on temporary assignment to headquarters. Although in most cases this
concerned just one or two employees, in nearly 20% of the subsidiaries 3–5
employees had been impatriates, in a further 7% this was true for 6–10 employ-
ees and in 10% of the subsidiaries more than 10 employees had been impatriates.
In some companies impatriation does indeed seem to be used as an alternative
to expatriation: half of the subsidiaries that did not count expatriates among their
workforce, did have employees that had been impatriated to headquarters.
Impatriation therefore seems to be an important addition to the company
repertoire and can help to transfer knowledge, improve HQ–subsidiary rela-
tionships and develop managers. However, impatriates have to cope with
many of the same problems as expatriates, such as adjustment and repatria-
tion. It is therefore unlikely that they will ever completely replace expatriates.
Transfers vs. travel, training and teams
With regard to management development, Gregersen et al. (1998) see inter-
national transfers as the most powerful means of developing the skills and
knowledge that future global managers will need. When they asked leaders
what had been the most powerful experience in their life for developing global
leadership capabilities, 80% replied it was living and working in a foreign country.
However, they do indicate that travel, training and teams can also help in this
respect. The travel option is discussed in some detail by Marilyn Fenwick in
Chapter 12 under the heading ‘Virtual international assignments’.
Of course trainingcan always fulfill a development role, but training is also
recognised as an important means for socialisation (Child, 1984; De Meyer, 1991;
Derr and Oddou, 1993; Ondrack, 1985). Formal training programmes can be an
effective way to directly transfer the organisational goals and values to a whole
group of people at the same time. Management trainees in large (multinational)
companies usually follow a whole series of one- or two-week training courses. In
addition, this shared experience might also create informal networks. So in
multinational companies, these training programmes can provide an important
impetus to achieve shared values and facilitate network building between head-
quarters and subsidiaries, as such acting as an alternative to expatriation.
Work in teams with people from different backgrounds can clearly have a
developmental role. These teams can be formalised into task forces or project
groups constructed to work on a specific company problem. The Philips
Octagon programme (Van Houten, 1989), in which a team of eight young
high-potential managers of different backgrounds and nationalities are brought
together to work on an actual company problem, is an excellent example.This
programme lasts six to eight months and ‘its purpose is to broaden the scope
of understanding of the company, to increase appreciation of the interdepen-
dence of functions and disciplines, and to provide a cross-cultural forum for
working together and exchanging ideas’ (Van Houten, 1989: 110). Of course,
this intensive cooperation also gives a very strong impetus to informal network
building (another function of expatriation).
Composing an International Staff 267