Penn State World Campus International Recruitment Selection and Global Careers Essay

Discuss key trends and issues identified in the literature regarding expectations and misconceptions of expatriates.

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Self-initiated expatriation and
migration in the management
literature
78
Present theorizations and future
research directions
Akram Al Ariss
Toulouse Business School, Université de Toulouse, Toulouse, France, and
Marian Crowley-Henry
Department of Management, National University of Ireland Maynooth,
Maynooth, Ireland
Abstract
Purpose – This paper aims to offer a critical review of how self-initiated expatriation (SIE) is
theorized compared to migration in the management literature and to indicate venues for future
research on SIE.
Design/methodology/approach – A systematic review has been conducted using the ISI Web of
Knowledge database as well as ABI/INFORM in order to include key journals in the management field.
Findings – Despite the importance of present theorizations on SIE, the authors show that the
literature presents a narrow focus on the most privileged of self-initiated expatriates and presents
some important knowledge gaps. In order to fill these gaps, the authors propose a research map for
future research on SIE. This map includes four key dimensions. These are: diversity-informed research
on SIE; context specific and multilevel understanding of SIE; reflexive approaches to SIE; triangulated
methods to studying SIE.
Research limitations/implications – By proposing a research map with theoretical and
methodological implications, this paper increases our understanding of SIE. It offers a guide for
future research on SIEs.
Practical implications – Research on self-initiated expatriation needs to be more inclusive and
critical in terms of studying the diverse human resources in our contemporary societies.
Originality/value – The paper indicates how research on self-initiated expatriation can become
more developed in terms of its theorizations. Furthermore, it proposes a research map for future
studies on SIE that is reflexive, relational, diversity-informed, and methodologically-triangulated.
Keywords Expatriates, Migrant workers, Self-initiated expatriation, Migration, International mobility,
Job mobility
Paper type General review
Introduction
While still a relatively under-researched expatriation category in management studies,
theories on self-initiated expatriation (SIE) have been bourgeoning and published in
Career Development International
leading specialized (e.g. Career Development International and International Journal of
Vol. 18 No. 1, 2013
Human Resource Management) and general (e.g. Academy of Management Journal and
pp. 78-96
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
British
Journal of Management) management academic journals. The interest in this
1362-0436
topic comes with the recognition by academic scholars, business, and policy-makers
DOI 10.1108/13620431311305962
that SIEs are valuable international human resources that benefit organizations and
economies (Dickmann and Baruch, 2011). In this regard, in 2011 the UN Department of
Economic and Social Affairs’ Population Division estimates that in 2010 there were 214
million individuals who were undertaking an international mobility. This represents
an increase of 58 million since 1990 and about 3.1 percent of the total world population.
This same report explains that for the period of 2010-2050, the number of individuals
moving from developing to more developed regions is expected to be 96 million.
Among these individuals, self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) will continue to represent
important international human resources for organizations for various reasons. For
example, SIEs might have a good understanding of local and international markets,
languages, and cultures. They would cost less than traditional corporate expatriates in
terms of travel and living costs, salaries, and taxation among other financial issues. All
these reasons make it important for companies to understand the nature and
management of SIEs.
Despite the growing interest in SIE (e.g. Al Ariss, 2010; Cerdin and Pargneux, 2010;
Crowley-Henry, 2012; Richardson, 2009), it remains unclear how it is theorized in
management studies compared to other forms of mobility. Berry (2009) and Berry and
Bell (2011) have worked on this topic. This paper fills this important knowledge gap by
positioning key present theories and future directions for management research on SIE.
By doing so, we respond to an important call in this special issue regarding moving
towards a more theoretically-grounded understanding of SIE.
For the purpose of this paper, we define SIE as denoting internationally mobile
individuals, who have moved through their own agency (rather than through an
organizationally-assigned expatriation) to another country for an indeterminable
duration. Inkson et al. (1997) are credited with initiating discussion on the previously
un-explored category of “self initiated foreign work experience” (SFE), which Suutari
and Brewster (2000) developed further in comparing SFEs with organization assigned
expatriates. The nomenclature (SFE) has since converged to the widely accepted “SIE”
category of international assignee. Nonetheless, the heterogeneity within the SIE
category continues to amass attention (Suutari and Brewster, 2000; Al Ariss and Syed,
2011). This paper focuses on SIE theorizations in order to enable a more critical and
multi-perspective development of SIE research and knowledge.
Our paper is divided into three parts. In the first part, we introduce the methodology
of our review. In the second part, we address the question: How is self-initiated
expatriation theorized in the management literature? We answer this question by
revealing key problematic facets of the management theorizations on SIE compared to
migration. The third part focuses on explaining where future research needs to go with
respect to what has been done on SIE to date. We respond to this question by
proposing a research map that helps researchers meet the challenges of studying SIE.
Our paper offers a unique contribution to the management literature on SIE by offering
much needed clarity regarding what we know and where research needs to go in the
future.
Methodology
To provide a review of the management literature, we conducted a series of searches
using the ISI Web of Knowledge database, which includes all journals having an
impact factor and listed in the Social Science Citation Index. This is important as it
allows understanding how self-initiated expatriation is conceptualized in management
journals that are recognized to have an impact in the management field. Using the
SIE and
migration in the
literature
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keywords of “self-initiated expatriation”, “self-directed travel”, “self-initiated foreign
experience” and “migration” we searched for peer-reviewed journal articles and
reviews. The initial research returned 260 articles in social science fields. We then
limited the coverage only to articles in the field of management and to journals whose
aim and scope had a managerial approach. We chose English as the articles’ language
and searched for papers available without limiting the date of publication. This
reduced the number of studies to 96 articles. Furthermore, using ABI/INFORM
complete database, we undertook an additional search in journals (identified in
Appendix under the title “Other”) that are recognized as important in our field and that
were not found in our initial search. The journals that were included and the frequency
of their articles on the topic of self-initiated expatriation are listed in Appendix at the
end of the paper. In total, we read 110 articles, excluded those that did not link to the
topic of self-initiated expatriation, and identified common thematic issues among the
remaining ones.
The theorization of self-initiated expatriation in the management literature
The term “SIE” is used in the management literature to refer to individuals
undertaking an international career experience on their own initiative. Nevertheless,
there is an ambiguity in the literature regarding the connection between SIE and
migration. In order to elucidate this ambiguity, we attempt to explain how both terms
are employed. We delve into the management literature in order to answer two
important questions:
(1) How are SIEs portrayed compared to migrants?
(2) What do we know about SIEs compared to migrants?
In this section, we answer these two questions bringing therefore a much-needed
clarity to how SIE is theorized in the literature.
How are SIEs portrayed compared to migrants in the management literature?
Our literature review shows that research on SIEs focus on the most privileged
expatriates. Table I summarizes the key characteristics and profiles of SIEs in
contemporary management academic publications. We focus on the contextual aspects
such as the nature of the economic system in home/host countries as well as the way
ethnicity both impacts upon career choices and outcomes of SIEs. First, the literature
focuses on SIEs who come from developed countries including Western European
states (Crowley-Henry, 2012), USA (Vance, 2005), Australia (Tharenou, 2010), and New
Zealand (Thorn, 2009). With few exceptions (e.g. Agullo and Egawa, 2009; Al Ariss and
Syed, 2011), when expatriates come from less-developed countries they are most
frequently labeled as “migrants” or “immigrants”. No rational theoretical or
methodological foundation is given to explain such terminology. Instead, this
terminological distinction comes to replicate and support a stereotyped image of
migrants who are less advantaged in terms of their originating country and ethnic
origins. The literature positions “migrants” in stark contrast to SIEs from developed
countries. SIEs therefore emerge as agentially more internationally mobile and, as
such, benefit from the privilege of “self-initiating” their international mobility.
Such characteristics are linked to structural and individual patterns. At the
structural level, undertaking a SIE is described in the context of agreements between
countries (often the most developed economies) that facilitate international mobility.
Characteristics
Profiles of self-initiated expatriates
Country of origin
Western Europe and USA (Crowley-Henry, 2012; Vance, 2005),
France (Cerdin and Pargneux, 2010), Finland ( Jokinen et al.,
2008), United Kingdom (Richardson, 2006), Germany, Australia
(Tharenou and Caulfield, 2010), New Zealand (Thorn, 2009),
Lebanon (Al Ariss and Syed, 2011), India (Agullo and Egawa,
2009) and other regions from in cross-country studies (Bergh and
Plessis, 2012)
Less focus on ethnic minorities (Berry, 2009; Al Ariss, 2010)
Gender
Men and women represented in the samples with an interest in
understanding gender impact on expatriate experiences (Myers
and Pringle, 2005; Tharenou, 2010; Selmer and Lauring, 2011a;
Berry and Bell, 2011)
Education and skills
Most of the studies focus on highly educated and qualified
individuals (Suutari and Brewster, 2000)
They are described to be endowed with a career capital: knowhow, social capital, and motivations (Cao et al., 2012)
Job positions
Top managers, executives, middle managers (Biemann and
Andresen, 2010)
Organizations
Multinationals and medium size companies
Period of international mobility
Varies between short (few months) to longer terms (several years)
and permanent (Al Ariss, 2010)
Destination countries
Japan, France, Italy, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates among
other countries
Description of context
Focus on globalization with little attention given to national,
regional, and local contexts
Focus on the agency of SIEs and their ability to act (Doherty et al.,
2011)
For example, this includes UK and Australia, Canada and France, mobility and work in
the EU for European citizens. Indeed one of most important rights for EU citizens is
their freedom to move and work across the EU member states (Eures, 2012; Eurofound,
2012). This freedom is extended to students and professors through the EU Erasmus
program (European Commission Education & Training, 2012) and to academic
researchers via the Marie Curie research mobility program (European Commission
Research, 2012). At the individual level, SIEs are often portrayed to freely choose where
to go and when to return back to their home countries. For example, in a recent study,
Tharenou and Caulfield (2010) explain why and how professionals who self-initiate
their expatriation repatriate. The authors conducted a longitudinal study on 546
Australians. Results show that participants were more likely to repatriate when it was
easy to do so, rather than because of undesirable outcomes. Similarly, Doherty et al.’s
(2011) recent study reconfirms the individual choice aspect (including the choice on the
destination and duration of the stay) for SIEs. Richardson and Mallon’s (2005) study on
British academic SIEs shows the relevance of the individuals’ motivations with regards
to moving to and returning from an international work experience. Their study finds
that both agency and structure themes influence the SIE’s motivation. Second,
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Table I.
Who SIEs are in the
management literature?
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self-initiated expatriation discusses the international experience of individuals in
managerial positions (Biemann and Andresen, 2010). These are described as being
endowed with various types of capitals that include education, professional
experiences and networks (Cao et al., 2012). They enjoy great opportunities and
choices when they undertake international mobility, and gain a successful career
experience as a result. On the contrary, whenever the discussion uses the term
“migrant”, the emphasis is on work/employment (rather than careers) that often occur
under harsh conditions of under-employment and even unemployment. Here again, as
opposed to migrants, the literature suggests that career choices and outcomes for SIEs
are boundaryless. In such settings, national and international contexts seem of little
importance; it is the ability of SIEs to cross boundaries that is emphasized. Rather
globalization is frequently presented as the new way to understand careers in our
contemporary world. Surprisingly, unlike SIEs, most discussions on migration are
loaded with structural (e.g. institutional and organizational) barriers and the
internationally mobile migrant seems only to encounter boundaries. Such boundaries
include limited possibilities to cross-geographies; and, even when spatial boundaries
are crossed, further boundaries exist in terms of obtaining work permits and finding
jobs. Table I provides some key sources to support our discussion.
In contrast to the case of SIE, management studies use the term migrant when
discussing the work experiences of unskilled individuals, having less educated
backgrounds, and originating from less-developed countries. This narrow focus in the
management-related literature might be linked to the fact that other journals such as
Migration Letters, International Migration, International Migration Review, and The
Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies have targeted their research with more
in-depth analysis of the topic of migration. Nevertheless, there are few authors such as
Berry (2009) and Berry and Bell (2011) who break this line of distinction between SIE
and migrants and call, in their work for more diverse and open management research
in this regard.
Discussions of migration in management studies have two key methodological
features that influence the themes that are discussed. On the one hand, quantitative
studies focus on macro-contextual issues such as economic benefits of migration for the
labor markets, statistics regarding educational and professional attainments,
unemployment, disability, self-employment, brain drain/gain among other topics. On
the other hand, qualitative studies focus on the professional experiences of migrants in
the context of the management of ethnic diversity. For example, drawing on qualitative
in-depth interviews with ethnic minority and majority individuals, Kamenou (2008)
shows that ethnic minority women often had to deal with additional cultural,
community or religious demands in finding work-life balance. In another on the
experiences of Bangladeshi, Caribbean and Pakistani women working in the public
sector in the UK, Healy et al. (2011) examine how inequalities are produced and
reproduced in the context of workplace. In these same studies, context and history are
presented as essential to understand the experiences of migrants. For instance, in a
qualitative study on Turkish-Cypriots in the UK, Inal and Özkan (2011) argue that the
life and career trajectory of migrants from ethnic minorities is marked by their history
of ethnicity and migration. International experience emerges as characterized by dual
processes of break with tradition and later return to tradition. During this process,
migrants’ identities are tested and usually reaffirmed, such as in the case of Turkish
Cypriots who rediscovered their Turkish Cypriotness (Table II).
Characteristics
Profiles of migrants
Country of origin
Ethnic minorities from various Asian (e.g. India) and African
(e.g. Zimbabwe, Nigeria) countries, Arab countries and Middle
East (e.g. Lebanon, Morocco, Turkey), Mexico, Eastern Europe
(e.g. Moldavia and Romania), Madagascar (Ramboarison-Lalao
et al., 2012)
Gender
Men represented in the samples/participants more than women
Education and skills
Unskilled and less educated
Those studies which do focus on qualified migrants do so in the
context of either unemployment or under-employment
Job positions
Workers, self-employed individuals
Organizations
Medium and small size companies, self-employment
Period of international mobility
Longer terms (several years) and permanent
Destination countries
Western Europe, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Canada
Description of context
Focus on challenges, lack of work rights, discrimination, macrocontext issues of labor mobility
Focus on constraints imposed by structures (government
agencies, labor markets, business sectors) and less on agency of
migrants and their ability to act
Less focus on career experiences and greater emphasis on
unemployment issues
What do we know about SIEs compared to migrants from management studies?
SIE research draws, in a balanced way, on both qualitative and quantitative methods
in order to explore a large variety of topics. These topics include: reasons for
undertaking an expatriation, career capital, career strategies of SIEs, career outcomes
and successes, repatriation, among other key issues that are indicated in Table III.
Nevertheless, very few studies employed mixed methods building on multiple data
sources. We present a brief sketch of some important themes in this literature.
The reasons behind self-initiated expatriation are related to financial, personal,
family, search for adventure and career advancement issues (Inkson and Myers, 2003;
Carr et al., 2005). The agentic ability to improve one’s lifestyle and quality of living is
considered an SIE motivation, rather than a forced move for economic reasons
(Crowley-Henry, 2010). Learning about different cultural settings and establishing new
international contacts are indicated to be important motives (Myers and Pringle, 2005).
Besides, the desire for new life journeys and discovering different ways of living are
among the reported reasons for SIE (Richardson and McKenna, 2003). It is frequent
that researchers compare SIE and expatriates that are sent by their companies (Suutari
and Brewster, 2000; Cerdin and Pargneux, 2010; Doherty et al., 2011). Both SIEs and
corporate expatriates are found to engage in pursuit of personal and professional
developments, with their individual agency underlined.
The literature focuses on highly educated and skilled individuals. SIEs are therefore
presented as possessing career capital. The concept of career capital offers a connection
between three forms of knowledge that are assumed to be essential for the career
development of SIEs. These are: knowing-why, knowing-how, and knowing-whom
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migration in the
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Table II.
Who migrants are in the
management literature?
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Table III.
What does management
research tell us about
SIEs?
n
Themes on SIE
1
International career behaviors (Agullo and Egawa, 2009)
2
Career strategies in self-initiating expatriation (Al Ariss and Syed, 2011)
3
Adjustment of self-initiated expatriates/repatriates to their countries (Begley et al., 2008)
4
How SEs and AEs differ with respect to their reasons for working internationally (Doherty et al.,
2011) and regarding their career capitals ( Jokinen et al., 2008), career aspirations and
orientations, and in what way their individual career strategies differ (Biemann and Andresen,
2010)
5
The relationship of job satisfaction and turnover intentions: cross-cultural training, protege
experience, peer support, and the cultural clusters of the home and host countries (Bozionelos,
2009)
6
Boundaryless career experiences of SIEs and the careers of their spouses (Eby, 2001)
7
Opportunities HRM can play in supporting the adjustment of self-initiated expatriates to the
new organization and culture (Howe-Walsh and Schyns, 2010)
8
Demographic profiles (e.g. marital status, gender) of self-initiated expatriates (Selmer and
Lauring, 2011a; Selmer and Lauring, 2011b)
9
Reasons to expatriate/repatriate explained by push/pull factors (Thorn, 2009; Tharenou and
Caulfield, 2010); career outcomes for SIE (Selmer and Lauring, 2011a, b)
10
Careers of SIE women: what causes women to self-initiate expatriation? Women’s proactivity to
redress the disadvantage they face in managerial career advancement. SIE women’s
repatriation and career outcomes (Tharenou, 2010)
Gender differences in terms of reasons to expatriate (Thorn, 2009)
11
Career patterns of SIEs from specific groups such as academics (Richardson, 2009), nurses
(Bozionelos, 2009) and other professionals (Thorn, 2009)
competencies (DeFillippi and Arthur, 1996). Knowing-why is related to personal
motivations to pursue a selected career path. For example, in the case of SIEs, this is
linked to what motivates their decisions on whether and where to go (Carr et al., 2005).
The knowing-how competencies are often presented in a similar manner to classical
human capital meanings. These consist of individuals’ knowledge, for example,
education, skills, and work experience of SIEs. Finally, knowing-whom competencies
are linked to relational and professional networks such as meeting people helpful to
career advancement. Networks provide opportunities for using and developing human
capital.
Linked to the previous discussion, the literature suggests that SIEs accumulate and
use career capital to accomplish career success. In the context of SIE, subjective
success is mainly discussed. Subjective success for SIEs is connected to their feelings
of job satisfaction, and work-life balance such as through greater involvement with
family life. It is common that SIEs prefer work-life balance more than power, prestige,
money, and vertical advancement in their careers (Inkson, 2008). This
acknowledgement of potentially reduced power and access up the hierarchy is
emphasized for female SIEs (Crowley-Henry and Weir, 2007; Tharenou, 2010).
Management research on migration draws essentially on quantitative methods.
Unlike SIEs, migrants are portrayed as being discriminated against in their
professional experiences, they are unemployed or underemployed, do not enjoy full
career choices, and emphasis is made on their demographics such as their level of
education.
Research concludes that host countries’ organizations and institutions benefit when
migrants’ human capital is properly used (Salaff et al., 2002). Studies recognize that the
career experiences of skilled individuals traveling on their own initiative and working
in host countries remain largely under-researched (Collings et al., 2007). For example,
immigrant women are filling increasingly skilled jobs (Bach, 2007). Nevertheless,
skilled immigration is an area where women’s career experiences remains, up to a
certain point, hidden.
The literature discusses downward career mobility for skilled migrants. This occurs
when skilled migrants make a career step back by taking jobs that under-use their
educational level and skills (Al Ariss and Özbilgin, 2010). Furthermore, studies are
bourgeoning regarding the role of the state and organizations in regulating labor
migration and shaping the experiences of migrants in the source and host countries.
This is discussed mainly in journals on industrial relations. Bach (2007) argues that
studies focus mainly on the general behavior of migrants (e.g. integration, brain drain,
brain again) while neglecting the role of the state and organizations in the migration
process (Table IV).
Having reviewed the management literature, so far we have addressed two key
issues: first, how SIEs are portrayed compared to migrants; and second, the state-of-the
art knowledge about SIEs compared to migrants. Building on our findings, the next
section discusses what can be learned from the management literature on both
migration and SIE that offers research opportunities to studies on SIEs.
A research map for future studies on self-initiated expatriation
Our review demonstrates four important issues that are lacking in the existing
research on SIE. In this section, we present these knowledge gaps and propose a map
for future direction on SIE research. These gaps are:
(1) Focus is on the most privileged individuals in terms of their ethnicity,
education, and professional positioning. Our research map calls for
diversity-informed research on SIE.
(2) SIE research lacks contextualization. For example, there are several key
topics that need further exploration, including understanding the
national contexts of the home and host countries of self-initiated
expatriates, establishing a deeper comprehension of the relation between
self-initiated expatriation and migration policies in the host country,
taking into account the history of migration and migration groups in the
host countries and its relation with self-initiated expatriation, and
exploring transnational links of SIEs with their home countries. We
suggest that SIE studies need to be more context-specific and emphasize
the multilevel nature of expatriation.
(3) More broadly, the SIE scholarship often employs the term “SIE” and “migrant”
without fully questioning their meanings and the implication of their use. This
leads to enhancing an image of the expatriate who is full of agency, able to make
free career choices, while enforcing an image of migrants as “second-class
expatriates” who are subject to exclusion and structural barriers. We call for
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Table IV.
What does management
research tell us about
migrants?
n
Themes on migrants
1
Strategies to relocate from home to host countries and strategies to advance their careers in the
host countries (Al Ariss and Syed, 2011)
2
How ethnic linkages/networks affect the location choice of migrants (Bauer et al., 2009)
3
The international employment experiences of female migrants and the challenges they face in a
foreign country (Bodolica and Spraggon, 2008)
4
Job non-satisfaction of academics in their home countries and their international migration to
other countries (Chimanikire et al., 2007)
5
Migrants’ entrepreneurship (Harney, 2006); How the probability of self-employment for
migrants changes with time / comparisons between the different migrant ethnic groups in term
of self-employment (Clark and Drinkwater, 2009)
6
Migrant workers’ rights (Deacon et al., 2011)
7
Integration of migrants within the host countries’ workforce and the future that migrant
workers see for themselves discussed from a human resource perspective (Devine et al., 2007)
8
Research on how public labor migration policies support refugees from their arrival into their
employment in host countries (Diedrich and Styhre, 2008)
Link between national diversity policies and migration (Healy and Oikelome, 2007)
9
Geographical mobility among unemployment benefit recipients, including migrants (e.g. in
Australia) (Dockery, 2000)
10
The link between migration on the gendering of service work (Dyer et al., 2010)
11
Brain drain issues (Gaiduk et al., 2009)
12
The link between migration and professional sports (Madichie, 2009)
13
Intermarriage, language, and economic assimilation of migrants (Meng and Meurs, 2009)
14
Immigrants with disabilities: analysis of their social and demographic features, such as regional
distribution by country of origin, level of education or degree of integration into working life,
exclusion patterns (Meseguer-Santamaria et al., 2010)
15
Barriers in finding jobs for skilled professional migrants in countries such as Canada (Salaff
et al., 2002)
Language deficit affecting the labor market experiences of migrants (e.g. migrant women in
Australia) (Syed and Murray, 2009)
16
Identity of migrants in the context of host countries’ organizations (Siebers, 2009)
How different aspects of migrant pre-migration characteristics (human capital and motivation
to migrate) and post-migration behavior (social integration and career self-management) predict
migrants’ post-migration career success (Tharmaseelan et al., 2010)
more reflexive approaches on SIE that question and critique the central
assumptions of this area.
(4) Few SIE studies employ both qualitative and quantitative methods and use
multiple data sources. Our map builds on the utility of triangulated approaches
that enhance our knowledge of this topic. Figure 1 highlights the four
dimensions of our research map.
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Figure 1.
Research map for future
studies on self-initiated
expatriation
Research on SIE informed by diversity in the workplace
SIE is an area where career experiences remain largely confined to privileged
individuals undertaking expatriation. This can be explained by the fact that
researchers in this area come from these same privileged groups. Thus, it is important
to include the less privileged, in terms of their skills, sex, ethnicity, and physical
disabilities, that also constitute an important facet of international mobility. While
recent literature suggests that females and males self-initiate their expatriation in
about equal numbers (e.g. Tharenou, 2010, p. 75); nevertheless, the focus is on White
women SIEs from developed countries, with less attention given to the intersection of
ethnicity and gender relations for ethnic minority women. Gendered and ethnic
relations are increasingly found in people’s every day work and life activities and thus
influence career choices and outcomes of female ethnic minority SIEs (Bourne and
Özbilgin, 2008). The influence of gender, for instance, leads to unequal representation
of women in science, technology, and engineering professions across the world (Bourne
and Özbilgin, 2008). We argue that gender and diversity need more attention in SIE
research. In addressing “second class SIEs” within the current confines of the SIE
category (such as female or minority-group SIEs), which is in itself heterogeneous, we
can build on linkages and commonalities between migrants and SIEs, and thereby
deepen our knowledge of international mobility.
Relational and contextual understanding of SIE
There are increasing calls for linking the individual, organizational, and
macro-contextual levels in SIE studies rather than opposing them or focusing on
just one level. It is important to consider the role of both structures (such as
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governmental institutions, NGOs, and organizations) and individuals in shaping the
work and life choices and outcomes of SIEs. For example, at the macro-contextual level,
it would be interesting to investigate further the “unspoken” motives of institutions in
managing the different forms of labor migration. It would be also interesting to
investigate the extent to which institutions provide support for organizations in terms
of employment of self-initiated expatriates; the pull factors. At the organizational level,
Inkson (2008) suggests that the relation linking employees to their organizations
should be understood in terms of partnership leading to mutual benefits. This applies
to future research on SIE that could balance between the individual choices and
organizational needs in terms of human resource management. At the individual level,
the subjective experiences of SIEs allow to understand their career trajectories,
throughout time, in order to gain a better understanding of their international
professional experiences.
Al Ariss et al. (2012) argue that by recognizing the contextual nature of careers,
scholars can gain a more nuanced understanding of international careers in their
relevant geographical, historical, institutional and organizational settings. The same
authors propose a multilevel approach (Table V) to studying careers of migrants that
we also call to adopt in research on SIE. If their model is applied to SIE, the
micro-individual level would refer to the subjective work-life experiences of SIEs. The
meso-organizational level would take into account how organizations shape the careers
of SIE. The macro-contextual level would consider the role of institutional
interventions, as well as social, political, and economic factors that can limit or
enable the careers of SIEs.
Reflexive approaches in studying SIE
Research design in management publications, including on self-initiated expatriation,
is often “represented as a fait accompli” (Johnson et al., 1999, p. 1234) that is
unquestioned with regards to the matters that influenced it. In line with researchers
who call for reflexive research ( Johnson et al., 1999; Swan, 2008), we call for more
reflexivity in future studies on SIEs. The lack of reflexivity in management studies
Table V.
Key levels and future
research themes on SIEs
Broad levels
Specific themes
Macro-context
Regional and national legislation/policies/guidelines on the employment
and work of SIEs, country(ies) of origin/destination(s), discriminatory and
anti-discriminatory policies, diversity policies, unemployment settings,
formal policies of recognition of education and skills of SIEs
Organizational level
Human resource management strategies for SIEs, discrimination practices
against SIEs, diversity strategies/practices for accommodating SIEs,
underemployment of SIEs in organizations, human resource development
strategies
Individual level
Agency of SIE from minority groups, work-life experiences of SIEs from
minority groups, strategies of leaving a country for another one, strategies
to overcome structural barriers in the destination country, experiences of
SIEs in terms of their ethnicity/religion/sex/age/physical abilities among
other characteristics, link between experiences in the home/destination
countries
Source: Adapted from Al Ariss et al. (2012)
might be linked to the fact that publishing traditions, because of positivist
assumptions, are against discussing research ambiguities. Another reason is that
researchers might find it difficult to present research ambiguities in a reasonable
manner ( Johnson et al., 1999). Because “the difficulties, practicalities, and methods of
doing” (Mauthner and Doucet, 2003, p. 143) reflexivity are absent in published work on
SIE, researchers appear to have neutral-value on choices of research design, analysis,
and findings and terminology.
Reflexivity allows overcoming apparent neutrality in social sciences by questioning
the way in which the process of research is carried out (Hardy et al., 2001). This takes
place when researchers explain that their research on SIE “comes from a particular
standpoint” (Swan, 2008, p. 395). Reflexivity also occurs by recognizing that
individuals, including the researchers, impose a vision of reality that corresponds to
their point-of-view (Bourdieu, 2001, p. 172). Al Ariss (2012) suggests that there are two
key conditions for reflexivity: one is related to the researcher and the other to research
participants. In the context of SIE, first, reflexivity requires that SIE researchers
demonstrate their awareness throughout the research process of their own personal
experiences and assumptions, which influence their understanding of the phenomena
under investigation (Easterby-Smith, 2008). For example, researchers could recognize
that they have implicit/explicit beliefs about their choice of the group of SIE that is
researched, the importance of the research questions, their understanding of the data,
among other issues. In this paper, for example, our position comes from our particular
interest and understanding of diversity and equality in management studies, including
how SIEs and migrants are considered in the literature. This position has shaped our
research and review here, in how we question assumptions and propose a more critical
and fundamental reflection on, and unpacking of, why migrants and SIEs are actually
more similar than different.
Second, reflexivity in research on SIE also supposes recognizing the subjectivist
nature of the experiences research participants rather than taking these as a complete
objective truth. This requires questioning participants’ presuppositions, and how these
can influence the research design, data collection and analysis, as well as research
conclusions. For instance, one can be reflective when doing qualitative interviews with
policy-makers on the topic of labor migration policies. In this particular case, the
importance of questioning institutional discourses has been described as follows:
The trick of dealing with the hierarchy of credibility is simple enough: doubt everything
anyone in power tells you. Institutions always put their best foot forward in public. The
people who run them, being responsible for their activities and reputations, always lie a little
bit, smoothing over rough spots, hiding troubles, denying the existence of problems. What
they say may be true, but social organization gives them reasons to lie. A well-socialized
participant in society may believe them, but a well-socialized social scientist will suspect the
worst and look for it (Becker, 1998, p. 91).
In sum, being reflexive in SIE research means to recognize that full objectivity remains
unattainable as hidden motives and values, for both the researcher and the research
participants, will always be present to influence the research process (Al Ariss, 2012).
Documenting such issues, albeit in concise explanations in publications on SIE, makes
it possible to report the conditions under which research is undertaken and therefore
enhance the quality of future SIE studies.
SIE and
migration in the
literature
89
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90
Triangulation in research methods
Triangulation in SIE research consists of using more than one method and source of
data in the study of international mobility. Examining information collected by
different methods leads to reducing the impact of potential single-method biases by
improving accuracy (McEvoy and Richards, 2006) and thus increasing researchers’
understanding of reality (Creswell, 2003). In view of that, mixed quantitative and
qualitative methods can be one way of diversifying data sources on SIE.
In this regard, while quantitative methods are useful in confirming theory that leads
to general conclusions (Howard and Borland, 2001), and in giving indications such as
what percentage of individuals undertaking expatriation think or behave in a certain
way, they do not allow the researcher to delve into the details of the experiences of
individuals. Here, qualitative methods can highlight the qualities of processes that are
not experimentally examined in terms of quantity (Denzin and Lincoln, 2005). Using
qualitative in-depth interviews in research on SIE allows revealing detailed data about
individuals’ career experiences that lead, therefore, to building theory. In line with this,
reporting field notes can also be of great help. While recording qualitative interviewees
allows capturing elements such as tone and the discourse of participants, brief notes
can be taken concerning observational issues that could not be obtained from the
interview process, such as participants’ work environments, outside interactions, and
facial expressions. This allows situating the accounts of the research participants and
helps thus to provide better analysis and explanation. In addition, document analysis
of labor migration policies can be helpful to understand the career choices available for
SIEs.
Conclusions
While there is an increasing interest in understanding SIE, a comprehensive
framework for theorizing and researching this area is lacking in management studies.
This paper addresses this gap in that it presents a critical review of management
literature to date on SIE and migration. From a systematic review of the existing
management literature in this area, it pushes the boundaries of the research on SIE by
synthetizing its key debates, comparing it to migration, and proposing a more
relational and inclusive model for future studies. Rather than postulating a narrow
focus on SIE, the paper argues that the theoretical weaknesses concerning this topic
could be better addressed through a research agenda that is more inclusive in nature.
Specifically, the paper contributes to career and management studies on SIE by
setting out a research framework that has four important dimensions. These
dimensions are:
(1) diversity-informed;
(2) context-specific;
(3) reflexive; and
(4) methodologically triangulation-sensitive.
We suggest that, in order to better understand the SIE group, including their
experiences, motivations, and implications for organizations, a more comprehensive
research framework is required. Therefore, our review and framework engages with a
more diverse analysis of SIE from different theorizations and from different research
approaches.
A deeper understanding of SIE for management scholars, would ultimately, in turn,
lead to better inclusive practices across the organizational and national spectrums for
accommodating individuals on international mobility. The benefits of these
meso-organizational and macro-national contributions would also enhance the
micro-individual experience of SIEs.
SIE and
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literature
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Appendix
Journal
International Journal of Manpower
International Journal of Human Resource Management
Organization Science
African Journal of Business Management
Management Science
Academy of Management Journal; Administrative Science Quarterly; Human
Relations
Career Development International; Harvard Business Review
Advances in Strategic Management A Research Annual; Baltic Journal of
Management; California Management Review; Journal of Management Studies;
Journal of Organizational Change Management; Scandinavian Journal of
Management; Review of Industrial Organization; Strategic Management Journal
Academy of Management Perspectives; Advances in Strategic Management;
Asia Pacific Journal of Management; British Journal of Management; Cross
Cultural Management: An International Journal; European Journal of Work and
Organizational Psychology; Gender Work and Organization; Geography and
Strategy; Group Organization Management; Human Resource Management;
Human Resource Management Journal; Human Resource Management Review;
Journal of International Management; Journal of Managerial Psychology; Journal
of Occupational and Organizational Psychology; Management Decision;
Personnel Review; Sloan Management Review; South African Journal of
Economic and Management Sciences
Othera
Number of articles
13
11
8
6
5
4
3
2
1
16
Note: aThese journals include: Employee Relations, Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion, Journal of
Management Development, Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management, Gender in
Management, European Management Review, Journal of Business Ethics, and International Journal of
Cross Cultural Management, Management International Review, and International Journal of
Management
Table AI.
Frequency of articles by
journal
CDI
18,1
96
About the authors
Dr Akram Al Ariss, PhD, is Professor of Human Resource Management (HRM) at Toulouse
Business School. He is a visiting professor at the London School of Economics in 2012 and is
instructor at Pennsylvania State University (USA), where he lectures on international HRM and
employment relations. He holds a PhD from Norwich Business School, University of East Anglia
(UK). Akram is interested in researching and teaching IHRM. He has written book chapters,
journal articles, and book reviews on HRM in journals such as the Academy of Management
Learning and Education and British Journal of Management. He is the co-author (with Dessler) of
the textbook Human Resource Management, Arab World Edition, published by Pearson. He
serves on the Editorial Boards of Journal of World Business, British Journal of Management, and
Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion. He is guest editor of special issues in journals like Journal of
Managerial Psychology. Akram Al Ariss is the corresponding author and can be contacted at:
Ariss_akram@hotmail.com
Dr Marian Crowley-Henry is a Lecturer in Human Resource Management and international
management at the National University of Ireland Maynooth. She was awarded her PhD in
Management from Lancaster University in 2009. Her current research interests are in the area of
international careers, self-initiated expatriation, migration and identity. She has written book
chapters, journal articles and conference papers in the international human resource
management area, and is a reviewer for several management journals.
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Journal of Management
Vol. 38 No. 4, July 2012 1282-1327
DOI: 10.1177/0149206312441834
© The Author(s) 2012
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Choices, Challenges, and Career Consequences
of Global Work Experiences: A Review
and Future Agenda
Margaret A. Shaffer
University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee
Maria L. Kraimer
University of Iowa
Yu-Ping Chen
University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee
Mark C. Bolino
University of Oklahoma
Over the past 20 years, there has been increased interest in global forms of employment.
Researchers have identified and investigated a number of global work experiences, including
corporate and self-initiated expatriates as well as more novel forms of corporate global employees (flexpatriates, short-term assignees, and international business travelers). In this article, the
authors review the empirical research that has investigated individual choices, challenges, and
career consequences associated with the various types of global work. They summarize and
synthesize this growing body of literature and then develop a taxonomy of global work experiences. Based on their review of this literature and their taxonomy, the authors outline an agenda
for future research on global work experiences.
Keywords: global work experiences; global employees; global careers; global work taxonomy;
expatriate
Acknowledgments: This article was accepted under the editorship of Talya N. Bauer. We would like to thank Deidra
Schleicher and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on an earlier version of this article.
Corresponding author: Margaret A. Shaffer, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, Sheldon B. Lubar School of
Business, Milwaukee, WI 53201, USA
E-mail: shafferm@uwm.edu
1282
Shaffer et al. / Global Work Experiences   1283
As organizations are increasingly affected by the forces of globalization, employees are
often called on to take part in global work experiences (Chen, Kirkman, Kim, Farh, & Tangirala, 2010; Stahl, Miller, & Tung, 2002; Thomas, Lazarova, & Inkson, 2005). Work experiences that transcend national boundaries are important for the development of employees’
global skills and necessary for carrying out critical business activities (Stroh, Black, Mendenhall, & Gregersen, 2005). By and large, research investigating global work has focused on
understanding the experiences of employees who are sent on extended work assignments
(i.e., expatriates) and the experiences of those individuals when they return home (i.e., repatriates) (e.g., Bolino, 2007; Kraimer, Shaffer, & Bolino, 2009; Takeuchi, 2010). This line of
research indicates that effectively managing expatriation and repatriation is a significant challenge for organizations. Indeed, employees are often unwilling to accept an international
assignment, and those who do often face significant personal and professional challenges,
with many employees either leaving their international assignments early or quitting their
organizations after they repatriate (Bolino, 2007; Konopaske & Werner, 2005; Kraimer,
Shaffer, Harrison, & Ren, in press; Reiche, Kraimer, & Harzing, 2011; Takeuchi, 2010).
Given the difficulties of managing expatriation and repatriation, many organizations have
sought to find other ways of developing global skills or conducting global business, thereby
creating new types of global work experiences. For instance, although the expatriate population is expected to continue growing (Brookfield Global Relocation Services, 2011), organizations also plan to increase their use of technology as a substitute for extended international
assignments. Furthermore, many multinational corporations (MNCs) are supplementing
their use of traditional expatriate assignments with more short-term assignments, as well as
frequent international business travel (Brookfield Global Relocation Services, 2011). At the
same time, as employment relationships have become less organizationally directed and
more individually directed (Sullivan, 1999; Sullivan & Baruch, 2009), individuals looking
for global experience are taking the initiative to pursue foreign work assignments on their
own terms (Suutari & Brewster, 2000). In line with corporations’ and individuals’ interests
in pursuing these global work alternatives, more academic research has been conducted on
these forms of employment.
In the academic literature, researchers (e.g., Cerdin & Bird, 2008; Peiperl & Jonsen, 2007)
have tended to label these global work alternatives as “global careers.” However, consistent
with the work experience literature (Tesluk & Jacobs, 1998), we contend that most global
work experiences represent events or activities that occur as part of an employee’s career;
that is, they are not careers per se. We therefore refer to these international work arrangements as global work experiences. Such work experiences may include, but are not limited
to, traditional corporate expatriation (Bhaskar-Shrinivas, Harrison, Shaffer, & Luk, 2005),
self-initiated expatriation (Suutari & Brewster, 2000), and nontraditional corporate global
alternatives, including short-term assignments (Tahvanainen, Welch, & Worm, 2005), flexpatriation (Mayerhofer, Hartmann, & Herbert, 2004), and international business travel
(Welch, Welch, & Worm, 2007).
Interest and research in all of these global work experiences have been escalating over the
past decade. Yet we are not aware of any published efforts to summarize and review this
body of research. Thus, the purpose of this article is to review the literature on global work
experiences and to encourage researchers to broaden the scope of global work to go beyond
expatriation. In doing so, we use a careers perspective. Consistent with previous research that
1284    Journal of Management / July 2012
examines careers from the individual’s perspective (e.g., Coupland, 2004; Greenhaus,
Callanan, & Godshalk, 2010; Hall, 2002), we define a career as “the patterns of work-related
experiences that span the course of a person’s life” (Greenhaus et al., 2010: 9). As noted by
Tesluk and Jacobs (1998), individuals accumulate a number of different work experiences
over the course of their careers. The nature and type of work experiences, or opportunities for
certain experiences, affect individuals’ subsequent career decisions and outcomes (Hall,
2002). Given that international experience is thought to be increasingly important for a successful business career (Chura, 2006; Judge, Cable, Boudreau, & Bretz, 1995; Ng, Eby,
Sorensen, & Feldman, 2005), it is both timely and important to focus on the career implications of global work experiences.
In adopting a career lens for reviewing the global work experience literature, we provide
an overarching framework to understand the factors individuals take into consideration when
choosing global work, the challenges associated with such experiences, and how global work
experiences relate to individuals’ career and life success. In short, we focus on the choices,
challenges, and career consequences associated with global work experiences. In reviewing
the research that examines the choices individuals face when considering international work,
we identify the factors they take into consideration when making this career choice and the
characteristics of individuals who are more likely to make this choice. For the challenges that
individuals experience in enacting and managing global work, we focus on the hurdles they
face and how they respond to them to more effectively manage this work experience as a part
of their career. Finally, we review research that investigates the career consequences of the
international experience by examining the intrinsic and extrinsic career outcomes associated
with international work experiences. Taken together, the choices, challenges, and consequences reviewed in this article capture a variety of issues related to career decisions and
trajectories.
By examining the choices, challenges, and consequences associated with global work, our
article makes three noteworthy contributions to the literature. First, we go beyond previous
reviews of international assignments that have either focused on the antecedents and consequences of expatriate adjustment from a stress perspective (Aycan, 1997; Bhaskar-Shrinivas
et al., 2005; Harrison, Shaffer, & Bhaskar-Shrinivas, 2004; Takeuchi, 2010; Thomas &
Lazarova, 2006) or reviewed human resource (HR) management practices and policies such
as expatriate selection, training, compensation, and so on (e.g., Littrell, Salas, Hess, Paley, &
Riedel, 2006; Mesmer-Magnus & Viswesvaran, 2008). In contrast, we examine a much
broader array of choices, challenges, and consequences associated with international assignments. In addition, we expand the scope of international assignments to include all forms of
global work experiences, and not just the expatriate experience that was the focus of previous
reviews (e.g., Takeuchi, 2010). By comparing and contrasting the different forms of global
work experiences (e.g., short-term assignees, international business travelers, and expatriates) through a career lens, our review looks beyond the expatriate literature that has primarily focused on adjustment or HR-related issues. Consequently, of the 114 articles in our
review, only 2 (i.e., Kraimer & Wayne, 2004; Selmer, 2001) were included in Takeuchi’s
review of the expatriate adjustment literature.
Second, our careers perspective departs from previous reviews of the careers literature
that focused on specific career theories (e.g., Sullivan, 1999; Sullivan & Baruch, 2009) by
considering how a specific type of work experience (i.e., global work) represents a sequence
Shaffer et al. / Global Work Experiences   1285
in an individual’s career. For example, Sullivan (1999) reviewed research on developmental
stage theories and the boundaryless career concept. Sullivan and Baruch’s (2009) recent
review critically examined new career concepts, including protean, boundaryless, hybrid,
and kaleidoscope careers. The theoretical perspectives outlined in these previous review
articles provided important insights for understanding how the changing work environment
affects individuals’ career attitudes and outcomes. In contrast, our organizing framework is
not bounded by any particular career theory but rather views a global work experience as a
specific work and life event that leads to deliberate career choices, provides opportunities for
learning from meaningful challenges, and influences the career outcomes of the individual.
As such, our review also contributes to the careers literature by providing a lens for understanding how other types of work/life events (e.g., returning to graduate school or a domestic
job transfer) fit into individuals’ career trajectories. Furthermore, we hope our approach will
encourage more researchers to recognize that work choice decisions (e.g., job choice), challenges (e.g., work–family conflict), and personal and professional consequences (e.g., quitting a job) are essentially career-related issues that can also be understood using the career
theories that have already been reviewed in prior work.
Third, and finally, because research on alternative (i.e., non-expatriate) forms of global
work is still nascent, our review culminates in a taxonomy for defining and understanding the
various global work experiences that have recently emerged. In particular, we develop a
taxonomy of global work experiences that is based on the degree to which the experiences
involve physical mobility, demand cognitive flexibility, and cause disruptions to nonwork
routines. Using this taxonomy as a basic framework for conceptualizing different forms of
global work experiences, we propose new theoretical insights that may explain the findings
revealed in our literature review and highlight underresearched topics within the global work
experience literature. Overall, we hope to encourage researchers to develop a broader and
more theoretical view of global work experiences that goes beyond the current focus on
expatriation.
A Review of the Empirical Global Work Experience Literature
In this section, we provide an integrated review of the empirical literature on global work
experiences. After a brief overview of our methodology, including how we selected articles
and classified different forms of global work experiences, we then review the major findings
in terms of the individual choices, challenges, and career consequences associated with the
various types of global work experiences. A summary of all reviewed articles is provided in
the appendix.
Method
Article Selection
To identify as many articles as possible to be included in our review, we first searched
various databases (e.g., ABI-INFORM and PsycARTICLES) using general terms (e.g., global
careers, international careers). Next, we searched for articles involving expatriates. However,
1286    Journal of Management / July 2012
Table 1
Comparison of Expatriates
Corporate Expatriates
Self-Initiated Expatriates
Definition
Employees working for business
organizations, who are sent
overseas on a temporary basis to
complete a time-based task or
accomplish an organizational goal
Purpose
Managerial control
Skill/technology transfer
Management development
12 months or more
1 country
Usually with family
Expatriate packages with numerous
benefits
Tax equalization
Comparable lifestyles
Problematic
Responsible for all aspects of
assignment
Professional and personal
development
Relationship building and integration
with host country nationals
Global boundary spanner
Expensive
Lack of flexibility
Family adjustment problems
Separation from extended family
Individuals who initiate and usually finance their own
expatriation and are not transferred by
organizations. They relocate to a country of their
choice to pursue cultural, personal, and career
development experiences, often with no definite
time frame in mind
Personal development
Career development
Duration
Location
Relocation
Compensation
Repatriation
IHRM
involvement
Advantages
Disadvantages
Varies (short term to permanent stay)
1 country
Usually with family
Host country base
No relocation/housing benefits
Individual decisions and responsibilities
None
Professional and personal development
Relationship building with host country nationals
Personal risk/expense
Contractual obligation
Separation from extended family
because Takeuchi (2010) recently provided a critical review of expatriate studies that focused
on the adjustment of traditional expatriates, we limited our search of expatriate studies to
those that included the keywords expatriate and career. Finally, we searched for articles
containing specific terms associated with new global work forms (e.g., self-initiated expatriates, international business travelers, short-term assignees). In selecting these articles, we
focused on those that included career-related issues, in the broad sense of the term. In total,
we reviewed 114 relevant empirical (quantitative and qualitative) articles.
Classification of Global Work Experiences
To clarify the different types of global work experiences, we first reviewed all 114 articles
for descriptive information about each type of global employee. Based on this information,
we provide a general profile of how they have been differentiated in the literature in terms of
various contextual categories and highlight the advantages and disadvantages associated
with each type (see Tables 1 and 2). In Table 1, we compare and contrast the two forms of
expatriates: corporate and self-initiated. Corporate expatriates have been defined as
Shaffer et al. / Global Work Experiences   1287
Table 2
Comparison of Global Travelers
Short-Term Assignees
Flexpatriates
Definition
Employees on international
assignments that are longer
than business trips yet shorter
than typical corporate
expatriate assignments;
usually less than one year
Purpose
Skill/technology transfer
Problem solving
Management control
Management development
Usually 3–12 months
1 or a few countries
Usually without family
Depends on company’s travel
policy
Home country responsibility
Employees who travel for
brief assignments, away
from their home base and
across cultural or national
borders, leaving their
family and personal life
behind
Project based
Problem solving
Skill/technical transfer
Duration
Location
Relocation
Compensation
Repatriation
IHRM
involvement
Advantages
Disadvantages
Taxation may be an issue—
depending on duration
Usually not a problem
Little involvement
Line manager responsibility
Flexibility and simplicity
Cost-effectiveness
Global boundary spanner
Separation stress—alcoholism,
divorce, health issues
Lack of integration with host
country nationals
Usually 1–2 months
Multiple countries
Without family
Depends on company’s
travel policy
Home country
responsibility
No tax implications
Not a problem
Little involvement
Line manager responsibility
Flexibility and simplicity
Cost-effectiveness
Global boundary spanner
Global perspective
Separation/travel stress—
alcoholism, divorce,
health issues
Time zone differences
Lack of social integration
at home and host
locations
International Business
Travelers
Employees who take multiple
short international business
trips to various locations
without accompanying
family members
Knowledge transfer
Negotiations
Discussions
Meetings or conferences
Usually 1–3 weeks
Multiple countries
Without family
Depends on company’s travel
policy
Home country responsibility
No tax implications
Not relevant
Negligible
Line manager responsibility
Flexibility and simplicity
Most cost-effective
Global boundary spanner
Relationship maintenance with
home-country colleagues
Separation/travel stress—
alcoholism, divorce, health
issues
Time zone differences
Host country relationships
limited to work colleagues
employees who are temporarily relocated by their organization to another country, usually
for several years, to complete a specific task or accomplish an organizational goal (Harrison
et al., 2004). Self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) are individuals who instigate and usually
finance their own expatriation. Rather than being transferred by organizations, they relocate
to a country of their choice to pursue cultural, personal, and career development experiences
(Harrison et al., 2004; Jokinen, Brewster, & Suutari, 2008; Myers & Pringle, 2005), often
with no definite time frame in mind (Tharenou, 2010).
In Table 2, we describe various forms of what we refer to as global travelers, which
includes short-term assignees, flexpatriates, and international business travelers. A shortterm assignment has been defined as a type of international assignment longer than a
1288    Journal of Management / July 2012
business trip yet shorter than a typical corporate expatriate assignment, usually less than one
year (Mayerhofer, Hartmann, Michelitsch-Riedl, & Kollinger, 2004). The other forms of
global travelers differ from short-term assignees in that they typically engage in consecutive
multiple country assignments. Flexpatriates are defined as individuals “who travel for brief
assignments, away from their home base and across cultural or national borders, leaving their
family and personal life behind” (Mayerhofer, Hartmann, Michelitsch-Riedl, et al., 2004:
1371). Finally, international business travelers (IBTs) are employees who make frequent
international business visits to foreign markets, units, projects, and the like, usually for periods of a week or so (Welch et al., 2007; Westman, 2004).
Although we believe it is important to differentiate among these various types of global
employees, we found that the extant research has often failed to do so. For example, expatriate studies, especially those based on samples from business or social organizations such as
chambers of commerce, may include both corporate and self-initiated expatriates. Furthermore, although we attempted to do so, there is little consensus in the literature about how to
define the various alternative global work experiences that have recently emerged. Consequently, terms are often used interchangeably and/or different forms are combined. For
example, some researchers (e.g., Mayerhofer, Hartmann, & Herbert, 2004) have combined
international commuters and IBTs and referred to them as flexpatriates. By defining and differentiating the various types of global work experiences, we provide an important initial
step in establishing a theoretical framework for understanding the experiences included in
this review.
An Organizing Framework for the Review
Before beginning our review, we examined the theoretical and methodological approaches
used in the reviewed articles as a way to summarize the current state of this research. Typical
of most nascent streams of research, studies of global travelers have been primarily descriptive and exploratory rather than theoretically driven. Exceptions to this are a few studies that
have adopted a stress perspective or used the Job Demands-Resources model (Demerouti,
Bakker, Nachreiner, & Schaufeli, 2001) to examine the experiences of IBTs (Welch et al.,
2007; Westman, Etzion, & Chen, 2009). In comparison, studies of expatriates tend to be
theoretically grounded, with the boundaryless career paradigm (Arthur & Rousseau, 1996;
Sullivan & Arthur, 2006) and theories of stress management (Black, Mendenhall, & Oddou,
1991; Feldman & Thomas, 1992; Kraimer & Wayne, 2004) most prevalent. Methodologically, of the 16 global traveler articles we reviewed, 56% (n = 9) adopted a qualitative
approach consistent with the exploratory nature of these studies. The majority of studies
(62% of the 74 studies) on corporate expatriates used quantitative methods, and both quantitative and qualitative studies were equally represented in the studies on SIEs (15 qualitative
studies and 16 quantitative studies). Almost all of the research across all streams has used
cross-sectional designs (an exception is Tharenou & Caulfield, 2010).
Given the disparate theoretical and methodological approaches used by researchers in this
area, on the surface at least, there seems to be very little commonality across studies in terms of
constructs and relationships among constructs. Consequently, to bring some order to this
literature, we organized various constructs into meaningful and theoretically based themes
Shaffer et al. / Global Work Experiences   1289
Figure 1
A Framework for Relating Global Work Experiences to Careers
Career Choices
Career Challenges
Career Consequences
in Deciding to Do Global Work
while Doing Global Work
of Doing Global Work
External Influences
Personal agency
Country and family
consideraons
Internal Influences
Intrinsic and extrinsic
movators
Personal characteriscs
Personal Demands
Stress and coping
Identy transformaon
Intrinsic Career Success
Job and career sasfacon
Well-being
Work Demands
Career transion concerns
Structural and perceptual
barriers
Nonwork Demands
Work-family conflict
Maintaining friendships and
personal life
Extrinsic Career Success
Career competencies
Career advancement
(coded by the four of us and discussed until consensus was reached) that we felt were especially germane to the choices, challenges, and career consequences associated with global
work experiences (see Figure 1). The themes associated with the choices of global employees
are consistent with a social cognitive career theory perspective of occupational choice (Pryor
& Bright, 2006), which recognizes that occupational choices (or career choices) are a function of external influences and internal influences. Our identification of themes that represent
the various challenges of global work experience is based on the Job Demands-Resources
(JD-R) model (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007; Demerouti et al., 2001), which contends that jobs
may create personal, work, and nonwork demands. In organizing the career consequences
reported in the literature, we chose the two major categories most frequently used in the
careers literature: intrinsic and extrinsic career success outcomes (e.g., Judge et al., 1995; Ng
et al., 2005). In the sections below, we provide an integrated review of the themes we identified within each broad category of choices, challenges, and career consequences, making
comparisons across different forms of global employees when applicable.
Choices for Global Work
In this section, we review research that examines the reasons why individuals choose to
include an international component into their career trajectories and which types of individuals are more likely to make this career choice. Drawing on the social cognitive career theory
perspective of occupational choice (Pryor & Bright, 2006), we content analyzed the empirical literature in terms of four major themes associated with global employees’ choices. These
1290    Journal of Management / July 2012
include external influences (personal agency and country and family considerations) and
internal influences (intrinsic and extrinsic motivators and personal characteristics).
External Influences
Personal agency. A key difference across the different types of work experiences is the
degree to which the individual has free choice in the matter. Clearly, personal agency is high
for SIEs (Richardson & Mallon, 2005), whereas it varies for organization-initiated global
work. Candidates for corporate expatriate assignments are often reluctant to take such
assignments because of concerns about family and work–life balance (Dickmann, Doherty,
Mills, & Brewster, 2008). Although one study found that the degree to which expatriates felt
a lack of free choice in accepting their assignments did not relate to performance, adjustment, or satisfaction during the expatriate assignment (Feldman & Thomas, 1992), organizations are hesitant to “force” candidates to accept such assignments (Dowling, Welch, &
Schuler, 1999). Thus, corporate expatriates generally have a certain degree of personal
agency in choosing this type of global work experience.
Global travelers, however, are usually chosen by line managers because they have a requisite skill or expertise that is needed to solve a particular problem or assist with a project
(Tahvanainen et al., 2005). Based on interviews with international HR and line managers in
a European multinational firm, Mayerhofer, Hartmann, Michelitsch-Riedl, et al. (2004)
noted that, for flexpatriates, travel is an expectation of the job; it is not an option that can be
negotiated or rejected without the risk of jeopardizing career opportunities. According to
these researchers, decisions about when to travel are also at the mercy of the line manager.
Although research has not addressed the extent to which short-term assignees and IBTs have
personal agency in choosing international work, we would expect that they are in a similar
situation as flexpatriates. Thus, for flexpatriates, short-term assignees, and IBTs, the decision
point is not about accepting specific project/role assignments that require global travel, but
rather it is about accepting a job position in which global travel is clearly a job requirement.
Country and family considerations. When making the decision to pursue global work
experience, expatriates (corporate and SIEs) consider the location, including cultural similarity and dissimilarity, and security (Aryee, Chay, & Chew, 1996; Dickmann et al., 2008;
Hippler, 2009), as well as city-specific factors such as an attractive standard of living (Carr,
Inkson, & Thorn, 2005), the reputation of the global location (Dickmann & Mills, 2010;
Fitzgerald & Howe-Walsh, 2008), the prestige of working in a particular city (Doherty,
Dickmann, & Mills, 2011), and the attitudes and behaviors of the host country citizens
(Dickmann & Mills, 2010). Personal and familial relationships, as well as work–family balance concerns, are also important considerations for corporate expatriates, SIEs, and global
travelers. Those who have stronger familial ties and responsibilities are less likely to accept
or self-initiate global work (Carr et al., 2005; Konopaske & Werner, 2005; Richardson,
2006; Richardson & Mallon, 2005; Tharenou, 2003). However, Dickmann and colleagues
(2008) found that spousal career considerations were less important to corporate expatriates
than were their own career considerations when deciding to accept a global employment
Shaffer et al. / Global Work Experiences   1291
opportunity. While those with strong kinship responsibilities are less willing to accept an
assignment, those with supportive spouses are more willing to do so (Aryee et al., 1996;
Richardson & Mallon, 2005).
Internal Influences
Intrinsic and extrinsic motivators. Researchers have generally found that intrinsic motivators, such as personal challenges and development derived from international exploration
(Crowley-Henry, 2007; Hippler, 2009; Inkson & Myers, 2003; Richardson & Mallon, 2005;
Selmer & Leung, 2003; Stahl et al., 2002) and international work or nonwork experiences
(Biemann & Andresen, 2010; Boies & Rothstein, 2002; Cerdin & Le Pargneux, 2009;
Suutari & Taka, 2004; Tung, 1998), and the associated enjoyment (Chew & Zhu, 2002), are
important considerations in corporate expatriates’ and SIEs’ choices for global work.
Though global travelers generally lack volition with respect to specific job assignments, they
also expect both personal challenges and enjoyment from their global work experiences
(Demel & Mayerhofer, 2010; Konopaske, Robie, & Ivancevich, 2005). In addition, both
corporate expatriates’ and SIEs’ choices are driven by the perceived opportunity to develop
global career competencies (Cappellen & Janssens, 2008; Dickmann & Mills, 2010; Doherty
et al., 2011; Fish & Wood, 1997; Fitzgerald & Howe-Walsh, 2008; Richardson & Mallon,
2005; Suutari, 2003; Tharenou, 2008; Thorn, 2009).
Extrinsic rewards may also be important motivators. Research has found that corporate
expatriates, SIEs, and global travelers’ choices are influenced by monetary incentives such
as financial rewards, compensation packages, and fringe benefits (Boies & Rothstein, 2002;
Chew & Zhu, 2002; Richardson & McKenna, 2002; Warneke & Schneider, 2011). Thus,
both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations are important factors that motivate employees to
choose global work experiences.
Personal characteristics. This section reviews the characteristics of employees who are
more likely to be interested in global work experience. Selmer (2001) surveyed 343 corporate expatriates in Hong Kong and found those who are older, are from Europe, and have
more experiences working abroad are more likely to want an expatriate career involving
multiple foreign assignments. Chew and Zhu (2002) found entrepreneurial personality to be
positively related to corporate expatriates’ choices to go abroad. In addition, employees’
career commitment has also been found to be associated with individuals’ choices to accept
global employment. For instance, Boies and Rothstein (2002) found that employees who
were more satisfied with their career and identified with their current occupation were more
likely to accept an international assignment to further their career advancement opportunities. As for SIEs, Selmer and Lauring (2010) found that younger SIEs are more motivated
by adventure, career, and money, and tend to be less risk averse, than older SIEs. In the same
study, Selmer and Lauring also found that male SIEs are more motivated by money and
opportunities to change their life than female SIEs. In terms of global travelers, Konopaske
et al. (2005) report that individuals’ adventurous personality is associated with their willingness to accept short-term and long-term global assignments. In a recent study, Tharenou
1292    Journal of Management / July 2012
(2010) also found that female professionals self-initiate their own expatriation more often
than their male counterparts, which may reflect the disadvantage females face in managerial
career development.
Challenges of Global Work
In this section, we review the challenges that individuals experience in enacting and managing global work, focusing on the hurdles they face and how they respond to them to more
effectively manage this work experience as a part of their career. Our classification of the
various challenges is based on categories derived from the JD-R model (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007; Demerouti et al., 2001). According to this model, jobs may create personal (e.g.,
stress, identity transformation), work (e.g., career transition concerns, structural and perceptual barriers), and nonwork demands.
Personal Demands
Stress and coping strategies. Paralleling the expatriate adjustment literature (e.g., Takeuchi,
2010), a stress perspective has been adopted by the majority of researchers targeting all
forms of global employees. Expatriates must contend with a variety of work role stressors
and situational stressors emanating from both the organization and the foreign culture
(Fischlmayr & Kollinger, 2010; Kraimer & Wayne, 2004; Mathur-Helm, 2002), as well as
strained interactions with host country nationals (Tung, 1998). Expatriates who deal most
effectively with these stressors tend to be more determined in their pursuit of an expatriate
career (Selmer & Leung, 2003) and to adopt a variety of coping strategies, especially active
problem-solving tactics (Feldman & Thomas, 1992; Mäkelä & Suutari, 2011). Please see
Takeuchi (2010) for a full review of challenges related to expatriates’ stress and adjustment
issues.
Similar to corporate expatriates, SIEs also face stress; however, the responsibility to overcome these difficulties is their own because they do not have a “home” corporation supporting them. Even though they often encounter tougher conditions than corporate expatriates
(e.g., Biemann & Andresen, 2010; Fitzgerald & Howe-Walsh, 2008), SIEs tend to have
greater levels of general and interaction adjustment (Peltokorpi & Froese, 2009), perhaps
because they are more motivated to pursue global work experiences and more likely to
immerse themselves in the host country culture and interact with host country nationals more
frequently (Selmer, 1999). However, when shocks (specific positive or negative events that
cause individuals to think about leaving; Lee, Mitchell, Wise, & Fireman, 1996) are experienced in the foreign culture or emanate from the home country, SIEs may be motivated to
return home (Tharenou & Caulfield, 2010).
In the global traveler literature, a recurring theme is that the scope of global travel assignments creates physical, emotional, and intellectual stress (e.g., Mayerhofer, Hartmann, &
Herbert, 2004; Westman & Etzion, 2002). IBTs, in particular, are more likely to experience
role conflict (Welch et al., 2007) because of frequent transitions between domestic and
Shaffer et al. / Global Work Experiences   1293
(multiple) international offices and between home and work. Frequent travel also makes it
difficult for employees to successfully integrate in either the domestic or foreign location,
and they make it virtually impossible to maintain stable relationships with family and friends
(Demel & Mayerhofer, 2010; Mayerhofer, Hartmann, & Herbert, 2004; Welch et al., 2007).
Being proactive and developing cultural intelligence can help global travelers cope more
effectively with the demands of travel (Mayerhofer, Hartmann, Michelitsch-Riedl, et al.,
2004; Ramsey, Leonel, Gomes, & Monteiro, 2011).
Identity transformation. Recent work suggests that another personal demand facing
employees in global work roles is identity transformations. While much of this work is
anecdotal, several authors have noted that such transformations are challenging for employees because they affect their sense of self and their subsequent attitudes and behaviors
toward their organization (Andreason & Kinner, 2005; Boies & Rothstein, 2002; Kraimer
et al., in press; Näsholm, 2009; Starr, 2009). Based on interviews with expatriates, Kohonen
(2008) reported that expatriates do experience changes in identity and these are associated
with career aspirations and new personal challenges. In a survey of 112 recent repatriates,
Kraimer and colleagues (in press) found that repatriates who were more embedded in the
host country community during the expatriate assignment were more likely to identify with
an international employee role, which in turn led to greater identity strain and turnover in
repatriation. Starr and Currie (2009) interviewed short-term assignees, many of whom also
indicated that they experienced changes in their identity, and these transformations affected
their desire for new work roles when they repatriated.
Work Demands
Career transition concerns. For corporate expatriates, managing the transition from expatriate to repatriate assignments represents one of the greatest concerns. In particular, expatriates are especially concerned with responsibility and autonomy on the job, opportunities for
using new knowledge and skills, career advancement, compensation, and career opportunities for their spouse/partner upon repatriation (Benson & Pattie, 2009; Cappellen &
Janssens, 2010; De Cieri, Sheehan, Costa, Fenwick, & Cooper, 2009; Jassawalla & Sashittal, 2009; Linehan & Scullion, 2002; Mayerhofer, Müller, & Schmidt, 2010; Selmer &
Leung, 2002; Stahl & Cerdin, 2004; Stahl, Chua, Caligiuri, Cerdin, & Taniguchi, 2009;
Suutari & Brewster, 2003; Wong, 2001). For those with multiple assignment experience,
time and geographical distance weaken internal organizational network ties, resulting in a
lack of opportunities for getting a good position upon repatriation (Mäkelä & Suutari, 2009).
Several studies have found that expatriates who see a strong connection between their
international assignment and future career and who work in organizations that are supportive
throughout the expatriation and repatriation process tend to be more satisfied and more likely
to stay with their organizations (Dunbar & Ehrlich, 1993; Feldman & Thomas, 1992; Kreng
& Huang, 2009; Lazarova & Cerdin, 2007; Pattie, White, & Tansky, 2010; Reiche et al.,
2011; Selmer, 1999; van der Heijden, van Engen, & Paauwe, 2009). Of the various resources
that organizations can provide expatriates, organizational career support and supervisor
1294    Journal …