I can make it!

The world's economy still continues to globalise atrapid progression. However, this leaves organisationswith the challenge of managing their human resourcesacross cultural boundaries. The retention anddevelopment of internationally competent managers iscritical to globally operating organisations. Thiscalls for research that can help to moreintelligently managing expatriate assignments. Thepurpose of this research project was to elaborate jobperformance-critical competencies for German-speakingexpatriate managers working in the Middle East.Building on findings of competence models which areassumed to be applicable universalistically, it wasthis study's aim to accommodate cultural factorsinfluencing job performance. Eight German-speakingexpatriate managers currently working in Egyptparticipated in this study. The results have beencategorised according to the ten competencies forinternational managers defined by Birchall, Hee, andGay (1996). Among these ten competencies, thefollowing ones have been elaborated as being mostcritical to job performance: internationalnegotiation, cultural empathy, addressing ethicaldilemmas, and working with stakeholders.

Autorentext

Milan grew up in Berlin and Potsdam. He studied Business Psychology in Lüneburg and International Human Resource Management in London. Further important stations in his life have been France, the U.S., and Egypt. Currently, Milan is working at an internationally renowned Recruiting Consultancy in Hamburg.