The expatriates in multinational companies: A trend in Serbia

Expansion of international operations has imposed new demands to multinational companies, especially in the area of human resource management. International human resource management is primarily characterized by movement of employees across the boundaries of one country in order to take various roles in foreign subsidiaries of multinational companies. One of the most important decisions a multinational company has to make refers to selection of employees to fill in positions in its foreign subsidiaries depending on nationality of employees. This paper tends to explore the significance and roles of expatriates in obtaining success of multinational company in international operations in order to emphasize the advantages expatriates may bring to a multinational company. This paper aims to analyze one of crucial issues that multinational companies face in global environment - the process of expatriation, particularly focusing on the number of expatriates (parent country nationals) in subsidiaries of foreign multinational companies in Serbia and the tendency of changing their number in these subsidiaries, as well as nationality of managers in key positions in these subsidiaries (CEO and HR manager). Empirical research performed through a questionnaire has shown certain features of subsidiaries of multinational companies in Serbia, indicating that the number of expatriates has increased since their founding until today (contrary to expectations based on theoretical concepts and results of studies performed in other countries and environments). However, as it was expected, the analysis of results has shown that most subsidiaries in Serbia have replaced their expatriates in the position of CEO (and HR manager), which has brought companies numerous benefits, such as lower expenses.