Wanderlust to wonderland? : Exploring key issues in expatriate careers: Individual, organizational, and societal insights

Abstract

Expatriation has been a topic of much research recently. The important role expatriates play in the internationalisation of an organisation and the resultant effects of such a work experience on the expatriates themselves, have fuelled the interest in this domain. This edited volume serves to provide fresh and timely insights into four areas, covering the individual, over the organisational, to the macro-level. First, the career paths of the expatriates, which not only garners them the career capital they may be able to utilise later in their career but also, the impacts of such an experience on their longer-term career success are in focus. The second block concerns the expatriation phase itself. A critical look is taken into the expatriates’ identity and how it changes over time. Moreover, it discusses factors influencing the expatriates’ well-being, embeddedness, and socio-cultural integration during their time abroad. Third, some key global mobility management challenges that organisations face, when managing expatriation, are introduced —such as flexible language management and how to become an international employer. Finally, insights are provided into the role of the host country policies – more specifically hostile environment and migration policies – on expatriate attitudes and behaviour, which has received less attention in previous research. All four areas are finally brought together to present a rich overview of future research questions that shall stimulate researchers and practitioners in their further deliberations. The chapters are based on selected results from the respective research subprojects of the Early Stage Researchers of the Horizon 2020 Global Mobility of Employees (GLOMO) project. This project was funded under the European Union’s Research and Innovation Programme H2020 in the framework of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No 765355.