ABSTRACT
Over the past half century, there has been steady growth in the number of executives assigned to manage operations in foreign countries. While increasingly (for reasons of cost and local expertise) many firms are seeking to employ host national managers, the fact remains that expatriate managers are in considerable demand. Expatriate executives face many challenges. Among the expectations held of them are: to rapidly acculturate to the new environment; to become highly productive in often difficult circumstances; to thrive professionally and personally in unfamiliar and often highly complex environments; to cope with cultural and linguistic differences; as well as to operate as quasi-ambassadors for the home office and sometimes the home country.
