Motivating Expatriates in Multinational Firms

Introduction

In the recent era of globalisation, the multinational corporate firms aim at managing the expatriates for more diversity and organisational innovation. Attracting new skill and experts in the organisation will be helpful for the organisation to enhance their performance and maximise technological innovation in the recent years to run the business strategically (DeCenzo, Robbins and Verhulst, 2016). It is important for all the companies across the international markets to restructure their human resource management strategy to encourage the expatriates to perform better and contribute positively in achieving the organisational aims and objectives. The research is related to identifying the strategic planning of the organisation to motivate the expatriates in the organisation. Through the proposal, it is possible to develop literature review and choose appropriate research methodology for completing the research efficiently through suitable data collection and analysis. The time table at the end will be orientated which help to progress in the research paper timely and it would be possible for the researcher to complete the study within appropriate allocated time.

Background of the research

Due to such globalisation era, there is huge numbers of people, migrated from one place to another for better employment opportunities. The multinational corporate firms also focus on hiring the expatriates in their organisations to improve working innovation and organisational creativity, where diversity experts, different skill set and new innovative ideas can enhance the organisational performance. In addition to this, the employees are the major stakeholders of the organisation, to run the business and contribute positively of achieving future success. Thus, it is the responsibility of the organisational leader and the management team to fulfil their commitment and encourage the expatriates to retain them for long run and improve the organisational performance successfully (Bratton and Gold, 2017). Recently, there are several issues, for which the multinational corporate firms face difficulties to manage the expatriates in the organisational workplace and this further deteriorates the performance level of the firms. In this regard, the issues are such as cultural diversity at the workplace, lack of management of employee morale and ethics, inequality and lack of fairness at the workplace as well as poor communication, lack of cooperation, lack of management of transparency and accountability which de-motivates the expatriates to perform better and this lead to labour turn over (Chen et al., 2010). Thus, in order to tackle the turn over arte of the expatriates as well as for retaining the long term experts in the organisation, it is necessary for all the multinational corporate firms to develop human resource management strategic planning to motivate the employees mainly expatriates to handle the diverse workforce and enhance the organisational performance in long run.

Theory of motivation:

Motivational factors in the organisations play a crucial role to create values for the employees including the expatriate, where the organisational leader and the management team can encourage the expatriates to perform better and contribute positively in achieving the organisational objectives (Froese, 2012). Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is effective to identify the factors that influence the employees to perform better and keep interested to contribute positively in the workplace. As per the theory of Maslow, there are five major needs which are psychological needs, safety and security, live and belonging, self-esteem and self actualisation. It is the responsibility of the organisational leader and the management team to fulfil all the needs of the expatriates to satisfy them and create values for them at the organisational workplace (Lauring, Selmer and Kubovcikova, 2019).

As per the psychological needs, there are air, water, food and shelter and it is important to provide proper financial assistance and incentives to the expatriates to fulfil their basic needs. On the other hand, it is necessary top maintains safety and security of the employees at the workplace by providing suitable organisational culture, safety measures, secured resources, health insurance, personal security and job security, which are effective to motivate the expatriates in long run (Bailey et al., 2018). Love and belonging is also another need where the expatriates try to develop strong bonding to feel the sense of connection so that they would be interested and encouraged to work better. Self esteem and self actualisation needs are also necessary for the leader to retain the expatriates, where it is important to give freedom, strengthen recognition structure and respect all he employees at the workplace (Froese, 2012). Additionally, the self actualisation need can also be fulfilled through promotion, recognition and appreciation, where the expatriates feel valued and they become interested to perform efficiently for achieving the organisational success (DeCenzo, Robbins and Verhulst, 2016).

Herzberg’s two factor theory is also effective to identify the factors that motivate the expatriates in the organisation. There are motivational factors and hygienic factors. Under the hygienic factors, there are working condition, co-worker relationship, supervisor quality, policies and rules, base wage and salary in this regard, the organisation needs to restructure the basic wage and salary of the expatriates to fulfil their basic needs (Bratton and Gold, 2017). Additionally, it is important to develop proper organisational culture with respect and integrity as well as managing transparency and accountability so that the expatriates can trust the management board and leader. Working condition is also necessary to be improved well so that the employees can work under the safe and secured circumstances (Ramalu, Subramaniam and Nadarajah, 2017). Safety measures and hygienic factors at the workplace will be effective to retain the experts in the workplace, moreover, it is also essential to develop proper rules and regulations to protect the employees, and in this regard the minimum wage legislation and non-discriminatory policies are effective to improve fairness and provide proper salary to each expatriate. It is also effective to develop strong corporate relationship with the expatriates to improve trust and loyalty among them and enhance bonding to work as a partnership basis (Akhal and Liu, 2019).

There are other motivational factors which are achievement, recognition, working culture, advancement and personal growth. The leader must focus on arranging training and development program or providing the chance of personal and professional development. Apart from that, recognition and achievement at the workplace are mandatory to create values for the expatriates and retain them for long run for more creativity and innovation (Chen et al., 2010). Additionally, the organisational leader must focus on cultural diversity management through providing cultural training and improving communication and respect to each other, so that the employees can work cooperatively and enjoy the diverse workforce for performing better.

Impacts of managing motivation of expatriates:

Motivating the expatriates in the organisational workplace and creating values for them has long term effects, where the leader is successful to retain the expatriates and influence them to perform better. Continuous motivation, respect and honesty further create long term bonding with the expatriates where the organisation can reduce the turn over ate and retain them for better performance (Takeuchi, Li and Wang, 2019). Additionally, it is also effective to fulfil the organisational commitment and encourage their creativity to enhance the organisational innovation. It is also effective for maximising the organisational performance and achieving the future sustainable development. Hence, motivating the expatriates and retaining diverse workforce are effective to welcome different skill set and efficiency of the experts and manage the organisational performance in a unique way. It further helps to serve strong employee base and establish the brand efficiently in the market (Armstrong and Taylor, 2020).

Research methodology

It is necessary for the researcher o choose appropriate research methodology, in order to progress in the study efficiently. As per the research onion, there are philosophy, design, approach, strategy as well as data collection and analysis techniques, which are discussed further.

Research philosophy:

As per the research philosophy, there are three types which are realism, interpretivism and positivism. The realism philosophy deals with the reality, where the researcher tries to collect the real time based information for further analysis. Under the interpretivism philosophy, reality is constructed through the meaning, created by human being and the action are the results created by own meaning, not through the external factors (Johnston, 2017). On the other hand, positivism philosophy is effective to assume that the society has assumed social facts and the actions of the people are generally explained by social norms, behaviour of the people and external forces. In this particular research, the researcher will choose the positivism philosophy of the research to conduct the study by discovering the theories and quantitative data for further analysis and evaluation of the research topic.

Research approach:

There are mainly two types of research approach, which are inductive and deductive. Under the inductive approach, the researcher develops the aims of the researcher and analyse the findings to create theories and concept (Johnston, 2017). On the other hand, the deductive approach is generally, when the researcher aims at reviewing the theories and concept of the research topic, and then collects data for further analysis and evaluation. It is effective for the researcher to choose the deductive approach of conducting the study. The researcher will choose the deductive approach for this study where the firstly the theories and concept related to the motivation of expatriates and the organisational strategic planning will be collected and them the research topic will be analysed to fulfil the research aims and objectives.

Research strategy:

There are several strategy of conducting the research such as action research, case study analysis, and survey. The researcher in this particular research will choose the survey strategy in order to collect the primary information directly from the representative of the organisations and the expatriates so that authentic data would be collected and it would be possible for the researcher to analyse the above mentioned research topic successfully.

Data collection method:

Primary and secondary are the major two types of data collection method for conducting the research. Through primary data collection method, the researcher is able to collect the first hand information and quantitative data directly from the participants and on the other hand, for secondary data, the researcher will reverie the secondary sources of information such as books, journals, articles, online news and business letters, from which the researcher can find the secondary data (Johnston, 2017). In this research, the researcher will choose both the data collection method, primary and secondary to collect valid information and also review the existing theories and concept to understand the research topic. Hereby, the researcher will choose the mixed method for conducting the study and analyse the above mentioned research topic critically.

Data analysis technique:

There are two types of data analysis technique which are quantitative and qualitative. Under the quantitative analysis technique, the researcher analyse the primary data through charts, graphs and statistical analysis. On the other hand, the secondary data will be analysed through the qualitative data analysis technique such as thematic analysis. Both the data analysis techniques will be chosen by the researcher to analyse he collected primary and secondary data so that the strategies of motivating the expatriates and the effects of motivation on the performance of expatriates in the organisational workplace will be evaluated efficiently.

Sampling:

For successful sampling, the researcher will try to select five managers of the multinational corporate firms in the UK in order to arrange the interview and collect the primary data from the organisational representative. The researcher will choose the managers of the firm randomly. On the other hand, it is also necessary to review the perception of the expatriates, where the researcher will develop survey questionnaire related to the research topic and conduct online survey where the expatriates can participate to provide proper answers and share their opinion. The researcher also will choose random sampling technique and consider 50 respondents for conducting the survey. Hereby, both the interview and the online survey will be effective for the researcher to collect the primary data and information.

Ethical considerations

As per the ethical considerations, it is necessary for the researcher to ensure the authenticity and validity of the data and information. The researcher will cite the entire researcher accordingly with the information taken from the secondary sources and additionally, Data Protection Act 1998 will be implemented for protecting the data. The researcher will ensure that the collected data and information will be utilised only for the research purpose, not any other purposes. On the other hand, the researcher maintain transparency and accountability during the research process and maintain respecting and integrity to develop trust among the participants. The researcher will not force any of the respondents for participating in the survey, rather he researcher will convince the participants to take active part in the survey and share their opinion for further research and analysis. Respecting the participants and honesty further helps the researcher to collect reliable and valid data and information and progress in the research process efficiently for analysing the impacts of motivational strategies in the organisation on the performance of the expatriates.

Limitations

The major limitations of the research are time constraint and the cost constraint, where the researcher would be fail to utilise the statistical tools for further analysis of the sampling data. The time is major constraint, for which the researcher will also fail to conduct in depth analysis and collect more numbers of information and data form more participates for critical analysis. It would also be difficult for the researcher to conduct large sample size due to lack of financial resources from which only 50 respondents are considered and only 5 managers of the organisations can participate in the interview session which restricts large data and information variety in conducting the research critically.

Reference List

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