Research for Practice: The Management of Expatriates

Abstract

The objective of this article is to identify expatriate management research questions of interest to international human resource (IHR) managers. We conducted an in‐depth literature review, interviewed a small sample of IHR managers, and reviewed commercially available large sample surveys of IHR managers. Results suggest that IHR managers are concerned about determinants of the decision to accept an offer of expatriation, why expatriates show so little interest in training, perceived equity in rewards, and other areas not well studied to date. The article discusses implications for academics wishing to make their research more relevant to IHR managers and global organizations. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The benefits of global teams for international organizations: HR implications

“…McEvoy and Buller (2013), for example, point to evidence suggesting that the academic literature is out of sync with what international HR managers in international organizations see as important. In their research, international HR managers lamented that although organizations see training programs (typically from one to two days in duration) as beneficial, few expatriates and their accompanying family members show interest in participating in these programs.…”

Developing cross-cultural healthcare workers: content, process and mentoring

“…22 Cultural intelligence, a multifaceted individual attribute that assists a person in adapting effectively to a new cultural context, may also contribute to cross-cultural success. Adjustability, [22][23][24][25][26][27] cultural sensitivity, 28,29 self-efficacy, 30 previous international experience, 26,27,30 and family adjustment dynamics 31 also play major roles in contributing to the effective functioning of the cross-cultural professional. So, a number of factors have been identified which can help the healthcare missionary become successful; yet, many crosscultural workers are surprised by the difficulties they face once established in their cross-cultural living situations.…”

Repatriate Knowledge Transfer: Towards the Development of a New Measurement Instrument

“…Repatriates are employees who have completed their company-initiated international assignment and returned to their domestic work unit (Huang et al, 2013;McEvoy & Buller, 2013). They might also be assigned to other work units within the parent company in their home country.…”

“…With surprisingly few exceptions, the majority of multinational enterprises (MNEs) do not harvest repatriate knowledge, according to the repatriate literature. Their failure to recognize and utilize this valuable asset might make repatriates more vulnerable to recruitment by other MNEs (Lazarova & Cerdin, 2007;McEvoy & Buller, 2013;Oddou et al, 2013). A small but growing number of researchers are studying the process of repatriate knowledge transfer (RKT) and repatriates have been described as important enablers of intraorganizational knowledge transfer, due to their ability to adapt the acquired knowledge to different contexts and their motivation to share their newly acquired knowledge with others (Huang, Chiu, & Lu, 2013;Oddou et al, 2013;Reiche, 2012).…”