Arguably, knowledge sharing in expatriate relationship is perceived to provide strong connections that functions as the conduit of knowledge sharing among nations. From the results of an empirical case study, it can be concluded that when this relationship is compared to other across border managerial relationship, expatriate relationship is found to posses typical characteristics that have direct consequences. This is because expatriate relationship creates a long-term relationship with employee natives and because it spread ties effectively and easily across units (Crowne, 2009). Despite the advantages gained by the native employees, expatriate employees and technical professionals may sometimes refuse to share their knowledge with the citizens and new graduate trainee employees in a foreign country. This paper has identified the challenge associated with expatriate technicians in particular engineers to be the cultural diversity and cross culture. This paper will therefore provide a solution to the challenges faced by foreign expatriates.
The challenge/problem identified
Expatriate engagement with the employees of the same engineering filed in the host country often permits a profitable relationship among employees, this increases the chances of knowledge sharing, however, rigid structures hinders knowledge sharing among the expatriates and the native employees. Arguably, it is well evident from the various literature and research that expatriates normally experience a reversed cultural shock; this can be attributed to the lack of support from natives upon settlement (Chen, Kirkman, Kim, Farh, & Tangirala, 2010).
Notably, in an institution or an organization, both the national and organization’s culture influence employees’ behavior. Culture in business is viewed as the assumptions employees share about the world, for the expatriates, they find it challenging to cope with the new cultures. A culture that is viewed to be biased and discriminative to the expatriates may make them feel unappreciated and therefore, they may fail to convey the technical knowledge to the native employees.
There are five main dimensions of national culture that are associated with the lack of knowledge transfer from expatriate engineers to the native employees, these include: uncertainty avoidance, individualism-collectivism, power distance, time orientation, and power distance (Kirkman, Chen, Farh, Chen, & Lowe, 2009). Such issues in some way act as hindrances to the willingness of an expatriate to share his or her knowledge with the employees.
The extent to which expatriates act individually rather than as a group is a cultural aspect referred to as individualism-collectivism. The failure of an expatriate to convey knowledge to the native employees to some extend may be influenced by this dimension, when self interest of an expatriate engineer is not met, he or she is more likely to refuse sharing the technical knowledge he or she posses.
Uncertainty avoidance, contributes to the willingness of an expatriate to transfer information to the native employees. In cultures where there exists strong uncertainty orientation, the expatriate will feel underestimated and therefore his or her attitude may not allow him or her to present information to the native graduate engineers. Furthermore, power differ across countries, in this sense when an expatriate is in a situation where he or she is required to transfer information to a minor employee, he may feel that the employee will someday overpower him or her.
The Solutions and Obstacles associated
In order to help the expatriates associate well with the native employees, the expatriate ought to undertake a cross cultural preparation early enough; this should entail training the expatriate and the families on the culture of the foreign country (Kuo, 2012). In order for an engineer expatriate to be in a position to deliver and share knowledge effectively, he or she should comprehend the business and the cultural norms of the host country; this is done so as to avoid impression shock.
Despite cultural preparation being expensive, it is very important for a successful transfer of knowledge to the native employees, an expatriate who has integrated well with the cultural norms is likely provide full information unlike the one who views himself or herself to posses superior culture than that of the people in the host country.
In order to solve the problem of cross-culture, the five dimensions of national culture (masculinity-femininity, uncertainty avoidance, time orientation, power distance, and individual collectivism) should be well communicated to the expatriates in a way that will help them integrate well with the native employees, training programs regarding culture will find the expatriates working well and in corporation with the native employees.
Basically, for the expatriates to be successful in the host countries, they need to well comprehend the culture and be in a position to communicate both verbally and nonverbally. He or she should also be flexible and be in a position to tolerate culture differences (Hsu, 2012). By doing these, he or he will interact with people productively hence conveying the necessary knowledge and skills to the native employees.
The major obstacle associated with cross culture training of expatriates can be attributed to time and money factor. The training program will be very expensive considering that the expatriate will be forced to go settle in the host country for a while, furthermore, lots of time is spent on training.
In conclusion, the major challenge facing engineer expatriates is perceived to be the cultural difference that exists in the host country. Culture difference is a factor that is seen to hinder engineers from transferring knowledge to their minors in the host country. A credible solution presented in this paper is the need to adopt a training program that will help expatriates understand the national culture and norms that exist in the host country.
References
Chen, G., Kirkman, B. L., Kim, K., Farh, C. I., & Tangirala, S. (2010). When does cross-cultural
Motivation enhances expatriate effectiveness? A multi level investigation of the moderating roles of subsidiary support and cultural distance. Academy of Management Journal, 53(5), 1110-1130
Crowne, K. A. (2009). Enhancing knowledge transfer during and after international assignments.
Hsu, Y. S. (2012). Knowledge Transfer Between Expatriates and Host Country Nationals: A
Social Capital Perspective.
Kirkman, B. L., Chen, G., Farh, J. L., Chen, Z. X., & Lowe, K. B. (2009). Individual power
distance orientation and follower reactions to transformational leaders: A cross-level, cross-cultural examination. Academy of Management Journal, 52(4), 744-764.
Kuo, S. L. (2012). Cross-Cultural Training Programs and Expatriate Adjustment Effectiveness.
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