Addressing international mobility confusion-Developing definitions and differentiations for self-initiated and assigned expatriates as well as migrants.
Purpose -This paper aims to analyze the differences between assigned expatriates (AEs) and self-initiated expatriates (SEs) in management and executive positions. The basic research question is how far SEs and AEs differ with respect to their reasons for working internationally and regarding their career aspirations and orientations, and in what way their individual career management differs. Design/methodology/approach -A total of 159 expatriate managers completed an online questionnaire in German. The questionnaire covered psychological constructs and the participating managers' career histories. Findings -It is shown that SEs start their international careers at a younger age, have a higher organizational mobility, and expect higher benefits from international experiences for their future careers. Moreover, career orientation remains relatively stable in SEs over different age groups, whereas it declines for AEs with increasing age.Research limitations/implications -The study design is cross-sectional and based on self-reports, which makes causal explanations of the results difficult and increases the risk of common method bias. Practical implications -Specific personnel management requirements regarding SEs in contrast to AEs are pointed out especially in the fields of recruitment, retention and career management, which can help support companies in building up a pool of global managers. Originality/value -The paper adds valuable new insights to the literature on expatriate work and gives further evidence that SEs form a group that has been overlooked for a long time, even though it differs significantly from traditional expatriates who are sent abroad by their employing companies to return some years later.
The literature on global mindset indicates a growing array of different approaches to its definition and conceptualization. The components making up global mindset are often unclear and vary significantly between studies. Concomitantly, global mindset shows major overlap with the cultural intelligence construct. This leads to an unfortunate lack of comparability of research results and to potential confusion for readers. In this article, the authors systematically review and synthesize the existing definitions and conceptualizations of global mindset and cultural intelligence. These definitions and conceptualizations are grouped according to four dimensions of cross-cultural competencies: personal attributes, cognitive knowledge and skills, motivation, and resources for adapting behavior. Based on this analysis, we provide definitions and a demarcation of the constructs global mindset and cultural intelligence using the three levels of business management (normative, strategic, and operative). Whereas cultural intelligence is a sufficient cross-cultural competency for employees working in operative management, a global mindset becomes highly relevant at the strategic and normative management levels. We derive implications for management practice as well as for future research.
Personal initiative is an important behavior relevant to future workplaces that will require significant self-reliance. In research on self-initiated expatriates (SIE), it is assumed that those who move to another country and a new job show 'initiative' and yet it has received insufficient attention in empirical publications. We highlight the degree to which personal initiative shown by SIEs is context-dependent and conclude that it is untenable to attribute to all SIEs a homogeneous work behavior in terms of personal initiative. To improve the fast-growing SIE research, we incorporate a theory of personal initiative and advocate for, and give suggestions on how to measure initiative. We also, offer an initial model of how personal initiative will improve SIE outcomes. By offering specific guidance for future research, we seek to enhance the meaningfulness of future studies and thus increase their utility for organizations and policymakers alike. We conclude by expressing the importance of this conceptualization in practice.
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