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The COVID-19 pandemic has forced global organizations to adopt technology-driven virtual solutions involving faster, less costly and more effective ways to work worldwide even after the pandemic. One potential outcome may be through virtual global mobility (VGM), defined as the replacement of personal physical international interactions for work purposes with electronic personal online interactions. The purpose of this article is to establish VGM as a theoretical concept and explore to what extent it can replace or complement physical global work assignments.

This perspectives article first explores advantages and disadvantages of global virtual work and then discusses the implementation of VGM and analyses to what extent and how VGM can replace and complement physical global mobility.

Representing a change of trend, long-term corporate expatriates could become necessary core players in VGM activities while the increase of the number of global travelers may be halted or reversed. VGM activities will grow and further develop due to a continued rapid development of communication and coordination technologies. Consequently, VGM is here to stay!

The authors have witnessed a massive trend of increasing physical global mobility where individuals have crossed international borders to conduct work. The authors are now observing the emergence of a counter-trend: instead of moving people to their work the authors often see organizations moving work to people. This article has explored some of the advantages, disadvantages, facilitators and barriers of such global virtual work. Given the various purposes of global work the authors chart the suitability of VGM to fulfill these organizational objectives.

The purpose of this paper is to address the research question of “How does a global career involving multiple international relocations influence the career capital of an individual manager?”, and to examine the typical career‐capital‐related characteristics, drivers and outcomes associated with global careers. The importance of understanding the careers of global leaders, whose work paths typically include various international positions and assignments, has increased due to the globalization of business. A particularly relevant approach for studying such careers is through a framework of career capital, which adopts an individualistic perspective to explain how actors consciously acquire portable capabilities, construct networks and identify their own motivations, applying them in their specific work contexts.

The study adopts a qualitative design based on interviews with 20 managers on a global career path involving multiple international assignments.

The results indicate that international work experience has an extensive developmental effect on the career capital of managers. First, the interviewees reported that their global careers had strongly increased their knowing‐why career capital, referring to meaning and self‐awareness. With regard to knowing‐how career capital, their multiple international experiences had considerably enhanced several work‐related competencies. The key drivers behind this development included the broad range of responsibilities, the nature of the international environment, a high level of autonomy, and cross‐cultural differences. Finally, in terms of knowing‐whom capital, the results of the study indicate that the contact network managers acquire during their international assignments was of very high importance for their future careers. As a further outcome of their global careers, the managers were found to have a very strong career identity.

This paper provides a novel perspective on a topic that is of increasingly critical importance in today's global business.

Little is known about the attraction, development, and attrition factors that impact on expatriates’ decision making in relation to international assignment opportunities, nor is there clear understanding as to how global mobility outcomes impact on global talent management (GTM). The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize the attraction, development, and attrition of expatriates as a process that is focussed on two core elements of expatriate ROI (eROI) – corporate ROI (cROI) and individual ROI (iROI). Further, the authors adopt an innovative approach by conceptualizing how global mobility is linked to GTM.

Applying psychological contract theory, the authors draw on empirical data from two large studies to compare the perspectives of mobility managers (the cROI inputs) with those of long-term assignees (expatriates; the iROI inputs) to identify how global mobility outcomes can impact on GTM.

By comparing and contrasting corporate and individual perspectives, the findings show a more complete picture of expatriation in practice than has been offered in prior research. Doing so highlights synergies and conflicts in the desired support provided for, and outcomes expected from, global mobility and GTM programs.

The research adds to the literature by demonstrating how cROI and iROI combine to influence overall global mobility outcomes for multinational corporations, and how these, in turn, impact on GTM initiatives and overall GTM success. It extends previous research to specifically link global mobility to GTM, and adds to the limited empirical literature on eROI. The research also advances understanding of the employment relationship during expatriation by identifying new factors and consequences pertaining to psychological contract fulfillment. Implications for future research are presented.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a research agenda and raise practical issues relating to the increasing complexity of the internationally mobile professional.

The paper considers the developing issues in the use of alternative forms of international assignment (short‐term, commuter, flexpatriate) and the existence of the independent internationally mobile professional and raises questions for research and practice.

The paper suggests that alternative forms of international assignment and assignee are under‐ researched. Additionally, the large number of independently mobile professionals in the global economy need to be further researched, while organizations should recruit for international assignments from the external as well as internal labour markets when circumstances allow.

The paper raises under‐researched questions in the study of international assignments and suggests more strategic approaches to the practice of managing international assignments.

The purpose of this paper is to explain how and why HR practitioners perceive the need to develop international HRM practices to support short-term assignments, international business travel and virtual assignments for internationally operating organizations.

The authors interviewed 29 HR practitioners from multinationals located in the Netherlands.

Alternative international assignments seem not to belong to the traditional expatriate jobs, nor to regular domestic jobs and show a liminal character. However, over the last few years we have gradually seen a more mature classification of the Short-term Assignment, International Business Traveler and Virtual Assignment categories and more active use of these categories in policymaking by organizations; this reflects a transition of these three categories from a liminal position to a more institutionalized position.

For this research, only international HRM practitioners were interviewed. Future studies should include a broader group of stakeholders.

International HRM departments should take a more proactive role regarding alternative forms of international assignees. Furthermore, HR professionals may develop training and coaching and consider rewards and benefits that could provide allowances for specific working conditions that are part of international work.

This study is among the first to relate the framework of institutional logic and liminality to explain the why of HR support for alternative international assignees.

Despite more than 50 years of research into gender and work, the impact of female expatriates persists to be underrepresented in mainstream international human resource management (IHRM) literature. The purpose of this paper is to identify and explore the perceptions of married Indian information technology (IT) women regarding career and expatriating discussions they have with their husbands and its impact on their decision making to undertake international assignments.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 24 married Indian IT women who had undertaken international assignments after marriage. The study includes two data sets, 1: women on less than one-year assignment; 2: women on greater than one-year assignments.

The study found that women who went on short-term assignments of less than one year travelled alone and found it fortunate and convenient to leave their children in the care of their husbands, in-laws, parents and maids. While in the cases of women travelling for longer-term assignments, most husbands accompanied them. The study suggests that while spousal support was the key, having a shared purpose with husbands along with extended family support was equally significant to facilitate women undertaking an international assignment. As an impetus, the authors note a change within the Indian society where both partners come together to make decisions about expatriating.

The authors discuss the implications for IHRM as they relate to gender diversity within organisations.

The research, underpinned by the early workings of a theory of career hierarchy, explores the complexities in expatriation decision-making processes of married women from the emerging economy of India with traditional family values, who are working within a modern and liberal IT industry.

The purpose of this paper is to identify some of the legal issues that HR professionals may face when seconding talent internationally for work assignments and offer advice on how to overcome the challenges involved.

Best practices are outlined to help avoid legal issues when seconding talent to other countries. The guidance offered is based on private practice experience of almost 15 years in employment and global mobility issues and studies of case law and jurisprudence with regard to global mobility.

Seconding employees abroad can be a complex and confusing process. Assumptions should be avoided and care taken to investigate the legal and tax implications in each country. A global mobility strategy should be put in place to ensure proper procedures are applied.

The best practice provided in this paper will be useful to HR professionals with employees working across the globe, as it takes a global view of talent mobility.

The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the concepts of lifelong learning, information literacy, and global citizenship, making explicit connections among them via theories of social capital. It then presents a model of librarian‐faculty collaboration that relies upon information literacy as a framework for fostering lifelong learning and global citizenship.

The paper begins with a theoretical analysis of lifelong learning, information literacy, global citizenship, and social capital in order to provide a conceptual framework for the case study that follows. The case study describes the librarian‐faculty collaboration, which included the development of course goals, the syllabus, learning outcomes and objectives, assignments, course‐integrated library instruction sessions, and assessment tools.

Social capital is a useful theoretical tool for conceptualizing pedagogical strategies for promoting information literacy and global citizenship. Pre‐ and post‐tests, questionnaires, assignments, and student reflections indicate that the three primary goals of the collaboration were met. By the end of the course, students' IL competencies improved, students had developed a better understanding of their roles as global citizens, and students were more aware of the connections among global citizenship, lifelong learning, and information literacy.

The paper provides practical ideas for librarian‐faculty collaboration and for integrating information literacy competencies into assignment sequences.

The paper uses social capital theory to make connections among lifelong learning, information literacy, and global citizenship as well as to argue for the value and import of librarian‐faculty collaborations. It also describes a successful librarian‐faculty collaboration in the context of a Global Studies course.