Easing expatriate family stress: journaling the transition

Scottsdale, AZ – April 11, 2008. It has been well-documented that nearly half of all expatriate assignments fail. According to a 1994 study by the National Foreign Trade Council, the cost to companies for poor international staffing ranged from $200,000 to $1.2 million. And the main reason isn’t lack of technical expertise on the part of the employee.

Uprooting lives and moving to a new place, where things are done differently, and where a different language may be spoken is not only a physical adjustment, but a psychological one as well. Besides physical differences such as the changes in weather, housing accommodations, strange new settings, and safety of the surroundings, there are different feelings expatriates may experience, such as loneliness, homesickness, missing family and friends, difficulty relating to others and making new friends. A common response to these changes is stress.

The stress associated with cultural adjustment can show itself as depression, anxiety or psychosomatic problems. When the familiarity expatriates once knew back home is gone and the social rules they are used to following don’t exist in the host country, people can feel lost. Stress behaviors that occur during transition can manifest into alienation, as people feel left out of the normal functioning of the host society.

One might expect the employee who is sent to work in a new environment to be the hardest hit by the cross-cultural adjustment. This is not the case, however. Many employees are able to keep their culture’s traditions alive in the workplace and some even continue to speak their home country language. Spouses and children, however, have a more difficult time adjusting, with children attending new schools and experiencing peer pressures, and spouses lacking a social network, and career or personal goals. In fact, family-related issues have been found to be the main contributor towards expatriate failure. If the family is unhappy, the employee is not able to perform well in the new job.

To prepare families for what to expect on international assignment, some companies offer pre-departure cultural orientation, usually lasting one or two days. Currently, only half of global companies offer this training. Although it helps, it is not enough for issues that are a bit more complex. If a family has a teenager who is shy or introverted, for example, the child may not find it easy to make friends. If one or more members of a family have never lived abroad or have potential negative feelings about the assignment, they may not have a positive attitude about the move. Spouses without career or personal goals during the assignment can feel a loss of self-identity. Families need training that helps them build an infrastructure to work through the changes in a positive way.

Families can rest assured there is another option, one that involves being coached to successful adjustment. This is done via cross-cultural journal writing, offered by Sortino International Training’s American Culture Coach Program. It’s a coaching program geared towards expatriates in the United States. According to Christine Contreras, coach for Cross-cultural Journal Writing, “Through journal writing, a non-traditional training approach, family members can look at how they perceive their new home, themselves and others in their new environment, in a private, confidential way that respects their feelings. They also learn expressive writing techniques to turn negative feelings around and to create goals that will bring them satisfaction and contentment.” For more information on cross-cultural journal writing, visit http://www.americanculturecoach.com and click on Courses. Or, email Christine Contreras at Christine@americanculturecoach.com.

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Maria Sortino Gillette, Director
Sortino International Training
9455 E. Raintree Drive, Scottsdale, AZ, 85260
480-628-8064
The American Culture Coach Program
www.americanculturecoach.com
maria@americanculturecoach.com

Welcome to Sortino International Training's American Culture Coach Program. Our mission is to facilitate learning that is relevant to each client's unique needs. Each client is led step-by-step on a path of personal growth in a safe environment.

In the coaching we do, we discover how our own attitudes, personalities, values, and beliefs help us in building effective cross-cultural relationships. The broad coaching areas - culture, communication, and language - are all areas where we already have a foundation to build upon, to challenge ourselves to positive change and improvement. The coaching style is not lecture or presentation, but facilitation of learning through interaction. My job is to coach managers and other professionals, and their families in the processes of cultural adjustment, professional skill building, and empowerment in relationships.

This release was published on openPR.