SummaryThis qualitative study examines objective-subjective career interdependencies within a sample of 45 qualified immigrants (QIs) in Canada, Spain and France. The particular challenges in this type of self-initiated international careers arise from the power of institutions and local gatekeepers, the lack of recognition for QIs' foreign career capital, and the need for proactivity. Resulting from primary data analysis, we identify six major themes in QIs' subjective interpretations of objective barriers: Maintaining motivation, managing identity, developing new credentials, developing local know-how, building a new social network and evaluating career success. Secondary data analysis distinguishes three QI career orientations-embracing, adaptive and resisting orientations-with each portraying distinct patterns of motivation, identity and coping. This study extends the boundaryless career perspective by providing a more fine-grained understanding of how qualified migrants manage both physical and psychological mobility during self-initiated international career transitions. With regards to the interdependence between objective and subjective career aspects, it illustrates the importance of avoiding preference to one side at the neglect of the other, or treating the two sides as independent of one another. Practical implications are proposed for career management efforts and receiving economies.

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The self-managed work team is an organizational structure that is much used by companies today. It is put forward as the most appropriate setting for the creation and transfer of knowledge, while protecting the source of competitive advantage. However, achieving efficiency in a work team is not without its difficulties. The literature indicates that a suitable climate minimizes these. In this study, we analyse, both theoretically and empirically, the components of that climate as well as some organizational initiatives that favour its presence. The empirical study was carried out on a sample of 363 individuals working in self-managed teams within companies, mostly multinationals, located in Spain. Keywords Self-managed work teams; transfer and creation of knowledge; high care.

This introductory article briefly reviews the current state of research into expatriation, focussing on the critical issues of strategy, selection and predeparture, compensation, performance management, repatriation, and career management. The burgeoning research in the field is set into context and a plea made for a more varied and imaginative research agenda. The articles in the rest of this special issue are located in this context.