Living in a Foreign Country: Introduction to Challenges & Benefits - Essay Sample

Introduction

Globalization can be defined as the processes that organizations and business employ in order to be able to operate internationally (McLean, 2006:16). The resultant global integration represents the massive import and export of culture. The globalization phenomenon has presented opportunities for organizations to tap into lucrative developing markets, and this has created the potential for individuals to take advantage of attractive opportunities outside the borders of their countries. The rapid growth of emerging markets has caused a major shift in mobility patterns, as demand for skills has people moving to foreign lands and increasing the diversity of the global talent pool. This movement of skills is bound to influence on the direction that organizations move their business in the future (PwC, 2010). This mobility has resulted in increased cultural diversity in global workplaces. The practice of expatriation presents the challenge of cross-cultural adaptation on the part of the expatriates in order for them to perform effectively in their different global assignments. For successful cross-cultural adaptation the expatriate has to have the ability to acquire and apply new skills and knowledge in their job posting (Wang et al., 2014). This paper compares cultural intelligence among expatriates between multinational and local organizations in Switzerland.

Background of the Problems

As global mobility increases there have been many challenges to professionals adjusting to foreign cultures leading many to fail. A Global Mobility Trends 2016 Survey conducted by the Brookfield Group shows that one of the major challenges to maneuvering international job assignments based is assignee and family adjustment (BGRS 2016). Another survey conducted by the Mercer Group's established the four main reasons for the failure of international assignees as: cultural adjustment (41%), the poor selection of candidates (44%), bad job performance (41%) and unhappiness in personal relationships (41%). Both these findings highlight the importance of cultural intelligence (CQ) for individuals pursuing international assignments.

Organizations, expatriates, and their families usually suffer the consequences of ineffectual international postings where the expatriate does not have cultural competence (Ang and Dyne, 2015). For individuals, poor cross-cultural adjustment may erode their managerial confidence and affect performance, and cause psychological stress in their families.

Organizations will usually find it wasteful since it is them that bear the costs of expatriation and premature repatriation caused by lack of cultural competence. The organizations could also face backlash from stakeholders in their host country due to cross-cultural ineffectiveness of their expatriate employees. They could end up with strained relationships with stakeholders like government or customers, or even damage to their reputation. It is thus important that organizations pay particular attention to the cultural competence of those they wish to recruit for international job postings. There is need to investigate the causes of low cultural competence, and find ways for better expatriate recruitment and capacity development practices for the benefit of the multinational organizations, and their expatriate employees and their families.

Switzerland is known to the world as a beautiful country with a very high standard of living, and an enviable culture. The other side of the coin, however, is that for an expatriate, there are several other factors that are important to consider for effective living and working in Switzerland. Switzerland is a country with many opportunities for expatriates, there are more vacancies that jobseekers (Tate, 2018). Partly due to its neutrality, Switzerland is home to many international organizations, like the World Trade Organization, and the United Nations. The other sectors that have a high demand for expatriate workers information technology, healthcare, finance and banking, biotech, pharmaceuticals, and research. with both local and multinational organizations drawing from a more diverse international skill pool

Switzerland ranks in position 38 in the 2019 Ease of Settling In Index, an annual survey conducted by Expat Insider (InterNations, 2019). The report shows that 77% of the respondents living and working in Switzerland reported general satisfaction with living abroad. This is quite in tune with the worldwide average, which is 75%. There are several cultural factors that have a direct effect on the performance of expatriates working in Switzerland.

Friendliness of the Locals

The survey found that the local population was not very welcoming of foreigners, and it was quite difficult to make friends. This affected their effectiveness in settling down, with the country ranking at position 59 in ease of settling down. Switzerland has consistently been at the bottom ten countries in this regard for the last six years. Almost a quarter of the respondents, 28%, view the Swiss to be reserved and unfriendly. About a third of them, 34%, do not feel at home in the local Swiss culture, with 17% of the total respondents doubting their chances of ever feeling at home in Switzerland. In 2019, Switzerland was ranked in position 61 out of 65 for finding local friends. Only 10% of the respondents think it is easy to find new friends in Switzerland. Finding local friends is an important aspect of settling down in a foreign country. About half of the respondents said their friends were fellow expatriates. One of the respondents, a Russian expatriate working in Switzerland, said they found it difficult to connect at a friendly level with the Swiss, and that their there was no natural flow in their verbal interactions.

How well an expatriate interacts with locals and integrates with the community is an important aspect of their cultural competence. This requires a good understanding of the local cultural norms, so as to better understand the attitudes that underlie the actions of the locals.

Figure 1: Expat Insider 2019 Report for Switzerland

Language

Language and communication skills are important for an expatriate's cross-cultural competence (Wang et al., 2014). Studies have confirmed that local language skills, the ability of an expatriate to express themselves effectively in the local language, is a determining factor in the successful integration and adjustment of an expatriate, and has a direct relation to their performance. Communication is the single tool for humans to transmit their individual cultures, and is the primary means of enculturation in any culture (Wang, 2011). In the Expat Insider survey, the majority of respondents, 88%, found it hard to learn the local languages, some citing a problem with the particular dialects they encountered (InterNations, 2019).

Switzerland has four national languages, i.e. German, French, Italian and Romansh, with some cantons being bilingual or trilingual (InterNations, 2018). The main official languages are German, French, and Italian. The Swiss usually speak at least two national languages, since the curriculum will usually include one other language. German is the most wide-used language. The problem that most people reported was the Swiss German dialect, Schwyzerdutsch, which is more difficult to understand and learn that High German. It is the language that is used in almost every aspects of daily life. English has also started making its way into Swiss culture, particularly with institutions of higher learning to facilitate international information exchange as the world becomes more integrated (Fenazzi, 2012). It is also gaining favor in the business community, and the bigger Swiss companies are increasingly switching to English as their main language of communication (Fenazzi, 2012). The local languages are, however, still popular among small and medium-sized business.

Cost of Living

Switzerland is well known for its high cost of living. The 2019 Mercer Cost of Living Survey's lists Zurich, Bern, and Geneva in the top 15 of the most expensive cities in the world. This is somehow offset by the similarly well-known high salaries and living standards of the Swiss. Depending on the city, renting a house can take up a huge percent of an expatriate's salary, sometimes up to 30%. The payment terms can also be quite unfavorable; for most long-term leases, one will be required to pay a three-month deposit upfront. The public transport system is extensive and efficient, but can also be quite expensive. The supplementary fees involved in self-driving raise the costs to a point that most people who do not particularly need a car don't use one. Education is free in public schools, but the instruction language depends on the canton that the school is in. For those who find that they will require a bilingual school, the costs can be very high. There are international schools for expatriates who prefer to continue with the education curriculum of their home country, but they are also very expensive, with prices rising with the children's age.

Expatriates are quite well-paid in Switzerland, but the cost of living is also high. Switzerland ranks number 64 out of 65 in the Cost of Living Index. The number of expats who rated this negatively was about three-quarters of those in the survey. Childcare, healthcare and housing were rated the most expensive. This high cost of living, however, does not necessarily mean that the expats are dissatisfied with their financial situations. Most say they felt they had financial stability considering their income versus the cost of living. About 78% reported that they had adequate or more than adequate finances to cover their expenses.

Healthcare and Well-Being

The healthcare and well-being factors attract mixed feelings among expatriates working and living in Switzerland. This was mostly due to the high costs involved. However, the quality of healthcare was given a favorable rating of 85%. In spite of the associated costs, most respondents were satisfied with the quality of healthcare. The feelings of the respondents as far as the environment is concerned was also highly favorable at 98%.

The issue of childcare was another bittersweet factor. While most respondents rated the health and safety of children favorably at 95%, the costs were a damping factor. About 97% of expatriate parents responded positively for the health and safety of their children. Only about 6% of expat parents considered living in Switzerland as being a bad thing for their children. The general culture in Switzerland, however, does not provide support for working parents. The culture seems not to have adjusted to family situations of two working parents.

Technology

The growth of technology has been one of the major driving factors of the need for expatriates. Having relevant technological competence is a key factor in recruitment. Companies integrating new technologies need the personnel to operate and grow them. Multinationals will usually have a better capacity to integrate technologies across their operations since they have a bigger pool of skille...