Preparing an extended business stay abroad

Seminar paper from the year 2015 in the subject Communications - Intercultural Communication, AKAD University of Applied Sciences Stuttgart, language: English, abstract: As it becomes more and more vital to stay competitive, not only in the local but international market, companies tend to send professionals more frequently abroad. These professionals ought to satisfy the demand in managerial or administrative assistance in cross-company projects, safeguard a uniform company policy within lately founded subsidies or ensure a more fluid information flow in international mergers or acquisitions. Sending a professional abroad is always costly and risky for a company. Hence, the selection of a future expatriate needs to be based on distinct criteria and a sensible preparation is to be worked out on time. The principal aim of this assignment is to work out an overview and an assessment of feasible methods of preparing a professional for an extended business stay abroad with regard to intercultural aspects. First, I give a definition of the term `extended business stay´ which leads to a general description of required preconditions. Then I briefly focus on the phases one generally passes through during such a stay. Second, I work out a detailed description of feasible preparation methods and assess whether these are sufficiently applicable during these phases. Third, in the concluding section, I review my findings.