Profiling German Expatriate Managers in China

Master's Thesis from the year 2009 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 1,0, Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg (International Management), language: English, abstract: This paper strives for investigating the phenomena of expatriates focusing on German expatriates in China. There are several reasons for this. Regarding the main destination of expatriates, which are mainly from Western countries, one third of all assignees have Asia as destination. In Asia, there are huge emerging markets to be explored by MNCs such as China where Western countries have spent FDI for decades already. China is at a "stage of dramatic transition towards a more market-oriented economy." Moreover, the human resource management stands high on the agenda not only for foreign but also for Chinese companies expanding abroad. Regarding the conceptual framework it can be seen that much research is done exploratory with surveys and questionnaires, and there are also some case studies. This survey study will also have an exploratory character preparing the ground for following empirical research. However, this thesis concentrates on the evaluation of CVs that have been voluntarily uploaded in the internet. This method of analyzing résumés is seen beneficial particularly until now in the social sciences. This study therefore deals with two important, not yet sufficiently answered research questions: A) What is the typical demographical profile of a German expatriate in China? B) What is the typical career profile of a German expatriate in China, respectively what position and function he or she obtains in China? Chapter 2 deals with the conceptual part of data collection and how the data was processed. In the two chapters thereafter, the results of the study are presented by providing answers to the research questions. Chapter 3 clarifies the typical demographical profile of a German expatriate in China, whereas Chapter 4 highlights the working experience, respectively the typical job profile. Chapter 5 will then summarize the findings and provide outlook as well as recommendations for companies. The next subchapter, however, will start to provide a general outlook on the topic of managing expatriates touching the most important topics.