Addressing repatriate failure requires a different set of considerations that will
be discussed in detail in Chapter 13.
6 TRANSFER ARCHETYPES
In the previous section, we introduced the concept of role conflict, a situation
that arises because expatriates have to reconcile the different demands of the
home and host organisations. Black and Gregersen (1992) refer to this as
‘Serving Two Masters’ and based on a study of over 750 expatriates and repa-
triates provide a typology of expatriate allegiance as reproduced in Figure 10.3.
Each cell also indicates the percentage of expatriates who fall into this category.
Expatriates can be highly committed to either the home or host organisation,
to both organisations or to neither organisation. If an expatriate is over-
committed to the host organisation relative to the home organisation (going
native), integration and coordination within the MNC as a whole becomes
very difficult. An expatriate who is over-committed to the home organisation
relative to the host organisation (heart-at-home) might be unwilling or unable
to adapt home country practices and will not be able to manage host country
managers effectively. However, in Black and Gregersen’s study both these cate-
gories were rather small. The largest group of expatriates fell into the free agent
category, where commitment to both home and host organisation is low. Black
and Gregersen identify two different types of expatriates in this category:
‘hired-gun free agents’ and ‘plateaued-career free agents’. The hired-gun free
agents are often externally hired international experts. They are first and fore-
most committed to their own career and enjoy the challenges, status, freedom
and monetary rewards associated with expatriate life. In many ways this con-
cept is similar to the boundaryless career concept discussed in Chapter 13.
Although the hired-gun free agents are usually hard workers and do their job
well, they always keep an eye out for a better job and pay, and can leave the
firm without much warning. Since very few of them are interested in repatria-
tion to the home office, integrating their knowledge into the organisation is
virtually impossible. The plateaued-career free agents are willing to accept an
international assignment because their career has plateaued at the home
organisation and they see it as a last opportunity to change this. However, they
are not intrinsically interested in international work and are often ineffective
in their job abroad. The combination that Black and Gregersen see as most ben-
eficial to the long-term success of the MNC is dual allegiance, where expatri-
ates are highly committed to both home and host organisation. They found
that role clarity and role discretion, as well as clarity of repatriation pro-
grammes, promoted the development of dual citizens.
Composing an International Staff 275