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This paper aims to explore the relative importance of the motives and sub‐motives which influence a highly educated individual's decision to move across global boundaries.

The approach takes a multi‐dimensional perspective of mobility, resulting in the development of a range of motives for self‐initiated mobility. The paper employs a quantitative methodology, with over 2,600 internet survey responses from highly educated New Zealanders living and working around the world.

The importance of the cultural and travel opportunities and career motives are highlighted as the most important motives in a decision to be mobile. Within these motives, opportunities for travel and adventure and for career development were central. Economics was ranked as the third most important motive, contrary to the extant literature, followed by relationships, quality of life and the political environment. The priority accorded to each of these motives varies according to gender, location and life stage, creating different equations of motivation. The paper explores the implications of these findings to career theory.

The study focuses only on New Zealanders living abroad and there may be some factors, which apply to these people but not to people from other countries.

The data could be useful for policy makers trying to either retain highly educated people in the home country, or to attract them back from abroad.

The study utilises a novel methodology to identify the relative importance of motivating factors and shows that there is a different mixture of these motives at different life stages.

As the current “one size fits all” research approach is likely to be ineffective in identifying the conditions that promote the entrepreneurial career of the solo self-employed, this paper advances the current understanding of the heterogeneity among the solo self-employed.

A person-centered approach is used to identify groups among the solo self-employed based on their starting motives and to examine their engagement in proactive career behaviors.

Using Latent Class Analysis (LCA), six groups displaying distinct motivational profiles are identified: (1) the pushed by necessity, (2) entrepreneurs by heart, (3) control-seekers, (4) occupationally-driven, (5) challenge-seekers and (6) the family business-driven. In line with the argument that starting motives affect behavior because they reflect the future work selves that individuals aim for, results show that solo self-employed with distinct motivational profiles differ in their engagement in proactive career behaviors. For future research, it is recommended to examine the role of demographic characteristics in the engagement in proactive career behaviors.

Although starting motives among self-employed people have been studied frequently, this research applies an innovative methodological approach by using LCA. Hereby, a potentially more advanced configuration of starting motives is explored. Additionally, this study applies a career perspective towards the domain of solo self-employment by exploring how solo self-employed with distinct motivational profiles differ in terms of managing their entrepreneurial careers.

The purpose of this paper is to gain insight into international career motives, repatriation and career success of Indian women in Science and Technology.

In total, 30 semi-structured interviews were conducted with (upper) middle-class Indian women in Science and Technology in Bangalore and New Delhi, India.

Thematic analysis resulted in four themes – International career motives, Theme 1: cross-cultural and scientific exposure; Repatriation reasons and experiences, Theme 2: family reunion, career prospects and readjustment; Career success, Theme 3: international experience; and career growth, Theme 4: social responsibility. Motives for international career mobility of Indian women were: exposure to foreign cultures, international collaboration in science and personal and professional development. Family formation and reunion and career prospects were reasons for repatriation and positively influenced repatriation experiences of Indian women. Readjustment to people and conditions in India impacted their repatriation experiences negatively. The meaning women attribute to career success is grounded in recognition from peers in science, career growth, satisfaction and contribution to science and Indian society.

The sample of Indian female scientists may limit generalization of the findings to global career professionals in other professions from other countries with different socio-cultural and economic contexts.

HR policies that foster international careers of women scientists as well as women's networks in science to share and apply knowledge, and their contribution to the Indian economy and society will enhance global career success of women and strengthen the sustainable competitive position of organizations.

The study provides new insights into motivation for international career mobility and repatriation of women professionals from a developing country and their career success in the home country, and contributes to the development of theoretical frameworks on international career mobility and career success.

Extant expatriate literature largely adopts a global north/western focus and expatriate-centric approach in investigating spousal/partners’ motives for supporting expatriation. Contrastingly, this study focuses on the lived experiences of dual-career female partners from an emerging global south economy and a patriarchal society as it relates to motives for supporting a partner’s international assignment (IA) to a developed country.

This investigation adopts a hermeneutic interpretive phenomenology research design. Twelve career-oriented female partners from an emerging global south economy (Brazil) who supported a partner’s IA to a developed country (USA) participated in this study. The data included semi-structured interviews and field notes.

The study indicates that societal constraints, gendered career experiences and career and life stage reasons influenced women’s decision to engage in career opt out and/or interruption in support of their partners' IA. Further, patriarchal long-lasting structures and ideologies shaped women’s career experiences; women perceived IAs as a means of acquiring embodied and institutionalized cosmopolitan capital for themselves and their families in order to gain a better position in a transnational/globalized world.

Although the sample size of this study is appropriate for the methodological choice adopted, future studies should include more participants and address different socioeconomic, political and cultural contexts.

This study highlights dual-career female partners' lived experiences in an emerging global south economy and a patriarchal society as it relates to motives for supporting IAs.

The purpose of the present paper is to offer a career concept and culture framework for measuring and managing the alignment between people, strategy and culture and especially the motivational capital as the fit between people's motives and the organization's reward and appraisal systems.

A survey of 312 respondents in a multinational manufacturing firm using two questionnaires about their individual career concepts, motives, and their views about the organizational strategy and culture.

The results suggest that the career‐ and culture‐based motivational capital is positively associated with how effective the people view the strategy, how well‐functioning the structure is experienced, how relevant the performance appraisal is considered, how satisfied the people feel, and how long they stay in the organization.

Future research should add more multi‐item‐dependent variables, use more translated questionnaires into the respondents' own languages, and study more organizations in different industries to make further use of the career concept and culture model's ability to capture the fit between different persons and their organizations and the importance of this alignment.

Career and organizational development can improve the fit between individual career concepts and motives as well as organizational career culture and thereby contribute in several ways to higher performance, such as greater motivation, more positive views of the organization, and higher retention.

The paper provides a unique approach to understand and manage the alignment of different persons, HR systems, and organizational culture with greater precision.

Workers have different motives to be employed at specialist contract work agencies, such as career development aspirations, or a desire for freedom and independence. The purpose of this paper is to study how these different motives relate to the appreciation of HR practices applied by agencies and consequently to employee retention at the agency.

Data were collected in a contract work agency for financial professionals. Management was interviewed about the HR practices used for employee retention. In addition, 291 agency employees filled out a questionnaire about their motives to be employed at the agency, their appreciation of the HR practices of the contract agency and their turnover intentions.

Regression analysis showed that career development motivation was related to retention at the agency, but that this relation became weaker when tenure with the agency increased. HR practices (like training, supervisory support, career development support, information sharing and employee participation) proved to be related to lower turnover intentions of flex workers with a career development motivation. For flex workers with a freedom motivation the HR practices had no relationship with retention.

Data collection in one agency may limit generalization. Additional research needs to zoom in on alternative HR retention practices that align with freedom motivation.

Specialist contract work agencies typically experience difficulties with employee retention. Agencies may retain their workers if they apply HR practices that are aligned with the motivation of people engaging in contract work.

The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into the practice of demotion. This study aims to do so in two ways: first, by investigating Belgian HR professionals’ key motives for practicing and not practicing demotion and second, by examining the reasons why HR professionals choose for these specific motives.

The explanatory mixed methods design is used: survey data are analyzed through cluster analysis resulting in insights into the motives for practicing demotion. Follow-up qualitative focus group interviews provide an explanatory understanding of the motives for practicing and not practicing demotion.

Low employee performance, optimization of the organization, employer branding and career possibilities are motives for practicing demotion. Demotivation, salary issues, a taboo and a lack of vacancies are motives for not practicing demotion. A cultural change, walk the talk, carefully selected vocabulary and transparent communication could possibly counter the motives for not practicing demotion.

The use of terminology such as “downward career twist” instead of “demotion” in some questions of the survey might have influenced the answers of the Belgian HR professionals. In a focus group, no matter how small, participants sometimes tend to give socially desirable answers under group pressure, and this could influence the accuracy. Moreover, the HR professionals often expressed their own opinions, which they clearly dissociate from the views of the organization.

Organizations need to explore alternatives to motivate their employees in general and in particular in case of a demotion. This can be emphasized through a demotion policy. However, these alternative ways to motivate are important as extrinsic motivators such as salary are not the only way to motivate employees.

Motives for practicing and not practicing demotion are to the authors’ best knowledge never studied from a recent, Belgian HR perspective. These motives are contextualized in organizational justice theory. This study contributes to the demotion literature by elaborating the list of motives for practicing and not practicing demotion.

This article aims to examine the role of boundaryless career orientation in influencing Internet professionals' strategies toward workplace problems in China's Internet companies, which feature prominent problems including excessive overwork. It addresses one question: how do Chinese Internet professionals make grievance strategies?

This article draws on qualitative data based on semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 134 employees from 6 representative Chinese Internet companies. The data were collected during 2018-2021 and analyzed with a grounded theory approach.

This article highlights the role of boundaryless career orientation in explaining Chinese Internet professionals' strategies toward workplace grievances. The author develops a comprehensive model to illustrate how boundaryless career orientation influences four grievance strategies namely, strategic compliance, exit, dissent expression and resistance that correspond to four different motives to advance the professionals' boundaryless career: learning, transferring, relieving and resolving. Internet professionals choose different grievance strategies based on how each option can benefit their boundaryless career goals.

This article is one of the first to bring in boundaryless career orientation as a key factor in explaining Chinese Internet professionals' grievance strategies. It provides a fuller picture than previous studies by showing wide varieties of professionals' grievance behaviors. The finding of high-level boundaryless career orientation among Internet professionals offers insights on how companies can improve employment relations by improving career management practices.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how women working in science, engineering and technology use online networking, for career and professional development purposes.

A combined qualitative and quantitative approach is taken, using interviews for the first phase of the research and online surveys for the second. The findings are discussed and presented with reference to theories on career development and in the context of recent work on women's networks and online social networking.

The paper defines a typology of online networks and identifies the motives women have for engaging with the different types. The data imply that women are successfully using online networks to find support, advice and collaboration from women working in similar environments. However, the data only identify a few examples where the use of online networks has led to a specific new job opportunity.

The findings are limited by the samples used, as they were self‐selected. In the first phase of the research, the sample was biased in favour of those using information and communication technologies. In the second phase, women using some form of online network were purposefully targeted in order to understand the motives and benefits associated with these activities.

The paper provides new insights into how professional women are networking online. It extends recent work into women's networks and networking strategies and presents a timely exploration into how these are being affected by the growth of online social networking.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of motives for volunteerism and organizational culture on organizational commitment (OC) and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) in Indian work context.

The data were collected from 248 middle and senior managers of a public sector organization in India. The self and other reported questionnaires were used to collect the data.

Results of hierarchical regression analysis have shown that personal development dimension of volunteerism was found to be the positive predictor of OC and OCB both. However, career enhancement, empathy and community concern dimensions of volunteerism had mixed effects on both the criterion variables. Furthermore, culture had not shown a significant impact on OCB; however, it had a positive influence on affective and continuance commitment. Moreover, demographic variables (age, education and tenure) had strong impact on OC than OCB.

OC and OCB are highly desirable forms of employees’ behavior in which motivation for volunteerism and organizational culture can play a significant role. However, both OC and OCB are differentially predicted by these antecedent variables.

This is the first study which has explored the impact of motives for volunteerism on OC and OCB in the field of organizational behavior in a non-western work context such as India.