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The Role of the Expatriate Spouse

Many companies are beginning to recognize the importance of providing support for spouses and children - in particular because both spouses are often corporate fast-trackers and demand that both sets of needs be included on the bargaining table. Firms often use informal means, such as intercompany networking, to help find the trailing spouse a position in the same location. They know that, with the increasing number of dual-career couples (65 percent in the United States), if the spouse does not find a position the manager will very likely turn down the assignment. They decline because they can't afford to lose the income or they worry that it may derail the spouse's career entirely if he or she is out of the workforce for a few years. indeed, as women continue to move up the corporate ladder, the accompanying (“trailing”) spouse is often male - estimated at 25 percent in the year 2000. Companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Shell, Medtronic, and Monsanto offer a variety of options to address the dual-career dilemma.

At Procter & Gamble, employees and spouses destined for China are sent to Beijing for two months of language training and cultural familiarization. Nissho Iwai, a Japanese trading company, gets together managers and spouses who are leaving Japan with foreign managers and spouses who are on their way there. In addition, the firm provides a year of language training and information and services for Japanese children to attend schools abroad. Recent research on 321 American expatriate spouses around the world shows that effective cross-cultural adjustment by spouses is more likely (I) when firms seek the spouse's opinion about the international assignment and the expected standard of living, and (2. when the spouse initiates his or her own predeparture training (thereby supplementing the minimal training given by most firms).

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