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 X-Expats interviewed Dean Foster, Founder and President of DFA Intercultural Global Solutions, a firm providing intercultural training, coaching and consulting products and services through a network of interculturalists in over 100 metro locations worldwide. Dean’s insights have been sought by educational institutions, international companies and business leaders. He has authored a number of books including “The Global Etiquette Guide to Europe”, “The Global Etiquette Guide to Asia” and “The Global Etiquette Guide to Latin America” published by John Wiley & Sons. He is a frequent guest commentator on culture, work and international social issues on CNN and the BBC and has been featured in The New York Times among other publications.
X-Expats: Many returning expats report experiencing symptoms of reverse culture shock. How do you explain that expats typically adopt traits of their adopted land and abandon others (i.e. values and customs) from their country of origin (sometimes unknowingly) ?
Dean Foster: Reverse culture shock, experienced when returning to a place that one expects to be home but actually is no longer, is far more subtle, and therefore, more difficult to manage, than outbound shock, precisely because it is unexpected and unanticipated. Expats learn, one way or the other, over time in their new host locations, to behave and think like the locals, to greater or lesser degrees, while on international assignment.
By the time most traditional international assignments come to an end, several years may have passed, providing the international assignee a significant amount of time to learn new patterns of behavior and thought, necessary to fit into their host country. While not aware of these changes, expats are shocked into the realization that they have in fact changed substantially usually only when they encounter their home culture upon repatriating. Both they and the home culture have changed, and this is often the first time that expats have had the opportunity to experience any of these changes.
X-E: Have you noticed patterns in the adoption and loss of cultural traits and norms? What differences and similarities exist between expats returning from Asia, Europe, Africa or North America?
DF: Adoption and loss of cultural traits is based on a number of factors, including individual psychology, the existence of support mechanisms (or not), but there are also cultural elements, in that it has been my experience that certain cultures provide more or less “room” for the adoption or loss of cultural traits. For example, the Dutch have a very open and flexible cultural approach to cultural differences, and therefore are relatively receptive to cultural differences, to trying on new roles, and to seeing value in new norms. Other European cultures, specifically Russian and certain other East European cultures, are less flexible to adopting norms different from their own expectations; US-Americans, while often flexible to adapting to cultural differences when presented with them, initially are typically unaware of their existence, and often surprised to learn about them. Latin Europeans, on the other hand, are often quite aware of cultural differences, but often can resist the process of adapting to them when confronted with the need to do so. So, there are, I believe, like all aspects of human behavior, culturally different patterns of adjusting to cultural differences!
X-E: What factors may determine whether a return “home” is temporary or permanent?
DF: The ability for the company that is bringing the expat “back home” to provide the expats with a position in the organization that leverages their new global skills, those that they learned, sometimes with great difficulty, while on the job as an expat. Repats bring greater skills back to the organization, and have the global competencies that are absolutely essential to the success of the entire organization in the 21stcentury. While on assignment, expats have had to learn to do and see all aspects of work in new and different ways, and they bring extensively new problem-solving skills. They are extremely valuable to the organization, and when the company does not provide them with a job or position that maximizes their new skills, they get extremely frustrated and bored. A recent statistic indicates that almost 50% of repats leave their company within two years of returning home, mainly for the reason stated above.
X-E: What are your recommendations to ease reverse culture shock?
DF: Repatriation training for the entire family is a must, and it needs to involve the HR department at least 6 months prior to the return, so that the company can insure a position for the repats that values their new skills. Repatriation training that helps not just the repat, but the entire family, adjust to the fact that they have all changed significantly while on international assignment, to assess and value those changes, and to see the ways that their home country has changed while they were abroad. This takes training.
X-E: Do “global citizens” share a similar culture? If so, how would you characterize the cultural traits?
DF: I am not sure what a “global citizen” is. There are lots of terms being used to describe individuals who may have had significant international experience, either as expats or simply as travelers, either leisure or business, and in all cases I am suspicious of the idea of that some kind of global citizenship is implicit in the mindset of these individuals. I have seen far too many internationally experienced individuals with as narrow and un-global a view as you could find in people who have never stepped foot outside their hometown, and I have found equally “globally-minded” people who have never set foot out of their hometown. If we are speaking about an openness and willingness to be flexible to new ideas, thought patterns, ways of seeing things, these traits are not automatically the result of international assignment or travel, and can exist in certain people independent of their international experience. In fact, we deal with many situations where international experience actually reinforces pre-set resistance to precisely the kind of global mindsets we would expect from “global citizens”. The only solution is information, and training.
X-E: Are global companies aware of the challenges faced by their returning expats?
DF: Some are, some aren’t. It is usually initially counter-intuitive for companies to think that they need to invest in training their expats to “come home”; however, when they realize that they are losing almost 50% of their repats, actually failing to retain them for more than two years, and that the cost of the expatriate assignment represents an investment of approximately one million dollars per assignee and family, then failed repatriation hits the bottom-line pretty hard. Those companies that measure this (and not all do), usually see the importance of cultural repatriation training, and do not see it as an expense, but as an insurance AGAINST the expense of a lost investment in their international talent.
X-E: In your experience, what program(s) and practice(s) have been successful in increasing their retention rates?
DF: Programs that address the entire family’s issues, and that are combined with HR advising to insure a position that values the repat’s new global skills. The family issues that need to be addressed include helping children adjust to a home they may not remember, returning to unfamiliar “kid” culture (children may have in fact been born abroad, may come home with accents), partners who need support to re-enter a workforce they have been out of for several years, the loss and disinterest of expected family and friends, all of this requires training to anticipate and to manage successfully.
X-E: In your opinion, what are the benefits of mobility and reverse migration for countries, companies, and local communities?
DF: In the biggest picture possible, the greatest advantage is in the sharing of newly learned ways of solving problems and seeing things. Allowing people to apply their new perspectives to solving human problems, whether personal, work-related, or between nations. International experience does not automatically ensure understanding; in fact, at first, it increases the possibility of increased misunderstanding; only training and knowledge about the cultural differences we experience ensures understanding, and allows for the greater development of happiness for all.
X-E: Thank you Dean for sharing your insights and experience with us. For further information on Dean’s work, books and background, please visit his website and blog.
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