society. And our modern society – especially occidental society – faces debates about multi- culturalism and equality of cultures. Laws of anti- discrimination are launched. Behaving intercultural correct is an overall topic, nowadays^[20]. Above all, intercultural competences are significant for multinational firms who want to be successful and who are highly influential in term of lobbyism. Having well trained staff their chance of working more economically efficiently is much higher. Furthermore, over the last 10 years foreign assignments have become crucial for the corporate strategy of personnel development and functional reasons (e. g. finishing or supporting projects, signing contracts, relaunch new products or push ahead a potential cooperation). International assignments belong to everyday business. Nevertheless lots of problems occur especially after having returned home. That is why training for repatriates and a profound preparation for both the repatriate and the company is required^[21]. Besides training is important to prevent expatriate failure because the cost of failure can be three times higher than an annual domestic salary^[22]. In other words, “organisations make a significant financial investment in expatriates to compensate them for working internationally and to develop the skills they need to be successful.”^[23] There from a logical chain can be conducted. If re-entry fails, the repatriate is unsatisfied with the company, is not motivated, so that the company may not benefit from his/ her work. The returnee will promote his/ her bad experiences of the repatriation to the other employees. The bad treatment may be an indicator for the overall treatment, i. e. the employees conduct how well or bad the company takes care for its workers. As a consequence the readiness for mobility shrinks and the company will possibly not find potential expatriates for future foreign assignments. In the end the firm will loose further opportunities abroad and may not benefit anymore from international relationships. Moreover “poor reintegration gives expatriate experience a bad reputation”^[24]. This bad reputation can be assigned to the entire company and the frustrated returnees can damage the company’s image across the board. Above that the necessity of intercultural training can be explained by one main objective of multinational firms. One target is the “need for cross- fertilization of ideas and practices that assist in developing and maintaining competitive advantage”^[25]. Only if employees send abroad are well trained they can guarantee the achievement of this goal. On the contrary if the company does not offer reintegration support it accepts a loss of knowledge, experiences and competences. Sometimes that forces the repatriate to leave the company and join another one because he/ she felt unneeded, desperate, and unimportant in the original company. In the end the competitor will benefit from the vital and valuable experiences of the repatriate effectively paid by the old company. It follows that by devaluing and not promoting and accepting the repatriate (these are all parts of repatriation programmes that will be explained later) a company can make high losses; not only financial losses, but also losses of human capital, competences and networks. Concluding it can be stated that this is the main reason why repatriation as part of intercultural training is highly important.

2.3 Repatriation Difficulties

After having explained why intercultural training is necessary it should be pointed out which problems can occur when the expatriate comes back. As already mentioned the returnee experiences more problems than expected. The first question which has to be answered is which factors cause these problems. Then the different problems will be pointed out.

2.3.1 Causes of problems

In most cases the repatriate experiences a reverse culture shock. Culture shock in general is defined as the reaction to a new, unpredictable environment. It is a natural response to the stress when immersing oneself in a new environment^[26]. For the repatriate there is a second culture shock when coming home because he/ she has adapted the foreign culture. He/ she became part of it and back home his/ her home culture seems to be new und unknown. Therefore he/ she has to adjust once more the old-new culture. Re-entry shock means that a longer stay away from home often results in alienation to the home culture and society^[27]. The returnee recognises a distance. People behave differently from his/ her own expectations. A more severe withdrawal than suggested is identified^[28]. He/ she does not know how to react, what is right or wrong, which behaviour is appropriate. Some habits or reactions might appear to be strange in his/ her opinion so that he/ she feels as a stranger again. It is more complicated to define his/ her own cultural identity because of carrying parts of the old culture plus parts of the new one. The reintegration is sometimes harder than the expatriation because of the unexpectedness of the problems. Repatriates often underestimate re-entry problems and are not prepared to difficulties. Normally it seems to be counterintuitive to expect difficulties when returning home. On the one hand the “repatriate appear to be unprepared for psychological distress and discomfort that accompanies a return home”^[29]. On the other hand the home country supporting network of family, friends and colleagues is unprepared for repatriation difficulties. Back home a large discrepancy between expectations and experiences occur. Often the returnee is disillusioned with the home country because he/ she had a wrong image in mind during the time abroad. Further factors that emphasise possible problems are a loss of social privileges, responsibilities or a reduction of status and influence as well as the changing social and professional situation at the home base^[30]. The repatriate may feel desperate, unsatisfied, disappointed and frustrated because of several readjustment problems. He/ she experiences coincidently an organisational and societal culture shock^[31].

2.3.2 Professional difficulties

First of all lots of returnees experience career anxiety. Either the company cannot guarantee employment after the return. There is no possible redundancy or there is no satisfying/ appropriate position available so that the repatriate just gets a mediocre or makeshift job. Moreover he/ she can feel isolated. Destruction of departments, merger, sale or outsourcing of business units can also have negative influences on the reintegration^[32]. Second difficulty concerns work adjustment. This contains the relationship to chefs and colleagues, false information that leads to a feeling of betrayal and violation of psychological contact, and missing organisational support. A third issue concerns the position at work. Biggest problem is the demotion of the former position and a reduction of accountability. The repatriate is disappointed getting a less satisfying re-entry position. The returnee starts at a lower level with reduced responsibilities and status than before the foreign assignment. He / she can also be repositioned in a new department without friends and no access to management. This causes a feeling of being overqualified. Another difficulty is that colleagues or even the boss do not show any interest in the returnee’s experiences. The so called xenophobic response which can be easily explained by the sentence: “You are at home, only our rules are important”, can highly demotivate and frustrate the repatriate^[33]. Sometimes the repatriate is seen as a know-it-all. This can be the fault of the repatriate himself because he/ she cannot explain the experiences in a way that the others become interested in^[34]. An Australian repatriate once stated that “You gain a lot of experience, but it is dismissed here.”^[35] This shows that companies do not use or involve the returnee’s expertise. The problem of devaluation is a case in point. There is a big contradiction between the status and role abroad and at home: Abroad the expatriate had a high level of responsibilities, greater autonomy. He/ she was the decision maker and had a prominent role in the local community. At home he/ she is a normal company executive, so he/ she changed roles from“ a big fish in a small pond back to a small fish in a big pond”^[36]. In most cases the repatriate returns to a less comfortable life. On the whole the expatriate’s turnover rate exceeds 40 % and more than half of the returnees experienced problems^[37].

2.3.3 Social and personal problems

The loss of comfort expresses itself also in private life. For example the housing: Often an expatriate is provided with a better house abroad and some extras such as a housekeeper or a chauffeur. Back home the standard will possibly be lower which enhances reintegration problems. The “re-entry reminds [the repatriate] that life is not static”^[38]. Every family member who accompanied the expatriate has its own readjustment problems because expected life at home has not frozen during their absence. The leisure activities at home may seem to be boring in comparison to those of the foreign country. Glamorising the other culture can be a consequence. Re-establishing social networks can be a further challenge. Friends may have moved away or the repatriate has to return to another town. Furthermore everybody may seem to be too busy to show interest in the returnee’s experience. Some returnees explained that “It was as if my years overseas were unsharable”^[39]. Conversation becomes difficult because of missing common activities, different experiences and no common topics to talk about. Concerning repatriate’s children, re-entering into peer groups, gaining acceptance, finding new friends and language problems are really hard to handle; above all if the school or university does not accept accreditation of the school abroad. For the spouse it is as hard to re-enter as for the repatriate himself. She/ he can be totally disillusioned when returning home. A feeling of being a foreigner in your own country often occurs^[40]. The spouse’s life has changed completely because in most cases he/ she has given up everything at home and therefore the re-entry is even harder and more complicated.

2.4 Possible Responses to difficulties

Now that the problems of reintegration have been explained possible responses to the difficulties should be listed. It is important to find out what the repatriate himself and the company have to do in order to guarantee a successful repatriation.

The re-entry can follow a certain process explained by Dowling and Welch^[41]. There is a first preparation phase (according to the pre-departure training) which should develop plans for the future regarding to future position in the company. A checklist of items should be considered for the repatriate and the transfer home should be planned. The next step is the physical relocation that includes the remove of personal effects plus personalised assistance in order to avoid stress, uncertainty and disruption. It follows a transition phase where arrangements for housing, schooling and administrative tasks (e. g. medical insurance, renewing drivers licence, back accounts) should be covered. The final step is the readjustment which can be the most difficult phase because the repatriate and his/ her family have to cope with the reverse culture shock, the corporate and social changes, the career demand, the contact to colleagues and friends and relatives.

Moreover the repatriate should be assigned a mentor, which means a person from sending work unit who knows the expatriate personally, who cares for him/ her during the foreign assignments and who supports his/ her re-entry^[42]. The main tasks of the mentor should be to provide the expatriate with current information, to stay in contact with him/ her during the time of absence, to remind the home base of the expatriate so that he/ she should not be forgotten when important decisions regarding to career and positions are made. On the whole such a mentor, also called coach, serves as a constant contact person. It would be favourable if the coach himself has intercultural experiences. He should actively participate in the repatriation process^[43]. Furthermore the family support should play an important role in the repatriation programme. The home company should interview and support not only the repatriate but also his/ her spouse about problems, ideas, experiences. To find a school and to pay the fees would be a further positive support. Summarising these facts, a company should pay attention to following items of repatriation process:

- Debriefing of direct environment at home base
- Showing interest in repatriate’s experiences
- Regular feedback about personal and professional development of the expatriate, the acculturation process and/ or the acceptance/ social integration with colleagues and clients abroad
- Early and well organised planning^[44]
- Relocation service
- Financial assistance
- Career path assistance
- Support for reverse culture shock (psychological support)
- Family support (schooling of children, housing, support the spouse to find a job)
- Communication related training
- Information about corporate and socio- political changes
- Help forming new contacts and establishing networking opportunities^[45].

One measure or method which is used most to guarantee successful reintegration are repatriation seminars^[46]. Such seminars can help the repatriate to handle the experiences and to transmit them respectively to make them understandable for others. They should set symbolic marks for showing the value of the expatriation and focus on securing the experiences. Methods for the implementation and realisation of the experiences made abroad should be offered. They should help to cope with the emotional situation of the returnee. They should also give advice how the repatriate should behave, what he should and should not do and how new competences can be used. Above all, seminars should be obligatory and led by the manager. They should be internally organised and both the repatriate, his/ her spouse and the top management and the department for foreign assignments or the human resource department should be integrated. Exchanging experiences with other repatriates should be guaranteed as well. Last but not least repatriates should get the same treatment as colleagues without expatriation experiences.

In the end there are three essential parts of repatriation training^[47]. First communication is concerned: The company should stay in contact with the expatriate and should transmit information and changes to him/ her abroad. Second is portent part is validation. This is about the recognition the repatriate receives when coming home. It concerns further the promotion of his/ her experiences and the support and supervision at home. “Returning expatriates need to identify what they have learned and how it can benefit the organization.”^[48] So the company and the repatriate should be aware of the difficulties of re-entry transition. They have to show consciousness about the stressful situation for both. Recognising and valuing repatriate’s efforts and the performance capacities is essential for being successful. Third pre-departure training can be very helpful^[49]. The repatriate and the home organisation should identify together the job skills, the development and importance of intercultural experiences and the possible benefits for both. Home country managers and the repatriate should exchange their expectations and perceptions in order to avoid or reduce difficulties und dissatisfaction. The knowledge transfer is still often seen as a one-way- process but it should be a two-way- process/ not a transfer but an exchange. With the help of seminars or corporate discussions the home base should learn to share and integrate new knowledge and information. Company and repatriate should be prepared to learn from each other^[50].

Definitely, the company should care about the expatriates not only before their departure but also during and after their foreign assignment in order to maximise benefits of international and intercultural assignments. Repatriation programmes have several advantages, for instance the creation of a large internal labour market. So the repatriation process should be well designed and organised to ensure that the company achieves its objectives and the repatriate and the company can meet their expectations^[51]. A foreign assignment needs not only a good preparation phase but also a holistic approach that includes the support and training for the reintegration^[52].

2.5 How to benefit from repatriate and their experiences

A well prepared and implemented repatriation programme has some more positive impacts than mentioned above. In general the expatriate’s respectively repatriate’s task is to facilitate an overall transfer of competence and knowledge. In best case he creates an environment of openness and enhanced business practices so that the company can benefit from intercultural competences^[53]. In particular the expatriates have special roles. They can be an agent of direct control which means that they can enable strategic objectives and ensure compliance. Moreover they can serve as an agent of socialisation by transferring beliefs, values and norms, sharing knowledge and improving mutual understanding. There with linked is their role as boundary spanners. Repatriates can bridge internal and external organisational contexts and influence agents when acting in the host country. A further important role is building/ strengthening networks. They may foster interpersonal linkages or make new connections. Last but not least languages nodes are worth mentioning^[54]. The company can benefit from the returnee as the direct contact person for the particular country; for instance a German executive working for three years in South America becomes the contact person for all Latin- American business operations after his return.

Moreover, well organised repatriation programmes can have positive impacts on other employees; i. e. staff availability is highly concerned^[55]. If the repatriate is promoted, if him is given a position underlining the importance of intercultural experiences other employees will value international assignments as highly important and will probably apply for future assignments. On the contrary if the repatriate is not tolerated and promoted this could have a negative effect on attracting future expatriates and on the long run this could even have a negative effect on the company’s activities. Furthermore a company can benefit from the repatriate’s experiences by using him as an important information source. He should assist in developing further repatriation programmes and serve as a mentor, a trainer for further ex- respectively repatriates. Also regarding company’s increasing demand for intercultural qualifications and enforced relationships because of growing global competitiveness a repatriate who is well reintegrated can be a source of competitive advantage. A striking example for such advantage may be technology transfer, a strategic tool of maintaining control over autonomous operations in other countries or producing a market effect by working in a “complexly networked business environment”^[56]. The company can benefit from his intercultural competences. Consequently better business operations, better contracts, more revenue, more market share and better reputations can follow^[57]. The repatriate has gained a lot of important experiences, e. g. in the field of management skills or analysing markets. Only a successful repatriation allows the strategic usage of this potential in the long run^[58].

Finally it can be deduced from the several problems on the one hand and the numerous benefits on the other hand that training for repatriation as a part of intercultural training is not only required but highly necessary and important for a company and the repatriate in order to benefit from the repatriate’s experiences, to learn from failures and avoid them and to guarantee success.

3 Practical Part

In order to underline the theoretical basics and to maybe add some items a questionnaire about repatriation programmes was created and sent to several companies in France, Germany and Swiss. These three countries were chosen according to the location of the University in Mulhouse: It is situated in the centre of the Alsace so that all three countries are easy within reach. It could be assumed that companies in this region are familiar with intercultural patterns because of their geographical situation. But also companies outside this region were asked to fill in the questionnaire to have a wider range of answers. Preferable small and medium-sized enterprises and big companies were asked because the probability that too small companies send employees abroad is quite low.

The questionnaire was written in English, German and French according to the company it was send to. It covers 11 questions concerning the offer of repatriation programmes, their single items and importance and the behaviour towards the repatriate. The whole questionnaire is to be found in the annexe.

3.1 Evaluation of the questionnaire

Totally, the questionnaire was send to 45 different companies. Unfortunately only very few have sent back a completed form. Some of them mentioned that they do not expatriate/ repatriate employees and therefore cannot fill in the form. Others – in most cases big companies- communicated that they receive a lot of information request and that their daily business is very elaborate so that they cannot complete the form. That is why, in the end, this survey is not representative. Nevertheless the answers of the received questionnaires should be listed below and shortly explained and illustrated in a statistical way.

For the evaluation of the questionnaire the statistic software SPSS was used for reasons of uniformity and clearness.

[...]

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^[1] Tessmann- Keys/ Wellins 2007, p. 9

^[2] Comp. Tessmann- Keys/ Wellins 2007, p. 3

^[3] Ib. p. 5

^[4] Comp. Mérignac 2005, p. 2

^[5] Ib., p.11

^[6] Adler 2002, p. 272

^[7] Comp. Hölper 2003, p.39 ff.

^[8] Rothlauf 2006, p. 576

^[9] Comp. Dowling/ Welch 2004, p. 159

^[10] Comp. Voigtlander 2002, p.1

^[11] Adler 2002, p. 273

^[12] Adler 2002, p. 274

^[13] ib., p. 275

^[14] http://www.ifim.de/faq/index.html, 19.10.2007

^[15] Comp. Chevrier, 2003, p. 3

^[16] Comp. Rothlauf 2006, p. 9 f.

^[17] Comp. Dowling/ Welch 2004, p.3 ff.

^[18] Comp. Rothlauf 2006, p. 126 f.

^[19] http://www.ifim.de/aktuell/pr-service/PR2-02.pdf, 19.10.2007

^[20] Comp. Chevrier 2003, p. 1 ff.

^[21] Comp. IFIM, Presse- Service, 2-2002, Rückkehr als Stiefkinder?, p.1, in: http://www.ifim.de/aktuell/pr-service/PR2-02.pdf, 19.10.2007

^[22] Cavusgil/Ghauri/Agarwal 2002, p. 110, in: http://www.google.de/books?id=N5cWQziqR-oC&printsec= frontcover & dq = reintegration+of+expatriates#PPA110,M1, 08.11.07

^[23] Cox 2004, in: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=MImg&_imagekey=B6V7R-4D45RPF-2-1&_cdi=5849&_ user=799618&_orig =search&_ coverDate =05% 2F01% 2F2004 & _sk=999719996&view=c&wchp=dGLbVtb-zSkWW& md5=f6a4aca 2859da288bf 77 0d7cbcbf5997&ie=/sdarticle.pdf, 27.10.2007

^[24] Storti 2001, p. 81, in: http://www.google.de/books?id=to8KVFt66Ig C&printsec=frontcover &dq= reintegration+of+expatriates#PPA81,M1, 08.10.2007

^[25] Comp. Dowling/ Welch 2004, p. 174

^[26] Adler 2002, p.264

^[27] http://www.ifim.de/faq/index.htm, 19.10.2007

^[28] Comp. http://www.ifim.de/aktuell/pr-service/PR2-02.pdf, 19.10.2007

^[29] Sussman 2001, p.110, in: International Journal of Intercultural Relations 25/2001, in: http://www.sciencedirect.com

^[30] Comp. Hölper 2003, p. 39 ff., in: http://www.grin.com/de/fulltext/bwu/22938.html

^[31] Comp. Adler 2002, p. 275

^[32] Comp. Dowling/ Welch 2004, p. 162 ff.

^[33] ib., p. 162 ff.

^[34] http://www.ifim.de/aktuell/pr-service/PR2-02.pdf, 19.10.2007

^[35] ib, p. 165

^[36] ib., p. 169

^[37] Dowling/ Welch 2004, p. 162

^[38] ib., p. 170

^[39] Adler 2002, p. 274

^[40] Adler 2002, p. 317 ff.

^[41] Comp. Dowling/ Welch 2004, p. 160 ff.

^[42] ib, p. 176 ff.

^[43] http://www.ifim.de/aktuell/pr-service/PR2-02.pdf, p.5, 19.10.2007

^[44] http://www.ifim.de/aktuell/pr-service/PR2-02.pdf, 19.10.2007

^[45] Dowling/ Welch 2004, p. 176

^[46] Comp. http://www.ifim.de/aktuell/pr-service/PR2-02.pdf, p.6, 19.10.2007

^[47] Comp. Adler 2002, p. 282 ff.

^[48] Adler 2002, p. 292

^[49] Comp. ib., p. 284

^[50] Comp. Dowling/ Welch 2004, p. 175

^[51] Comp. Dowling/ Welch 2004, p. 173 ff.

^[52] Comp. Rothlauf 2006, p. 579

^[53] Comp. Dowling/ Welch 2004, p. 69 ff.

^[54] Comp. ib.

^[55] Comp. ib., p. 173

^[56] Adler 2002, p. 261

^[57] Comp. Adler 2002, p. 261 ff.

^[58] Rothlauf 2006, p. 580