ASTRAZANECA EXPATRIATE MANAGEMENT 2

AstraZaneca Expatriate Management Expatriates are employees of an organization who work and live in a country that is nottheir own. With many businesses expanding operations beyond their borders, expatriates havecome to comprise a significant portion of the workforce of business organizations. Since theseprofessionals work in countries that are not their home countries, they face many […]

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AstraZaneca Expatriate Management

Expatriates are employees of an organization who work and live in a country that is not
their own. With many businesses expanding operations beyond their borders, expatriates have
come to comprise a significant portion of the workforce of business organizations. Since these
professionals work in countries that are not their home countries, they face many challenges.
Some of them include inability to adjust to the environment and culture of their host country and
general job dissatisfaction (Czajor, 2015). These factors often lead to poor performance and early
return to their home countries. Given the high cost of expatriates, it is important that businesses
institute proper expatriate management policies to make sure that they get good return on their
investment. This paper examines expatriate management practices of AstraZaneca, the world’s
fifth largest pharmaceutical company by sales and the lessons that other organizations can learn
from it.
As a multinational company, AstraZaneca has a long history of managing expatriates. As
of 2013, the company had 350 out of its 51,500 employees working as expatriates for various
durations in 140 countries. To make sure that such expatriates are as comfortable and as
productive as they would be when working in their home countries, AstraZaneca has established
expatriate management practices that are considered among the best in the industry.
One of these practices is conducting of extensive training before the expatriates are
posted to a foreign country. The goal of the training is help them to quickly settle in the new
country so that they can focus their energies on performing the company’s work. The training
focuses on social-cultural issues as well as language of the new country. Potential expatriates, for

ASTRAZANECA EXPATRIATE MANAGEMENT 3
instance, learn the dos and don’t’s of their new host country thus allowing them to confidently
interact with nationals of their host country.
Another important component of AstraZaneca’s expatriate management policy is
attaching the expatriates to an international assignment (AI) manager and a previous expatriate.
AI managers are important because they allow expatriates to express their fears and anxieties to
someone that they are comfortable with instead of dealing with their bosses who may not be
receptive to any negative feedback about international assignments given the large amounts of
money that they spend on expatriates. As for the latter, talking with someone who has had actual
international experience gives the potential expatriate an actual feel of what to expect as an
expatriate (van der Laken et al., 2016).
Another aspect of expatriate management that AstraZeneca has gotten right is work-life
balance. Various studies have shown that one of the biggest problems that expatriates face is
balancing demands of work and those of their homes while at the same time trying to adjust to a
new environment (Czajor, 2015). AstraZaneca has managed to find a solution to this problem by
having very flexible work schedules for expatriates. Since many of them work in time zones that
are different from those of their home countries, having flexible working hours allows the
expatriates to have significant control of their time thus allowing them to effectively juggle
workplace and home demands.
While AstraZaneca’s policies can work well for other companies, in times of economic
downturns business organizations need to be more creative with their expatriate management
policies. Expatriates are generally costlier than other employees. It is estimated that on average
an expatriates as much as three times the money would be spent on them when they worked in

ASTRAZANECA EXPATRIATE MANAGEMENT 4
their home countries (Czajor, 2015). During economic downturns, businesses seek to remain
competitive by reducing their expenses. For businesses with relatively large numbers of
expatriates, cutting the amount of money spent on expatriates is one way of reducing expenses.
However, even as they reduce the amount of money spent on expatriates, businesses should be
careful not to lose the benefits that expatriates bring.
One of way of reducing costs while maximizing benefits is through shortening
international assignments (van der Laken et al., 2016). When expatriates are sent to foreign
countries to work for many years, they often go with their families. This increases the cost to the
company because they not only have to make sure that that their employee settles in the new
country but their family as well. With shorter assignments, an employee can go to the foreign
country alone thus reducing expatriate costs.
Another way is through choosing the right employees for expatriate assignments. Many
expatriates often ask to return to their home countries before the end of their international
assignments. Companies are, therefore, forced to use additional resources to bring in new
expatriates. Choosing the right people to be expatriates could help companies save money
associated with high turnover of employees (Wang & Varma, 2019). For instance, companies
should let only willing employees be expatriates. They should also be allowed to choose the
country that they would like to work in (Vaiman et al., 2015). Then before officially starting
work, it is important that they visit their preferred country so that they get a realistic view of the
country and the work that they are going to do. When such willing and well-informed expatriates
finally start their work they are likely to work for the required duration and only return to their
home country once their assignment has been done to their satisfaction.

ASTRAZANECA EXPATRIATE MANAGEMENT 5
In conclusion, expatriates cost a lot of money. It is, therefore, important that
organizations develop propoer expatriate management practices to make sure that they get value
for their money that is spent on expatriates. AstraZaneca’s example provides excellent expatriate
management practices that other organizations can adopt. The main goal, as AstraZaneca’s
policies show, is to make sure that expatriates settle quickly and comfortably in their new
countries.

ASTRAZANECA EXPATRIATE MANAGEMENT 6

References

Czajor, J. (2015). Expatriate Management/International Assignment Policy. In Dos and Don’ts in
Human Resources Management (pp. 131-133). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Vaiman, V., Haslberger, A., & Vance, C. M. (2015). Recognizing the important role of self-
initiated expatriates in effective global talent management. Human Resource
Management Review, 25(3), 280-286.
van der Laken, P., van Engen, M., van Veldhoven, M., & Paauwe, J. (2016). Expatriate support
and success. Journal of Global Mobility: The Home of Expatriate Management Research.
Wang, C. H., & Varma, A. (2019). Cultural distance and expatriate failure rates: the moderating
role of expatriate management practices. The International Journal of Human Resource
Management, 30(15), 2211-2230.

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