BBA 8th A

Submitted to:
Sir M.A. Butt
[CAREER PLANNING AND
Submitted By:
Anam Khalid
SKILLS DEVELOPMENT
REPORT FOR DEUTSCHE
BANK]
Andreas Weber’s Assignment to New York: A case study in Expatriation, Repatriation and Career
Planning.
 Career Planning and Skills Development Report for Deutsche Bank

TABLE OF CONTENTS

S.# Contents Page

1 Introduction 4

2 Case History 5

3 SWOT Analysis 7

4 Identification of problems and Setting Career Planning and 8

Management Objectives

5 Career Management Strategy 11

6 Recommendations 15

7 Annexure 16

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am very much thankful to Almighty Allah who made me able to study,

understand and work on this report.

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 Career Planning and Skills Development Report for Deutsche Bank

I wish to express my sincere gratitude to Sir M.A.Butt for providing me an

opportunity to do my project work on “A New Morning For Mountain Dew”
and for the guidance and encouragement in carrying out this report with
providing immense knowledge and better understanding of the subject
material.

INTRODUCTION
I have been hired by The Deutsche Bank of Germany as a HR consultant to evaluate the case of Andreas
Weber presently head of corporate finance department in New York, regarding international assignment
and with different issues of expatriation and repatriation done in the Deutsche Bank.

Deutsche Bank is an international universal bank with its headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany. The bank
employs more than 81,000 people in 76 countries, and has a large presence in Europe, the
Americas, Asia Pacific and the emerging markets.

Deutsche Bank has offices in major financial centers, such as London, Moscow, Toronto, New York, São
Paulo, Singapore, Sydney, Hong Kong and Tokyo. Furthermore, the bank is investing in expanding
markets, such as the Middle East, Latin America, Central & Eastern Europe and Asia Pacific.

The bank offers financial products and services for corporate and institutional clients along with private
and business clients. Services include sales, trading, and origination of debt and equity; mergers and
acquisitions; risk management products, such as derivatives, corporate finance, wealth
management, retail banking, fund management, and transaction banking.

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The case of Andreas Weber has been provided to me for analyzing the HR practices concerning
international assignments. There are several problems related to repatriation of employees highlighted
in the case and the management of the Bank is curious to know about the pitfalls and gaps in planning
and controlling international assignments for their employees. My job is to analyze the case to its very
depth to find out the reasons for the existence of these gaps and the ways and strategies of how to fill
these gaps through proper career planning of the employees by establishing a whole system of
employee career management in the very organization.

Brief summary of the case of Andreas Weber is presented in the next part including all the crucial events
took place in his professional and personal life from being an expat to New York, progressing and being
promoted there and than his decision to come back to his home country Germany. Journey of his
international assignment is summarized next. Then ‘SWOT Analysis’ of the case is presented after the
history part. Following SWOT Analysis is ‘Career Planning and management objectives’ and after that
‘Strategies’ to achieve those objectives are presented in a systematic manner. At the end final
recommendations for the Deutsche Bank are provided to help improve their HR systems and practices to
avoid the current complex situation.

CASE HISTORY
Andreas Weber a hardworking and intelligent man one day sitting on the bench in park and trigger his
memories back to 7 years the initial moment which led him to this trouble. He used to jog to get his
tensions relieved. But on that day it wasn’t working for him. As he sat down on the bench he started to
remember the series of events that were hurting him.

One day Managing Director walked to his office unannounced and asked him to participate in a
company-wide international management development program his task is to foster the professional
development of young aspiring managers. Andrea accepts this offer and work hard to fulfill it. Finally his
efforts paid off and he successfully accomplishes this task.

Suddenly an unexpected vacancy had occurred in the New York branch of bank and Andreas was asked
for it. Andreas after discussing with his wife Lina accepted the job and after two weeks he was
transfered to New York. He remembered the scene when he arrived at airport no one was there to
welcome him so he straight went to the branch and to the head of finance department where he had to
work as the credit analyst the same job he was doing in the Germany. He decided to stay in New York it

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was later proved to be a good decision. He started to learn new procedure of working and after 2
months Lina and their 3 year old daughter arrived to New York .They shifted to new their new home and
with the passage of time they made many new friends, Lina did not get a working permit so she started
work as a volunteer at a museum. Anne –Marie spend every 2nd afternoon at a local Kindergarten so
Lina had a plenty of time to peruse her own interests. At the end of first year Elena was born.

Andreas work was going smoothly as after eight months he was promoted to the position of supervisor
of a group of credit analyst. After a year he was promoted to deputy head of Corporate Finance
department as the requirement was for a person who spoke fluent German, had experience of working
with European companies and was available instantly. In the fifth year of his assignment his boss retired
and he was promoted to the Head of Corporate finance department. It was decided at the time of
promotion that he would stay in the position for three years and would then move to Germany.

After his promotion his life changed as he used to travel a lot, he had travelled 100,000 miles in the first
six months. His wife Lina started to complain and she was also worried about her children's education.
She was worried about Anne-Marie's German and also that she might miss out on German High school
education and their second daughter Elina who was born after their arrival in New York could hardly
speak German. Lina was also frustrated because she could not find a good volunteer job.

Andreas thought that from a professional point of view his assignment was the best thing that could
have happened to him as he was away from corporate bureaucracy and was also a member of senior
management at a very young age. But after long discussions with Lina they decided to move back to
Germany. He contacted the Banks headquarters where he was told that no position of his level was
available but there was a good chance that in the next six months there might be one.

He finally received a phone call after a long time but the position he was offered was junior to his
current positions, he would earn half what he is earning right now and would be posted in less attractive
part of Germany and would not be able be able to utilize his current skills.

This made him realize that current HR policies of Deutsche bank were not good and it punishes those
who are outstanding performers. They send you abroad but do not have a plan for reentry.

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STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES
1) Customers have become savvy and seek out
1)The customers are loyal with Deutsche value and quality in the companies offerings.
bank.
2) Banking sector is competitive and currently
2) Supplier participation towards company is fierce competition is being witnessed.
reasonably friendly.
3) Mission and vision of the bank needs
3) Deutsche bank has unionized staff but improvement.
currently they are more company friendly.
4) In Human Resource Management, more
4) Marketing management is based on importantly in the area of selection, career
contemporary marketing management. planning and development, skills and utilization
5) Deutsche bank is financially strong. needs significant Improvement.
6) Operation systems in Deutsche bank
include Operation management, procedures
and processes are developed consistent with
SWOT
industry standards.

ANALYSISTHREATS 6

OPPORTUNITES
OPPORTUNITES
1)Economic conditions currently seem to be 1) Social shift is transpiring in Germany. Mostly
the reason. in customer awareness, education and
Globalization.
2) Companies reasonably poised to take
2) Deutsche
care of its legislation, including its clauses. Career Planning and Skills bank is not fully
Development equipped
Report to Bank
for Deutsche
internalize the social shift.
3) Government policies reflect the element
of consistency and fostering of the banking 3) Legislations are in place and are being
IDENTIFICATION OF PROBLEMS AND SETTING CAREER
industry. changed overtime.
4) International environments are conducive 4) Germany is witnessing continuous
PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT OBJECTIVES
for Deutsche bank. innovation including technology related with
banking sector.
With increasing globalization and the need for businesses to compete successfully in a global market
place, much attention has been paid to employees who are capable and willing to grow and manage an
expanding business in a foreign country. A sizeable body of research has accumulated over the years
addressing the special challenges of these employees in foreign locations. Examples of the problems
studied are adjustment issues in cross-cultural assignments, the high cost of expatriate failure, selecting
and training and repatriation turnover. Studies usually conclude with numerous recommendations, to
HR professionals, for improving the management of their international employees.

The case under discussion seems to have problems in repatriation and career planning of employees of
Deutsche Bank.

The Problems inherent in the Repatriation Process.

It appears that this Bank do not specify in advance how the international experience will fit into an
employee's career progression thereby inadvertently making room for unfounded high expectations.
With a few exceptions, repatriates express much disappointment when describing their return to the
home office. As observed by Stroh, Gregersen and Black (1998), the lack of opportunity for these
returning managers to use their newly acquired skills and experience can be a source of frustration and
reason for seeking more rewarding employment elsewhere. Getting reacquainted with the home office,
after spending years in a foreign country, can be as difficult an experience for the expatriate as the initial
adaptation to a foreign culture.

A study by Baruch et al. (2002), based on interviews with repatriates from a mid-sized company in the
U.K., found a high rate of dissatisfaction with the repatriation process and a high rate of turnover within
the first year upon return. Some of the employees' disappointments involved the lack of appreciation for
international experience and failure to utilize newly acquired management skills such as: strategic
thinking, managing people, and decision making. The data indicated that an employee's perception of
underutilization, back in the home office, had a direct effect on leaving the company. In general,
repatriates tended to attribute their problems to inadequate career planning at their firms.

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Unsuccessful repatriation processes involve costs for both the organization and the employee. The costs
to the employees consist of disappointment with the job level in the home office upon return from an
international assignment; disappointment with the underutilization of their newly acquired skills and
competencies; and feelings of career displacement or stagnation. The costs to the company include lost
investments because of the underutilization of employees and the cost of their replacement when they
decide to leave the firm.

Career Planning and Management objectives

The career management process begins with setting goals/objectives. A relatively specific goal/objective
must be formulated. This task may be quite difficult when the individual lacks knowledge of career
opportuinities and/or is not fully aware of their talents and abilities. However, the entire career
management process is based on the establishment of defined goals/objectives whether specific or
general in nature.

The time horizon for the achievement of the selected goals/objectives - short term, medium term or
long term - will have a major influence on their formulation.

1. Making career choices and decisions – the traditional focus of careers interventions. The

changed nature of work means that individuals may now have to revisit this process more
frequently now and in the future, more than in the past.
2. Managing the organizational career – concerns the career management tasks of individuals
within the workplace, such as decision-making, life-stage transitions, dealing with stress etc.
3. Managing 'boundaryless' careers – refers to skills needed by workers whose employment is
beyond the boundaries of a single organization, a work style common among, for example,
artists and designers.
4. Taking control of one's personal development – as employers take less responsibility, employees
need to take control of their own development in order to maintain and enhance their
employability.
5. To help individuals cope with continued changes in the world of work.
6. To help individuals develop a realistic attitude toward the dignity of all work and workers.
7. To help individuals understand their unique abilities, interests, and aptitudes.
8. To help individuals develop a realistic understanding of themselves in regard to decision making
and career alternatives.

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9. To provide up-to-date occupational information and other labor market data.

10. To provide the opportunity for individuals to become acquainted with a wide range of
occupational and educational opportunities.
11. To provide information about the world of work that will assist individuals in making long-range
educational and career plans.
12. To assist individuals in making appropriate educational and occupational choices.
13. To provide appropriate follow up information.
14. Encourage growth and career development of employees.
15. Improve skills and knowledge that can be immediately applied at work.
16. Increase motivation and job satisfaction.
17. Create a network of colleagues for problem-solving and support.
18. Promote communication and planning throughout department networks.

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CAREER MANAGEMENT STRATEGY

Encourage growth and career development of employees by coaching, and by helping employees
achieve their career goals human resources by providing adequate training... encouragement of staff
development, and opportunities for growth.

STRATEGY # 01: DEVELOPMENT OF PROPER CAREER MANAGEMENT

AND DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM

Career Developmentvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
Career development is the ongoing acquisition or refinement of skills and knowledge, including job
mastery and professional development, coupled with career planning activities. Job mastery skills are
those that are necessary to successfully perform one's job. Professional development skills are the skills
and knowledge that go beyond the scope of the employee's job description, although they may
indirectly improve job performance.

Guiding Principles
Management’s support for career development is important because:

 Current information about the organization and future trends helps employees create more
realistic career development goals.
 Focus on skill development contributes to learning opportunities.
 Opportunities for promotion and/or lateral moves contribute to the employee's career
satisfaction.
 A greater sense of responsibility for managing one's own career contributes to self-confidence
 Career planning and development clarifies the match between organizational and individual
employee goals
 It's cost-effective to use your own staff talent to provide career development opportunities
within your department
 Career development increases employee motivation and productivity
 Attention to career development helps you attract top staff and retain valued employees
 Supporting career development and growth of employees is mandated by the Philosophy of
Human Resources Management.

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How to Promote Career Development

 Refer to Employee Development Opportunities for the career development plan.

 Annually, conduct an individual development plan and career discussion with employees and
require other supervisors in your department to do the same.
 Hold supervisors in every department accountable for supporting employee development
efforts.
 Create programs and activities to provide skill development, such as job rotation, cross-training,
mentoring, internships, coaching, and career strategy groups.
 Recognize that your role includes providing support and/or release time for staff members'
development beyond their current jobs.
 Support requests for flexible work arrangements from staff members.
 Serve as a role model by participating in career and professional development opportunities
yourself.
 See staff members' applications for other positions as a healthy sign of a dynamic workplace.
 Support lateral moves within your organization.
 Create job vacancy listings that allow for the most diverse applicant pool while honoring
transferable skills.

STRATEGY # 02: USE APPROPRIATE SELECTION TOOLS FOR SELECTING

RIGHT CANDIDATE

While selecting employees proper selection guidelines and tools should be used by the Deutsche Bank.

Multinational organizations should use rigorous selection criteria to select managers or officers for
overseas assignments. General criteria include the individual’s adaptability, motivation, experience,
education, age, leadership skills as well as physical and emotional health. Also, a successful international
assignment depends heavily on the support of the spouse and children. Personality assessment is also
very widely used tool to identify personal characteristics matching to the job and international
assignment requirements.

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Personality assessment through Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is one of the most important tools
used to identify right match for the international assignments. MBTI assessment is
a psychometric questionnaire designed to measure psychological preferences in how people perceive
the world and make decisions. It has four different dimensions to identify 16 different personality types.
These dimensions are extraversion and introversion, sensing and intuitive, thinking and feeling,
judgement and perception.

Today, organizations also examine a number of characteristics to gauge whether an individual is fit for
an international job assignment. These include the individual’s:

 Work experience with cultures other than one’s own.

 Previous overseas travel.
 Foreign language abilities.
 Recent immigration background or heritage.
 Ability to integrate with different people, cultures and types of business organizations.
 Ability to solve problems within different frameworks and perspectives.
 Ability to sense and accurately evaluate developments in the host country.
 Sensitivity to differences of culture, ethics, politics and religion.
 Flexibility to make decisions while coping with a lack of help and gaps in information.

Cultural Adjustment Tools

Before leaving for an international job assignment, many organizations provide anticipatory adjustment
tools through pre-departure cultural seminars and workshop training.

Once the individual arrives in the overseas assignment, multinationals usually contribute in-country
adjustment support mechanisms. These enable the expatriate to:

 Maintain a positive outlook in a high pressure situation.

 Meet the challenges and decision-making stresses of the new job.
 Adjust to the host-country’s organizational culture.
 Deal with non-work matters like family adjustment.
 Develop effective socialization tactics in the new cultural environment.

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STRATEGY # 03: SKILLS DEVELOPMENT

Along with other important strategies to be implemented, skills development of selected candidates
with other related people is also very important.
Effective preparation, support, and training for international assignments need to be based on sound
research-supported models of the skills required to meet the challenges of those assignments for the
assignees themselves, their families accompanying them, those managing them, and the hosts with
whom they are working. Though there has been less theoretical development than desirable in the
intercultural/international assignment field, there are models of varying degrees of comprehensiveness
from which to choose (e.g. Barna, 1983; Black, Mendenhall and Oddou, 1991; Furnham and Bochner,
1986; Gudykunst, 1991). One such model (Fontaine, 1989, 1993a) is described here along with its
implications for the skill-related objectives of assignee preparation, support and training.
The ecology of international assignments
The ecology of an international assignment consists of the socio cultural, physical, and biological
environment in which tasks on that assignment are completed. The ecology might involve, for instance,
the skills, expectations, and relationships of the task participants, the characteristics of the physical
resources available, and the health, safety, security conditions of the assignment site, respectively.
There are several characteristics common to the ecologies of most international assignments (Desatnick
and Bennett, 1977; Fontaine, 1989). For example such assignments are usually characterized by travel to
a place different from home; they typically involve special problems associated with time differences
and communication; there are important cultural differences in the people and how they live and do
business, particularly in how they resolve conflict, since some conflict is almost unavoidable
interculturally; there is often less organizational, social, and technological support than at home; and
assignees usually are more responsible for providing the structure of their daily, weekly, and monthly
activities. These characteristics essentially define what "international assignments" are and set them
apart from their domestic counterparts.
This is one of the models used for assessing and developing skills for international assignments other
models can also b used for such purpose.

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RECOMMENDATIONS

 Navigating your employees’ Career: Career Management in today's changing workplace for the
success of both the employees and the organization.
 Encourage coaching on careers and job performance.
 New Rules, New Roles: Changing the way you think about work and international job
assignments.
 Retaining Your Top Achievers: Employee retention strategies after repatriation and for a
changing workplace.
 Making employees more effective at work: An Introduction to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.
 Successful Interviewing: Skills and Strategies for hiring top performers.
 Managing Performance: Skills and strategies for giving feedback.
 Beyond Recruiting to Retention: The focus on Career Development.
 Career Transition Seminar and workshops.

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ANNEXURE

SKILLS DEVELOPMENT AND MOTIVATION CHART

Used analyze the skills of employees under different skills development programs.

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