Retaining repatriates: The role of organizational support practices

The issue of repatriate turnover continues to be a challenge for many multinational companies today. This article describes several repatriate support practices offered by organizations-and how effective they are at lowering repatriates' turnover intentions. We found that supportive repatriate practices offered by companies improved the repatriates' general perceptions about their companies. Repatriates who were offered more of these supportive practices, and believed that such programs were relevant and important for their successful repatriation, felt as though their company cared about their overall well-being-and ultimately, had a greater desire to remain with the company upon repatriation. These findings were based on a study with 58 expatriates from four North American-based multinational organizations.