Question

Describe the possible roles of an expatriate for an MNE

Answer 1

Expatriates are skilled employees of a company who are sent to work in host countries to help the company in various things as discussed below which are their roles.

There are basically six roles of an expatriate for MNE he or she works for.

1. Fill the gaps : an expatriate is usually experienced employee of the company who is hard-skilled technically. Expatriate visits host nation subsidiaries to get the employees upto the level of technical knowledge and skills required.

2. Managrial help : an expatriate helps the host country employees and managers better manage and understand their roles and help them decide the best approaches suited to that particular market.

3. Helps Guide : with their abundant experience behind them ,expatriates are able to better understand the differences between what the company desires from that subsidiary and what potential does the host country offer.

4. Employee training: employees of the host country may require some skills development that is of great significance in the job and in such circumstances, expatriates are called.

5. Join projects : some projects need to be run from the home company's control and expatriates are sent to ensure that there is direct reporting and control by the home country or headquarters.

6. New ventures : for a company that needs join ventures or vendors in the host country ,expatriates are called up to verify that the venture partners and vendors meet the desired levels. Expatriate is basically a representative of the headquarter that deals in these scenarios.