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Purpose: Managerial discourses tend to portray work-related mobility practices in a positive light, presenting mobility assignments as a place of stimulus and differentiation. A conception of mobility as an opportunity, may contrast, in specific economies and business settings, with lived personal experiences. This article reports the results of a three-year study, aimed to question how multinational companies (MNCs) located in a small and developing European economy (Portugal) are building talent pools for expatriate assignments. Interaction effects, as proposed by the job demands-resources (JD-R) theory, are considered as lens to understand the interplay of company expatriate policies, willingness profiles and psychological contracts of expatriates. By using a Portuguese sample, the study examines whether prior findings in mature economies and consolidated MNCs can be generalized to less developed international business settings. Design/methodology/approach: A three-year study, encompassing 24 expatriate cases observed in five multinational firms born or located in Portugal. Two techniques of empirical data collection were used: statistical sources and documental analysis and in-depth interviews. A total of 37 interviews were conducted, both in-person and remotely, of which 13 were with company managers and representatives, and 24 with expatriates (as defined and referred like this by the companies under study). Findings: Heterogeneous company policies, ranging from juvenile, functionalist to more dynamic and flow-based approaches, are presented as qualifying resources of willingness levels and psychological contracts of expatriates. Observed interaction effects between policies, willingness and psychological contracts, empirically mirrored in three profiles (conformist, protean and disrupted expatriates) suggest that incentive effects (emanating from company policies) and job demand-resource balance, factored as terms of social and economic trade, are non-linear and asymmetric, influencing firm propensity to succeed while using international work to support company expansion goals. As job resources, expatriate policies are presented as operating as pull or push factors: functionalist HR approaches seem to act as push factors generating more conformist or compelled willingness profiles. Research limitations/implications: Generalization of study's outcomes has limitations. Future studies are encouraged to use comparative and longitudinal research designs. Furthermore, future research should include business expatriates with entry-level positions, and increase the number of interviewees, as results can also be considered as limited by sample size. Practical implications: It is suggested that further strategic work is needed to present expatriation development value, formally screen and consider willingness level as selection criteria, and enlarge the pool (from internal to external) of candidates, in peripheral economic settings such as Portugal. A shift to more dynamic and job resource-dense policies are suggested as beneficial, as pathway to optimize social and economic value from expatriation assignments and work experiences. Originality/value: By putting the interplay between macro and micro-level processes into perspective, the study provides empirical evidence on how company expatriate policies have come to promote unforeseen differentiation of employee willingness and psychological contracts at the heart of MNCs. This is particularly relevant in developing economies such as Portugal, challenging the need to build talent pools for international work assignments. Empirical data illustrating company policies interactive effects with different willingness profiles and psychological contracts of expatriates is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to integrate the perspectives of expatriation and repatriation not as two unrelated stages but rather as one integrated process. Design/methodology/approach: A sample comprising 94 human resource (HR) representatives from large Taiwanese multinational corporations (MNCs) provided objective data on the organizational expatriate/repatriate practices. Findings: The use of developmental assignments was positively related to organizational repatriate turnover, but such a positive relationship was significant only when MNCs used low levels of repatriation support practices. Organizational repatriate turnover was negatively related to employee willingness for expatriation and the use of developmental assignments increased employee willingness for expatriation. Organizational repatriate turnover was a competitive mediator between the use of developmental assignments and employee willingness for expatriation. Moreover, organizational repatriate turnover mediated the relationship when MNCs used low levels of repatriation support practices, but not when MNCs used high levels of repatriation support practices. Practical implications: MNCs should ensure the use of development assignments is matched with high levels of repatriation support practices and treat expatriation and repatriation management as one integrated process. Originality/value: As the world economy becomes more integrated, MNCs are increasingly challenged in their efforts to send employees abroad on expatriate assignments that are developmental by design, to reduce organizational repatriate turnover and to increase employee willingness for expatriation. However, there is a lack of understanding about how they are all linked. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the literature on self-initiated expatriation (SIE) is well-established in management, no systematic investigation has yet been conducted to explore the specificities of early career expatriation. This review article aims to identify and analyse publications that uniquely focus on self-initiated expatriates, who decide to start their career abroad, either with little or no prior work experience. After identifying relevant publications in this specific research field, the authors discuss the personal career motivations and behaviours of early career self-initiated expatriates and the relevance of this phenomenon for the global workforce. The contributions of this article are twofold. First, they integrate the relevant research findings from recent decades on early career self-initiated expatriates. Second, they provide information about managing early career SIEs and propose a future research agenda to address the knowledge gap identified in this review and apply the findings to practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Views from Expatria: Photographing Place and the Self in Transience echoes the contradictory contexts of accelerated global migration and the recent pandemic border closures and controls. These conditions contribute creative parallels and new relationships to an escalating interest in concepts of place, home, expatriation and transience in contemporary society. As a creative-based research initiative using landscape photography as both a tool and methodology, the project reflects aesthetic trends, legacies and current debates about landscape photography and its contemporaneity. The paper critiques the literature and community of practitioners around concepts of non-place, home, transience and expatriation, and concepts central to the featured artist's photographic project Views from Expatria (2021). The paper also seeks to explore ways in which the practice is informed by contemporary photographic theories and practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The pandemic emphasised the importance for society of the "hidden" workforce – cleaners, delivery drivers, security guards or hospital porters. This paper explores the well-being of low-status expatriates in the international workplace exemplified by the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This is one of the first studies examining the well-being of people at the bottom of the pyramid, living in difficult circumstances, and undertaking work that is hard and sometimes dangerous. Design/methodology/approach: The authors adopt an exploratory approach. Using semi-structured interview data from 21 low-status expatriates, the authors examine their experiences in the UAE in relation to their well-being, allowing the authors to suggest the need to develop our understanding of the concept of well-being and the concept's application. Findings: Low-status expatriates live restrictive lives, away from their family and friends for extended periods, and subject to rigid terms and conditions of employment. Difficult circumstances, long working hours, late or arbitrarily reduced salary payment and a lack of voice affect their personal well-being and sacrificed to consideration for their family well-being. Applying the concept of well-being in such cases requires the authors to develop the notion beyond the individual to encompass the wider family. Research limitations/implications: This exploratory analysis opens new avenues for well-being studies and highlights the need for contextualised research. Future research might benefit from quantitative methods being used alongside qualitative methods and collecting multiple perspective data, including the views of managers and policy makers and data from the "left-behind" families of these low-status expatriates. Practical implications: There is plenty of scope for managers of low-status expatriates to improve the latter's well-being. Given the lack of interest in doing so, the authors suggest that policy makers may need to modify extant legalisation to ensure a greater focus on low-status expatriates. Originality/value: The authors believe this to be the first study to examine the impact of family orientation on the well-being of low-status expatriates, encouraging the authors to challenge and suggest developments to current understandings of well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- In the study of expatriation and expatriate adaptation, there are limited studies that focus on issues faced by expatriates working in foreign countries with very distinct cultures. This study aims to explore this idea through the experiences of western expatriates working in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Two research questions were posed to examine the cross-cultural issues and challenges faced by expatriates in the KSA, as well as the role of cross-cultural training in expatriate adjustment. Design/methodology/approach -- The study was guided by an interpretivism paradigm through a qualitative method by using a semi-structured in-depth interview approach. Interviews were conducted among 12 expatriates from the USA and UK who are currently working in KSA. Findings -- A coding technique and theoretical thematic analysis was conducted to analyze the data. The results of this study highlighted three key themes that had a considerable influence on expatriates' adjustment, in particular: culture shock, lack of pre-departure training and the demand for an extensive cross-cultural training. Research limitations/implications -- It is acknowledged that the existence of sub-cultures within the KSA would expose the respondents to varying cultural values within the community. Thus, future studies within a similar context should consider the influence of intra-cultural variations. Originality/value -- The findings of the study emphasized on the importance understanding the cultural gap between home and host country and the individual cultural awareness of the expatriate. It calls attention to the need for a tailored and extensive pre-departure, cross-cultural training and a collaborative effort between employees' and managers to improve expatriates' motivation and retention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years the issue of migrant workers with precarious status has increased in importance in Canada, in large part due to economic and policy changes that have led to greater numbers of migrant workers remaining in the country post permit expiry. This study tracks the employment experiences of low-skilled migrant workers who arrived through the Temporary Foreign Worker Program and who remained following their permit expiry. Using a temporal analysis, the study identifies four timepoints that shape the workers' employment outcomes both pre- and post-expiry. Events at these timepoints create differing employment pathways that, in turn, reveal different aspects of the workers' precarity. In addition to pathways, workers' ability to access informal support networks shape their employment outcomes as workers with precarious status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We draw on identity theory to explain why employees returning from international assignments may leave their organizations. We tested our predictions over a 12-month period with a sample of 112 repatriated employees from a broad cross-section of firms. Prior job embeddedness during expatriation positively relates to the strength of an individual's identity as an international employee in repatriation. This creates identity strain when a repatriate perceives job deprivation relative to noninternational peers. Identity strain, in turn, promotes turnover. We discuss how this perspective contributes to theory on international role transitions, job embeddedness, and turnover mechanisms in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides a conceptual framework of the issues of expatriation and repatriation, by highlighting some relevant organizational characteristics and related operational needs. A successful expatriation assignment relies on four elements: choice of candidate, pre-posting preparation for executive and family, support and maintenance of relations with the home organization while on assignment, and the facilitation of a smooth return to the home base upon completion. Author proposes a model of five alternative options, each of which represents a different approach to the issue of expatriation and repatriation. Each option, anchored in practice, implies a different set of a priori organizational assumptions, concerns, and, indeed, ideologies, which translate into diverse policies and practices. The principles that form the basis for distinguishing among the options are values, time, global vs. local focus, individual vs. company criterion, and nature of the psychological contract.

Globalization of the economy has resulted in pressure for managers to deal routinely with other cultures and different countries' business practices. The most extreme adaptation for an individual may be the assignment to live and work in another country where the entire context for operations is unfamiliar. Many organizations are just beginning to face this staffing issue, and they have little experience upon which to draw. They look to more experienced companies for guidelines, but even organizations with experience have not established a strong track record of success in expatriate selection and preparation. One major flaw in the selection of expatriate managers has been the tendency to choose those who have performed well in the home country without adequate consideration of additional qualities that will be necessary during assignment in another locale. Main focus in this article is to familiarize the reader with the concept of learning orientation with emphasis on its use for better selection and training of expatriate employees. In addition, understanding learning orientation can help identify problems during the expatriate assignment and would be useful in pre-departure preparation of the spouse and family.

The transfer of company-assigned expatriate employees from balance sheet expatriate contracts to local contracts is an alternative international assignment compensation strategy increasingly adopted by global corporations. Despite its growing popularity, there is a significant lack of research on the impact (both professional and personal) of transferring employees from expatriate to local contracts. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to investigate this emerging international HR trend, with specific focus on exploring the experiences of career transition of company-assigned long-term expatriates (delayed localization) to local contracts at multinational organizations located in Sweden and America. Eight individual cases were analyzed. Findings revealed that localization was an unexpected career transition, a negative type of career shock, characterized by limited support from employers, mentors, and local colleagues. The findings further indicated that localization was a type of career transition rather different from other previous career transitions experienced by participants; it represented a major career and life transition. Based on the findings, we proposed HRD interventions to assist expatriates during the transition from expatriate to local contracts. Areas for future research are also suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A review of empirical studies that directly investigated the overseas adjustment of expatriate managers revealed four dimensions that were related to successful expatriate acculturation: (1) the "self-oriented" dimension; (2) the "others-oriented" dimension; (3) the "perceptual" dimension; and (4) the "cultural-toughness" dimension. The study's implications for expatriate selection and training procedures in multinational corporations are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Human Resource Management / Zarzadzanie Zasobami Ludzkimi is the property of Institute of Labour & Social / Instytut Pracy i Spraw Socjalnych and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Building on a modern careers approach, we assess the effects of working abroad on individuals' career capital. Given the dearth of longitudinal studies, we return to a sample of economics graduates in Finland eight years later. We measure changes in three dimensions of career capital; 'knowing how', 'knowing whom', 'knowing why' and find that company assigned expatriates learn more than self-initiated expatriates. All three career capital areas benefit from international experience and all are increasingly valued over time. Based on our findings, we conclude that a dynamic notion of career capital acquisition and use is needed. Managerial implications include the need for a wider view of talent management for international businesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is widely held assumption that knowledge is one of the most important drivers of firm's performance. Multinational companies (MNCs) have the potential advantage of acquiring and utilizing knowledge across borders. But for this potential advantage to become real, the knowledge generated in any of their units around the world should be transferred to their other units. This paper adopts an innovative approach for the study of intra-MNC knowledge transfer by focusing on the role of repatriates as transferors of knowledge from foreign subsidiaries to the headquearters, which is an underresearched topic. In particular, the paper studies the impact of repatriates' abilities and motivation to share knowledge (disseminative capacity) on the transfer of knowledge from subsidiaries to headquarters (reverse knowledge transfer). In addition, the paper examines the determinants of repatriates' disseminative capacity. After reviewing the relevant literature and proposing the hypotheses, this paper presents an empirical research with a sample of Spanish MNCs. The findings provide evidence that repatriates' disseminative capacity is positively associated with reverse knowledge transfer. The paper also identifies some drivers of this: the knowledge the repatriates acquired during the expatriation and the firm's international assignments policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this introduction, we undertake a critical review of the state of research examining psychological contracts (PCs) as they pertain to the experience of expatriation and expatriates. Though expatriation as an activity has diversified greatly in recent decades -- with the growth of self-initiated expatriation, more short-term, flexible and commuter assignments and a broadening of the expatriate profile with a wider range of people choosing to expatriate -- there has been limited research published thus far examining expatriates' perceptions of their PC and how it is affected by working inter-culturally. This introduction briefly traces the history of PC research and expatriates/expatriation and the employment relationship, and then considers the extant research specifically examining PCs in relation to expatriates/expatriation. The articles included in the special issue address a range of areas identified in the call for papers and provide valuable insights into expatriation and expatriates' experience including: expatriate PC breach; expatriate PC fulfilment; preand post-assignment PC as perceived by repatriates; PC of flexpatriates; and, episodic formation of expatriate PCs. Given the relatively underexplored area of expatriate/expatriationrelated PC research, the special issue establishes a platform for undertaking future research in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1980s, research on international assignments (IA) has principally focused on traditional long-term expatriates. However, due to pressures to reduce long-term expatriate assignments and the emergence of a portfolio of more flexible staffing options, there has recently been a growing focus on the deployment of alternative forms of IA. This paper focuses on one form of alternative IA, flexpatriation, where employees undertake frequent international business trips without relocating. More specifically, we critically examine the flexpatriate employment relationship by applying psychological contract theory to yield insight into both the employer and the employee perspectives, which has been neglected in previous research. The article also examines some of the key HR challenges in managing flexpatriates and contributes to both the IHRM and psychological contract literature by presenting an agenda for future research in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adopting an organizational perspective, we focus on how the expatriate psychological contract is formed. We argue that in order to build cumulative knowledge in this early phase of the expatriate psychological contract formation process, attention should be called to three significant organizational led formative episodic events, namely the selection process for the international assignment, the pre-departure training and preparation provided to the assignee, along with the organizational support offered on initial entry to the host-location as the expatriate seeks to make sense of multiple-domain aspects of the novel environment. While acknowledging that there are many other individual and contextual influences shaping the contract formation process, we contend that these three episodes, in particular, are each likely to differentially shape the formation process in the light of the information signalled by the organization to the expatriate and its subsequent interpretation. Arising from this, we advance several linked propositions in each of the three domain areas designed to direct future research on organizational inputs to the expatriate psychological contract formation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Expatriates are often assumed to have enhanced terms and conditions and, because that makes them expensive, to be in key managerial or technical specialist roles. Employees who come from abroad and are in more manual or even menial roles are usually referred to as 'migrants'. However, there are millions of people around the world who are not migrants, their intended sojourn in a foreign country is seen by them and their employers as temporary, but their employment contracts are far from advantageous compared with those of locals. These 'hidden' expatriates are brought into focus in the emerging Arab Gulf States. In some of these countries, the population consists mainly of expatriates, with the local population a small minority: These expatriates include many in lower-management or manual or menial jobs. We demarcate these expatriates from organisationally assigned expatriates, self-initiated expatriates and migrants. We use qualitative data from such expatriates in the United Arab Emirates to explore the issues this raises for governments, employers and the expatriates - and for our understanding of the phenomenon of expatriation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The book then proceeds through chapters examining the more "traditional" forms of expatriates/expatriation, the newer or less explored forms of international work/workers, and then moves back into the broader international business context to understand issues from an organizational perspective, before concluding with a summary of the latest trends and issues in global work. While the authors occasionally note issues warranting further consideration throughout the book, the most insight into issues about which we need to know more is given in the final chapter in which the authors further reflect on changes in the international worker profile and types of work. [Extracted from the article]

Purpose: Understanding expatriate performance, suitability, selection and development have long been identified as critical to international human resource management (IHRM). The authors explore how adult third culture kids (ATCKs) see themselves in regard to their future capacity to successfully engage in international assignments. This paper aims to confirm research suggesting ATCKs may indeed be invaluable to international organisations but that organisations might re-evaluate the form of IHRM support offered. Design/methodology/approach: In-depth interviews with a small sample of ATCKs are used in an exploratory qualitative study. Findings: The ATCKs see themselves as a genuine source of exceptionally capable, expatriate talent on the basis of their prior international experience in childhood and the capacity to socio-culturally adapt in a chameleon-like manner. This paper confirms research suggesting ATCKs may indeed be invaluable to international organisations but that organisations might re-evaluate the form of IHRM support offered. However, the flip-side of these self-perceptions is that they may appear rootless and restless, may be self-centred rather than organisationally oriented, and may voluntarily isolate themselves from more traditional expatriates instead opting to immerse themselves in the local host country scene. Research limitations/implications: The findings are based on a small sample, and future research embracing a range of methodologies is envisaged. Practical implications: The findings offer insights for practitioners and researchers, and ATCKs with reference to the selection of international assignment and performance management of ATCKs. Originality/value: While some scholars have suggested that ATCKs may be ideal expatriate talent, the findings give focus to what might retain this talent in an organisation and suggests a future research agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Only in recent years have self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) been distinguished from assigned expatriates (AEs). But there is still a lack of empirically based comparative results. Statistical analysis, performed on data from 193 expatriates (NAE = 67; NSIE = 126), indicates that self-initiated foreign work experience is significantly more likely to be chosen by women and those having lower job levels. Furthermore, boundaryless and protean career orientation only partially predicted which career path is chosen. SIEs have higher organizational mobility preferences, but do not differ from AEs in their boundaryless mindset and protean career attitude. Implications of these findings for research in expatriation are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to understand the challenges related to the cross-cultural adaptation of organisational expatriates (OEs) and self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) in Brazil and to explore the tactics that OEs and SIEs use to improve their adaptation to the country. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 20 OEs and 24 SIEs with executive professional profiles, and content analyses were performed. The results indicate that foreignism, formalism, personalism and jeitinho are interconnected, and, in general, both types of expatriates face similar problems when adapting to Brazil. However, the two types of expatriates use different strategies for resolving these problems. SIEs are less critical and more willing than OEs to emulate typical Brazilian behaviours for resolving problems related to adaptation to the country. Suggestions regarding the practical implications of this study and potential future research directions are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalization in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries has been marked by an increase in cross-border mobility of the highly skilled. Though self-initiated expatriation is a widespread phenomenon, it has received relatively little attention in the academic literature. Furthermore, large-scale studies that track self-initiated and organizational expatriates together, over time and across geographies, are noticeably absent from the literature. Consequently, our understanding of these two forms of mobility is relatively limited. This study, which is the first large-scale analysis of the trends in and patterns of the mobility of organization-initiated expatriates and self-initiated expatriates, attempts to fill this gap by analyzing the mobility patterns of 55,915 highly skilled individuals who made 76,660 cross-border moves between 1990 and 2006. Specifically, we analyze patterns of geographic mobility and then examine the rate, duration, and direction of self-initiated and organizational expatriation over time. Finally, we consider demographic differences in mobility between the two groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much has been said, and written, about failed international assignments, but few studies, if any, have explored the causes of failure from the perspective of the expatriates. In this article, we draw on a qualitative study of 64 expatriate families who self-identified as having prematurely returned from an international assignment. Our findings confirm prior research showing that family concerns is one cause of assignment failure, but that other reasons, primarily insufficient organizational support, exist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article identifies concerns regarding the current conceptualization and operationalization of the construct "expatriate adjustment" that we believe are preventing our field from advancing further. Three central concerns, stemming from a lack of theoretical and methodological rigor surrounding the construct of expatriate adjustment, are discussed: (1) the ambiguity of the adjustment construct in both conceptualization and operationalization; (2) the lack of understanding of the full content domain of expatriate adjustment facets; and (3) the implicit assumption that expatriates perceive all environmental aspects to be of equal importance. Suggestions to address each concern are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the guest editors discuss various reports within the issue on topics related to patterns of international assignments, expatriation, and global mobility.

Increasing global mobility has directed attention to the self-initiated relocation of workers from one country to another. However, not all individuals are equally suited to start up a new life in another country, and self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) could be particularly vulnerable due to having no support from a home organization. Accordingly, the personality of SIEs could be even more important than that of organizational expatriates. Moreover, extant research on the relation between the "Big Five" personality traits and expatriate adjustment has been inconclusive. Hence, there could be good reasons to investigate other personality traits that may more accurately predict adjustment. In this article we focus on the effect of the personality traits' dispositional affectivity on the adjustment of 329 SIEs in Denmark. Results showed consistent beneficial associations between positive affectivity and all the studied adjustment variables, and detrimental relationships between negative affectivity and the studied dependent variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this exploratory study we draw on interviews with 12 expatriate staff, seven of whom are permanent transfers to a Singapore-based subsidiary of a global knowledge-based firm. Using goal congruence theory as an extension of agency theory, we compare the motivation, adjustment, retention, and careers of permanent transferees who subsequently localize in the host location to those of traditional expatriates in the same location. Our findings show that expatriates who are expected to work as "locals" in a host country not only receive less compensation, but also receive less preparation and support than traditional expatriates despite the fact that both groups of employees work under similar conditions and face similar challenges. Our study has important implications for research and practice in the planning and management of global mobility programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study draws on social learning theory to analyse and compare the effects of pre-departure cross-cultural training (PDCCT) and in-country cross-cultural training (ICCCT) on performance. It focuses on the structural distinction between these two types of training: whether they occur before or during expatriation. Analysis of a sample of 206 expatriates and their firm's annual professional evaluation shows that ICCCT facilitates professional performance, while no impact of PDCCT on performance could be ascertained. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper addresses the inadequacy of the literature of International Human Resource Management (IHRM) explaining expatriation in developing countries and, in particular, in the Arab Gulf. The workforce in most of the Arab Gulf countries consists mainly of expatriates while locals remain a minority in their own country. Despite its ‘international’ dimension, IHRM literature gives little voice to the locals working alongside expatriates when seeking an understanding of expatriation. Instead, a dominant assumption is that local citizens have little role in shaping the career choices and outcomes of expatriates. This paper addresses this research gap by examining expatriation from the point of view of the local managers who work with expatriates. Twenty-eight qualitative interviews were conducted with Emirati top and middle managers in the United Arab Emirates, all of whom have either managed or worked with expatriates. The cases of two key companies, NBK Capital and Strata, were also included. The research made enquiry into the talent management of locals and expatriates in these companies. Results point to key assumptions typically made in the IHRM literature that are not always true in the context of expatriation in the Arab Gulf countries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study investigates the dimensionality of a new theoretically based measure of expatriate adjustment using a sample of 825 expatriates drawn from a broad range of home and host countries. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses identified a stable 10-factor structure with good psychometric properties. This study also presents supporting validity evidence for the new scale from a sample of 209 expatriates. This new measure of expatriate adjustment is shown to relate to assignment performance, assignment development and general satisfaction. Compared with past measures, this measure is based on (1) the full content domain of expatriate adjustment facets and (2) the theoretical underpinnings of adjustment, including the link between the environment in the person–environment fit relationship and the role of the person in this individually based state (i.e. not all facets of expatriate adjustment are of equal importance for all individuals). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This editorial article introduces this special issue of the International Journal of Human Resource Management devoted to the outcomes of expatriate assignments. We set the topic in context. We start by summarizing the traditional view on expatriate outcomes. We then argue that recent developments in the field suggest the need to build a more sophisticated and complex analysis on the topic that incorporates different perspectives (e.g. the organization, the expatriate, their co-workers and their families) and additional types of international experiences and organizations. We then present some difficulties in developing such an analysis. Specifically, using a new typology of complementary relationships among outcomes (i.e. temporal, among-group and among-outcome consistencies), we point out some complications to achieve those relationships. We conclude by introducing the papers in the special edition that all in some way aim to contribute to our understanding of expatriate outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Management international / International Management / Gestiòn Internacional is the property of Management International and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The purpose of this article is to enhance the conceptual coherence of the notion of a self-initiated expatriate (SIE). We propose a definition based on a set of conceptual criteria which differentiates SIEs from other types of international movers. This article defines who an SIE is according to four criteria which must all be fulfilled at the same time: (a) self-initiated international relocation, (b) regular employment (intentions), (c) intentions of a temporary stay, and (d) skilled/professional qualifications. The article discusses each of these criteria in turn and their implications on what it means to be an SIE. A research agenda related to the four criteria proposes various avenues which scholars could take to expand this area of research. The literature on SIEs is rapidly emerging, but the lack of conceptual clarity in defining this type of expatriate is as acute as incomprehensible, given the importance of this group of international movers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]