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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.

This study aims to contribute to the enrichment of the literature by examining the impact of cross-cultural training on expatriates’ adjustment of Nigerian bankers on expatriate assignments in other African countries.

Data on cross-cultural adjustment from expatriate employees in five banks that collectively accounted for over 80 per cent of Nigerian banks with subsidiaries in other African were systematically selected for the investigation. This data was collected quantitatively via a survey instrument. Independent sample t-test, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and regression analysis were deployed in analyzing the data.

The study found that cross-cultural adjustment varied significantly across the different categories of gender, age, marital status, previous expatriate training, previous expatriate experience, and duration of expatriation. The study concludes that in order to attain higher levels of adjustment African banks and other organizations should provide a more comprehensive cross-cultural training program that mirrors the needs of employees following a detailed needs analysis. Also, the training must be sequential and not a one-off approach.

The literature though still nascent is largely focused on expatriate preparation and adjustment for expatriates moving from Western-to-western contexts and very little exists in the literature on how multinationals from Non-Western contexts like Africa prepare their staff for expatriation and its consequent impact on their adjustment. This study aims to enrich the literature by examining the impact of cross-cultural training on expatriates’ adjustment of Nigerian bankers on expatriate assignments in other African countries.

This study aims to understand how female globally mobile employees (GMEs), a group that is gaining a stronger presence in global work, exert their career agency within the context of structural constraints.

Using theoretical perspectives of career-agency theory and person-environment fit as frames of reference, this study collected 113 blog posts written by 19 female GMEs and conducted semi-structured interviews with 11 female GMEs who are currently living and working in Japan.

This study found that the informants exercised career agency as a response to challenges related to foreignness and gender. Through career-related agentic behaviors, the informants strove to increase their fit with their environments while interacting with different aspects of structural constraints. This study also found that people in different stages of global mobility exhibited different mindsets toward their foreignness, consequently influencing their career agency.

This study highlights the dynamic interaction between structural constraints and the agency of female GMEs, advancing the understanding of career agency in women’s global work. In addition, it recognizes the presence of expatriate residents as a distinct subgroup within the GME population, shedding light on the evolving ambiguous boundaries between self-initiated expatriates and other talent categories.

Scholars acknowledge that trust relationships between expatriates and host nationals are important; however, previous research has demonstrated that one’s culture affects how individuals define trust, which can influence how trust is developed between expatriates and host nationals. In addition, trust can affect communication between expatriates and host nationals in many ways. Therefore, this study examined how US host nationals and Japanese expatriates conceptualized trust in the workplace as well as how trust affected their daily communication.

A total of 32 participants (16 US Americans and 16 Japanese) working in a multinational manufacturing company participated in semi-structured, individual interviews. A modified version of constant comparative analysis was employed to analyze the data.

Both groups of participants identified competence and skills, teamwork and collaboration, and open/honest communication as defining features of trust in the workplace, although there were some explanations regarding trust that were influenced by participants’ culture. Further, trust between US host nationals and Japanese expatriates affected their communication strategies, such as information flow and mentoring communication.

This study contributes to literature on the relationships between expatriates and host nationals by providing a culturally nuanced understanding of trust in the workplace. Additionally, findings from this study offer practical recommendations for multinational corporations for how to socialize and train their employees to enhance their work experience with one another.

The aim of this work is to enhance workplace diversity and inclusion by exploring and addressing unique barriers faced by veterans during their transition from military service to civilian occupations.

Building on existing expatriate theory, we introduce the Veteran Employment Transition (VET) model. Drawing parallels between veterans and expatriates, the model illustrates key antecedents crucial for a successful transitional adjustment.

The proposed VET model outlines essential factors contributing to successful veteran transitions. These factors include individual factors such as language skills, job and organization factors such as role clarity and nonwork factors.

The VET model establishes a foundation for future research on veteran transition and answers the call for theory development in the field.

The insights derived from the VET model offer practical recommendations for designing interventions and transition support programs tailored to the unique needs of returning veterans.

The contribution of this paper lies in the development of the VET model, offering a novel perspective for understanding and addressing the distinctive challenges faced by returning United States (US) military veterans.

The purpose of this study is to develop a conceptual model explicating the development of expatriate social capital and its influence on expatriate effectiveness in terms of knowledge transfer and adjustment. Drawing upon social capital theory and weak tie theory, we elucidate the process through which expatriate social capital facilitates expatriate knowledge transfer and adjustment via greater access of role information and social support.

This study reviews and distills research on expatriate social capital development and proposes a conceptual model of expatriate effectiveness and suggests potential research avenues for global mobility scholars.

This study contributes to the understanding of the development of expatriate social capital in the host country and its impacts on expatriate effectiveness as a process. With regard to expatriates’ social capital accumulation, this study also highlights the important but less-known role of accompanying spouse/family members as expatriates’ weak tie enablers. We articulate a framework that outlines the sources of social capital for expatriates and the processes through which social capital transmits (via expatriates’ access to role information and social support) and then enhances expatriate effectiveness. This conceptual model aims to establish a basic “roadmap” for use by practitioners and researchers.

Before the proposed conceptual model can be theoretically refined or extended by future research, its veracity needs to be tested empirically. Although we do not incorporate “time,” “personal characteristics” and “context” in our model, we recognize their potential importance and urge future researchers to incorporate them in studying the role of social capital on expatriate effectiveness.

A conceptual model is presented that enables multinational corporations (MNCs) to map their current (and future) strategies to enhance expatriate effectiveness by further strengthening the expatriate social capital.

Drawing upon social capital theory and weak tie theory, this paper links various sources of expatriate social capital to expatriates’ access to role information and social support in supporting expatriate effectiveness. From this, several avenues of future research are drawn.

The international mentoring literature predominantly features traditional company-assigned expatriates as protégés overlooking other types of global talent, such as immigrants, refugees, and international graduates, who may help organizations gain long-term IHRM competitive advantages. We integrate multidisciplinary research to better understand the role of mentoring as a global talent management tool, identify research gaps, and propose future research directions.

We draw on an integrative review of 71 academic journal articles published between 1999 and 2024 to explore the role of mentoring in managing global talent (i.e. expatriates, immigrants, refugees, and international students and graduates).

We found that research has identified and examined relationships between various antecedents and outcomes of mentoring but mainly treating mentoring as a talent development tool. Less is known about the role of mentoring as a recruitment and selection tool in the pre-employment context. Mentoring is an important HRM tool that contributes to managing a global talent pool and developing existing employees.

The review contributes to a better understanding of the characteristics and processes involved in mentoring in a global context by proposing a framework that incorporates antecedents of mentoring, characteristics of the mentoring process, and mentoring outcomes. It highlights the value of mentoring as a recruitment and selection tool supporting global talent management and identifies avenues for future research.

International assignments are not just opportunities for career advancement but also for personal growth and exploration. This paper, by capturing the changing expectations and success parameters across the assignments, is a timely and relevant resource for individuals navigating the complexities of international careers. In addition, the paper aims to help organizations build policies for enabling successful assignments for international assignees and managers.

Our research took a unique two-pronged approach to understanding the success parameters of international assignments. We first interviewed 16 managers to understand the success parameters they set for expatriates. Then, we interviewed 19 international assignees to explore their choices and how they defined success in their international experiences.

Our comprehensive research, based on 35 interviews with international assignees and their supervisors, reveals that an assignment's success evolves with different stages of the assignment, over the assignments that the assignees choose, and varies according to the intent of the mobility.

This paper makes a significant contribution to the field of cross-cultural management and international assignments. By discussing the evolving definition of success across various international assignments, it not only provides valuable insights for expatriates in their international careers but also to managers to build aligned policies and practices.

Drawing on the whole-life perspective of career development and the conservation of resources theory, the authors consider whether self-initiated expatriates' (SIEs’) cultural intelligence (CQ) is a general, cross-domain resource that helps SIEs gain resources in the work and nonwork domains. The authors contend that CQ will be associated with greater levels of organizational and community embeddedness, which in turn will facilitate their career satisfaction. The authors also propose the role of perceived host country community diversity climate as an environmental condition that, when low, strengthens the relationships between CQ and organizational and community embeddedness.

The authors examine the study hypotheses based on two distinct samples of SIEs (Sample 1: 169 Asian SIE professionals; Study 2: 147 SIE academics).

SIEs' CQ positively relates to their organizational and community embeddedness, which in turn is associated with greater levels of career satisfaction. The authors also find that SIEs with high CQ are more likely to experience community embeddedness and career satisfaction when they perceive that the host country community diversity climate is low.

First, this study goes beyond existing literature that rarely examines nonwork inputs to SIE career success. Second, extending previous CQ research with a strong organizational focus, the authors investigated how CQ influences SIEs' work and nonwork embeddedness. Third, the authors found that the absence of a peripheral ecological condition, perceived host country community diversity climate, may strengthen the direct relationship between CQ and embeddedness and the indirect relationship between CQ and career satisfaction.

This paper aims to explore the Spanish Self-Initiated Expats’ (SIEs) motivations and factors involved in the choice of the host destination.

Through an exploratory and qualitative study, drawing upon SIE literature on motivations and careers, 22 Spanish SIEs were interviewed in a semi-structured way.

Most SIEs clearly detailed the line of reasoning behind the host destination choice (specific destination); a second group considered a limited number of potential countries to relocate to (alternative destinations), and the smallest one did not choose a specific location. Career motivations were the most mentioned ones and different degrees of career planning were found: those with a very defined career planning process relied upon one potential destination, while those with a less defined one considered several alternative host destinations. The European Region Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students experience was one of the most mentioned factors influencing the choice of the host destination, which may be common to other European Union (EU) nationals. As to the limiting ones, the visa requirements outside the EU were identified. Other factors were particular to Spain, such as the perceived need for English proficiency for a successful global career and the degrees of career planning.

These findings may assist Talent Management Managers to align organizational strategies with SIEs motivations. They may also help future Spanish and European SIEs in their individual career management process.

This study contributes to a better understanding of the expatriation motivations and factors influencing the destination location of Spanish SIEs, adding to the SIE and global career literature.