Expatriate management in hostile environments from a multi-stakeholder perspective – a systematic review

Abstract

PurposeThe successful management of business expatriates and their families in hostile environments (HE) is a current concern for academics and human resources (HR) practitioners alike. Terrorism and other forms of violent crime have become salient topics on the public agenda, and international organizations are increasingly affected. Hence, scholarly interest in the HR implications for organizations sending staff to HEs has recently grown, and a nascent research area has emerged. This paper is the first systematic review synthesizing emerging literature in the field of expatriate management in HEs and its theoretical foundations, applying a multi-stakeholder perspective.Design/methodology/approachFollowing accepted review procedures, systematic searches were conducted across three major databases. Manual search in target journals provided additional scrutiny.FindingsAfter analysing 28 articles, four main stakeholders were identified as follows: environments, expatriates, assigning organizations and the expatriates' social networks. Findings reveal the ways of how all stakeholders can affect expatiation success or be affected so that the success of the assignment is jeopardised.Originality/valueOur paper illustrates how these diverse articles can be linked within a comprehensive multi-stakeholder framework and provides avenues for future research. We also shift attention to neglected theoretical perspectives that might further improve the understanding of expatriates in HEs while offering actionable guidance for managerial and organizational practices.

What do we know about diversity, intersectionality and inclusion in organisationally-assigned expatriation? A review of relocation management company/consultancy practitioner research

“…LGBTQ+ assignees can face considerable barriers to their expatriation including legislative and societal intolerance, stigmatisation and discrimination (Faeth and Kittler, 2020; Luiz and Spicer, 2021) with transgender individuals experiencing discrimination particularly severely (Singh, 2018). Employers' duty of care can preclude LGBTQ+ expatriation where same-sex relationships attract severe penalties yet, even where homosexuality is legal, same-sex couples can face barriers to residency, work visas, marriage and adoption, etc.…”

Why we need to know more about diversity among the globally mobile: a systematic literature review of non-traditional expatriate research and future research agenda for minority expatriates

“…First, the recent situation of the Covid-19 pandemic has brought to the forefront of attention of many employers and workers that health and safety risks associated with working across countries goes beyond being in specific dangerous situations such as war and conflict zones or areas of high crime or terrorism locations (see Faeth and Kittler, 2020;Pinto, Bader and Schuster, 2017) and highlights that other health issues transcend borders (De Cieri and Lazarova, 2020). Though all international workers may be at risk from health crises such as viruses, greater risk is posed to those who undertake frequent international travel in their roles.…”

International rotational assignments: women's challenge to occupational gender segregation

“…The literature on working in hostile environments suggests a number of actions that employers can take to reassure and support their international assignees in these locations. For example, employers can stress how they promote assignees' well-being (Faeth and Kittler, 2020), their focus on increased workplace security (including secure housing) (Posthuma et al, 2019) and their emphasis on comprehensive crisis planning (Gannon and Paraskevas, 2019), building trust in their employees that they will deliver such support as promised (Baker and Ciuk, 2015). In relation to career outcomes, employers might highlight the valuable, rare knowledge employees obtain when undertaking international assignments in hostile environments (Suder et al, 2019) and ensure that performance management reviews include effective goal setting, development options and supportive people management approaches (Valk and Hannon, 2016).…”