The problematic of expatriation in international human resource management: studies applied to SMES in central and northern of Portugal

The human resources management processes associated with initial or further internationalization of companies is increasingly present on the agendas of national companies, due to increasing need for internationalization of the portuguese economy. This article reviews the literature on the national and international human resource management from the perspective of internationalization, thus providing a theoretical contribution to this area of research, and presents the results of an empirical study, based on interviews and questionnaires to managers and employees, which resulted from the study of two portuguese companies, whose aim was to analyze the sensitivity of the process of expatriation and repatriation of its employees. It was found developments in both companies be effective in expatriation, as evidenced by the monitoring of employees and their families, but still continues to neglect the training and performance evaluation that sometimes does not reproduce the work done by expatriates. Given the repatriation companies also do not think in a structured way in charge of assigning the employee upon his return