How can organizational culture be changed to support cross-cultural skills?
A relatively recent finding is that repatriation of expats (i.e., when employees sent on an overseas assignment return to the home country) is problematic and repatriates often leave the organization shortly afterwards (one source reported that 2050% of expats resign within a year of returning). Although there are several reasons for the problems encountered by repatriates, one problem appears to be a general lack of organizational support for cross-cultural skills and experiences. I-O psychologists may be able to help organizations change, such that repatriates are more successfully transitioned back to their home offices. In sum, I-O psychologists have much that they can contribute to a global workplace. Indeed, I would predict that if organizations were more familiar with our capabilities, there would be much global demand for our expertise. I suspect that although many U.S. organizations are unfamiliar with I-O psychology, companies in other countries are even less familiar with wh
