Working abroad : competencies expatriates need to successfully cope with the intercultural experience

With the rapid increase in globalisation over the past two decades, an ever growing number of individuals are being expatriated overseas leading to increased contact in a business context among people from different cultural backgrounds (Zakaria, 2000). Unfortunately, there still appears to be a high incidence of expatriate failure. One of the most commonly cited factors to expatriate failure, is associated with cultural differences between the expatriate and host country nationals. In this paper, we discuss the impact that cultural differences can have on Australian expatriates in Asia and Thailand in particular and the intercultural competencies it is important for these expatriates to have to overcome these problems. Interviews with Australian expatriates and Thai nationals in Thailand, are used to provide practical examples of how the possession of these intercultural competencies will facilitate expatriates to successfully cope with the intercultural experience and reduce the likelihood of expatriate failure.<br />