DESCRIPTION OF SERVICES

Tucker International offers an Assessment, Selection and Development Service for corporate personnel and their spouses who are considering or preparing for international assignments. This service is based on many years of empirical research on the critical factors of intercultural adjustment and success and how one's ability to achieve these factors can be assessed prior to an international assignment.

This service is based on the Overseas Assignment Inventory, the only validated instrument available that predicts intercultural adjustment. The OAI assesses the following characteristics of highly successful expatriates:

The current data base for the OAI is over three thousand corporate expatriate employees and their spouses who have completed it and been followed up later during their expatriate assignment. Individual profiles are created for respondents, which are compared to this data base.

This Assessment Service is delivered directly by Dr. Michael F. Tucker, author of the OAI and director of over twenty-three years of research and development activities that are the foundation of the service. A consultative approach is used with clients to apply the service in very flexible ways, since each client company has very different needs and circumstances.This Service represents a solid step forward in the application of objective, data-based approaches to the challenge of assessment and development for international assignment. The benefits of proper assessment and development include reducing the loss of corporate investments made on failed expatriate assignments and avoiding the human costs of damaged self concept and reputation of culturally maladjusted assignees. But, perhaps most importantly, well prepared expatriates are more trouble-free and productive overseas, which gives their companies a competitive edge in the global marketplace.

Applications of the ServiceThere are three primary ways in which this service is applied - selection among candidates for a specific international assignment; integration with a pre-departure, intercultural training program, and; as part of international career planning and development. In all three cases, the corporate employee and spouse complete an OAI, which is sent to Tucker International for scoring, interpretation and preparation of a report.