Career capital as a key to a successful international career : How different ways of knowing affect the international transfer of career capital

Abstract

Career Capital (CC), which is combination of knowing-how; knowing-whom; and knowing-why, stands as a base for individual careers. Knowing-how represents career related knowledge and skills, knowing-whom stands for the career relevant social networks or people that we know, whereas knowing-why is all about career focused energy, motivation, direction, and identity. CC framework suggests that each part of CC affects one another's development and possibly even transfer between different career stages and environments e.g., organisations, occupations, and industries. Research shows that it is possible to individually transfer CC not only between organisations nationally but also internationally. However, the way different types of knowing (knowing-how, knowing-whom, knowing-why) might affect international transfer of CC is not explicitly clear. In this chapter we explore the way different types of knowing affect the international transfer of CC (knowing-how affecting the transfer of knowing-whom and knowing-why; knowingwhom affecting the transfer of knowing-how and knowing-why; and knowingwhy affecting the transfer of knowing-how and knowing-whom). We do this by bringing real life examples from the qualitative interviews with Dutch and Lithuanian self-initiated repatriates (SIRs) who repatriated to their home countries on their own initiative and without organisational support after living and working abroad.