Turnover intentions among repatriated employees in an emerging economy: the Indian experience

Abstract

In the present global environment, liberalization of international trade and the intense international competition, it has become more important for multinational corporations (MNCs) to internationalize their business. In the course of the internationalization, it is imperative that MNCs need to offer their employees the possibility of working abroad (called expatriation). However, studies have shown that when expatriates return to the home organization, called repatriation, it is related to many problems and these problems are not always taken seriously. Therefore, this article describes several repatriation processes undertaken by Indian Information Technology (IT) MNCs and how effective they are at lowering repatriates' turnover intentions. To fulfill this objective, first, the article reviews the literature on turnover intention among repatriates and then an empirical quantitative study is developed with a sample of 292 repatriates who have recently returned to India. The results indicated that the surveyed repatriates believed that perceived support during international assignment and upon return from assignment are two most important variables to increase the repatriate's retention and lack of it thereof was likely to generate unfavorable attitudes toward the company and higher turnover intention.

Retaining repatriates—the role of career derailment upon repatriation and how it can be mitigated

“…Further, it must be noted that in this study, the interaction between organizational repatriation support and career derailment explained the smallest amount of variance in the dependent variable. One explanation is that similar to other studies we found a significant direct effect on repatriation retention (Birur & Muthiah, 2013;Stroh, 1995). Accordingly, repatriation support increases intent to stay per se.…”

“…Third, this study casts new light on the role of organizational support in the repatriation context. Thus far, repatriation research primarily regards organizational repatriation support as a predictor of objective career success upon return from an IA (e.g., Bolino, 2007;Kraimer et al, 2009), or as a factor immediately contributing to the former expatriates' retention (e.g., Birur & Muthiah, 2013;Stroh, 1995). Our study somewhat supports this, because we too found a significant direct effect.…”

Occupational Health and Safety and Turnover Intention in the Ghanaian Power Industry: The Mediating Effect of Organizational Commitment

“…Turnover intention issue among employees is one of the key concerns of top management as the hiring and training of new staff require more resources, time, money, knowledge, and so on [6]. One major challenge modern organizations face is turnover [7]. In this regard, keeping good and experienced staff should be a topmost priority in a much significant sector such as the power industry.…”

Repatriation of Academics: A Study on Sri Lankan University Lecturers

“…Repatriates see the home context as unfamiliar, and they need to readjust and settle into that context. Particularly, the literature on corporate repatriation has stressed the importance of effective management of repatriation and highlighted the fact that unsuccessful management of repatriation leads to employees suffering from problems of adjustment which result in stress, loss of motivation at work and turnover intention (Birur & Muthiah, 2013; Black, Gregersen & Mendenhall, 1992; Kulkarni, Lengnick-Hall & Valk, 2010; Lee & Liu, 2007). This situation leads to adverse consequences; for example, high turnover and low performance were observed among repatriates.…”