2002  Paper for Submission to the Journal of Organizational Change Management

“THE ACCOMPANYING SPOUSE: AN UNLIKELY CHANGE AGENT”

AUTHORS:

Tonya Foust Mead, MBA, MA, PhD candidate
Empresarial Universidad, Costa Rica
Yvonne M McNulty, BBus (Hons)
Southern Cross University, Australia

tonyamead@email.com
tonya@ishareknowledge.com
ymcnulty@thetrailingspouse.com

Abstract:
This paper examines the role of the accompanying spouse as an unlikely change agent in expatriate management.  An international relocation is classified as a work transition and one in which significant change issues can, and do, arise at the organizational, employee and spouse/family levels.  In particular this paper examines the discourse surrounding the causes of expatriate assignment failure, with a focus on terminology and the mis-use of language to suit an agenda.  It seeks to examine, through narrative, the lack of spousal adjustment and family issues as the most often cited reason attributed to premature return and/or assignment failure. 

Challenging this widely held view was the basis of two studies presented in this paper, both of which were conducted using samples of more than 80 expatriated families (employee and accompanying spouse).  The narrative findings lend support, based on narratives and individual stories of ambiguity and contradiction, that poor organizational change management during expatriation is largely attributed to the lack of corporate policy addressing the specific needs of internationally mobile families.

Keywords: Expatriates, Accompanying Spouse, Narrative, Empirical Research

INTRODUCTION
The literature regarding failure rates attests to the fact that rather than sponsoring organizations accepting full or partial responsibility for failed assignments, the generally accepted and oft cited business statistic is to claim family and spousal problems as a primary reason for at least 69% of failed international assignments (Atlas, 1995).  The central argument of this paper is to investigate this claim, in light of the considerable change management issues associated with expatriation.  A further argument is whether family and spousal problems are being addressed by the sponsoring organizations who use this problem as a potentially convenient explanation for assignment failure.

Of particular interest is the discourse surrounding the terminology used to describe and account for spousal issues as a primary cause of assignment failure.  Therefore, from the outset this paper will potentially raise more questions than it answers, but therein lies the central aim – to challenge existing thinking and, through narrative, to attempt to address the problem.

ORGANIZATIONAL DISCOURSE IN EXPATRIATE MANAGEMENT
The foundation of organizational discourse is based largely within the framework of context. Contexting refers to the manner in which people communicate and the context in which and in which the communication occurs (Gibson, 1998). In addition to the critical assessment of the general consensus, the control of organizational discourse within its appropriate context will be a key theme of this paper and has been found :
(1) in the language to limit the inclusion of corporate recall into the figures cited for early departures;
(2) to emphasize the disproportional weight placed on spousal dissatisfaction and its influence in assignment success;
(3) to de-emphasize the effect and the statistical significance of corporate support systems, policies and procedures, or lack thereof, in assignment success;
(4) to avoid organizational dissention at all costs; and
(5) in the discursive movements of stakeholders such as corporations, relocation services providers and academia all of whom have competing agendas in successful expatriation.
Discourse empowers certain agents to pronounce with authority representations about the shape and form of the world (Prior, 1997).  It shapes what can or cannot be discussed, researched, or analyzed.  It is a body of language that is condoned by a particular community (DeCock, 1998) where pressure to conform to accepted ways of communication allows certain statements, whilst simultaneously restricting, limiting or disallowing others (Casey, 1995).  The following examples of discourse in expatriate management illustrate this point.

A. Corporate Recall versus Early Departure Rates
In the language used to study expatriate failure rates, there are more references to the term ‘early departure’ which inherently means that the expatriate made the decision to depart early, rather than ‘recall rate’ which signifies that the decision for early termination was made by the corporation. Upon reviewing the literature only one mention of the term “recall rate” could be found (Dowling and Schuler, 1994)..
“Turnover rate” would be more appropriate as it includes both the recall rate and the early depature rate in describing the problem.  Furthermore, such selective terminology shifts attention from managerment, as Drucker (1998), when referring to hiring and promotion, contended that one-third of the decisions are right, one-third are minimally effective, and one-third are ‘outright’ failures.

B. Spousal Dissatisfaction: The Disproportionate Weighting Factor
The misrepresentation of  the spouse and family as a primary reason for assignment failure and premature return may be an important anomaly in expatriate management. , particularly when discourse as a field of study orginally focused on language and communication, and which has become the foundation upon which organisational change is also built.

For instance, there has been a tendency  (the international human resouce management (IHRM) field notwithstanding), to produce literature texts that limits concepts to those which one particular group is ideologically comfortable or to those which emphasize  variables that are easily manipulatedble by managerial interests (Watson, 1994). Furthermore, gGroups made subservient by those in domination may choose to accept, condone, comply with or resist the ideological or managerial social power power exercized over them.  Within the context of organizational discourse in failure rate research, the female expatriate spouses can be considered one such dominated group  a dominated group, a group of women whom have proven to be easily plyable, if for but gender alone.  Martin (1990) attempted to deconstructed organizational taboos and found that even well-intentioned organizational practices can aggravate rather than alleviate gender inequalities. According to Witkin-Canoil (1985), the nature of women  (Witkin-Canoil, 1985) asserts, is such that they relinquish their power and control instead of reacting aggressively to threatening situations.

It may be argued then that assigning blame for early departure to the group that has the least power to solve the problem (largely due to overwhelming organizational biases built into the fabric of expatriate managementthe sponsoring organisation) is a form of hegemony, integrated forms of which are readily apparent in organizational systems’ policy, procedures, and norms (Gramsci, 1971).

C. Muted Organizational Dissention
The typical expatriate is male (84%), married (64%), married and accompanied by spouse (77% of the married pool of expatriates), and accompanied by children (61%) (Windham, 1999; Cendant, 2000).  Muted organizational dissention involves the employee (expatriate) and non-employee stakeholder (spouse) and the manner in which employee-based concerns are brought to the attention of the employer. The typical expatriate is male (84%), married (64%), married and accompanied by spouse (77% of the married pool of expatriates), and accompanied by children (61%) (Windham, 1999; Cendant, 2000).

On the one hand, disagreement and dissention concerning work and family conflicts from the employee’s perspective could be are muted for these reasons,:  (i) many male employees are hesitant to voice family-related concerns for fear that they will conflict with the corporate image of a successful male (Powell, 1997);  (ii) the rationale for such behavior is that traditional gender roles prescribe that work is the role for men while home maintenance and family duties are seen as roles for women (Gutek, Searle and Klepa, 1991); (iii) female expatriate spouses may condone and accept blame for assignment failure because they are more concerned with striking a balance between work and family and are eager to promote a better understanding and acceptance of the relationship between work and family than men (Powell and Mainiero, 1992); (iv) women do not comprise more than 16% (an increase from 12% in 1997) of the expatriate workforce (Cendant, 2000), therefore expatriate support policy is less likely to be positively affected by working women as  -Goodstein (1994) found that women are one of the most important groups influencing companies to adopt better work and family programs. The gender stereotyping and under-representation of women on international assignments has been extensively researched (Adler, 1990, 1994; Adler and Izaeli, 1993; Harris, 1993; Hardill, 1997).

On the other hand, power politicking on the part of the corporation (DeCock, 1998) may also play a role as well. An employee’s reluctance to voice dissention and mount resistance could be isdriven by corporate trends to decrease the number of married expatriates accompanied by a spouses. Windham (1999) reported a steady increase in single status assignments of married expatriates. And finally,Most corporations havehave yet to include the voice (Belenky et al, 1986) of the accompanying spouse as a critical component of expatriate management policy. As non-employee or external stakeholders (Gass et al. 1997) their power and interest (Freeman, 1984), as well as importance andand influence (Grimble and Wellard, 1996), have yet to be fully recognized by strategic planners crafting expatriate management policy.

D. De-emphasis on the Importance of Corporate Support Policy
In addition to the control of context within communication, it is equally vital to discern which group or individual controls the topics to be discussed, dissected and developed.  Examples of exertion of control are news-editors deciding the topics journalists will cover (Gans, 1979; van Dijk, 1988a, 1988b), and professors choosing the study topics for class (Palmer, 1989; Fishman, 1983; Lindegren-Lerman, 1983).  In expatriate management, consulting firms, relocation  companies and even academe exert considerable control by limiting the thorough examination of ‘corporate support policy’and marginalizing ‘family and spousal issues’ as  relevant topics. Yet the evidence suggests that corporations with policies  that include innovative work and family programs  (i) have a better chance to improve its bottom line (Friedman, 1991); (ii)  foster employee loyalty (Grover & Crooker, 1995); and (iii)  might experience financial returns that are three times higher than companies with weak support policies (Wyatt, 2001).

Another concern impeding constructive policies could be due to the appearance that academe seeks to support the argument, rather than challenge it.  In terms of discerning which groups or individuals control the topics to be discussed, dissected and developed, there has been little theoretical research and even fewer empirical studies of spousal issues in relation to the causes of expatriate turnover (Black, 1989; Birdseye, 1995; Shaffer, 1998).  From this perspective it is difficult to ascertain the extent to which what is available in the literature about the accompanying spouse is both academically and professionally reliable in spite of the proliferation of published material on the subject.

E. Discursive Movements of Stakeholders
The most fundamental work in discourse is the analysis of power relationships of groups and institutions; to be more succint, the study of social power abuse and dominance and how it is enacted, reproduced and resisted in text and talk (van Dijk, 1998).  In addition to the ususal forms and manifestations of power (military force, status, and money), Lukes (1986) and Wrong (1979) advocate that one’s power base is drawn from a reservior of privileged access to scarce social resources such as knowledge, information and even ‘culture’ to include various forms of public discourse and communication.

If social power in its most basic form contains a control element, it follows that some groups have more power given their ability to control the acts and minds of members of the same group or other groups. The converse is also true in that less power is afforded to groups that lack the ability to control others.

In expatriate managementreality, different types of social power may be distinguished according to the various resources employed to exercize such power: professors and  academic researchers utilize social power based on knowledge or information; relocation and consulting firms have power based on authority or experience. Corporations, of course, obtain social power based on market capitalization, market share of respective industries, largess of revenues, number of employees, and so on.  Clearly, everyone has an agenda.   Agendas that are not, however, always conducive to affect positive change. In fact, corporations may be inadvertently exercising their social power to maintain the status quo. Milliken, a Baldridge Award Winner, (as cited in Hamilton and Smith, 1993) declared, the biggest inhibitors to improvement are top management, middle management, and first line supervisors. In this regard if there is but one single role that only top management can play, surely it must be to revise obsolete policy.

CRITICAL NARRATIVE ASSESSMENT OF THE GENERAL CONSENSUS
The aim of this paper is to investigate, through narrative, the increasing awareness of spousal issues as a growing concern in expatriate management.  The following section critically assesses and compares both the literature and the narrative discourse surrounding the importance of assignment success and the role of the accompanying spouse.  The narrative is drawn from two studies both of which utilized separate samples of more than seventy-seven accompanying spouses (these studies are discussed later in this paper).  In this section specifically the literature identifies the problem and the narrative attempts to identify the cause.  The narrative also offers potential solutions towards addressing the problems.

A. Failed Assignments: High Turnover, High Costs and Unmet Expectations 
International assignment failure is an important issue in the ongoing management of expatriation. The discourse surrounding assignment failure has, however, largely focused on costs and blame rather than the identification of root causes and addressing issues head on.  For example, assignment failure rates range from 7 to 20% depending upon the source, home-country, and assignment location  (Tung, 1981; Zeira and Banai, 1984; Mendenhall and Oddou, 1985; Mendenhall, Dunbar et al, 1987; Tung, 1987; Wederspahn, 1992; Dowling and Schuler, 1994).  However, it is difficult to obtain exact failure rate statistics given there is very limited empirical research on the subject since Tung’s 1981 study (Tung, 1981; Harzing, 1995).  Given that Tung’s research is the most statistically reliable to date (Harzing, 1995) a 10%-20% failure rate was expected 20 years ago for the majority of US multinationals (69%), with a less than 5% failure rate for the majority of European (59%) and Japanese (76%) MNC’s. 

The costs associated with assignment failure can often be three to four times that of the expatriate employee’s salary (Harvey, 1983; Zeira and Banai, 1984; Mendenhall and Oddou, 1985; Wederspahn, 1992; Torrington, 1994; Birdseye and Hill, 1995). Furthermore, excluding salary, the costs associated with maintaining a US expatriate family internationally can range from over US$200,000 in Tokyo to just over US$138,000 in Paris (Lublin and Smith, 1994). In the US, the NFTC estimates that the cost of sending an expatriate on a 3-year assignment can easily total $1M (with a base salary of US$75,000-$100,000) (CIGNA, 2001).  Add to this the cost of the removal, and pre-departure preparation/orientation upon arrival, and the costs to MNC’s becomes significant when compared to hiring local staff.

Furthermore, a Cendant Mobility (1998) study of UK-based multinationals, 56% conceded that they experienced failed assignments.  Furthermore, the turnover rate for expatriated executives is cited as twice that of executives who don’t relocate (Gregersen and Black, 1999). Of the expatriates who complete contracts to full-term, Gregersen and Black (1999) found that only one-third performed up to expectations. 

Study One: Early Departures – An Identification, Ranking and Analysis of Family and Spousal Problems

“hmmm..I don’t challenge your stats, but of the expats that I have known, all have had successful assignments.” Australian male. Five years experience in USA, Switzerland and Hong Kong.

“Premature departure is usually the result of a mismatch: the wrong person for the job. The reasons for the mismatch are often due to miscommunication. Someone wasn’t listening during the interview. American female. Twenty-nine years experience in Africa, Asia and Middle East.

“Tend to disagree. It is an exaggerated excuse.” American female. Thirteen years experience in England, Holland, Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, India and France.

“The fact that the guys are expected to work 80 hour weeks plays a huge part in the failure rate.”  American female. Overseas experience in Israel.

B. Family and Spousal Problems: Reason for Assignment Failure
A review of the expatriate literature reveals that the role of the accompanying spouse is cited as one of the most critical and important factors influencing international assignment success (Punnett, 1997; Sanchez,  Spector et al, 2000).  It has been widely researched and reported that lack of spousal or family adjustment can have a direct influence on assignment success from the employee’s perspective (Caligiuri, Hyland et al 1998; Schneider and Asakawa, 1995; Black and Stephens 1989).  Arthur & Bennett (1995) demonstrated that family situation was generally found to be the most important factor, as perceived by transferring spouses, in relation to their assignment success. 

Study Two: The Trailing Spouse:  Barrier to Mobility or International Asset

“…I do believe that spouse’s add a tremendous amount of value to any MNC by organising relocations, creating a social network, smoothing the experience for the working spouse etc without any official recognition …” (#57)

“ .. companies that relocate families need to spend time assessing the family needs instead of just expecting them to tag along for the ride … I think companies need to spend a little more time and money on how to support the spouse and acknowledge the support job they do, after all, I know from personal experience that my husband couldn’t do his job without me and our two children here…” (#34)

In a recent PricewaterhouseCoopers (2000) study it was revealed from an international survey of 270 organizations employing over 65,000 expatriates that family issues were the major reason for employees refusing to relocate internationally (76%).  A similar result was found in the Windham International/National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC) 1994 Survey in which 81% of the respondents cited family considerations as the primary reason for turning down an assignment (Windham/NFTC, 1994). 

Study Two: The Trailing Spouse:  Barrier to Mobility or International Asset

“…when you have a great career and a great life and you have to leave it behind, it is very hard not to feel resentful. I agreed to relocate but after 6 months I had to think about me again, and I have since moved back home to live with my parents while my husband finishes out the assignment.  We both know that we will never do it again…” (#62)

“…in the first year of his appointment abroad I chose to stay behind due to career commitments…“ (#42)

“ … My husband was relocated from China to the US when our daughter was halfway through her senior year, right about the time she was doing college applications etc … I stayed on in China so she could graduate and finish the school year and then joined my husband in the US about 6 months after he relocated there…“ (#72)

Yvonne – narrative support
Black & Gregersen (1991) proposed that family and spousal-related issues are major factors influencing expatriate management (Black and Gregersen 1991) and in academe this is a widely accepted view.  Indeed, it has been demonstrated by researchers that while spousal (and familial) influences on an employee’s performance are not unique to expatriate management and international relocations alone, they are more critical in these contexts than in domestic settings (Zeira and Banai, 1984; Caligiuri, Hyland et al., 1998; Shaffer and Harrison 1998; Harvey, Buckley et al. 1999).

Study Two: The Trailing Spouse:  Barrier to Mobility or International Asset?

 “…the frustration is getting information from the right people…the working spouse holds all the cards – social security number, work visa, credit history etc. Any problems usually have to be funnelled through him and his work, which is such a waste of time for all concerned, when I’m sitting here at home with not much to do and perfectly capable of doing it myself.  So I get mad at him, when it’s not really him I’m made at but his company, for insisting that all communication go through him.  What a waste of time – he has to deal with human resources all day instead of doing his job…” (#71)

Up until now, In spite of the acceptance of spousal dissatisfaction, family and spousal problems, and spousal resistance have been considered as primary reasons for expatriate early departure and assignment failure, few explanations for the cause of such problems are available.. The point by which work demandedIt is agreed that the work demands of the expatriate, coupled with , the family conflicts (Greenhause and Beutell, 1985; Feldman and Thompson, 1993) and the deterioration of paterner partner intimacy (Mead, 2002) can lead insuing leads to early departure. However, Furthermore, the extent to which corporate support is ineffectual or even lacking has rarely been mentioned as a factor influencing the decision to depart prematurely or as a cause for assignment failure.  On the domestic front, Hom and Griffeth (1995) developed a model based on pay, benefits, fairness and role conflict to retain employees and the Families and Work Institute (1997) found that exuberant job demands impacted retention negatively while job quality and workplace support impacted retention positively - factors which have yet to be fully explored in the international work environment.

Study One: Early Departures - An Identification, Ranking and Analysis of Family and Spousal Problems

“There’s little job security, you make a mistake and you’re on the next plane out (or in jail in my case) and that’s stressful. Contracts are not worth the paper they are written on, and employers change them unilaterally- it you challenge this you are sacked – either put up or shut up! Changing jobs can be hard, with clauses banning you from other jobs locally for 2 years, and you need a ‘letter of no objection’ to get another job in the same country. Everyone is on knife edge, and salaries no longer compensate - mine has been the same for 6 years now.” American female. Twenty-nine years experience in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

 “We will be leaving early from this assignment due to lack of support of both the stateside and local companies.” American female. Ten years experience in Brazil, Japan, Canada, Germany, Turkey and Morocco.

“I know of friends who left early from an assignment for various reasons. Usually it’s general unhappiness with the location combined with dissatisfaction with the job.” American female. Nineteen years experience in Singapore, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Holland and England.

“Yes, I know someone who left prematurely. Difficulties with employer, changes of contract, conditions of employment, salary reductions were the reasons. People who have jobs work hard, and are squeezed dry by employers (often this is the reason for leaving). I don’t know of anyone who left because of family problems (and I’ve been an expat for almost ten years).” British female. Nine years experience in New Zealand, India, Saudi Arabia and Dubai.

One final point is that Nnumerous studies, however, have attempted to define and measure success both from the sponsoring organization’s perspective (Stroh, 1995) and from the transferring spouse’s personal view of the experience (Stephens and Black, 1991; Shaffer, Harrison et al., 1999; Sanchez, Spector et al., 2000).  Very few, if any, empirical studies have explored assignment success and failure from the accompanying spouse’s perspective alone (Punnett, 1997; Copeland, 2001).

Study Two: The Trailing Spouse:  Barrier to Mobility or International Asset

“…The available research is outdated and it only concentrates on the employees anyway, not on families and especially not on wives…” (#39)
 
“ … I’ve read so much rubbish about what my needs are supposed to be – and somehow it’s all tied back to my husband’s job and him having job security and a big salary so that I somehow feel more secure and am supposed to adjust better…but it’s really just about HIM and where do I even come into this so-called “spouse research”?  I think personally that the partner issue is central to the problem of expatriation and I think most multinationals know it - the Fortune 100 all agree that dual-career is the issue of the new millennium, but, hey, what would they know?  They're not sitting in a hallowed white tower at some big name university pontificating about what's going on in business, they're just living it - BIG DISTINCTION !!! …” (#9)

In spite of this apparent shortcoming, one thing is clear from the literature; assignment success is desirable andthe numerous studies, articles and reports attests to its importance in expatriate management (Torbiorn, 1982; Tung, 1982; Mendenhall and Oddou, 1985; Tung, 1988; Black and Stephens, 1989; Black and Gregersen, 1991; Black, Mendenhall et al., 1991; Strawn and Nurney, 1995; Sanchez, Spector et al., 2000). A categorized sampling of the positions espoused and promoted by the primary stakeholders in international human resource management follows.

C. Least Important Corporate Criteria = Most Common Cited Reason for Failure
Scott (1997) demonstrated that there was an unmet need for a shift away from a singular approach to determining an employee’s suitability for an international assignment toward a multi-dimensional approach to policy that supports family relationships and stability.  This theory is consistent with PricewaterhouseCoopers (2000) that investigated, amongst other factors, the lack of spousal recognition in expatriate management.  The top 3 criteria for assessing an employee’s suitability for international relocation according to the companies surveyed were job-related skills (96%), leadership skill (74%) and career development for the employee (72%).  Suitability of family circumstances to assignment location and intercultural ability of the employee were listed as 9th and 10th on the list of ten most important selection criteria, falling well below language ability (4th) and business vision (8th). 

The five least important criteria for candidate selection were (in order) intercultural adaptability of the spouse, children’s educational needs, emotional resilience, spouse’s career, and lifestyle suitability.  As the survey reported, it is interesting that these five least important criteria were also the most common reasons given for assignment failure.  The findings of this survey are widely supported by the literature (Harvey, 1985; Tung, 1987; Mendenhall and Oddou, 1988; Black and Stephens, 1989; Black and Gregersen, 1991; Stephens and Black, 1991; Arthur and Bennett, 1995;  Harvey, 1998.

Study Two: The Trailing Spouse:  Barrier to Mobility or International Asset

“ … one of the things that has been continually disappointing to me is that corporate HR departments seem to be populated with people who have never relocated; their motivation is to get the employee into his or her new job as quickly as possible and there is little acknowledgement that the relocation process and transition into a new culture for the entire family is an important issue … “ (#56)

“ … repatriation to Germany was an exercize in cluelessness. Obviously the HR staff at the local office hadn’t dealt with many expats previously … requests such as job assistance were met with ‘why?’…” (#78).

“…it’s important when my husband’s company shows that they care about us as a family, not only about him as their employee…” (#21)

The PricewaterhouseCoopers study also revealed that over half of the companies surveyed cited the accompanying spouse’s lack of adjustment as a major factor contributing towards assignment failure; again, this is a view consistent with previous research (Tung, 1981; Tung, 1987).  Nevertheless, whilst this statistic is not surprising to those who work in expatriate management (Windham/NFTC, 2000), it is surprising that spousal satisfaction as a factor influencing assignment success still remains a low priority as evidenced by the paucity of empirical research. In failing to address this critical need, sponsoring organizations are potentially jeopardising the success of their entire expatriate program (Torbiorn, 1982).

Study Two: The Trailing Spouse:  Barrier to Mobility or International Asset

“ … I am more concerned about the details of the move than he is and want to have it all planned out.  He is more concerned with the work he will do in the new location. So he doesn’t ask the relocation expert at his firm questions I want answers to.  I feel cut off from a process that affects my life deeply… “ (#25)

“… don’t emphasize a need to overwork at the beginning to prove oneself … pressures at work requiring my husband to stay at work late at night – especially at the beginning – contribute to my feelings of isolation…” (#78)

“…he has to work right away and there’s no time allocated for him to assist me in getting adjusted, findings stores, etc…I feel very isolated…” (#75)

BACKGROUND EMPIRICAL RESEARCH EXPATRIATE MANAGEMENT
Expatriate adjustment has been widely documented and a large body of research exists (Voydanoff, 1980; Torbiorn, 1982; Crouter, 1984; Hofstede, 1984; Greenhaus and Beutell, 1985; Mendenhall and Oddou, 1985; Black, Mendenhall et al., 1991; Tung, 1993; Aycan, 1997). 

Cross-cultural adjustment, and spousal adjustment in particular, may be key to how well expatriates perform on their assignment (Black and Gregersen, 1990; Black and Stephens, 1989; Lynem 2001).  Specifically, Harvey (1997) identified spousal adjustment as an important aspect of dual-career spouse’s overall satisfaction with international relocations.

Black and Stephens (1989) identified the positive correlation between the spouse’s adjustment and the transferring spouse’s intent-to-stay.  Overall, researchers have demonstrated that the spouse is of critical importance to assignment success (Torbiorn, 1982; Black and Stephens, 1989; Arthur and Bennett, 1995; Punnett, 1997).  A number of theoretical models of the expatriate have been identified from the literature. Tung (Tung, 1993; Tung, 1998) proposes a theoretical model of adjustment for expatriates based on the work of Rieger and Wong-Rieger (1991), and Berry (1980).  The model proposes that the acculturation process results in a four-cell typology utilising two dimensions – cultural preservation and partner attractiveness – to measure patterns of interaction between individuals from different cultures and to ultimately measure levels of adjustment.

Concerning the family, Fukuda and Chu (1994) found that family-related problems were ranked first in explaining why expatriates terminated their assignments. Brett (1982) found that  relocated families have a difficult time re-establishing social networks, especially when there are adolescent children in the family.  Furthermore, Arthur & Bennett concluded that family situation was one of the most important factors contributing to overall adjustment of the expatriate, with adjustment considered an important indicator of assignment success, a finding consistent with other research (Zeira and Banai, 1984; Mendenhall and Oddou, 1985; Black and Stephens, 1989; Black and Gregersen, 1991; Punnett, 1997).

As shown by the aforementioned review of the academic literatureillustrated, to date, academe has provided the most extensive library of knowledge regarding expatriate management. According to Argyris (1983), this wealth of information collected using scientific and objective approaches according to Argyris (1983) has in some ways undercut useful theory by insistence on research detachment and maintenance of unilateral control. The emphasis on scientific research in its strictest sense undermines academe’s ability to analyze the nuances of  'interpretive schemes' used by members of a group to give life and meaning to their actions and decisions (Bartunek, 1984). The extent to which the research findings by academe have lead to positive change in expatriation can also be questioned.To the extent with which, research findings by academe  have lead positive change can be questioned as well  Friedlander and Brown (1974) made such an observation whilst contemplating the strengths and weaknesses of action (consulting and practice-oriented) and theory (diagnostic and academic-based) research.

"We have generally failed to produce a theory of change which emerges from the change process itself. We need a way of enriching our understanding and action synergistically rather than at one or the other's expense to become a science in which knowledge-getting and knowledge-giving are an integrated process, and one that is valuable to all parties involved”. (Friedlander and Brown, 1974, pp319).

PRACTICE-ORIENTED RESEARCH; OFTEN A MISUSED TOOL
The human condition is such that people, IHRM included, want simple solutions and explanations--  and there is often pressure to provide them (DeCock, 1998).  It is understandable that IHRMInternational human resource managers looks to various co-conspirators, in conjunction with internal corporate documentation and analysis, to assist in theidentifying the likely causal factors for failed assignments. This tendency is often exploited, particularly amongst relocation and consulting firms. A negation of the valuable contributions to society that these service agents provide; is not the aim, however, concerns that practice-oriented scholars are so "…client-centered that they fail to question their clients' own definition of a problem and thereby build testable propositions that are embedded into everyday life.…" (Cooperrider and Srivastva, 1987, pp7). Such issues will be discussed in the following section.

Corporations
In fact, in light of the changing global economy, corporations do sometimes appear justified in their miss-use of the research. Global contraction of scarce resources and trans-coastal competition forced corporations in the 1980s and early 1990s to become proficient in creating shareholder and customer value (“Six Indicators for Major Business Trends”, 1998). The most popular technique for achieeiving such value was through the tactical focus on cost reduction and the "doing more with less" ideology. Such hawkish-ness in expatriate management was expressed by minimizing costs through the elimination and/or the reduction in foreign service pools, cessation of preminuums, incentives, and reduction of cost of living indexes (Swaak, 1995) - all the while, laments Swaak,  demanding more from the expatriates on-hand. During such periods, the cost-cutting procedures that were good for the livelihood of the company wereas supposed to be perceived by the impacted employees as being good for them as well (Keenoy, 1997). 

Against this backdrop, senior and middle managers, by buying into the cost cutting programs, signaled to their supervisors that they were not adverse to change and would not unduly go against the organizational tide (Huczynski, 1993). As such, due to personal and group motivations, accounts of the negative effects of such cost-cutting measures vary according to the individual or group presenting the story and the receiving audience (Boje, 1991).  As illustrated by the IHRM international human resource managers professionals quoted below (all of whom , possessed similar roles, experiences and concerns),,  a high level of trust (Powell, 1996) fostered the transparency of exchange and led to the following se confessions.

Comments from International Human Resource Managers attending
Global Think Tank Meetings of the National Foreign Trade Council, Inc. 1994 (Swaak, 1995, pp8)

"We revised the assignment policy without paying much attention to what was needed in the global marketplace. As a consequence, we lost some good people, and we kept some we did not really want to keep."

"We have made periodic adjustments in our assignment policy that have generated savings but that have not been received positively by all those affected. As a matter of fact, they were nothing more than band-aid approaches to expatriate compensation. In the end, we were criticized for being haphazard and out of touch with reality.”

"We contained costs by simply sending fewer expatriates, whether or not that made good business sense.”

IMPLICATIONS FOR IHRM: THE NARRATIVE AS A POSITIVE TOOL
From a human capital standpoint, expatriate work transition (Ashford and Taylor, 1990) is perhaps the most complex of all change management processes, largely because it incorporates most types of work transition within its inherent structure: new employee orientation and socialization, intra-organizational transition, restructuring, and mergers & acquisitions.   Some of these transitions require substantial attention in the change management process predominantly as single processes. Yet expatriate work transition is potentially the most unique and critical human capital change management function because it involves most, if not all, of these transitions at the same time, and involves more than just the management of the expatriate employee.  It also constitutes external and internal psychological processes relevant to coming to terms with a new environment (Bridges, 1991). Some of these situational conditions include: In a global economy where 41% of revenue is derived from international activity and 20% are new hires a compelling argument for the critical importance of international human capital management has arisen.  Expatriate executives are increasingly becoming a significant factor in the expansionary plans of MNC’s.  Headlines such as “Expatriate Workers Mean World to Human Resources” (Byrnes-Lenarcic, 1998) streaming across a recent business journal seems to sum up the sentiment.  According to a survey of 100 administrators polled by Runzheimer International (1998), 60% of the respondents predicted that in the next 5 years the expatriate population would increase.   In addition to the functional and administrative aspects of work transition such as pre-determined contract period and  temporary nature of expatriate assignments (Kraimer, 1999); conditions with which the domestic work place have been converging upon, there are four characteristics highlighting the unique nature of expatriate work transition.

A. Inclusionary Boundary: Feldman and Thomas’ (1992) inclusionary boundary refers to the expatriate’s loss of centrality in the informal network of the sponsoring organization.

Another dimension of this phenomenon is the hire of non-host country nationals. Windham (1999) reported that 30% of expatriates are recruited in this manner. Although MNCs have traditionally relied upon home-country employees for international assignments,  in a global economy companies have found it necessary to recruit more employees from the global  talent pool. Therefore, the foreign expatriate may also have difficulty crossing the inclusionary boundary of the recruiting employer to their status as a non-host-country national.

B. Multi-Faceted Nature of Expatriation:  The expatriate and family are required to adjust to multiple facets of a new life simultaneously (Black, 1988). They. O must also make sense of political, monetary, cultural, and economic systems and learning new languages, standards of behavior and conduct.

C. Culture Shock:  Frustration resulting from strange cues about what to do and how to get it done leads to culture shock (Oberg, 1958), this is further compounded when organizational members are unavailable to help make sense about the new environment (Louis, 1980) [Glanz, 2001, #260].

D. Homophily and Loss of Reality:  Schachter, Wrightsman, Festinger  (as cited in Rodrigues,1976) found that as anxiety increases, the need to associate with others in like situations becomes paramont to establish reality.  Ibarra suggests that  international mobility forces expatriates to migrate towards those with similar backgrounds as a means of coping (Ibarra 1993).  Referred to as homophily, an explanation ofit is the degree to which individuals are attracted, and  associate with, those who are more like themselves. 

Study Two: The Trailing Spouse:  Barrier to Mobility or International Asset

“ … I had no way of connecting with other Western expat women. I would go shopping and look longingly at other women, wondering how long they had been here, and how I was going to get to meet them without sounding like a moron … I finally found, quite by accident, a women's group, and have since gotten tapped in to all kinds of networks – shopping, tennis, Bridge, what's on, etc…” (#63)

“…most of the stress comes from having to deal with the emotional responses to relocating, like missing home, the lack of stability in a new environment…” (#23)

IMPLICATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH
The aim of this paper thus far has been to focus on the accompanying spouse’s role as a legitimate and positive influence in the development of expatriate management policy.  It is the authors’ that among current research investigating spousal issues, there are three major challenges that detrimentally call into question research findings, policy implications and recommendations.

1. Appropriate Sampling
As this paper deals primarily with the attribution of assignment failure to family and spousal problems, the inclusion of the accompanying spouse’s voice in the sample is of significant importance. Voice is defined as a sense of self and how one makes meaning of the work (Belenky et al, 1986).  In light of this Caffarella (1992) argued that researchers should re-design research methods to expand and extend women-only samples, and to test theories with men-only or mixed samples to determine how they apply to all people. Generally speaking, Caffarella argues that samples need to be representative of the population they aim to investigate.

Only a handful of researchers, however, have used spouse samples to investigate non-work family factors associated with assignment success (Torbiorn, 1982; Black and Gregersen, 1991; Punnett, 1997; Copeland, 2001). It was Punnett who highlighted that, in spite of what the literature reports about spousal issues, too little of the previous research is extensive enough to really investigate them in depth. For example, Black and Stephens (1989) identified a significant correlation between the accompanying and transferring spouse’s individual adjustment, both of which positively correlated to that couple’s intent-to-stay and subsequent assignment success. But after thirteen years since publication very little empirically-based spousal research appears to have surfaced to assist IHRM professionals with developing appropriate expatriate management policy to increase assignment success and prevent premature departure.

2. Empirical Research
Harzing (1996, pp3) made pointed reference to “…myth-building on the basis of one or two publications…”. Her primary concern  was the continual distortions of expatriate failure rates spanning a forty year time period that begain on “shaky foundations” but took hold as many authors in the expatriate management field lentded credibility to the assertions by repeating them without providing empirical support.

3. Inclusionary and Wholistic Research
According to Friedlander (1984) there is a disconnect between traditional research and academe’s inability to integrate research into practice through the narrow focus on analyzing, conceptualizing and researching the problem. He offered this poignant recommendation, “…Instead, let’s actively engage and experiment with new designs for producing knowledge that is, in fact, used by organizations…” (pp647).   Copperrider and Srivastva (1987, pp8) expanded upon this wholistic approach to research by calling for an elaboration of theory for greater understanding and the improvement of social practices.

“I have been an expatriate administrator for 18 years in West Africa, Syria, and Kuwait. Americans generally have a naivety and cultural arrogance that rubs people the wrong way (excuse this stereotype). This I find strange as the books on cultural management and some of the leading research on cross-cultural psychology is American. (Mead, 2002).

As the perceptions of a multi-national, multi-ethnic participant group involves in many cases, ethnocentrism (Gibson, 1998) and stereotyping (Marsh, 1999), Appadurai (1997) challenged fellow researchers with this statement:  “…Are we prepared to move beyond a model for internationalizing social science whose main concern is with improving how others practice our precepts?…”(pp59).

METHODOLOGICAL EXAMPLES OF EMPIRICAL SPOUSE RESEARCH
The authors addressed these three In the following two studies presented, the threemajor research challenges in separate research projects by identified as impeding the effectiveness of spousal researchusing less traditional research methodologies to overcome the inherent perceived weaknesses of current practices (Mead, 2000; McNulty, 2001).    were overcome using less-traditional research methodologies.  First, to ensure the use of an appropriate sample, the risk of a low response from the intended sample (the accompanying spouse) and was addressed by exploiting socialization with other expatriates (See-Chai, 1998).  To this end respondents were located in expatriate social clubs and web-based associations.  Whilst both studies offered paper and electronic survey completion, the second study utilized a research website (set up for the specific purpose of the research) as the only means of primary data collection.  The sample for each study exceeded 77  separate respondents (together, achieving 165 participants), of which the majority of participants were the accompanying spouse (88%).

Second, the risk of obtaining an unrepresentative inappropriateand non-empirical sample (ie. respondents who were not the accompanying spouse) was reduced by garnering high level sponsorship from leaders in the expatriate community (Selltiz et al, 1964) and utilizing the online opportunities now available to the expatriate community.  The nature of online technology also raised the potential for obtaining a sample more representative sample, not specific to any one company, organization, country or nationality.  However, to limit systematic error resulting from non-responses due to technological inaccessibility (Hamburg, 1979), in the first study, the researcher provided a fax number and postal address. Furthermore, the validity of the research was supported by limiting to two  years the time period in which a prospective respondent  repatriated,  this was necessary to reduce error due to selective recall of past behavior (Sanitioso, Kunda and Fong, 1990).  Reliance on traditional methods of distributing surveys (mainly through IHRM departments and/or expatriate employees) were avoided in an attempt to reduce dependency on printed materials (which is seen as ineffective for a mobile participant group).

Third, implicit within IHRM international human resource management research is the need to include within the research processes, the viewpoints of many nationalities. This requirement was met in both studies through use of online and web-based resources. In the first study, field research was undertaken in Brazil, a country that according to the American Academy of Management (as cited by Barbosa, 2000) is one of 4four countries with no cultural counterpart and yet it is one of the hottest destinations for expatriates (Windham, 1999). The researchers of these two studies believed that aAn inclusionary approach , the researchers of these two studies believe was anis the initial step towards achieving a wholistic integration of research leading to positive right action by sponsoring organizations.

Finally, although not identified as an inherent weakness in current spousal research, the authors believed that an exploration of the issues using both a quantitative AND qualitative methodology was essential in their respective studies.  To this end, whilst both research projects gathered a significant amount of statistical data, it was felt that the data could be enriched by incorporating narratives as well (Creswell, 1994).  The result is that the anecdotal findings presented in this paper lend a considerable amount of credibility and legitimacy to the concerns expressed by accompanying spouses during expatriation.

CONCLUSION
It is the authors’ belief that this paper has illustrated the depth of knowledge to be derived from the narrative discourse offered by the undervalued players (accompanying spouse) in corporate expatriation policy development. This paper has also attempted to challenge existing thinking by providing an in-depth first hand account of the difficulties encountered by the expatriate and family through their own narrative, and to highlight ways in which sponsoring organizations can begin to address these ongoing problems. 

The intention is to directly engage the accompanying spouse in the organizational change and expatriate management processes.  Their role has been largely subjugated; the authors propose that their role as change agents be legitimized as a result of their knowledge and experience, little of which is seen in current research or practice. The evidence is unarguablely sound:  the accompanying spouse influences expatriate work transition. Whether the accompanying spouse negatively impacts job performance thereby causing a majority of the failed assignments or instigates a majority of the early departures is inconclusive.  To label “spousal issues or partner dissatisfaction” as a reason for premature return or assignment failure is merely an obfuscation of a larger problem.  Yet current research largely ignores the need to investigate more deeply the origin of this problem and how it might be addressed.  As Glaser (1998) states, “…it is about time researchers study the problem that exists for the participants in the area, not what is supposed to exist or what professionals say is important…” (pp116).

Dr. Mead invites you to visit her marriage advice column, appearing three times weekly at: http://www.examiner.com/x-4793-DC-Marriage-Advice-Examiner.

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