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The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which a destination's security level affects the relationship between personality traits and individuals' expatriation willingness.

The authors apply an experimental vignette methodology using a 2 × 1 between subjects-design with two destinations characterized by different security levels (dangerous vs. safe) among 278 participants (students and employees). Partial least squares multigroup analysis (PLS-MGA) was employed to test the hypotheses.

The findings indicate that different personality variables appear to impact individuals' expatriation willingness depending on the security level of a destination: emotionality and conscientiousness predicted expatriation willingness to dangerous environments, whereas openness to experience predicted expatriation willingness to safe environments. The personality traits of honesty–humility, extraversion and agreeableness were not found to influence expatriation willingness in either scenario.

The study discusses a set of practical recommendations for the selection and the management of eligible individuals who are willing to expatriate to dangerous locations.

The study is among the first to examine the influence of personality on expatriation willingness in safe and dangerous environments at the same time. It advances prior research by providing a more nuanced understanding of the context-specific effects of personality on expatriation willingness.

This chapter analyzes the critical move in feminist scholarship to gender the discourse on risk mediation in dangerous ethnographic fieldwork, particularly in social justice research. Additionally, I draw on a reflexive analysis of my own fieldwork in Oaxaca, Mexico, to examine the intersectional impact of social location (gender, race, class, etc.) on risk management.

I synthesize key literature contributions in social science and feminist scholarship on doing dangerous fieldwork. Ethnographic data includes three months of participant observation and interviews with participants of the 2006 Oaxacan uprising.

I argue that the following themes represent axes of gendered risk mediation in social justice fieldwork: (1) the intersectional impact of social location on varied risks and the mediation of those risks, (2) impression management as an important tool for risk mediation, and (3) ethical dilemmas within risk mediation. The key dangers and risks in fieldwork include physical danger, emotional/psychological impacts, risk to research participants, ethical dangers, separation from family through international work, risk of imprisonment, and academic/professional risk.

Analysis of personal experience in the field is limited to this one researcher’s experience; however, it mirrors key themes present in the literature. Reflexive analysis of social location on risk mediation is part of a continued call by feminist ethnographers to research practical risk mediation techniques and recognize the intersectional impacts of social location on fieldwork.

This chapter provides insights that instructors of ethnographic methods might use to discuss dangerous fieldsites and how to mediate risk.

A failure to recognize risk in ethnographic research may disproportionately impact researchers most susceptible to particular risks.

Although feminist scholarship has long examined social location in fieldwork, analysis of risk management is limited. Additionally, this chapter adds to this scholarship by contributing key themes that unite the available research and a list of most-often discussed risks in fieldwork.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the differing perceptions of fear of expatriates operating in terror-exposed Nairobi and the high-crime environment of Johannesburg and its impact on stress and well-being. It illustrates how expatriates cope with the challenges associated with these two regions.

Following an interpretative and inductive research approach, qualitative content analyses were conducted using evidence from in-depth interviews with 12 expatriates in senior management or officer positions within a large global organisation, with respondents based in South Africa and Kenya.

Data suggest that expatriates in the more terrorism-exposed context perceive fear less strongly than expatriates in environments categorised by high degrees of conventional crime. Fear seems to relate to physical well-being via restricted freedom of movement, but there is little evidence that fear affects mental well-being. The study finds that respondents in terror-exposed Nairobi tend to engage more in avoidance-oriented coping strategies, whereas their counterparts in the high-crime environment of Johannesburg predominantly rely on problem-focused coping.

The qualitative design allows practitioners to better understand expatriates’ perceptions of fear, its consequences for stress, and well-being and potential coping strategies expatriates employ. It discusses a set of practical recommendations focussing on the deployment of expatriates assigned to dangerous locations.

This study develops a distinction between terror and conventional crime and contributes with practical insights for assignments into dangerous work environments. The geographic lens of the study provides an in-depth look at expatriation challenges in an arguably neglected regional context.

Corporate business activities can require expatriates to relocate to dangerous countries. Applying the expectancy value theory, the purpose of this paper is to investigate differences in female and male expatriates in their relocation willingness to dangerous countries as a function of sensation seeking. The authors further examine money orientation as a moderator of the effects of sensation seeking.

The sample is comprised of 148 expatriates currently residing in safe host countries. The authors build and examine a moderated mediation model using the PROCESS tool.

The results show that male expatriates are more sensation seeking than female expatriates. Further, the results indicate a positive main effect of sensation seeking on relocation willingness to dangerous countries. Most importantly, sensation seeking was found to mediate the effects of gender on relocation willingness. Accordingly, male expatriates are more willing to relocate to dangerous countries due to higher sensation seeking. Money orientation was not found to interact with sensation seeking.

The authors analyzed cross-sectional data. Future studies are encouraged to use multi-wave research designs and to examine further predictors, as well as mediators and moderators of relocation willingness to dangerous countries. Another limitation is the low number of organizational expatriates in the sample.

The study provides implications for the process of selecting eligible individuals who are willing to relocate to dangerous countries.

The study is among the first research endeavors to investigate antecedents of expatriates’ relocation willingness to dangerous countries. The authors also introduce the sensation seeking construct to the literature on expatriation management.

The main objective of this paper is the assessment of the environmental impact due to accidental spills of toxic and flammable liquids on land. Different case studies of possible accidents in the State of Qatar were considered. An EPA‐based dispersion model was utilized to estimate the size and location of the dangerous clouds generated by such spills at different elapsed times. Three case studies of possible accidents in the State of Qatar involving gasoline were considered. Due to the transient nature of the dispersion processes in the case studies, the results showed clearly the phenomenon of growth and decay of the generated dangerous clouds. An interface between the dynamic results of the dispersion software and the static data of the Qatar geographical information system (GIS) allowed the immediate identification of the major landmarks affected by the considered accidents. These data would be of great help in developing an emergency evacuation plan for such accidents.

The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore the role of spirituality, understood as a personal relationship with God, in missionary intercultural experience.

We conducted narrative interviews with eight Polish consecrated missionaries in Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru and Paraguay. We used thematic analysis to establish spirituality in missionary experience and narrative analysis to examine sensemaking processes.

Missionary spirituality was defined by a personal relationship with God as a source of consolation, psychological comfort, strength to cope with distressing experiences, and Grace promoting self-improvement. It compensated for the lack of family and psychological support and enhanced psychological adjustment to the environment perceived as dangerous. Spirituality helped missionaries deal with cultural challenges, traumatic and life-threatening events. Traumatic experiences furthered their understanding of the mission and triggered a spiritual transition that entailed a change in their life, attitudes and behavior.

Comparative research into religious vs nonreligious individual spirituality in the experience across various types of expats in various locations could capture the professional and cultural specificity of individual spirituality. Research is also needed to link spirituality with expat failure.

Catholic agencies and institutions that dispatch missionaries to dangerous locations should consider providing professional psychological assistance. Narrative interviewing could be used to enhance missionaries' cultural and professional self-awareness, to better serve the local community. Their stories of intercultural encounters could be incorporated into cross-cultural training and the ethical and spiritual formation of students and future expats.

This study captures a spiritual aspect of intercultural experience of under-researched expats. It offers a model of the involvement of individual spirituality in coping in mission.

Examines two aspects of a new system being installed by BP engineering. First, the measurement of corrosion in hot, dangerous and inaccessible locations, both within process plants and on remote pipelines and, second, the automatic collection of data from widely separated measurement points at a single location for monitoring and assessment. Discusses recent advances in ultrasonic non‐destructive test instruments and low frequency electro‐magnetic communication techniques, showing how these have made this project possible.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between host country (HC) language skills, fear of terror, and cross-cultural adjustment (CCA) of expatriates based in host countries with different terrorist threat levels.

Integrating the expatriate adjustment framework by Black et al. (1991) with social identity theory-based literature, this study first, theorizes about the effects of both fear of terror and HC language proficiency on CCA and, second, puts forward the moderating effect of the actual terrorist threat level on the relationship between HC language proficiency and fear of terror. Hypotheses are tested using survey data of 116 expatriates based in host countries with different threat levels.

HC language proficiency is positively associated with CCA. Yet, it is also positively associated with fear of terror, which is, in turn, negatively related to CCA. Consequently, the beneficial effect of HC language skills on CCA is reduced in environments where expatriates experience significant fear of terror. While the actual threat level has a direct positive effect on fear of terror, it also positively moderates the relationship between HC language proficiency and fear of terror.

This study extends prior literature on expatriation to dangerous environments by zooming in on a specific type of risk factor associated with international assignments, i.e., terrorism, and by integrating HC language proficiency and fear of terror as important factors, which may influence CCA in contexts in which expatriates experience significant fear of terror.