Predicting turnover among repatriates: can organizations affect retention rates?

Abstract

This study used a sample of fifty-one international human resource specialists from fifty-one US-based multinational corporations to examine organizational career development predictors of turnover among repatriates who had returned to their parent companies in the past three years. The study was based on the work of Feldman and Thomas (1992), which suggests that attention to career development issues can affect an organization's retention rates of both its domestic and its global employees. The results of this study suggested that the following variables are significant predictors of turnover among repatriates: corporate values related to the importance of an overseas assignment to the organization; whether the organization has a career development plan for repatriates; and the perceived impact of corporate turbulence on being able to place repatriates adequately upon their return. The study recommended similar research using repatriates from countries other than those working in US-based firms.