The influence of culture on Kenyan Expatriates working in Kenya commercial Bank branches in the east Africa region

Abstract

International Business is trade that traverses a country's boundaries. It is important because no single country is self-sufficient therefore countries import what they don't have and export what they have. It therefore necessitates movement of people and goods across borders. Labour movement occurs because of different reasons. There is regional integration as countries within close proximity of each other, through reciprocal agreements, allow free movement of goods and services across their borders within the regional blocs, in response to opportunities that come with regional integration some businesses choose to internationalise, setting up operations within the region but outside their home countries. Multinational organisations are ever in search of new opportunities to invest and new business opportunity frontiers sometimes tend to arise with geopolitical changes. KCB is one such organisation. This study aims at establishing the influence of culture on Kenyan expatriates working in KCB branches in the EA region.It seeks to explore the influence that foreign culture has on KCB expatriate staff and how that affects their productivity. Culture is defined as the way of life of a people. Culture shock is the feeling of disorientation experienced by someone who is suddenly subjected to an unfamiliar culture, way of life, or set of attitudes. This study adapted a descriptive research design which was conducted across KCB head office and subsidiary branches. The study findings will inform HR managers who are in charge of placement. By understanding the influence that cultural differences have on productivity. They will be able to understand the need to adequately prepare staff before expatriate placement. HR will also be able to develop pre-deployment training/induction manuals for individuals going to work outside of their countries of origin. The study found out that culture affects these expatriates, influences their decision making and x employee to employee relations and negatively affects their productivity in the long run, as a lot of time is wasted trying to adjust to the new working environment. This study recommends that KCB trains its employees more intensively on cross cultural interactions before it deploys them or even nominates them for those foreign assignments.HR should inculcate in its induction manuals cross cultural business interactions which will prepare its employees since joining the organization.