Frequent business travelers across Europe: Career aspirations and implications

Abstract

In human resource management (HRM) and career research, the focus has typically been on traditional expatriates (e.g., Mayrhofer, Sparrow, & Zimmermann, 2008). Even though alternative forms of international mobility, such as flexpatriates (i.e., frequent business travelers and international commuters; Mayerhofer, Hartmann, & Herbert, 2004), have become quite common, this trend still seems to be neglected in research (e.g., Harris, Brewster, & Erten, 2005). This empirical article presents career aspirations of Austrian flexpatriates as well as perceived consequences of frequent flying on future careers, private life, and well‐being. The results are compared with selected theoretical concepts from career and career‐success literature. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The ‘expat factor’: the influence of working time on women's decisions to undertake international assignments in the oil and gas industry

“…Interestingly, these findings contrast with the extant literature which, for example, notes that short-term assignments can provide a pattern of work that enables women to balance international mobility with family and domestic roles (Demel and Mayrhofer, 2010;Harris and Dickman, 2005) and that commuter assignments can offer a high potential for assignment success and family life (Meyskens, Von Glinow, Werther and Clarke, 2009). While we know relatively little about female expatriates who undertake alternative types of assignments, do suggest that they would be likely to give them up in response to their personal and family life demands.…”

Exploring international work: types and dimensions of global careers

“…Yet this mode of work is highly demanding and induces high levels of stress, which for some are energising, but for others might be daunting. Moreover, it has a major impact on the private lives of frequent flyers, making regular sports or social activities, for example, all but impossible (Demel and Mayrhofer 2010). While the time period during which flexpatriates stay in a given geography may be short, they are likely to work in several cultures in the course of a year.…”

Career capital in global Kaleidoscope Careers: the role of HRM

“…It is perhaps unsurprising that there has been a rise in the numbers of dual-career couples unwilling to accept international assignments (Harvey, Napier and Moeller, 2009) as the complexity of balancing not one but two Kaleidoscope Careers may be too great. It may be surmised that this reluctance might extend to other forms of global mobility; however, as Demel and Mayrhofer (2010) note, due to the scant research into other types of mobility little is known about the additional challenges this presents for global organisations. They observe however, in their study of frequent flyers within Europe, that work and non-work role conflicts are particularly high in dual career couples.…”